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Conditional Widgets

By Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems)

Site Administration & Utilities / Site Health & Diagnostics

Conditional Widgets Review - In-Depth Analysis

Control widget display based on pages or categories easily. Requires Classic Widgets plugin for compatibility.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.93/10

User Rating

4.5/5 (based on 24+ reviews)

Active Installations

7,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin will not function after the Widgets screen overhaul that is part of WordPress 5.8 unless you use the Classic Widgets plugin. The plugin will continue to be supported and maintained for those using Classic Widgets, but there are no plans to make Conditional Widgets work once Widgets are Blocks.

This plugin adds a form to each widget on the Widgets panel which allows users to choose which pages and/or categories the widget is either displayed on or hidden from.

For each widget, you can choose criteria to either show or hide the widget based on a number of categories. The interface is quite intuitive and requires no knowledge of PHP or conditional tags.

Comparing to Alternatives

Conditional Widgets stands out as a straightforward solution for widget visibility control, though it lacks some advanced features found in other plugins.

Top alternatives

Conditional Widgets

Strengths

Simple and efficient functionality delivering exactly what it promises
Lightweight and easy to use for customizing widgets by category or page
Compatible with recent WordPress versions like 5.5

Weaknesses

No official support for WooCommerce compatibility
Potential issues with certain browser extensions causing delays or crashes
Lack of recent updates suggests possible abandonment

User Sentiment Analysis

User feedback highlights both the plugin's ease of use and some compatibility concerns.

Positive highlights

"This plugin is simple and very efficient." - stellaseaspirit
"Very useful plugin, light, easy to use for customizing each category widget." - FeliceAntonio
"Simple and working with WP 5.5." - zinkab

Common complaints

Not compatible with WooCommerce
Poor or absent developer support
Issues with browser extensions like Grammarly
Concerns about plugin abandonment

Weaknesses

Compatibility problems with popular e-commerce plugin WooCommerce
Delayed or no responses from developer on support requests
Potential conflicts with browser extensions causing functionality issues

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a lightweight and straightforward plugin to conditionally display widgets based on categories or pages without needing advanced features.

Not ideal for

Those requiring WooCommerce compatibility, active developer support, or advanced conditional logic should consider other options.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers essential widget visibility controls that are simple to configure and effective for basic use cases.

Final Verdict

Conditional Widgets is a practical and easy-to-use plugin for managing widget visibility with basic conditional logic. It performs well for users with straightforward needs and works smoothly on recent WordPress versions.

However, the lack of WooCommerce support, limited developer engagement, and potential compatibility issues with browser extensions may limit its suitability for more complex sites or users seeking robust support.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Conditional Widgets plugin.

widget display control

conditional widgets

page and category widgets

Screenshots

FAQ

Yes and No.

Conditional Widgets can be configured with additional Type/Taxonomy pairs (both native and custom), similar to how it functions with Posts and Categories. However, it does not support additional Custom Post Types the way it does Pages. (If I were going to write it from scratch, I would have definitely included that, but have no plans to add it given that Widgets themselves are on the way to becoming unsupported.)

The following filter is available to take pairs of Post Type and Taxononmy slugs (use in functions.php or a small plugin):

 // Add Conditional Widgets support for Success Stories (Post Type) & Story Groups (Taxonomy) add_filter('conditional_widgets_type_tax_pairs', 'success_story_conditional_widget_type_tax_pairs' );  function success_story_conditional_widget_type_tax_pairs( $pairs_array ) {      $success_story_pair = array(         'type'=> 'success-story',         'tax'=> 'story-group'      );      $pairs_array[] = $success_story_pair;     return $pairs_array;  }

If you really want to be able to use Conditional Widgets to control Widget display on individual instances of a Custom Post Type (rather than based on a Taxonomy), the workaround would be to create unique Taxonomy terms for those Custom Posts.