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Multiple Sidebars

by Andrico · Admin & Utilities

Also makes 1 other plugin · 550+ installs across the portfolio →

A wonderful plugin to easily create many custom sidebars. These sidebars can then select in the creation of a post / page / custom post type / categor …

Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews

Health

D 46/100

Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews

Active installs

500+

≈600 estimated

Momentum

—

no download trend yet

Biggest opportunity: “advanced”, “advanced widgets” and “sidebar” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

How scoring works →
46 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 77/100
Support 70/100

46 health vs 56 average across 5,896 Admin & Utilities plugins

Install conversion

How it's measured →

0.8%

of downloads still active

At least 500 of 65.3K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Admin & Utilities plugin keeps 0.6%, across 4,186 plugins.

Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Admin & Utilities plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 12+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.5.2, well behind 6.8.

Details

Version
1.3.0
Last updated
12.6y ago
Added
2012-03-03 · 14 yrs old
Requires WP
3.5.1
Tested up to
3.5.2
Requires PHP
—

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

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

38 / 100

Under-optimized

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 0/100

Updated 4589 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 2/100

Tested up to WordPress 3.5.2; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 60/100

4.4★ over 8 reviews, smoothed to 4.14★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 4589 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

— vs prior 30d
031 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 1.6K · peaks are release surges

15131 Oct 2026

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

Multiple Sidebars · #8564youRecent Posts Widget · #353Image Widget · #399Custom Sidebars · #448

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.431 Oct 2026

Health trend

Composite health score, snapshotted daily

4631 Oct 2026

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

30231 Oct 2026

Release cadence

No release in a year
from wp.org release tags

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

0

releases in the last 12 months

12.6y ago

latest release · v1.3.0 · 8 Apr 2014

22

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.3.0 · 8 Apr 20141.2.9 · 12 May 20131.2.8 · 19 Dec 20121.2.7 · 3 Dec 20121.2.6 · 29 Nov 20121.2.5 · 26 Nov 20121.2.4 · 22 Nov 20121.2.3 · 17 Mar 20121.2.2 · 11 Mar 20121.2.1 · 11 Mar 20121.2.0 · 11 Mar 20121.1.9 · 10 Mar 20121.1.8 · 7 Mar 20121.1.7 · 6 Mar 2012

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 95% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v1.3 95%
v1.2 4.8%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “500+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
500–600 ≈600

Crossed into this band today and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 600.

Install history since 6 Sep 2015

50031 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ me22dec
    10.8y ago

    If I should choose the best plugin that has saved me the most of my time to customize my website, this would be my very choice! Excellent plugin! Now I can have whatever menu on whatever page, just exactly what I was looking for… going to donate soon, it’s worth it! Thank you, Andrico! Btw. I have it in Spanish, don’t know how to change it to English/Czech, so I am learning Spanish instead. 6 stars! Well done! 😉

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ WPAdminJoe
    11.7y ago

    This plug-in ran me through an entire administrative process only to see the standard single sidebar on new pages. What’s worst is that when you’re in edit sidebar mode, if you click on “View Sidebar”, both the default and new sidebar are presented on the page. Doesn’t do much good if you cannot present it on the sites pages! It took me nearly the same time to create my own 2 sidebar page template as it did trying to configure Multiple Sidebars and search forum with no results. No Support. My support thread went un-answered for 3 days. Another members thread opened 3 months ago is still un-answered, And that was a simple question: “Will this plug-in allow me to display 2 sidebars at the same time. I still do not know the answer. Un-installing! PROBLEM SOLVED.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ ZaX75
    13.0y ago

    Simple and intuitive. I create files for italian localization, i send u.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ daferan
    13.0y ago

    Very simple and intuitive. Muy fácil de usar e intuitivo. La única pega es que no se puede diferenciar la imagen de la página de inicio y el blog.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. ★★★★★ nickle97
    13.8y ago

    This works really well and have been supported brilliantly. Just started using wordpress for customer websites and am having to adapt most themes to look less bloggy and more commercial. This plugin really helps. Thank you

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. ★★★★★ Anonymous User 11187416
    13.9y ago

