XYZ Protect blocks direct access, shared links, and bots from reaching your WordPress media, with edge delivery and MemberPress/Paid Memberships Pro tier…
Category
Security
Pricing
Subscription: $15/month or $150/year, with a free trial covering 10,000 protected media requests (no credit card required). A separate age-verification add-on is billed per verification credit, starting around $0.038 per verification.
XYZ Protect, from XY Zinc (operated by Chaos Unlimited LLC), is a WordPress plugin that stops premium media files (images, video, PDFs, audio) from being accessed outside of paid membership or login walls. Instead of relying on server-side checks, it validates each request at the network edge, so unauthorized visitors, shared links, and scraper bots never reach WordPress or the origin server at all. It offers two protection modes: Guard Cookie, which ties access to a browser session, and Encrypted URL, which issues self-expiring, visitor-unique links that automatically rotate keys. It integrates directly with MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro to map protection to specific membership tiers, and works with standard WordPress logins for non-membership sites. Media is still served from the customer's own hosting but delivered through an edge cache spanning 300+ global locations, which can improve delivery speed versus PHP-based protection plugins. Setup involves installing the plugin and pointing a subdomain at XYZ Protect via one CNAME and two TXT DNS records. The company also sells a separate, optional age-verification add-on (its own product line) that uses a pay-per-verification credit system rather than being bundled into the base subscription.
Key Features
Edge-level access control — Validates every media request at the network edge, so unauthorized visitors, shared links, and bots never reach WordPress or the origin server.
MemberPress & Paid Memberships Pro integration — Maps protected media to specific membership tiers in MemberPress (Launch, Growth, Scale) and Paid Memberships Pro.
Global edge caching — Delivers protected media from 300+ global edge locations, which can improve load speed versus PHP-based protection plugins.
REST API hardening — Locks down WordPress REST API endpoints for protected media to reduce unauthorized programmatic access.
Broad file and hosting support — Protects images, video, PDFs, audio, and documents, and works across shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and WordPress.com Business hosting.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Blocks unauthorized requests at the network edge, so bots and non-members never load WordPress or the origin server
Native tier-mapping integrations with MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro, not just generic login checks
Offers a real free trial (10,000 protected requests) with no credit card required before committing to a paid plan
Cons
Requires adding a subdomain with specific DNS records (one CNAME, two TXT), which adds setup complexity versus a plug-and-play plugin
Age verification is a separate paid add-on billed per verification credit, not included in the base media-protection subscription
No annual company revenue, customer count, or third-party review data is publicly available to independently verify scale