69
Advanced Sidebar Menu
Automate your site hierarchy with a side of Pro version uncertainty.
HealthyDeclining
69/100
It automates hierarchical navigation well despite some reported bugs in the Pro version and recent updates.
Active installs
~15,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+
Rating
4.5★
37 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-38%
Declining fast
84 → 52 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 38% vs a year ago
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Declining fast · -38% in the last year
84/day a year ago→52/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayAdvanced Sidebar Menu is well-regarded for automatically generating hierarchical sidebar navigation on large, complex WordPress sites, but some users encounter setup difficulties, theme compatibility issues, and problems with the pro version.
What people like
- +Works well out of the box for hierarchical page and category navigation, especially on large sites with many pages and sub-sections×5
- +Highly customizable while remaining easy to set up×2
- +Pro version praised for handling complex, large-scale site navigation efficiently×2
- +Support described as fast and responsive×3
Common complaints
- −Pro version reported to render menu items invisible upon activation
- −Pro version described as poorly implemented, with the block version considered inferior and requiring the Classic Sidebar plugin to function properly
- −A plugin update broke child page/category indentation, making parent and child items visually indistinguishable
- −Not compatible with the Twenty Twenty-One theme
- −Free version failed to display for at least one user, with no direct developer contact available — only a support forum
- −Documentation is sparse or unhelpful, making it difficult to understand the plugin's full capabilities and limitations
- −Listing individual posts within a category may not be supported or is unclear, causing confusion
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.41★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.50★
- 8%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 33% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 37 total
Latest reviews · 37 analyzed
- 2024-09-18★★★★★Really useful producttomsugar1
- 2024-03-15★★★★★Pro version is a disasterWillOfTheWeb
- 2023-07-20★★★★★Doesn't workomigosh
- 2022-09-10★★★★★great plugin !EleanorR Greenawalt
- 2022-05-04★★★★★Very helpful and well written plugin – Support is above & beyond expecationsdeeholzman
- 2021-11-19★★★★★Not workingzihniates
- 2021-10-30★★★★★Does what it says it doesfirefly2000
- 2021-05-07★★★★★Brilliantnickshepherd1-shot
- 2020-07-28★★★★★lost the indentationlordeleo
- 2019-09-12★★★★★Not sowing upneddyrich1
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
52
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
50
Prior 7-day baseline
172
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
1,028
Mean release-day peak (30d)
190
Latest day · 2026-06-03(spike)
+4.0%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
33%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
3.32
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
78%
5★ share in analyzed sample
8%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.46 → 4.41★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered