WordPress.org

Andrew Ozz

Tonya Mork

Brian Alexander

Classic Widgets is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress widgets settings screens. It will be supported and maintained to 2024, or as long as is necessary.
Once activated and when using a classic (non-block) theme, this plugin restores the previous widgets settings screens and disables the block editor from managing widgets. There is no other configuration, the classic widgets settings screens are enabled or disabled by either enabling or disabling this plugin.

Classic Widgets

Top 💪🏻


This has saved a lot of websites from having to be rebuilt, thank you!


Saved websites life

So far so good. But should be continued the development 

Helpful Widget Library


We love this plugin. Please maintain it for years and years beyond 2024!


What will we do without this?


This is one of the first plugins I install on any WordPress website and I am immensely pleased it exists. The block based widget editor is dreadful to use in comparison, I've tried to use it several times over the past couple of years since it was introduced and found it to be unintuitive, prone to errors, and easy to make mistakes with. I've tried so many times, I've completely given up on it and regardless of any updates, bug fixes, etc, I won't be using it until it comes to a point where Classic Widgets is deprecated.


Blocks: I've tried, I really have, but you're not worth the time/headache

Enables the previous "classic" widgets settings screens in Appearance - Widgets and the Customizer. Disables the block editor from managing widgets.

Freemius

Joachim Jensen

DEV Institute

<h3>Content Aware Sidebars is the #1 WordPress Sidebar Plugin</h3>
You can optimize conversion rates, boost on-site SEO, upsell products, and much more by displaying different widget areas on different conditions.
Create tailored widget areas in seconds. No widget logic coding required.
<h3>Show or Hide Widgets on Any Page (Yes, any)</h3>
Replace your theme sidebars on different conditions, or insert widget areas with shortcodes. The following Display Conditions are available out of the box:
<ul>
<li>Posts, Pages & Custom Post Types</li>
<li>Content with Tags, Categories, or Custom Taxonomies</li>
<li>Content written by select Authors</li>
<li>Page Templates</li>
<li>Blog Page & Post Type Archives</li>
<li>Author Archives</li>
<li>Taxonomy Archives</li>
<li>Front Page, Search Results, 404 Not Found Page</li>
<li>bbPress Profiles, Forums & Topics</li>
<li>BuddyPress Profile Sections</li>
<li>Languages (Polylang, qTranslate X, TranslatePress, Transposh, Weglot, WPML)</li>
<li>Pods Pages</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
You can even combine conditions in any way you like! E.g. target all posts in a select category and written by a specific author.
</blockquote>
<h3>Add Unlimited Sidebars & Widget Areas</h3>
Create a post sidebar, a page sidebar, a category sidebar, or any custom sidebar you need – no coding required. CAS will never slow down your site, even if you create a lot of custom sidebars and conditions.
<blockquote>
Sidebars – Quick Select© lets you add or select widget areas directly when editing a post or page.
</blockquote>
<h3>Schedule & Disable Custom Sidebars</h3>
In the All-in-one Sidebar Manager you just pick a start and end date for when widget areas should be displayed, and CAS will take care of the rest.
<blockquote>
1-Click Sidebar Activation© lets you activate or deactivate widget areas instantly.
</blockquote>
<h3>The Most User-friendly Widget Manager</h3>
When adding new widgets to sidebars, Live Search will find widgets instantly, and the smart split-screen makes it a joy to manage a lot of widgets and sidebars.
<blockquote>
The Enhanced Widget Manager adds the signature turquoise line to easily identify custom sidebars.
</blockquote>
<h3>Sidebar Plugin Integrations & Support</h3>
CAS autodetects Custom Post Types and Taxonomies created by any plugin or theme. Built-in support for some of the most popular WordPress plugins means that you e.g. can create WooCommerce sidebars for select products or BuddyPress sidebars for your members.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/bbpress/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">bbPress</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/buddypress/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">BuddyPress / BuddyBoss</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/easy-digital-downloads/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Easy Digital Downloads</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">qTranslate X</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/pods/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Pods</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Polylang</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">TranslatePress</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Transposh Translation Filter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/woocommerce/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">WooCommerce</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Weglot</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/multilingual-plugins/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=integration&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">WPML</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Customize Your Widget Areas Your Way</h3>
Without writing any code, you can modify the HTML and CSS classes of widget areas, widgets, and widget titles. You get full control over the look and feel of your sidebars and widget areas, no matter what theme you use.
<blockquote>
Sidebar Visibility lets you elegantly hide any widget area for logged-out users.
</blockquote>
<h3>Complete control over your WordPress widget areas</h3>
<a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=title&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Upgrade to Content Aware Sidebars Pro</a> and get these additional powerful features:
<ul>
<li>Totem – Smart Floating Button 
Like the button you may have seen by Intercom or Helpscout, only this is for all your widgets</li>
<li>Sticky Sidebars & Widget Areas 
Make any sidebar or widget area sticky without hurting site performance. No jQuery and no bloat</li>
<li>Widget Areas after Paragraphs 
Display a widget area after a specific number or percentage of paragraphs in your content</li>
<li>Even More Display Conditions
<ul>
<li>Advanced Custom Fields data</li>
<li>Meta Box data</li>
<li>URLs + wildcards</li>
<li>Referrer URLs</li>
<li>Date Archives & Content by publish date</li>
<li>BuddyPress Groups</li>
<li>Random</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Widget Area Designer 
Add responsive widget columns and edit colors, backgrounds, paddings, etc.</li>
<li>Widget Areas in Theme Hooks 
Intelligently infuse new widget areas into your theme without coding</li>
<li>Automatic Widgets Backup 
Easily restore any changed or deleted widgets</li>
<li>Widget Cleaner 
Save memory and remove clutter by disabling and removing unused widgets</li>
<li>Extended User Visibility 
Show or hide widget areas for User Roles, BuddyPress Groups, and more</li>
<li>Time & Weekday Schedule 
Display widget areas only in select time ranges on given days</li>
<li>Container Widget 
Turn widget areas into reusable blocks and show the same widgets in different places</li>
<li>Duplicate Widget Areas 
A real time-saver when adding new similar widget areas</li>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/wordpress-sidebars/pricing/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=more&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">and so much more…</a></li>
</ul>
Upgrade at anytime instantly and securely from your website’s Admin Dashboard.
<h3>More Information</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://dev.institute/docs/content-aware-sidebars/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=info&utm_campaign=cas" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/intoxstudio/content-aware-sidebars" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/intoxstudio" rel="nofollow ugc">Twitter</a></li>
</ul>

Content Aware Sidebars – Fastest Widget Area Plugin

Display new sidebars on any post, page, category etc. Works with Classic Widgets, Block Widgets, and all themes!

Classic Widgets vs Content Aware Sidebars – Fastest Widget Area Plugin