62
Simple Author Box
A pretty bio box that mostly just begs for upgrades.
HealthyDeclining
62/100
The plugin works well but the free version feels like a demo due to aggressive upsells.
Active installs
~95,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 90k+
Rating
4.3★
114 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-42%
Declining fast
594 → 344 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 42% 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 · -42% in the last year
594/day a year ago→344/day today
Reviews
what people actually saySimple Author Box is a functional and easy-to-use author bio plugin with a decent free tier, but it is widely criticized for aggressive premium upsells, an overly restrictive free version, and a dashboard that pushes paid upgrades intrusively.
What people like
- +Works as intended for displaying author bios on posts×4
- +Responsive and helpful customer support×2
- +Easy to set up and customize within the free version×2
- +Active development with bug fixes pushed out×2
Common complaints
- −Free version is heavily restricted — key features like post/page placement and multi-author bio display require a paid upgrade×5
- −Aggressive, intrusive premium upsell prompts appear immediately on install and take over the dashboard×3
- −Free version does not display author bios for non-admin users, making it effectively unusable for multi-author sites without paying×2
- −Limited front-end customization options make it difficult to match custom designs without additional CSS or developer work×2
- −Bluesky social icon is missing with no apparent path to add it
- −Strict 7-day refund policy left at least one paying user without recourse after encountering theme compatibility issues
- −HTML error found in plugin code (unclosed span tag)
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.36★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.30★
- 7%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
2023-11-172025-03-112026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 114 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-04-17★★★★★Great PluginSteve P (UK)
- 2025-03-11★★★★★Where's Blueskycaptaintomberlin
- 2025-03-01★★★★★Great ScriptThinkTech | Themis Vasilop
- 2024-07-31★★★★★Absolutely NotL.A. Randle
- 2024-04-26★★★★★Excellent, awesomeee + incredible plugin…dglite
- 2023-11-17★★★★★Just didn't look goodhustle144r
- 2023-03-15★★★★★Over Intrusive on dashboardChris
- 2023-03-07★★★★★Disappointed that I cannot evaluate the free versionrobertreddin
- 2023-02-04★★★★★Annoyingly expensiveJason1-shot
- 2022-10-31★★★★★Too limitedauludag
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.
344
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
349
Prior 7-day baseline
932
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
8,260
Mean release-day peak (30d)
898
Latest day · 2026-06-03(spike)
-1.4%
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
2.47
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
77%
5★ share in analyzed sample
7%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.34 → 4.36★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered