Forget About Shortcode Buttons

50 Quality Score

Active Installs

19/30

With roughly 20,000 active installs it has a modest but real user base, well above niche territory but nowhere near mainstream adoption.

Update Freshness

2/25

The 20 of 25 maintenance score reflects a recent update on November 4, 2024, tested against WordPress 6.7.5, though the low overall score suggests development pace has slowed compared with more actively maintained alternatives.

User Rating

14/15

The 94 out of 100 user rating from 69 reviews is exceptionally strong and indicates the small group of users who do rely on it are very satisfied.

Support Health

8/15

Support threads sit at zero opened and zero resolved, which is technically a perfect non-issue but also means there is no visible track record of helping users through problems.

WP Compatibility

8/15

Compatibility scores middling at 50 of 15, with a minimum WordPress requirement of 4.2 and no stated PHP version, suggesting older code that may not be formally validated against newer PHP releases.

Scores higher than 3% of indexed plugins

About

A visual way to add CSS buttons in the rich text editor and to your themes.

Active Installs 20k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.7/5

Last Updated 2024-11-04 8:18pm GMT

Requires WordPress 4.2+

Tested Up To 6.7.7

Security History

3 known vulnerabilities, all patched

3 Medium

Most recent: June 26, 2026

View details ▸

What It Does

Forget About Shortcode Buttons adds a visual button interface to the classic WordPress rich text editor, letting authors insert styled CSS buttons without hand-writing shortcode. It also ships with theme integration, so button styles can carry over to your site templates rather than being limited to post content. In practice it is a small, single-purpose tool focused on making call-to-action buttons easier to drop into posts and pages.

Who It's For

This plugin suits bloggers, small business owners, and content editors who want quick, consistent CSS buttons in posts without touching code or installing a full page builder. It is particularly useful for sites that publish frequent calls to action, such as promotional posts, landing-style pages, or newsletters. Agencies standardizing button styling across many small client sites may also find it handy.

Who Should Skip It

Anyone using the block editor (Gutenberg) or a modern page builder like Elementor, Beaver Builder, or SiteOrigin should skip this plugin, since block-based buttons already handle the same job natively. Developers who prefer writing shortcodes or using utility CSS frameworks will not get much value from a dedicated button UI.

The Bottom Line

Forget About Shortcode Buttons is a focused, well-liked utility that does one job reasonably well, but its overall quality score of 53.49 out of 100 reflects real concerns around compatibility signals and very limited support activity. With a quality score this low and more modern alternatives readily available, it is hard to recommend over using your theme's built-in button blocks. Consider it only if you specifically want a classic-editor button tool and are comfortable self-supporting any issues that arise.

Pick WPCode if your real goal is managing custom CSS and code snippets site-wide rather than just inserting buttons into posts.

Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements 93/100

Pick Shortcodes Ultimate if you want a much larger library of content elements beyond buttons, including boxes, tabs, and sliders.

Code Snippets 88/100

Pick Code Snippets if you are a developer who would rather inject PHP or CSS directly than rely on a visual button builder.

Page Builder by SiteOrigin 87/100

Pick SiteOrigin Page Builder if you want full layout control and are already building landing pages with a drag-and-drop tool.

Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 85/100

Pick Shortcoder if you want to build reusable shortcodes from arbitrary HTML or ad code rather than just generate CSS buttons.