Migration
The Actively Maintained IP Geo Block Alternative
IP Geo Block stopped receiving updates years ago. IP Location Block carries the same idea forward, keeps pace with WordPress and PHP, and imports your old settings in a single action.
What happened to IP Geo Block
IP Geo Block was the original geolocation blocking plugin for WordPress, and a good one. Plenty of sites still run it. It has not been maintained for years.
No updates means no fixes, no compatibility work as WordPress and PHP move on, and no response when an upstream geolocation service changes what it returns. A security plugin that stopped shipping is a security plugin you cannot rely on. Its users needed a successor.
The practical symptoms are familiar. Deprecation notices after a PHP upgrade. A geolocation source that quietly returns nothing, so rules stop matching and nobody notices until the wrong visitor gets in. Support threads with no replies. None of that is a reflection on the original work. It is what happens to any plugin once nobody is maintaining it.
What IP Location Block is
The successor, with the same core ideas and a release history that is still going.
The same ideas
Allow or deny by location. Protect wp-login.php, XML-RPC, the admin area, and the front-end separately. Keep a validation log of what was decided. Nothing you learned is wasted.
Current requirements
Release 1.4.x, built for WordPress 6.5 and later and PHP 8.1 and later. It runs on the stack your host is running now, not the one from several years ago.
Free, on WordPress.org
The plugin is free to install and free to use with country rules. Read the changelog to see how often it ships.
Migration is one action
You do not rebuild your configuration by hand. Install IP Location Block and open its settings screen. When it detects settings left behind by IP Geo Block, it offers a Migrate from IP Geo Block action. Run it, and your old configuration is imported.
Then review the result. An import is a starting point, not a signature. Three things are worth checking before you walk away:
- Your country lists, in both the allow and the deny direction.
- Which targets are protected: front-end, login form, admin area, XML-RPC.
- The response a blocked visitor receives, whether that is a block page, a redirect, or a response code.
Deactivate IP Geo Block before you activate IP Location Block, so two plugins are not filtering the same request. Its settings stay in the database after deactivation, which is exactly what the migration reads.
What you gain beyond parity
Everything you had, plus the things an unmaintained plugin was never going to add.
State and city rules
Connect the native provider and a rule can read US:State:California or US:City:Los Angeles. See state and region rules.
Providers that are looked after
The native API, IPInfoDB, ipinfo.io, ipapi, ipstack, and local IP2Location or GeoLite2 databases. The full list is in the provider docs.
A settings screen you can read
Rules, targets, and the blocked response are laid out for how WordPress looks today. Validation logs sit alongside them, so you can see what a rule did before you trust it.
Actions and filters
The plugin is extensible, and the hooks are documented. If you customised IP Geo Block, there is somewhere to put that work again.
Migrate in five steps
- Back up your database. This is a settings import, so the rollback path matters more than the risk.
- Deactivate IP Geo Block. Leave it installed for now, and leave its settings in place.
- Install the free plugin from WordPress.org and activate it.
- Open the settings screen and run Migrate from IP Geo Block, then review the imported rules, targets, and blocked response.
- Watch the validation logs for a few days. When you are satisfied, delete IP Geo Block. Getting started covers the settings in order.
Questions
Is my old configuration preserved?
Yes. The migration action reads the settings IP Geo Block left in your database and imports them, so you are not retyping country lists. Review the result afterwards and confirm each target is protected the way you intended.
Can I keep a free country-only setup?
Yes. The plugin is free, and country rules work without an account. Point it at a provider you like, including a local GeoLite2 or IP2Location database, and carry on exactly as before. Nothing in the migration pushes you onto a paid plan, and no feature you were already using is held back.
Do I need an API key?
Only for state, region, or city precision. Those rules come from the native IP Location Block provider, which needs a key. Country blocking does not. The free plan is 10,000 requests a month, and paid plans are listed on the pricing page. Connecting a key is covered in connect a provider.
Move to a plugin that still ships
Install the free plugin, run the migration, and keep the configuration you already trust. Add state precision whenever you need it.