Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress

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

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

304 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 20 listed. 223 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words).

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. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 3.2 years ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 90% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ Jeff Chi

   8mo ago

   We took over a legacy site that uses this plugin. In theory the idea is good, but we often had problems with the code base, missing or outdated documentation and some straight-up bugs and oversights in the code. When updating the dependencies for the site, this plugin is often the only one that leads to problems. I would recommend looking for an alternative.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ dmc2026

   10mo ago

   My idea for a knowledge platform was that contributors should be recognized as co-authors and appear directly in articles. While searching for a suitable author box solution, I came across the Molongui Authorship Pro plugin. When I tested it, there was initially a compatibility issue with BetterDocs. However, the Molongui support team responded immediately in a very friendly and highly competent manner and resolved the issue in no time. I’m very happy to have found this plugin—it fits my goals perfectly, integrates well with BetterDocs, and fully meets my expectations. This topic was modified 6 months ago by dmc2026.

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ kaitlinamalthea

   1.7y ago

   The plugin has real human supporters who are knowledgable and kind and helpful. With all the AI stuff in the world right now, this makes such an incredible difference. Thanks so much to the support team!!

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ evisionarts

   1.7y ago

   I am a wordpress developer and I use Molongui across multiple sites. It is easy to set up and use and if there are any issues (which is rare) the support is amazingly fast. I reccomend Molongui to all my clients. It’s simply the best.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ cmenglish

   1.8y ago

   I submitted a support ticket Friday afternoon and had a reply within the hour and a fix Monday morning with follow-ups to verify everything was working properly again. Molongui are among the top tier of WP plugin support.

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ Catalin Dumitru

   1.9y ago

   The best support ever, with a fast response and collaborative effort to find a solution.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ altimac

   2.2y ago

   I am using the Pro version of the plugin on a site running the Newspaper theme from TagDiv, which is essentially a badly-coded mess with a proprietary page builder that makes WP Bakery look good by comparison. Molongui’s support site actually informs users that there are only three WordPress themes, out of 30,000 or more, that their plugin has issues with, one of those being Newspaper and their cloud templates library. As I had bought the plugin prior to realizing this, I reported the problems I immediately experienced to Molongui support and then came across their info about compatibility. My experience in working with WordPress for the last eight years or so, is that with any other plugin that was upfront about which themes it was incompatible with, I would either have been told to switch to a different theme that adheres to WordPress coding standards and best practices, and/or perhaps been offered a refund. Instead, John, one of the developers, literally spent hours on our staging site basically hacking his own plugin to work around all the Newspaper theme’s shortcomings. It’s very rare to experience this level of support, even when the problems are with the developer’s own code, much less with someone else’s, and I would say the support deserves around 6.5 stars, were that an option.

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ John

   2.3y ago

   This is a great plugin, but the problem arose when the author post count stopped after the last update, it needs to be fixed. Moreover, Author Posts and Author Bio tabs have disappeared. Overall performance is satisfactory.

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. 2026-10-08 Version 5.3.2 Fixed : Automatic Main Author assignment when adding, replacing, or removing post authors. 5.3.2
2. 2026-10-08 Version 5.3.1 Enhanced : Security and WordPress coding standards compliance. Fixed : Issue where posts could fail to publish or unexpectedly revert to Draft when using Gutenberg or Classic Editor. Fixed : Missing Gravatar images after 5.3.1
3. 2026-10-07 Version 5.3.0 Added : Author Box Gutenberg block for WordPress 6.3 and later. Added : Post Byline Gutenberg block for WordPress 6.3 and later. Added : Option to upload a custom default avatar for authors without an avatar. Added : Abi 5.3.0
4. 2026-09-11 Version 5.2.12 Fixed : PHP fatal error on the user edit screen caused by a missing social meta compatibility method. 5.2.12
5. 2026-08-30 Version 5.2.11 Added : Fallback support for compatible third-party social profile fields. Fixed : PHP warnings when filtering author links on multi-author bylines. Fixed : PHP warnings related to unavailable admin screen data. Fixed : 5.2.11
6. 2026-08-27 Version 5.2.10 Fixed : Replaced   usage with the Unicode non-breaking space character ( U+00A0 ) for better compatibility. Fixed : Archive Author checkbox no longer becomes unclickable when Disable author box is set to Hide. Fixed 5.2.10

All 7 disclosed vulnerabilities are patched in the current version (5.3.2). Sites still on an older version should update.

1. Patched High · 7.2 Molongui Authorship <= 5.2.12 - Unauthenticated Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via Comment href Attribute ↗
   2026-10-09 CVE-2026-101920 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 5.2.12 Patched in 5.3.0
2. Patched Medium · 4.3 Molongui <= 4.7.7 - Authenticated (Author+) Insecure Direct Object Reference ↗
   2024-03-28 CVE-2024-30507 Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key Affects <= 4.7.7 Patched in 4.7.8
3. Patched Medium · 5.5 Molongui <= 4.7.7 - Authenticated (Author+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting ↗
   2024-03-25 CVE-2024-29764 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 4.7.7 Patched in 4.7.8
4. Patched Medium · 5.3 Author Box, Guest Author and Co-Authors for Your Posts – Molongui <= 4.7.4 - Information Exposure via ma_debug ↗
   2024-01-16 CVE-2023-7014 Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor Affects <= 4.7.4 Patched in 4.7.5
5. Patched Medium · 5.4 Molongui <= 4.7.3 - Missing Authorization ↗
   2023-12-26 CVE-2023-50876 Missing Authorization Affects <= 4.7.3 Patched in 4.7.4
6. Patched Medium · 4.4 Molongui <= 4.6.19 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting ↗
   2023-11-28 CVE-2023-39921 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 4.6.19 Patched in 4.6.20
7. Patched Medium · 6.1 Molongui <= 4.6.19 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting ↗
   2023-07-26 CVE-2023-39164 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 4.6.19 Patched in 4.6.20

Translated into 11 languages, 0 at 90% or more · development strings

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Growth timeline

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

1. 2023-08-15 9K+ → 10K+ up after 153 days in tier
2. 2023-03-15 8K+ → 9K+ up after 133 days in tier
3. 2022-11-02 7K+ → 8K+ up after 76 days in tier
4. 2022-08-18 6K+ → 7K+ up after 117 days in tier
5. 2022-04-23 5K+ → 6K+ up after 275 days in tier
6. 2021-07-22 4K+ → 5K+ up after 136 days in tier
7. 2021-03-08 3K+ → 4K+ up after 131 days in tier
8. 2020-10-28 2K+ → 3K+ up after 76 days in tier

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).

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Drop a live Pulse card for Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress: 10K+ active installs, 4.7★ (158 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/molongui-authorship