Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget)
by Johan van der Wijk 4.9 (80 reviews)

Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget)

This plugin enables you to edit and display Content Blocks in a sidebar widget or using a shortcode.

Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) ranks #1,515 among WordPress.org plugins with 10,000+ active installations, is #247 of 8,848 in the Customization category, a 4.9/5 rating from 80 reviews, and was last updated Sep 22, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1.4
v3.4.4 Current Version v3.4.4
Updated 1 month ago Last Update on 22 Sep, 2026
Refreshed 2 days ago Last Refreshed on
#247 of 8,848 in Customization Top 5% by installs Downloads -62.3% this week
View on WordPress.org
Rank
#1,515
— No change
Active Installs
10K+
-46.7%
KW Avg Position
64.3
0.8 worse
Downloads
767.7K
+47 today
Support Resolved
0%
— No change
Rating
98%
Review 4.9 out of 5
4.9 (80 reviews)

Next Milestone 20K

Total Progress 86.3%
10K+ 20K+
112
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
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Rank Changes

1,500 1,505 1,510 1,515 1,520 25-10-2026 26-10-2026 27-10-2026 28-10-2026 29-10-2026 30-10-2026 31-10-2026 01-11-2026
1,500 1,505 1,510 1,515 1,520 17-10-2026 18-10-2026 19-10-2026 20-10-2026 21-10-2026 22-10-2026 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
Current #1,515
Change
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Active Installs Growth

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

Downloads Growth

0 50 100 150 200 25-10-2026 26-10-2026 27-10-2026 28-10-2026 29-10-2026 30-10-2026 31-10-2026 01-11-2026
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 17-10-2026 18-10-2026 19-10-2026 20-10-2026 21-10-2026 22-10-2026 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
Downloads
Growth
Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.9
80 reviews
Overall 98%
5
75 (94%)
4
4 (5%)
3
0 (0%)
2
0 (0%)
1
1 (1%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

6 known vulnerabilities on record · 2 in the last 24 months · checked 1 week ago

  1. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.4.1

    CVE-2026-0894 · Fixed in v3.4.1

  2. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.3.6

    CVE-2024-6432 · Fixed in v3.3.6

  3. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.3.6

    CVE-2024-44051 · Fixed in v3.3.6

  4. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.3.1

    CVE-2024-3565 · Fixed in v3.3.1

  5. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.3.1

    CVE-2024-3564 · Fixed in v3.3.1

  6. Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) [custom-post-widget] < 3.3.1

    CVE-2024-34566 · Fixed in v3.3.1

TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners who want to let non-administrator users edit reusable content blocks displayed in widgets or via shortcode. It solves the problem of standard text widgets being editable only by administrators by using a WYSIWYG-editable custom post type that can be assigned widget access to other users.

  • WYSIWYG editor for widget content
  • Shortcode support in posts/pages
  • Featured image support in widgets
  • WPML Multi-Language compatibility
  • Non-administrator editing access
  • Custom 'content_block' post type
  • Sidebar widget display

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget)

Of course you can always use the default text widget, but if you prefer to use the WYSIWYG editor or if you have multiple editors and you don't want to give them administrator rights, it is recommended to use this plugin instead.
It is recommended to install the Widget Logic plugin, this will give you complete flexibility on widget placement.
This plugin has built-in support for the featured image functionality on the edit screen. Note that featured image will not be resized, so you will have to make sure it is the right size when uploading it. My social sharing plugin adds buttons to all the Content Block areas If your social media sharing plugin adds buttons to the widget areas you could check the 'Do not apply content filters' checkbox. Note that when this is done, WordPress will also stop adding paragraph tags automatically. The featured image is not displayed when using the shortcode Currently the shortcode function only outputs the post content and title of the content block, future support for displaying the attached featured image is being considered.
Yes, you can create your own template for the content blocks, you can do so by adding a file named custom-post-widget.php to your theme folder. In these Gists you can find examples of templates for shortcodes and for widgets. I have a feature request Please post your feature request on the support forum These new features are on the to-do list: Display the content block featured image when using the shortcode Front-end editing of the content blocks Visual Composer integration Show the shortcode on the "View all Content Blocks" list view
You can create your own widget template and upload this to your theme folder. See this support topic for more information.
You can make the post type public by adding the following code to your theme's functions.php file: function filter_content_block_init() { $content_block_public = true; return $content_block_public; } add_filter('content_block_post_type','filter_content_block_init'); Alternatively you can use this third-party plugin.
Yes, v2.6 now gives you the option to use the content block's url slug in the shortcode. Use the following syntax for doing this: [content_block slug=my-content-block]. Note that if you ever change the slug of a content block, the embedding no longer works. Therefore I recommend using the post ID instead (which never changes).
By default the shortcode adds a div around the content block with the class content_block. If you like, you can change this class by adding it to the shortcode: [content_block id=198 slug=our-wordpress-content-block class=custom-block]`.
You can use the do_shortcode function for this: echo do_shortcode('[content_block id= ]'); See http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/do_shortcode for more information on this function. The plugin is not working for me Please create a support topic in the forum: http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/custom-post-widget
Creating and supporting this plugin takes up a lot of my free time, therefore I would highly appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to write a review.

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