68
Co-Authors Plus
A reliable veteran that desperately needs a new caretaker.
GrowingPoor rating
68/100
Users like the core features but struggle with poor support and bugs.
Active installs
~25,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+
Rating
3.5★
77 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+71%
Growing fast
392 → 669 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MAJORverified rating is 3.46★
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
Growing fast · +71% in the last year
392/day a year ago→669/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayCo-Authors Plus is a well-regarded plugin for assigning multiple authors to posts, but it is held back by poor support responsiveness, sparse documentation, and recurring bugs that leave users stuck without fixes.
What people like
- +Core functionality of adding multiple or replacement authors to posts works as described for many users×5
- +Considered the best or least-bloated option compared to alternatives for co-authorship×2
- +Works with shortcodes and modern themes including Twenty Twenty-Three
- +Useful for non-standard use cases such as managing access to custom post types like job offers
Common complaints
- −Support forums are largely unanswered and GitHub issues go unresolved, with no active maintainer×4
- −Bugs reported by users remain unfixed for extended periods, forcing some to stay on older versions×3
- −Documentation is sparse or developer-only, making the plugin inaccessible to non-developers×3
- −Plugin does not work with WPML
- −Removing the plugin can break posts, requiring a site restore from backup
- −Uses a generic 'author' taxonomy name that conflicts with other plugins using the same name
- −A breaking change was introduced by new maintainers, and no changelog is provided despite user requests
- −Author display stops working entirely for some users — only the admin user is shown regardless of settings
Review trustReviews look organic
- 3.46★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 3.50★
- 1%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-08-192025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 77 total
Latest reviews · 77 analyzed
- 2024-06-03★★★★★Great plugin – but support sucksjroselarsen
- 2024-05-08★★★★★Several issues, little supportaudunmb
- 2024-01-05★★★★★Excelente pluginvytecolombia
- 2023-09-30★★★★★Perfect plugin, great supportIdeFixx
- 2023-08-03★★★★★Not ready enough for usageivan2343
- 2022-11-29★★★★★Is it even a plug-in?ncaross
- 2022-06-18★★★★★Not working anymoreMarcus Anthony Cyganiak
- 2022-06-18★★★★★Cannot trust developerssmerriman
- 2022-04-02★★★★★How do show coauthors_posts_links out of the loopsocialink
- 2021-07-05★★★★★Works!dudo
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.
588
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
849
Prior 7-day baseline
260
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
914
Mean release-day peak (30d)
658
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-30.7%
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.
20%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
2.45
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
47%
5★ share in analyzed sample
1%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
3.47 → 3.46★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered