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Advanced Sidebar Menu

By Mat Lipe

Site Structure & Navigation / Menu Management & Mega Menus

Advanced Sidebar Menu Review - In-Depth Analysis

Automatically generates sidebar menus based on page and category hierarchy. Keeps menus clean and relevant to the current section of your site.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.95/10

User Rating

4.5/5 (based on 37+ reviews)

Active Installations

10,000+

Update Frequency

Outstanding 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

The Advanced Sidebar Menu plugin creates fully automatic sidebar menus that utilize the parent/child relationship of your pages or categories. This means you can assign a page or category to a parent, and the plugin will generate the appropriate menus for you.

With this plugin, only related items are displayed, ensuring your menus remain clean and usable. You won't have to worry about updating custom menus or showing links that don't belong.

Blocks are available for displaying menus wherever you need them, such as in page content, widget areas, or the theme customizer. You can also use classic widgets for compatibility with older sites.

Comparing to Alternatives

Advanced Sidebar Menu stands out among sidebar menu plugins by offering extensive customization and ease of setup, making it suitable for complex site navigation structures.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Highly customizable and easy to set up
Effective for organizing large site side navigation with multiple sections
Can be used out of the box or heavily customized
Supports category-based menus with sub-sections

Weaknesses

Some compatibility issues with certain themes like TwentyTwentyOne
Limited documentation on displaying individual posts within categories
Pro version may cause menu items to become invisible
Requires Classic Sidebar plugin for full pro version functionality

User Sentiment Analysis

User feedback highlights both the plugin's usefulness and some technical challenges encountered.

Positive highlights

'Extremely helpful in organizing large site navigation' - deeholzman
'Very customizable and easy to set up' - deeholzman
'Great plugin, got exactly what I wanted' - EleanorR Greenawalt
'Really useful product despite minor feature gaps' - tomsugar1

Common complaints

Does not work well with some themes like TwentyTwentyOne
Lack of clear documentation especially regarding listing individual posts
Pro version causes menu items to become invisible
Pro version requires additional plugins for optimal use

Weaknesses

Inconsistent functionality across themes
Poor documentation limits user understanding
Pro version stability issues
Dependency on other plugins for full features

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users managing large WordPress sites needing a customizable and organized sidebar menu with multiple categories and subcategories.

Not ideal for

Users seeking a simple menu plugin or those using themes incompatible with this plugin without advanced troubleshooting skills.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers robust sidebar menu customization suitable for most category-based navigation needs, allowing users to organize complex menus effectively.

Pro version

The pro version adds advanced features but may require the Classic Sidebar plugin for optimal functionality; however, it has reported issues such as menu items becoming invisible upon activation.

Final Verdict

Advanced Sidebar Menu is a powerful and flexible plugin ideal for users needing detailed control over sidebar navigation, especially on large sites.

However, potential compatibility issues and limited documentation may pose challenges, and the pro version has notable stability concerns that users should consider before upgrading.

Other Notable Features

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

Category Menus

Page Menus

Sidebars

Screenshots

FAQ

The menu in this plugin is smart enough to not show up on pages or categories where the only thing that would display is the title. While it may appear like the menu is broken, it is actually doing what it is intended to do.

The most common causes for this confusion come from one of these reasons:
1. The incorrect menu was selected. Categories have their own widget/block as pages have their own widget/block.
2. “Display the highest level parent page” or “Display the highest level parent category” is not checked.
3. The Pages menu is currently not being viewed on a page.
4. The Categories menu is not currently being view on a category.

You may add CSS to your theme’s style.css to change the way the menu looks.

For example, the following CSS would:
1. Remove the dot to the left of the menu item.
2. Change the link color.
3. Add a background on hover.

.advanced-sidebar-menu li.current-menu-item a {     color: black; } .advanced-sidebar-menu li.current-menu-item {     list-style-type: none !important; } .advanced-sidebar-menu li.current-menu-item > a:hover {     background: teal; }

To style your menu without using any code upgrade to PRO.