by Roland Barker 4.9 (320 reviews)

Participants Database

Name: Participants Database
Rating: 4.9 (320 reviews)
Author: Roland Barker

Build and maintain a fully customizable database of participants, members or anything with signup forms, admin backend, custom lists, and CSV support.

Participants Database ranks #2,678 among WordPress.org plugins with 7,000+ active installations, is #133 of 2,591 in the Contact Forms category, a 4.9/5 rating from 320 reviews, and was last updated Jul 31, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Tested up to WP 7 (Current: 7.1.1)

v2.7.8.5 Current Version v2.7.8.5

Updated 1 month ago Last Update on 31 Jul, 2026

Refreshed 11 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#133 of 2,591 in Contact Forms Top 5% by installs Downloads -7.8% this week

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#2,678

+2 this week

Active Installs

7K+

-6.4%

KW Avg Position

24.8

0.2 worse

Downloads

1.3M

+59 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

98%

Review 4.9 out of 5

4.9 (320 reviews)

Next Milestone 8K

Total Progress 43.7%

7K+ 8K+

190

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

Pro

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Need 563 more installs to reach 8K+

Rank Changes

Current #2,678

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.9

320 reviews

Overall 98%

308 (96%)

8 (3%)

1 (0%)

0 (0%)

3 (1%)

Support Threads Overview

Resolved

Unresolved

Total Threads

Resolved

Unresolved

Resolution Rate

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

18 known vulnerabilities on record · 7 in the last 24 months · checked 4 days ago

Aug 5, 2026

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.8.5

CVE-2026-28189 · Fixed in v2.7.8.5
Aug 1, 2026

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.8.4

CVE-2026-13596 · Fixed in v2.7.8.4
Jul 23, 2026

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.8.4

CVE-2026-11354 · Fixed in v2.7.8.4
Jul 22, 2026

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.8.4

CVE-2026-59555 · Fixed in v2.7.8.4
Jul 22, 2026

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.8.4

CVE-2026-59525 · Fixed in v2.7.8.4
Jul 22, 2026 UNPATCHED

Participants Database [participants-database] <= 2.7.8.4 (unfixed)

CVE-2026-27423 · No fix released
Sep 22, 2025

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.7.7

CVE-2025-58008 · Fixed in v2.7.7
Aug 7, 2024

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.5.9.3

CVE-2024-43141 · Fixed in v2.5.9.3
Nov 27, 2023

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.5.6

CVE-2023-48751 · Fixed in v2.5.6
Nov 27, 2023

Participants Database [participants-database] < 2.5.6

CVE-2023-48751 · Fixed in v2.5.6

Showing the 10 most recent of 18 records.

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Plugin Details

Version: 2.7.8.5
Last Updated: Jul 31, 2026
Requires WP: 6.2+
Tested Up To: 7
PHP Version: 8.0 or higher
Author: Roland Barker

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.9
Reviews: 320
Support Threads: 3
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

database directory listing mailing list signup

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for organizations, clubs, or groups that need to build and maintain a database of members, volunteers, or supporters. It solves the problem of collecting, managing, and displaying participant records through custom signup forms, admin editing, and CSV import/export.

Customizable database fields
Sign-up form shortcode
Frontend record edit form
CSV import and export
Searchable admin record listings
List display shortcode with filtering
Email notification and confirmation
Field grouping for long forms

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Participants Database

Put the [pdb_signup] shortcode where you want your signup form to go.

A shortcode is a WordPress feature that lets you insert plugin content into your posts and pages. It is just a special bit of text that is replaced with the plugin content when the page or post is viewed. Just put this: [pdb_signup] into your page, and when you view the page, the signup form will be displayed.

Their record is added to the database with the information provided in the signup form. Also, two emails will be sent (if you want) one to the admin to notify them of the signup, and also to the user to tell them they've signed up and also give them a private link to their record edit page so they can update or add to their record.

This form appears on the page where you have placed the [pdb_record] shortcode. It is another form where the record can be edited on the frontend. An individual record can be edited on the frontend of your website by someone who has the private link to that record. The purpose here is to let people maintain their own records. It's also possible to put things like survey questions in the form so you can get feedback from people. You have complete control over what fields appear on this form. Fields can be designated as showing up on the signup form, on the frontend user's form, and on the backend admin form. The email goes out to the person when they register, but the "edit link" is blank This means your "Participant Record Page" is not configured. First, you need a page for the record edit form. On that page, place the [pdb_record] shortcode. Then, look under the "Record Form" tab in the plugin settings, make sure the page where you have the [pdb_record] shortcode is selected in the Participant Record Page setting.

The best way to do this is to perform a "truncate" on the table. You'll need to get direct access to the database to do this, usually using phpMyAdmin, which is typically found in your hosting control panel. Open the database and find the main participants database table...usually called "wp_participants_database". Perform a truncate on that table only. The truncate command is found by selecting the table, then under the "operations" tab in the lower right.

OK, just assign all the fields you want them to fill out to the signup form (this is done in the "manage fields" page). That form can be as big as you want. Then, remove the private link from the email they get when they sign up.

This is a group title. Groups are defined on the Manage Database Fields page under the "Field Groups" tab. You will see that each group has a title and a description that you can use to organize and label the ouput of the plugin.

Go to the "manage database fields" page and create a new field for your image. Give it a descriptive name like "avatar" or something. Click "add field" and when your new field appears, set the "field type" to "image upload" for images and "file-upload" for other types of file. Be sure to check "signup" if you want it to appear in the signup form. When the form is presented to the user, they will be allowed to upload an image. There are several settings you should look at before you go live with your uploads fields. Under the "General Settings" tab, you'll find: * File Upload Location - this tells the plugin where to put the uploaded files * File Upload Limit - this is the size limit in Kilobytes for your file uploads. Be careful not to put this too high, if you have lots of users, it could use a lot of space on your server! * Allowed File Types - this is a comma-separated list of allowed file extensions. You can also define this on a per-field basis. * Allow File Delete - if this is checked, the file will be removed from the server when a user deletes it. Each file upload field can have its allowed files determined in the "values" field on the Manage Database Fields page. For instance, if you want them to upload only a pdf file, put "pdf" in the values field for that field. The maximum size is determined globally in the settings only.

No, these signups and records are separate from people who can register on your site as users. If there are things only registered users can do (such as a forum or comments), they will have to register or sign in as usual. The idea is to use the database as a roster of volunteers, supporters, etc. for the organization, not the website. If you are interested in having this plugin work with WordPress users, read this article: Using Participants Database with WordPress Users. People are signing up, but emails are not getting sent Use my Email Troubleshooting Flowchart to help you diagnose the problem. Of course make sure your settings are set to send emails. The most common reason emails are not being sent is because the WP application cannot send email. If you are having this problem, I suggest you install an SMTP plugin (like WP-Mail-SMTP) and use that plugin to test your email sending. Sometimes it is necessary to set up and use SMTP (which is not the default on most systems) to successfully send email. Another common source of email trouble is other plugins that send email. It is not uncommon for such plugins to "hijack" the WP mail function and this can break it for other plugins. Try turning off other plugins that send email to see who the troublemaker is. Finally, your emails may be getting caught in spam filters. If you find the plugin's emails in the spam folder, using a "from" email from the same domain as the site can help. If you are using HTML email (the default) keep it short and don't include lots of links, images or spammy words.

The form will only appear if someone uses a valid private link to access the page. All that's required for a private link is a valid "pid" value has to be included in the URI. (it looks like "pid=TH65J" in the link) This code can be seen in the record if you want to make your own links.