Multiple Sidebars

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 · 95% 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.

1. ★★★★★ me22dec

   10.7y 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! 😉

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2. ★★★★★ WPAdminJoe

   11.5y 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.

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3. ★★★★★ ZaX75

   12.8y ago

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

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4. ★★★★★ daferan

   12.8y 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.

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5. ★★★★★ nickle97

   13.6y 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

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6. ★★★★★ Anonymous User 11187416

   13.7y 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]

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7. ★★★★★ Avi3000

   13.7y ago

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

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ F R

   13.8y 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 ↗

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

Translated into 38 languages, 0 at 90% or more

Plus 14 more locales with partial translations.

Growth timeline

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

1. 2026-03-20 700+ → 600+ down after 135 days in tier
2. 2025-11-05 800+ → 700+ down after 1 days in tier
3. 2025-11-04 700+ → 800+ up after 2 days in tier
4. 2025-11-02 800+ → 700+ down after 152 days in tier
5. 2025-06-03 900+ → 800+ down after 4 days in tier
6. 2025-05-30 800+ → 900+ up after 15 days in tier
7. 2025-05-15 900+ → 800+ down after 1 days in tier
8. 2025-05-14 800+ → 900+ up 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).

• Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 100K+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A
• Image Widget 100K+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A
• Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager 100K+ installs · 4.7★ · 2 shared tags A
• Fixed Widget and Sticky Elements for WordPress 80K+ installs · 4.7★ · 2 shared tags D
• Content Aware Sidebars – Fastest Widget Area Plugin 30K+ installs · 4.9★ · 2 shared tags B
• Ocean Custom Sidebar 20K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags A

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Multiple Sidebars: 600+ active installs, 4.4★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/multiple-sidebars