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Disable Author Pages

By Frank Neumann-Staude

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.

Disable Author Pages Review - In-Depth Analysis

Disable author pages in WordPress and redirect users to a specified page.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.94/10

User Rating

4.9/5 (based on 17+ reviews)

Active Installations

5,000+

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 allows you to disable the author pages in WordPress. When a user tries to access an author page, they will be redirected to another page of your choice. This can help in managing user access and improving site navigation.

By using this plugin, you can streamline your site and enhance user experience by preventing access to author-specific pages.

Comparing to Alternatives

Disable Author Pages is a focused plugin designed to disable author pages on WordPress sites. It has a couple of close alternatives that offer similar functionality with slight variations.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Simple and straightforward to use.
Highly rated with minimal issues reported.
No known security vulnerabilities.
Lightweight with no unnecessary features.
Effective at disabling author pages as intended.

Weaknesses

Limited customization options for redirects.
No built-in robots.txt management for author pages.
Does not support selective disabling of individual authors.
Lacks advanced features found in some alternatives.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a near-perfect rating of 4.9 out of 5 from 17 reviews, users overwhelmingly appreciate the plugin's effectiveness and ease of use. There are no recorded negative reviews, indicating strong satisfaction.

Positive highlights

'Great plugin!' — Alex R.
'It worked good thank you' — hasanzoeiry
'Working great. Nothing more to say!' — deanMKD
'Perfect plugin' — mescalytequila
'How can you disable certain authors vs all or groups...' — jh20001 (suggesting feature requests)

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Lacks option to add robots.txt rules to block author pages from search engines.
Redirect options are limited to regular pages with only 301 or 307 status codes.
No feature to selectively disable author pages for specific authors.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Site owners who want a simple, reliable way to disable all author pages without complex configuration or additional features.

Not ideal for

Users needing granular control over which author pages to disable, advanced redirect options, or SEO-focused robots.txt management should consider alternatives or additional plugins.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version fully disables author pages with basic redirect options and is sufficient for most users.

Final Verdict

Disable Author Pages is a highly effective and well-rated plugin that fulfills its core purpose with simplicity and reliability. Its lack of security vulnerabilities and positive user feedback make it a trustworthy choice for disabling author pages on WordPress sites.

However, users seeking more advanced features like selective author disabling, enhanced redirect options, or SEO-focused controls may find it limited. For those needs, exploring the available alternatives is recommended.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Disable Author Pages plugin.

disable author pages

redirect users

wordpress author pages

FAQ

Install the plugin from within the Dashboard or upload the directory disable-author-pages and all its contents to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Configure it under settings/disable author pages