Modern Footnotes

79 Quality Score

Active Installs

17/30

With 6,000 active installs and a popularity score of 56, the plugin has a modest but real user base that sits between the two named alternatives in adoption.

Update Freshness

25/25

Last updated on 2025-06-18 and tested against WordPress 6.8.5, the plugin is clearly being kept current, though the absence of a stated PHP requirement and the lower maintenance subscore of 61 leave some open questions about long-term support depth.

User Rating

14/15

A 96 out of 100 from 32 ratings is an excellent score and the strongest signal in this assessment, indicating the small user base that has reviewed it is consistently happy with the result.

Support Health

8/15

Only 2 support threads exist and neither is marked resolved, which is a real concern for anyone who may need help with edge cases or conflicts.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Requiring WordPress 4.6 and tested up to 6.8.5 gives wide compatibility, and the 75 compatibility score reflects that breadth even without a declared PHP version.

Scores higher than 71% of indexed plugins

About

Add inline footnotes to your posts. On desktop, the footnotes will appear as tooltips. On mobile, the footnote will expand beneath the text.

Active Installs 6k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.8/5

Last Updated 2026-08-24 5:13pm GMT

Requires WordPress 4.6+

Tested Up To 7.1

Security History

3 known vulnerabilities, all patched

3 Medium

Most recent: June 19, 2025

View details ▸

What It Does

Modern Footnotes lets you attach inline footnote markers to text in your WordPress posts, displaying the references as hover tooltips on desktop and as expandable sections beneath the text on mobile. The dual-mode design means readers on touch devices do not lose access to your citations, which is a common pain point with older footnote plugins. It requires no external service and integrates with the standard WordPress block editor.

Who It's For

This plugin is a strong fit for academic bloggers, journalists, policy writers, and book authors who need to cite sources inline without breaking the reading flow. Its 4.6 minimum WordPress requirement means it works on older sites, and the tooltip-on-desktop, expand-on-mobile behaviour is well suited to research-heavy or long-form publications. The tagged use cases, including legal, medical, and educational content, all line up with this tool's strengths.

Who Should Skip It

If you publish short marketing copy, product pages, or casual blog posts that rarely need citations, the extra markup and reading-flow changes will be more friction than value. Sites needing exportable, numbered endnotes or bibliography management should look at a dedicated reference tool instead.

The Bottom Line

Modern Footnotes earns a 96 user rating on the strength of its clean desktop-tooltip and mobile-expand design, and the overall quality score of 65.47 is held back mainly by poor public support visibility. It is a solid pick for citation-heavy writers who want inline footnotes that work well across devices. If responsive support matters to you, weigh that against the alternatives before committing.

Related Plugins

Footnotes Made Easy 76/100

Pick this when you want a higher overall quality score of 76.08 and a more feature-rich footnotes workflow, especially if you need shortcode flexibility and customizable appearance.

Easy Footnotes 67/100

Pick this when you want the largest install count among the three at 8,000 active sites and a simpler implementation, though its overall quality score of 66.84 is only marginally higher than Modern Footnotes.