rationalwp

RationalCleanup removes unnecessary WordPress features, hardens security, and improves performance. All 24 options are toggleable with sensible defaults that balance security and compatibility.
<h4>Features</h4>
Head Tags 
Remove unnecessary meta tags and links from the document head:
<ul>
<li>Remove WordPress generator meta tag (hides version number)</li>
<li>Remove WLW manifest link</li>
<li>Remove RSD link</li>
<li>Remove shortlink</li>
<li>Remove REST API discovery link</li>
<li>Remove RSS feed links</li>
</ul>
Frontend Bloat 
Remove scripts and styles that most sites don’t need:
<ul>
<li>Remove emoji detection scripts and styles</li>
<li>Remove jQuery Migrate from frontend</li>
<li>Remove Gutenberg block library CSS</li>
<li>Remove global styles and SVG filters</li>
</ul>
Security 
Harden WordPress against common attack vectors:
<ul>
<li>Disable XML-RPC completely (prevents brute force and DDoS attacks)</li>
<li>Prevent user enumeration (blocks author archives and REST API user endpoints)</li>
<li>Obfuscate login error messages (prevents username discovery)</li>
</ul>
Performance 
Reduce unnecessary WordPress overhead:
<ul>
<li>Disable self-pingbacks</li>
<li>Throttle Heartbeat API (reduces server load)</li>
<li>Extend autosave interval (reduces database writes)</li>
</ul>
Features 
Disable major WordPress subsystems:
<ul>
<li>Disable comments system completely</li>
<li>Disable block editor (force classic editor)</li>
<li>Disable REST API for non-authenticated users</li>
</ul>
Admin Cleanup 
Declutter the WordPress admin dashboard:
<ul>
<li>Remove WordPress Events and News widget</li>
<li>Remove Quick Draft widget</li>
<li>Remove At a Glance widget</li>
<li>Remove Activity widget</li>
<li>Remove Site Health Status widget</li>
</ul>
<h4>Opinionated Defaults</h4>
RationalCleanup uses sensible defaults:
<ul>
<li>Security options: Enabled by default (XML-RPC disabled, user enumeration blocked)</li>
<li>Head cleanup: Mostly enabled (safe, no compatibility issues)</li>
<li>Frontend cleanup: Emoji and jQuery Migrate removal enabled</li>
<li>Breaking features: Disabled by default (comments, block editor, REST API restrictions)</li>
<li>Admin widgets: Disabled by default</li>
</ul>
<h4>RationalWP Menu</h4>
This plugin uses a shared parent menu for all RationalWP plugins. When activated, you’ll see a RationalWP menu in your admin sidebar containing links to all installed RationalWP plugins.

RationalCleanup

Clean up legacy WordPress bloat, improve security, and optimize performance with toggleable, opinionated defaults.

Amin Nazemi

Neatma

Protect your website from xmlrpc brute-force attacks,DOS and DDOS attacks, this plugin disables the XML-RPC and trackbacks-pingbacks on your WordPress website.
PLUGIN FEATURES 
(These are options you can enable or disable each one)
<ul>
<li>Disable access to xmlrpc.php file using .httacess file </li>
<li>Automatically change htaccess file permission to read-only (0444)</li>
<li>Disable X-pingback to minimize CPU usage </li>
<li>Disable selected methods from XML-RPC</li>
<li>Remove pingback-ping link from header</li>
<li>Disable trackbacks and pingbacks to avoid spammers and hackers</li>
<li>Rename XML-RPC slug to whatever you want</li>
<li>Black list IPs for XML-RPC</li>
<li>White list IPs for XML-RPC</li>
<li>Some options to speed-up your wordpress website</li>
<li>Disable JSON REST API</li>
<li>Hide WordPress Version</li>
<li>Disable built-in WordPress file editor</li>
<li>Disable wlw manifest</li>
<li>And some other options</li>
</ul>
What is XMLRPC
XML-RPC, or XML Remote Procedure Call is a protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism. 
Beginning in WordPress 3.5, XML-RPC is enabled by default. Additionally, the option to disable/enable XML-RPC was removed. For various reasons, site owners may wish to disable this functionality. This plugin provides an easy way to do so.
Why you should disable XML-RPC 
Xmlrpc has two main weaknesses
<ul>
<li>Brute force attacks: 
Attackers try to login to WordPress using xmlrpc.php with as many username/password combinations as they can enter. A method within xmlrpc.php allows the attacker to use a single command (system.multicall) to guess hundreds of passwords. Daniel Cid at Sucuri described it well in October 2015: “With only 3 or 4 HTTP requests, the attackers could try thousands of passwords, bypassing security tools that are designed to look and block brute force attempts.”</li>
<li>Denial of Service Attacks via Pingback: 
Back in 2013, attackers sent Pingback requests through xmlrpc.php of approximately 2500 WordPress sites to “herd (these sites) into a voluntary botnet,” according to Gur Schatz at Incapsula. “This gives any attacker a virtually limitless set of IP addresses to Distribute a Denial of Service attack across a network of over 100 million WordPress sites, without having to compromise them.”</li>
</ul>

Disable XML-RPC-API

The upgrade notice keeps coming back on every screen even after being dismissed. It looks very unprofessional to my clients and is embarrassing for me as a web developer, i would rather disable the plugin and use the code in a function. 

It should be permanently dismissible via a cookie, like for other plugins. It might be ok once, when the plugin is first installed or updated, but after that, it should never appear again. 

Good plugin, but upgrade nag is too annoying

A simple and lightweight plugin to disable XML-RPC API, X-Pingback and pingback-ping in WordPress 3.5+ for a faster and more secure website

RationalCleanup vs Disable XML-RPC-API