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/ User Avatar – Reloaded

User Avatar – Reloaded

By Saad Iqbal

User Management & Authentication / User Registration & Login

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

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

User Avatar – Reloaded Review - In-Depth Analysis

Use images from your WordPress Media Library as custom user avatars. Upload your own Default Avatar easily.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.74/10

User Rating

5/5 (based on 2+ reviews)

Active Installations

800+

Update Frequency

Below 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 allows you to use any photo uploaded into your WordPress Media Library as a user avatar. You can upload your own Default Avatar in the settings. If a user does not have a custom avatar, the plugin can display their Gravatar or the Default Avatar.

Additionally, you can disable Gravatar avatars, allowing only local avatars. The plugin provides shortcodes for adding an avatar uploader to any page, visible only to logged-in users. Contributors and Subscribers can also upload their own avatars, with options to limit file size and dimensions.

For customization, you can change the HTML wrapper of the avatar section and integrate it into your profile edit pages using specific hooks. This flexibility allows for a tailored user experience on your site.

Comparing to Alternatives

User Avatar – Reloaded is a user avatar management plugin with several alternatives available that offer similar functionalities.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Highly rated with perfect user satisfaction.
Easy to use and powerful functionality.
No paid version needed, fully functional free plugin.
Supports avatar management with shortcode functionality.
Active maintenance with recent security fixes.

Weaknesses

Has known medium severity security vulnerabilities in older versions.
Limited user base with only two total ratings.
No pro version or premium features available.
Potential shortcode issues reported by some users.

User Sentiment Analysis

Based on the two available reviews, users are very satisfied with the plugin, reflected in a perfect 5-star rating distribution.

Positive highlights

'Very easy to use, and powerful. Nice job!' — art3miss
'Great plugin, very handy to have.' — ChickenDipper

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Security vulnerabilities in versions prior to 1.2.2.
Minor shortcode functionality issues reported.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users looking for a straightforward and effective avatar management plugin without needing premium features.

Not ideal for

Sites requiring the highest security standards without risk of past vulnerabilities or those needing advanced premium features.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core avatar management features, including shortcode support and user-friendly interface.

Final Verdict

User Avatar – Reloaded is a well-regarded plugin praised for its ease of use and effective avatar management capabilities, supported by a perfect rating from its limited user base. It offers solid functionality without requiring a paid upgrade, making it a good choice for users seeking a free solution.

However, the plugin has had medium severity security vulnerabilities in past versions, which have been addressed in the latest update. Users should ensure they are running the most current version to mitigate risks. Alternatives exist with similar features, so users should weigh security and feature needs when choosing.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free User Avatar – Reloaded plugin.

User avatar

Custom user profile picture

WordPress Media Library

FAQ

First, choose a theme that has avatar support. In your theme, you have a choice of manually replacing get_avatar with get_wp_user_avatar, or leaving get_avatar as-is. Here are the differences:

get_wp_user_avatar

Allows you to use the values “original”, “large”, “medium”, or “thumbnail” for your avatar size.
Doesn’t add a fixed width and height to the image if you use the aforementioned values. This will give you more flexibility to resize the image with CSS.
Allows you to use custom image sizes registered with add_image_size (fixed width and height are added to the image).
Optionally adds CSS classes “alignleft”, “alignright”, or “aligncenter” to position your avatar.
Shows nothing if the user has no WP User Avatar image.
Shows the user’s Gravatar avatar or Default Avatar only if “Show Avatars” is enabled in your WP User Avatar settings.

get_avatar

Requires you to enable “Show Avatars” in your WP User Avatar settings to show any avatars.
Accepts only numeric values for your avatar size.
Always adds a fixed width and height to your image. This may cause problems if you use responsive CSS in your theme.
Shows the user’s Gravatar avatar or Default Avatar if the user doesn’t have a WP User Avatar image. (Choosing “Blank” as your Default Avatar still generates a transparent image file.)
Requires no changes to your theme files if you are currently using get_avatar.
Read more about get_avatar in the WordPress Function Reference.

Yes, you can use the [avatar_upload] shortcode to put a standalone uploader in a front page or widget. This uploader is only visible to logged-in users. If you want to integrate the uploader into a profile edit page, see Other Notes.

You can specify a user with the shortcode, but you must have ‘edit_user’ capability to change the user’s avatar.

[avatar_upload user="admin"]

You can use the [avatar] shortcode in your posts. It will detect the author of the post or you can specify an author by username. You can specify a size, alignment, and link, but they are optional. For links, you can link to the original image file, attachment page, or a custom URL.

[avatar user="admin" size="96" align="left" link="file" /]

If you have a caption, the output will be similar to how WordPress adds captions to other images.

[avatar user="admin" size="96" align="left" link="file"]Photo Credit: Your Name[/avatar]

Note:If you are using one shortcode without a caption and another shortcode with a caption on the same page, you must close the caption-less shortcode with a forward slash before the closing bracket: [avatar /] instead of [avatar].

WP User Avatar will add the CSS classes “wp-user-avatar” and “wp-user-avatar-{size}” to your image. If you add an alignment, the corresponding alignment class will be added:

<?php echo get_wp_user_avatar($user_id, 96, 'left'); ?>

Note “alignleft”, “alignright”, and aligncenter” are common WordPress CSS classes, but not every theme supports them. Contact the theme author to add those CSS classes.
If you use the values “original”, “large”, “medium”, or “thumbnail”, no width or height will be added to the image. This will give you more flexibility to resize the image with CSS:

<?php echo get_wp_user_avatar($user_id, 'medium'); ?>

Note: WordPress adds more CSS classes to the avatar not listed here.
If you use the [avatar] shortcode, WP User Avatar will add the CSS class “wp-user-avatar-link” to the link. It will also add CSS classes based on link type.

Image File: wp-user-avatar-file
Attachment: wp-user-avatar-attachment
Custom URL: wp-user-avatar-custom

[avatar user=”admin” size=”96″ align=”left” link=”attachment” /]