by WebFactory 4.7 (1,028 reviews)

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager

Name: Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager
Rating: 4.7 (1028 reviews)
Author: WebFactory

Flexible sidebars for custom classic widget configurations on any page or post. Create custom sidebars with ease!

Custom Sidebars ranks #444 among WordPress.org plugins with 100,000+ active installations, is #46 of 8,538 in the Customization category, a 4.7/5 rating from 1,028 reviews, and was last updated Aug 16, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1

v3.38 Current Version v3.38

Updated 1 month ago Last Update on 16 Aug, 2026

Refreshed 7 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#46 of 8,538 in Customization Top 1% by installs Downloads -15.1% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#444

— No change

Active Installs

100K+

-11.8%

KW Avg Position

9.2

0.2 better

Downloads

5.2M

+117 today

Support Resolved

100%

— No change

Rating

94%

Review 4.7 out of 5

4.7 (1,028 reviews)

Next Milestone 200K

Total Progress 11.7%

100K+ 200K+

158

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 88,269 more installs to reach 200K+

Rank Changes

Current #444

Change

Best #

Upgrade to Pro

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

Upgrade Now

Active Installs Growth

Upgrade to Pro

Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

Upgrade to Pro

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

Upgrade Now

Reviews & Ratings

4.7

1,028 reviews

Overall 94%

903 (88%)

52 (5%)

10 (1%)

14 (1%)

49 (5%)

Support Threads Overview

Resolved

Unresolved

Total Threads

Resolved

Unresolved

100%

Resolution Rate

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

5 known vulnerabilities on record · 0 in the last 24 months · checked 1 week ago

Oct 4, 2017

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager [custom-sidebars] < 3.1.0

CVE-2017-18510 · Fixed in v3.1.0
Jun 29, 2017

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager [custom-sidebars] < 3.0.8.1

CVE-2017-18511 · Fixed in v3.0.8.1
Jan 13, 2015

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager [custom-sidebars] < 2.1.0.2

Fixed in v2.1.0.2
Jan 11, 2015

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager [custom-sidebars] < 2.1.0.2

Fixed in v2.1.0.2
Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager [custom-sidebars] < 2.1.0.2

Fixed in v2.1.0.2

Track This Plugin

Get detailed analytics, keyword tracking, and position alerts delivered to your inbox.

Start Tracking Free

Plugin Details

Version: 3.38
Last Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Requires WP: 4.6+
Tested Up To: 7.1
PHP Version: 5.6 or higher
Author: WebFactory

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.7
Reviews: 1,028
Support Threads: 1
Resolved: 100%

Keywords

classic widgets custom sidebar dynamic widgets sidebar widget

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock keyword rankings, search positions, and detailed analytics with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Similar Plugins

Adminify – White Label, Admin Menu Editor, Login Customizer

6K+ installs

#2,751

Master Addons for Elementor – Elementor Addons, Widgets, Mega Menu Builder, Popup Builder, Widget Builder & Template Kits

30K+ installs

#1,006

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder

10M+ installs

LiteSpeed Cache

7M+ installs

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder

2M+ installs

#26

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets

1M+ installs

#29

Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg

One Click Demo Import

1M+ installs

#61

Translate Wordpress with GTranslate

900K+ installs

#71

View all Customization plugins

TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners and administrators using the classic widgets screen who want different sidebars on different parts of their site. It solves the problem of displaying custom widget configurations on specific pages, posts, categories, post types, or archives without needing extra settings pages.

Unlimited custom widget configurations
Per-post and per-page widget settings
Category, post type, archive targeting
Integration with WordPress Widgets menu
Widget visibility by user role
Author specific sidebars
Clone and sync widget settings
Import and export custom sidebars

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager

This plugin requires your theme to have widget areas enabled, if you don't have widget areas enabled you probably need to use a different theme that does!

You have a sidebar box when editing a entry. Also you can define default sidebars for different posts and archives.

You can create all the sidebars you want, but you need some sidebars of your theme to be replaced by the ones that you have created. You have to select which sidebars from your theme are suitable to be replaced in the Custom Sidebars settings page and you will have them available to switch.

You are probably using a theme that doesn't load dynamic sidebars properly or doesn't use the wp_head() function in its header. The plugin replaces the sidebars inside that function, and many other plugins hook there, so it is more than recommended to use it.

Any user that can switch themes, can create sidebars. Switch_themes is the capability needed to manage widgets, so if you can’t edit widgets you can’t create custom sidebars. There are some plugins to give capabilities to the roles, so you can make your author be able to create the sidebars. Try User role editor

Custom Sidebars has the same license as WordPress, so you can use it wherever you want for free. Yay!