Advanced Settings 3
by Helmut Wandl 3.9 (7 reviews)

Advanced Settings 3

Adds settings that you might expect to find in the WordPress core.

Advanced Settings 3 ranks #12,536 among WordPress.org plugins with 200+ active installations, is #310 of 2,168 in the Analytics category, a 3.9/5 rating from 7 reviews, and was last updated Oct 25, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1
v3.3.2 Current Version v3.3.2
Updated 1 week ago Last Update on 25 Oct, 2026
Refreshed 1 week ago Last Refreshed on
#310 of 2,168 in Analytics Top 25% by installs Downloads -63.4% this week Actively maintained
View on WordPress.org
Rank
#12,536
— No change
Active Installs
200+
-13%
KW Avg Position
52
— No change
Downloads
33.1K
+2 today
Support Resolved
0%
— No change
Rating
78%
Review 3.9 out of 5
3.9 (7 reviews)

Next Milestone 300

Total Progress 29%
200+ 300+
1,550
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
Pro

Unlock Exact Install Count

See the precise estimated active installs for this plugin, calculated from real-time ranking data.

  • Exact install estimates within tiers
  • Track install growth over time
  • Milestone progress predictions
Upgrade to Pro
Need 71 more installs to reach 300+

Rank Changes

11,909 12,223 12,536 12,849 13,163 31-10-2026 01-11-2026 02-11-2026 03-11-2026 04-11-2026 05-11-2026 06-11-2026 07-11-2026
12,530 12,543 12,555 12,567 12,580 23-10-2026 24-10-2026 25-10-2026 26-10-2026 27-10-2026 28-10-2026 29-10-2026 30-10-2026 31-10-2026 01-11-2026 02-11-2026 03-11-2026 04-11-2026 05-11-2026 06-11-2026 07-11-2026
Current #12,536
Change
Best #

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock 30-day and 90-day rank history charts with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Active Installs Growth

Active Installs 0,000,000+
Growth +0.0%
Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

0 10 20 30 31-10-2026 01-11-2026 02-11-2026 03-11-2026 04-11-2026 05-11-2026 06-11-2026 07-11-2026
0 50 100 150 23-10-2026 24-10-2026 25-10-2026 26-10-2026 27-10-2026 28-10-2026 29-10-2026 30-10-2026 31-10-2026 01-11-2026 02-11-2026 03-11-2026 04-11-2026 05-11-2026 06-11-2026 07-11-2026
Downloads
Growth
Peak

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock 30-day, 90-day, and yearly download history charts with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Reviews & Ratings

3.9
7 reviews
Overall 78%
5
5 (71%)
4
0 (0%)
3
0 (0%)
2
0 (0%)
1
2 (29%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

3 known vulnerabilities on record · 3 in the last 24 months · checked 3 months ago

  1. Advanced Settings 3 [advanced-settings] < 3.2.0

    CVE-2025-58996 · Fixed in v3.2.0

  2. Advanced Settings 3 [advanced-settings] < 3.2.0

    CVE-2025-58975 · Fixed in v3.2.0

  3. Advanced Settings 3 [advanced-settings] < 3.0.2

    CVE-2025-49865 · Fixed in v3.0.2

TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners and administrators who want core-like configuration options without installing a heavy plugin. It adds settings to control the admin area, frontend output, editing behavior, and system features that WordPress core does not expose by default.

  • Hide admin bar on frontend
  • Remove PHP version from headers
  • Add security HTTP headers
  • Disable XML-RPC
  • Disable public REST API
  • Limit post revisions
  • Allow SVG uploads for admins
  • Create custom post types

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Advanced Settings 3

Short answer: No, due to the way the plugin is designed, it would still be just as fast even with thousands of features. Don't worry, we don't add thousands of features. Detailed answer: Advanced Settings 3 works as follows: Only when you open the plugin's settings window does the plugin recognise which settings are actually available. When saving, only the activated settings are written to a separate cache file. Only this cache file is then taken into account during operation. This means that slowdowns can only occur due to active features. However, as some features deactivate WordPress functions, the plugin can actually make WordPress even faster than in the standard configuration.
Short answer: Typically, graphical user interfaces represent the largest chunk of data. Since we have largely standardized the user interface for all features, additional features are of little importance. Detailed answer: The plugin is currently only 0.5 MB in size. Only about a third of that is used for the actual functionality of the features. The rest is used for the graphical user interface, backward compatibility, performance optimization, and the like. So if we doubled the number of features, the plugin would still be smaller than 0.7 MB. Theoretically, we could quadruple the number of features and still stay under 1 MB. So the number of features isn't crucial. The trick is to standardize everything around the features so that each additional feature has minimal impact. We are passionate about lightweight plugins that remain politely in the background while you work, so we can assure you that this will continue to be the case.
Short answer: The experienced plugin developer is additionally supported by the Patchstack community to ensure the security of the plugin. Detailed answer: The plugin is currently maintained by senior web developer Helmut Wandl, who has over 25 years of experience in web development. He is therefore familiar with various common security concepts for many years. In addition, the plugin is monitored by the Patchstack community, and if security vulnerabilities are discovered, they are reported and fixed by the plugin developer immediately or as soon as possible, depending on the urgency.
You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team helps validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. Report a security vulnerability.
Short answer: The bad ratings arose because a plugin update at the time no longer supported a very outdated PHP version, which unfortunately a few users were still using. However, due to a new WordPress feature, this cannot happen again. Detailed answer: The plugin developer at the time had decided in 2017 to use PHP features that were introduced with PHP 5.4. Support for the previous version, PHP 5.3, had already been officially discontinued by The PHP Group 3 years earlier. It was therefore natural to assume that all websites actually in use had already been converted to PHP 5.4 or newer. Unfortunately, this was not the case for a few users. Nowadays, WordPress allowes to specify in the plugin metadata which PHP version is required as a minimum for the plugin, so that users can only update the plugin if they are using the correct PHP version. While this WordPress feature came too late to prevent the problems and the negative reviews, this problem can fortunately be prevented in the future. It would be great if you could contribute with your own review to ensure that the ratings reflect the quality of the plugin.

Sign In / Register

You need to sign in or register to use this feature.