    We used this plugin on a client’s website and it now gives them great flexibility to decide sidebar content without worrying about coding at all. The setup didn’t go as planned, even though we followed the instructions. However the developer helped us out and we can see how to get it right next time. So that was great! Highly recommend the plugin if integrating into a site for a client who may not be familiar with HTML/CSS. Martin Oxby [sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. ★★★★★ Avi3000
    13.9y ago

    Very useful and simple to use! Developer is helpful on Support tab! Highly recommended!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. ★★★★★ F R
    13.9y ago

    Absolutely great plugin! This plugin allowed us to have unique sidebars for different pages, making our selected theme much more useful. Thank you Andrico for developing it! In case it helps others, here are the steps we followed to make it work. We were missing one step (3b), but the developer was awesome in helping us figure out what we were missing. 1) Download, install and activate the Plugin. 2) Go to the new Sidebars menu and DEFINE one or more new custom sidebars. Enter their name and add a brief COMMENT to describe them. (I say DEFINE because you actually create the content for the sidebars in Step 3.) 3) Go to Appearance > Widgets. You will now see the sidebars you created on the right. (a) Add the new Multiple Sidebars Widget to the Default item on the right. (We did NOT add it to the Sidebar item, we added it to Default.) (b) Add your content into each of the new Sidebar items on the right. This is where you actually get to create your sidebar items with the relevant text, graphics, etc. 4) Create or Edit the page, post, or item where you want to use the new sidebars. A new section on the right should allow you to activate or deactivate the new Sidebars to add them to the page, post, etc. You can order them vertically (top and bottom). 5) Go to Appearance > Editor and add the following code to Sidebar.php (We replaced everything on our old Sidebar.php with this code, which we pasted inside <div> and </div> tags, but maybe the div’s don’t matter.) <?php global $MultipleSidebars; $MultipleSidebars -> dynamic_sidebar(); ?> That is it. The pages should now display the sidebar that you activated for each of them with the content that you gave them in the Widget’s page. There is also a sub-menu called OPTIONS inside the Sidebars menu where you can activate specific Sidebars as default for new pages, posts, etc. I hope this helps other make good use of this useful plugin!

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

✓ Low memory footprint
✓ Low page-speed impact
✕ Runs on latest PHP + WP
✕ No PHP errors
✓ No JS errors
✓ Activates cleanly
✓ No resource errors
✓ No external HTTP errors
✓ Optimized database use
✕ Frequently updated

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 38 languages, 0 at 90% or more

German 31%
Dutch 5%
English (Canada) 5%
Romanian 5%
Arpitan 3%
Azerbaijani 3%
Cebuano 3%
Czech 3%
Dutch (Formal) 3%
English (New Zealand) 3%
English (South Africa) 3%
English (UK) 3%
French (France) 3%
Hebrew 3%
Punjabi 3%
Russian 3%
Sindhi 3%
Spanish (Spain) 3%
Amharic 1%
Assamese 1%
Chinese (China) 1%
English (Australia) 1%
Esperanto 1%
Finnish 1%

Plus 14 more locales with partial translations.

AI assistants

How it's measured →

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.

Readme readiness

2 of 8 pass · checked 24 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "A wonderful plugin to easily create many custom sidebars. These sidebars can then select in the creation of..."
  • ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
  • ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
  • ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
  • ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
  • ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
  • ! Enough to quote 670 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
  • ✓ Tags match the text 4 of 5 tags appear in the text; "advanced widgets" does not.

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2026-10-31 600+ → 500+ down after 225 days in tier
  2. 2026-03-20 700+ → 600+ down after 135 days in tier
  3. 2025-11-05 800+ → 700+ down after 1 days in tier
  4. 2025-11-04 700+ → 800+ up after 2 days in tier
  5. 2025-11-02 800+ → 700+ down after 152 days in tier
  6. 2025-06-03 900+ → 800+ down after 4 days in tier
  7. 2025-05-30 800+ → 900+ up after 15 days in tier
  8. 2025-05-15 900+ → 800+ down after 1 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).

Embed this report card

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

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Preview card ↗

Multiple Sidebars: 500+ active installs, 4.4★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/multiple-sidebars

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