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Archive Control

By Mike Gillihan

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

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

Archive Control Review - In-Depth Analysis

Customize your custom post type and taxonomy archives with headlines, images, and editable content. Modify order and pagination easily.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.03/10

User Rating

5/5 (based on 11+ reviews)

Active Installations

1,000+

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 provides a quick and easy way to customize archive pages, including custom post types, categories, tags, and custom taxonomy terms. You can add editable content before or after the list, along with a featured image. It allows you to set up the order and pagination on these pages separately from the rest of your site.

Taxonomies can share settings across all terms or have specific settings per term. Administrators can change the settings, while site editors can easily modify the content. You can also modify archive titles and remove default labels, allowing for a more tailored presentation.

The plugin does not add any CSS or JavaScript to the front end, leaving the styling completely up to you. It is designed to be user-friendly for both power users and developers, allowing for full control without needing to change theme code.

Comparing to Alternatives

Archive Control stands out in the archive management category with no direct feature-for-feature match among its alternatives, offering a unique approach to editing archive pages.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Comprehensive and easy to use for managing archive pages
Highly compatible with popular themes like Divi
Provides frontend controls for WP_Query parameters
Elegant solution for editing archive pages, filling a core WordPress gap
Consistently receives perfect user ratings

Weaknesses

No longer actively supported according to some users
Lacks a pro version with advanced features
Limited to archive page control without broader site management tools
Random ordering via WP_Query has limitations with AJAX infinite scrolling

User Sentiment Analysis

With a perfect 5-star rating from all reviewers, users consistently praise Archive Control for its usefulness and effectiveness in managing archive pages.

Positive highlights

'Incredibly useful' and comprehensive (BlackHorseMedia)
'A godsend' that solved ordering issues (eugenelim88)
'Excellent plugin' for needed features (Li-An)
'Elegant solution' for editing archive pages (MattV)
'Perfect plugin' that meets real needs (Abanys-Concept)

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Plugin appears no longer actively supported
Random ordering feature has technical limitations with AJAX infinite scrolling

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users who need a straightforward, reliable plugin to customize and control WordPress archive pages without complex configurations.

Not ideal for

Those seeking a plugin with ongoing active support or advanced premium features, or who require flawless random ordering in AJAX infinite scroll contexts.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers comprehensive archive page editing and WP_Query parameter controls, providing excellent value for users.

Final Verdict

Archive Control is a highly effective and well-loved plugin for managing WordPress archive pages, praised for its ease of use and comprehensive features. Its perfect user rating and lack of security issues make it a trustworthy choice for users needing archive customization.

However, the plugin shows signs of limited ongoing support and lacks a premium version, which may deter users looking for advanced features or guaranteed long-term updates. Despite this, it remains a top option among its alternatives for straightforward archive control.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Archive Control plugin.

Screenshots

FAQ

An archive page is really just WordPress terminology for a page with a list of multiple pieces of content (posts). By default this content is in date order, with the newest appearing at the top, like a blog, and would be split into pages with 10 posts each. WordPress gives you the ability to manipulate this list through code, changing the order, pagination and other characteristics, but doesn’t give you an interface for doing so. WordPress also by default does not have any interface for storing content like images and text that are related to a specific archive page. That is the problem that this plugin tries to provide the solution for.