Easy Footnotes

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 99% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from. The recent download trend is too spiky to read.

1. ★★★★★ scientificnotes

   1.4y ago

   ​Easy Footnotes is an excellent plugin that delivers on its promise of simplicity and speed. It allows for effortless insertion of footnotes, automatically numbering them and appending them to the end of posts. The hover-over functionality enhances user experience by displaying footnote content without navigating away from the main text. However, a notable limitation is the inability to position footnotes elsewhere within a post. Introducing a shortcode, such as [efn_notes], to specify footnote placement would significantly enhance its versatility.​

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2. ★★★★★ delphineous

   1.4y ago

   The Easy Footnotes plug-in is simple and easy to use. I use it to add sub-context, references, and any other information that is relevant to the content but would otherwise disrupt the flow of the post.

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3. ★★★★★ kambro

   5.3y ago

   As simple as good plugin. Nothing wore required. Thank you to the developers. This topic was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by kambro.

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4. ★★★★★ silverliebt

   6.2y ago

   This plugin came in extremely handy when I was recently marking up a long post with art, text and footnotes for my site on Chris Marker. I can verify as well that it even works within the now quite popular Elementor visual builder. I cannot say for sure yet but the paragraphs that contain EFN shortcodes seem to load more slowly than regular paragraphs; perhaps there is some code optimization in order, but I will leave that to your developers. I would also like to recommend some additional CSS for those who would like a numerical marker, already small due to the sup tag, to stand out more, by adding, for example: sup { top: -.5em; background: linen; padding: 6px; border-radius: 4px; border: 1px #ccc solid; } This will give the touch/click target a bit more room due to the padding (and therefore better UX), and visually make the footnote stand out in a pretty professional manner. Choose your own colors. Once again, excellent plugin, many thanks for saving the day! This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by silverliebt. This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by silverliebt.

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5. ★★★★★ spitfrog

   6.4y ago

   The [efn_note] tags should be in colour and bold to make them easier to find in the text. Thank you very much for this nice work.

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6. ★★★★★ Clarus Dignus

   6.9y ago

   Install and wrap footnote content in shortcode. This plugin does everything else. E.g. Automated numbering, hover box, footnotes at end of post etc. Works well with Gutenberg. My favorite feature is being able to disable the footnote section at the bottom of the post/page and instead rely entirely on the hover box.

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7. ★★★★★ ckoerner

   7.1y ago

   I had been using a similar plugin that hasn’t been updated in over 6 years. Easy Footnotes was a drop-in replacement and actually works better than the old plugin. Nice simple settings and easy to customize. 👍

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8. ★★★★★ mcfitzsatx

   7.1y ago

   I looked around until I found a decent plugin for footnotes, and this is it. Relatively easy to use and works very well. Easy to edit footnotes. Looks very professional on the page.

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. — Version 1.1.13 Fixed textdomain loading issue for WordPress 6.7 compatibility by preventing early translation calls during class construction. 1.1.13
2. — Version 1.1.12 Bugfix for instances where the_content is called multiple times in a page. 1.1.12
3. — Version 1.1.11 Made combined footnote functionality from 1.1.9 enabled by a setting to avoid breaking sites that rely on the old behavior. Now can be turned on with “Combine duplicate footnotes” setting in Easy Footnotes settings. 1.1.11
4. — Version 1.1.10 Fixes a bug with sites that called the_content() multiple times not displaying footnotes due to easy_footnote_reset running. easy_footnote_reset now only runs when an option is activated. This had previously been impleme 1.1.10
5. — Version 1.1.9 Adds support for duplicate footnotes using the same number Fixes a bug with multiple footnotes showing at the bottom when do_shortcode() is run on the_content outside the main loop. Add better i18n support for the plugin 1.1.9
6. — Version 1.1.8 WordPress 6.6 support 1.1.8

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 6.8.1

Translated into 5 languages, 5 at 90% or more

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2025-08-08 9K+ → 8K+ down after 1 days in tier
2. 2025-08-07 8K+ → 9K+ up after 3 days in tier
3. 2025-08-04 9K+ → 8K+ down after 362 days in tier
4. 2024-08-07 10K+ → 9K+ down after 1 days in tier
5. 2024-08-06 9K+ → 10K+ up after 1 days in tier
6. 2024-08-05 10K+ → 9K+ down

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

• M MNML Footnotes — installs · 3.6★ · 3 shared tags D
• CiteKit – Footnotes, Tooltips, Citations, Bibliography & References Manager 70+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags B
• Modern Footnotes 6K+ installs · 4.5★ · 1 shared tag A
• Read More Excerpt Link 3K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag B
• Extensions for Leaflet Map 3K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag A
• Footnotes Made Easy 2K+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag A

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Drop a live Pulse card for Easy Footnotes into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Easy Footnotes: 8K+ active installs, 4.8★ (33 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-28. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/easy-footnotes