Makes WordPress use PHP's native password_hash() functions for portable, stronger, and time-attack safe bcrypt and Argon2 hashes.
As of April 2026, PHP Native Password Hash is a WordPress argon2 plugin with 2.0K+ active installations and a 5/5 rating from 6 reviews. It has been downloaded 23K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 5.2+ and PHP 7.0+. Available on WordPress.org since 2017. Last updated 1 year ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are down 18% this week.
This plugin swaps out WordPress core’s password hashing mechanism with PHP 5.5’s password_hash() and its accompanying functions. By default, PHP uses bcrypt to hash the passwords. If available, this plugin will use modern Argon2 algorithm. The transition will be transparent.
CSPRNG)Works very well.
Thanks for this plugin and especially for keeping it up to date.
Can’t believe WP is still using MD5 by default o.O
As soon as I learned about this, I got this plugin, and it does exactly what you want, using WordPress built in functions, so totally lightweight.
Thanks dev!
Works as expected.
Geniality is in simplicity.
| WordPress | 5.2+ requiredTested up to 6.5.8 |
| PHP | 7.0+ required |
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.