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Advanced Excerpt

By WPKube

Content Management / Blog & Article Publishing

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Advanced Excerpt Review - In-Depth Analysis

Enhance WordPress post excerpts with customizable features. Control length, HTML tags, and add read-more links.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.34/10

User Rating

4.3/5 (based on 101+ reviews)

Active Installations

80,000+

Update Frequency

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

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin adds several improvements to WordPress' default way of creating excerpts.

It keeps HTML markup in the excerpt, allowing users to choose which tags are included. The excerpt can be trimmed to a specified length using either character count or word count, while only the real text is counted, ignoring HTML but keeping it intact.

Users can customize the excerpt length and the ellipsis character used. The plugin completes the last word or sentence in an excerpt to avoid awkward cuts and adds a read-more link to the text. Additionally, it ignores custom excerpts and uses the generated one instead.

Theme developers can utilize the function the_advanced_excerpt() for even more control over excerpts. Most features are optional and customizable by users or developers.

Comparing to Alternatives

Advanced Excerpt is a popular plugin for customizing post excerpts, but there are several other plugins offering similar functionality with varying features.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Highly rated by most users for improving excerpt appearance
Simple to use with straightforward settings
Compatible with many themes up to certain WordPress versions
No paid version, fully functional free plugin
Good for enhancing blog homepages and archive pages

Weaknesses

Has known security vulnerability fixed only in latest version
Some compatibility issues with latest WordPress versions reported
Lacks active maintenance and developer support
Limited advanced customization compared to some alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

With a strong majority of 5-star ratings, users appreciate the plugin's effectiveness, though a notable minority report issues especially with recent WordPress versions and lack of support.

Positive highlights

"Love love love this plugin! It really makes the excerpts look fantastic." - nealumphred
"Potentially a fantastic addition but needs updates for latest WP." - ncw0123
"Almost totally fine with latest WP and Twenty Twenty-One theme." - eoik

Common complaints

Plugin appears unmaintained with no recent updates
Does not work properly on latest WordPress versions
No developer support or responses to user questions

Weaknesses

Security vulnerability with stored XSS fixed only in version 4.5
Compatibility issues with WordPress 6.8.x
Lack of updates and active maintenance

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users looking for a free, easy-to-use plugin to enhance post excerpts on WordPress sites running versions prior to the latest releases, and who do not require advanced support.

Not ideal for

Users running the latest WordPress versions who need guaranteed compatibility and active developer support, or those concerned about security vulnerabilities and timely updates.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers full excerpt customization features without restrictions, making it valuable for most users.

Final Verdict

Advanced Excerpt remains a solid choice for users wanting to improve their post excerpts with a free and straightforward plugin. It enjoys high user satisfaction for its core functionality and ease of use. However, recent compatibility issues with the latest WordPress versions and a lack of active maintenance are significant drawbacks.

Potential security concerns have been addressed in recent updates, but users should ensure they are running the latest version. Those needing ongoing support or guaranteed compatibility with the newest WordPress releases might consider alternative plugins. Overall, it offers good value for users on stable WordPress versions who prioritize excerpt customization without cost.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Advanced Excerpt plugin.

WordPress excerpts

excerpt customization

post excerpt control

Screenshots

FAQ

A short version of a post that is usually displayed wherever the whole post would be too much (eg. search results, news feeds, archives). You can write them yourself, but if you don’t, WordPress will make a very basic one instead.

The plugin automatically hooks on the_excerpt() and the_content() functions and uses the parameters specified in the options panel.

If you want to call the filter with different options, you can use the_advanced_excerpt() template tag provided by this plugin. This tag accepts query-string-style parameters (theme developers will be familiar with this notation).

The following parameters can be set:

length, an integer that determines the length of the excerpt
length_type, enumeration, if set to words the excerpt length will be in words; if set to characters the excerpt length will be in characters
no_custom, if set to 1, an excerpt will be generated even if the post has a custom excerpt; if set to 0, the custom excerpt will be used
no_shortcode, if set to 1, shortcodes are removed from the excerpt; if set to 0, shortcodes will be parsed
finish, enumeration, if set to exact the excerpt will be the exact lenth as defined by the “Excerpt Length” option. If set to word the last word in the excerpt will be completed. If set to sentence the last sentence in the excerpt will be completed.
ellipsis, the string that will substitute the omitted part of the post; if you want to use HTML entities in the string, use %26 instead of the & prefix to avoid breaking the query
read_more, the text used in the read-more link
add_link, if set to 1, the read-more link will be appended; if 0, no link will be added
allowed_tags, a comma-separated list of HTML tags that are allowed in the excerpt. Entering _all will preserve all tags.
exclude_tags, a comma-separated list of HTML tags that must be removed from the excerpt. Using this setting in combination with allowed_tags makes no sense

A custom advanced excerpt call could look like this:

the_advanced_excerpt('length=320&length_type=words&no_custom=1&ellipsis=%26hellip;&exclude_tags=img,p,strong');

Contributors and developers

“Advanced Excerpt” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

WPKube

FancyThemes

Free Version

WPS

6.34

Average

Ratings

4.3 out of 5 | 101

Version

4.5

Last updated

2 months ago

Active installations

80,000+

WordPress version

7.0.7 or higher

PHP version

7.4 or higher

Languages

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Advanced Excerpt Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (101)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (1)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.34

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