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 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 · 71% 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. The recent download trend is too spiky to read.

1. ★★★★★ Jeff Chi

   6mo 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 In theory the idea is good, but we often had problems with the code base, missing or outdated documentation and some straight-up bugs and oversights in the code.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

   7mo 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

   1.5y 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

   1.5y 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

   1.6y 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

   1.8y ago

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

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ altimac

   2.0y 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

   2.1y 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. 2026-08-28 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
2. 2026-02-16 Version 5.2.9 Added : New ready-to-use template for the author box. Fixed : Author box related posts now work correctly when Co-Authors and Guest Authors are disabled. 5.2.9
3. 2026-01-27 Version 5.2.8 Fixed : Related posts in the author box now include all relevant posts. Changed : Updated framework files to v3.4.2. 5.2.8
4. 2026-01-20 Version 5.2.7 Fixed : Related posts in the author box now respect the configured ordering settings. Fixed : Related posts in the author box no longer include drafts or future posts. Fixed : Post count updates now work correctly in edg 5.2.7
5. 2026-01-14 Version 5.2.6 Fixed : Author description now correctly appears in author boxes. 5.2.6
6. 2026-01-14 Version 5.2.5 Fixed : Byline linking only to the first listed author on some themes. Fixed : Archived guest authors are now properly excluded from author search results. 5.2.5

6 disclosed vulnerabilities on record for this plugin, all fixed in the current version. Sites on older versions stay exposed until they update.

1. 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
2. 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 ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 4.7.7 Patched in 4.7.8
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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 ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 4.6.19 Patched in 4.6.20
6. 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 ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 4.6.19 Patched in 4.6.20

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 7.0.1

Translated into 17 languages, 0 at 90% or more · development strings

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

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).

• Simple Author Box 90K+ installs · 4.3★ · 3 shared tags A
• Starbox – the Author Box for Humans 10K+ installs · 4.5★ · 3 shared tags C
• WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars 10K+ installs · 4.1★ · 3 shared tags A
• Authorsy – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Post Rating 1K+ installs · 3.6★ · 3 shared tags B
• Smart Author Box Widget 60+ installs · 3.6★ · 3 shared tags C
• Meta Author Box — installs · 3.6★ · 3 shared tags C

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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 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/molongui-authorship