Authors List

69 Quality Score

Active Installs

17/30

With 5,000 active installs and a popularity score of 55, the plugin sits in a niche mid-range rather than a mainstream category.

Update Freshness

19/25

A maintenance score of 90 reflects the recent update on November 24, 2025 and confirmed compatibility with WordPress 6.8.5.

User Rating

15/15

A perfect 100 from 22 ratings is encouraging, though the small sample size means the average may shift with more reviews.

Support Health

8/15

Support health sits at 50 because there are zero threads opened or resolved, indicating either very low demand or unanswered user questions.

WP Compatibility

11/15

Compatibility at 75 reflects the low PHP 5.4 floor and the current 6.8.5 test header, leaving reasonable but not modern coverage.

Scores higher than 22% of indexed plugins

About

Use a shortcode to display a list or grid of post authors (or any other user role) and links to their post archives page.

Active Installs 5k+

Rating ★★★★★ 5/5

Last Updated 2025-11-24 9:04am GMT

Requires WordPress 4.7.0+

Tested Up To 6.8.8

Requires PHP 5.4+

Security History

5 known vulnerabilities, all patched

1 High 4 Medium

Most recent: November 10, 2025

View details ▸

Authors List <= 2.0.6.1 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Sensitive Information Exposure via Limited Method Call in Plugin's Shortcode Medium

November 10, 2025 Patched in ["2.0.6.2"] CVE-2025-12010

Authors List <= 2.0.6.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery Medium

September 5, 2025 Patched in [] CVE-2025-58792

Authors List <= 2.0.6 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Shortcode Execution Medium

February 28, 2025 Patched in ["2.0.6.1"] CVE-2024-13806

Authors List <= 2.0.4 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Shortcode Execution via update_authors_list_ajax High

December 3, 2024 Patched in ["2.0.5"] CVE-2024-10952

Authors List <= 2.0.2 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via al_id Medium

July 10, 2023 Patched in ["2.0.3"] CVE-2023-37981

What It Does

Authors List adds a shortcode that renders a list or grid of users from any WordPress role, with each entry linking to the author's post archive page. It supports avatars, customizable display options, and role filtering, making it straightforward to showcase a site's contributors on any page or post.

Who It's For

This plugin is a good fit for multi-author blogs, magazines, news sites, and community publications that want to spotlight their writers or contributors. It also works well for team showcase pages on creative agency sites and guest post platforms where visibility for each contributor matters.

Who Should Skip It

Single-author blogs and small personal sites do not need this plugin, since there is nobody to display. Sites that need advanced filtering, AJAX search, or fully styled author cards are better served by a heavier alternative such as PostX.

The Bottom Line

Authors List is a focused, lightweight plugin that does one job well and earns a 72.92 overall quality score thanks to its clean maintenance record and perfect user rating. The lack of any support threads is a yellow flag for anyone who expects responsive help. For simple author directories it is a solid, no-frills choice.

Related Plugins

YMC Filter 86/100

Pick YMC Filter when you need AJAX-driven filtering and facet search rather than a static author directory.

List category posts 84/100

Choose List category posts if you primarily want to list posts by category or author with flexible templates and 80,000 installs of community trust.

Post Grid Gutenberg Blocks - PostX 83/100

PostX is the better pick when you want polished Gutenberg blocks for author, post, and grid layouts with more design control.

WP Meta and Date Remover 82/100

WP Meta and Date Remover is unrelated to author listings and only fits a very different need to hide post metadata.

Link Library 80/100

Link Library is worth considering if you want to catalogue authors or links as a browsable directory rather than a shortcode-driven display.