WP Custom Author URL

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 · 88% 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. ★★★★★ teck87

   3.8y ago

   It works perfectly -> Twenty Twenty-One -> 6.1. Thakns Mr Chris Allen.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ benjamin47

   4.8y ago

   It therefore allows us to modify the author’s link in order to create a redirect anywhere. You can define a different link for each author, or a link for all the authors. In addition, it also makes it possible to hide the identifier of the author when hovering with the mouse. Yoast SEO (which I really like) allows author archives to be disabled to avoid duplicate content, but unfortunately that links to the homepage which in my view is not very good for user experience. By clicking on the author’s link, we expect to be redirected to a personalized page “about the author” for example. Well, that’s exactly what WP Custom Author URL can do. Suggestion : if there was a checkbox to define the opening of the link in a new tab (in the case of an external link, Twitter for example), and a field to customize the “title” attribute of the link , that would be really excellent 🙂 I hope this plugin will stay up to date for a very long time 😉 Good work !

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ chaoti

   5.8y ago

   A brilliant plugin. Now you can create custom author pages and have the author link under a post point directly to the corresponding page. This can be set individually for each user in the profile. Alternatively, all author links can be redirected to a single page. I love the plugin. It solves a big problem.

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ ellanpix

   6.5y ago

   The plugin answered my problem.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ kirtikjr

   6.5y ago

   Works wonderfully with the latest version of wordpress

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ Baron94

   6.9y ago

   I have been searching for a solution to hiding my username when someone hovered over my author’s link on posts. It boggled my mind that WordPress would allow such a hole in their armor as this for hackers to abuse. Finally, I can have some authority over what information readers and nefarious people can see with a little nudge of their mouse. Thank you, Chris, for developing this plug-in. One less thing I have to code. 🙂

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ Anonymous

   7.3y ago

   It’s always bugged me that author URLs were so inflexible, and this is the perfect approach to that. It even redirects the existing author URLs.

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ sgtberbatov

   7.3y ago

   I installed this because I didn’t want my author’s username to be accessible to crawlers and other users, while I wanted to maintain an author’s biography page so readers could see more about the author. This plugin is a god send as it allows me to do both of these. And what’s more it does it in a very easy fashion!

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. — Version 2.1.0 Localization to zh_TW and related fixes, Thanks to https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexclassroom/ 2.1.0
2. — Version 2.0.2 Remove unnecessary enqueue_scripts call in admin. 2.0.2
3. — Version 2.0.1 Bug fixes. 2.0.1
4. — Version 2.0.0 Full codebase rewrite. Remove code fluff, restructure code. 2.0.0
5. — Version 1.0.5 Fix a minor vulnerability in the admin settings page, where a user could potentially insert unescaped HTML into the settings page. 1.0.5
6. — Version 1.0.4 Fix a file structure error introduced by yours truly, causing plugin activation to break. 1.0.4

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

1. Medium · 4.4 WP Custom Author URL <= 1.0.4 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting ↗
   2023-04-18 CVE-2023-1614 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects < 1.0.5 Patched in 1.0.5

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 6.6.2

Translated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more

Growth timeline

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

1. 2026-02-06 4K+ → 5K+ up after 1 days in tier
2. 2026-02-05 5K+ → 4K+ down after 269 days in tier
3. 2025-05-12 4K+ → 5K+ up after 545 days in tier
4. 2023-11-14 3K+ → 4K+ up after 160 days in tier
5. 2023-06-07 2K+ → 3K+ 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).

• Meks Smart Author Widget 10K+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags D
• Author Avatars List/Block 4K+ installs · 4.5★ · 2 shared tags A
• Author Spotlight (Widget) 100+ installs · 4.0★ · 2 shared tags D
• A Author Profiler 50+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags D
• D DT Author Box 40+ installs · 4.0★ · 2 shared tags D
• A Author Bio Widget 40+ installs · 3.6★ · 2 shared tags D

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Drop a live Pulse card for WP Custom Author URL into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

WP Custom Author URL: 5K+ active installs, 5.0★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/wp-custom-author-url