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A1 Tools icon
Actively maintained Tested up to 6.9.10 #1 in Business Information

A1 Tools

Centrally manage contact information, social media links, and business details across your WordPress sites from the A1 Tools platform.

Active installs20+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d163▼ -73.5% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score51/100Fair
All-time downloads6.1KSince Feb 2026
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 5.0PHP 7.4+
Downloads · 7d27▼ -37.2% week over week
Our verdict

Use with caution

A1 Tools works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 20+ sites and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 51/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (20+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • Only tested up to WordPress 6.9 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

336699Jul 15Aug 28Oct 12
Yesterday3
Daily average (1y)24
Peak day212Mar 4, 2026
Last 12 months6.2K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where A1 Tools stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
Business Information >100 3,513 Best Business Information plugins →
contact info >100 2,834 Best contact info plugins →
multi-site >100 5,897 Best multi-site plugins →
shortcodes >100 10,000 Best shortcodes plugins →
site variables >100 5,096 Best site variables plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 3.4100.0%

About A1 Tools

From the official readme · v3.4.1

Description

A1 Tools connects your WordPress site to the A1 Tools platform, enabling centralized management of business information that can be displayed anywhere on your site using simple shortcodes.

Perfect for businesses with multiple websites – update your phone number, address, or social media links once in the A1 Tools dashboard, and all your connected sites update automatically.

Features

  • Centralized Management – Manage all your site variables from one dashboard
  • Simple Shortcodes – Display any variable with [a1tools_var key="phone_primary"]
  • Address Formatting – Multiple address display formats available
  • Operating Hours – Display business hours as tables or lists
  • Social Media Links – Output all social icons with one shortcode or widget
  • Social Icons Widget – Customizable widget with style, shape, size, and hover effects
  • Elementor Support – Dynamic tags for Elementor page builder
  • Performance Optimized – Configurable caching (default 5 minutes)
  • Developer Friendly – PHP functions available for theme developers

Available Variables

  • Business name, city name, state/location name, tagline
  • Google Maps URL for location
  • Primary and secondary phone numbers
  • Primary and secondary email addresses
  • Full address (line 1, line 2, city, state, ZIP, country)
  • Social media URLs (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Yelp, Google Business)
  • Operating hours for each day of the week

Shortcode Examples

[a1tools_var key="phone_primary"] - Display primary phone number

[a1tools_var key="facebook_url" link="true"] - Display Facebook URL as clickable link

[a1tools_address format="full"] - Display complete formatted address (multi-line)

[a1tools_full_address] - Display full address in a single line (e.g., "123 Main St, Suite 101, Miami, FL 30001")

[a1tools_hours format="table"] - Display operating hours as a table

[a1tools_social_links] - Display all configured social media icons

[a1tools_social_links style="default" shape="circle" size="50"] - Styled social icons

[a1tools_city_name] - Display the city name for geo-targeting

[a1tools_state] - Display the state name for geo-targeting

[a1tools_google_map type="link"] - Display Google Maps link

[a1tools_google_map type="embed" width="100%" height="400"] - Embed Google Maps iframe

Requirements

  • Your WordPress site must be registered in the A1 Tools platform
  • An active A1 Tools account with site variables configured
  • Font Awesome 6 for social icons (most themes include this; if not, use a Font Awesome plugin)

External Services

This plugin relies on a third-party service to retrieve site variables (business information, contact details, social media URLs, etc.) that you configure in the A1 Tools dashboard.

A1 Tools API

What it is: A1 Tools is a business management platform operated by A1 Chimney Service that allows businesses to centrally manage their contact information, addresses, operating hours, and social media links across multiple websites.

What data is sent: When this plugin is activated and the site loads (or when a shortcode is used), the plugin sends your WordPress site URL to the A1 Tools API to retrieve the site variables you have configured for that specific site.

When data is sent:
– When a page containing A1 Tools shortcodes is loaded
– When the plugin’s admin settings page is accessed
– When the cache expires and fresh data is needed (configurable, default 5 minutes)

What data is received: The plugin receives only the site variables you have configured in your A1 Tools dashboard, such as business name, phone numbers, email addresses, physical address, operating hours, and social media URLs.

Service Provider: A1 Chimney Service
API Endpoint: https://app.a-1chimney.com/api/website_variables.php
Terms of Service: https://a-1chimney.com/terms-of-service/
Privacy Policy: https://a-1chimney.com/privacy-policy/

Google Maps Embed API

What it is: Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. This plugin can embed Google Maps iframes to display your business location.

What data is sent: When using the [a1tools_google_map type="embed"] shortcode, your visitor’s browser loads an iframe from Google Maps containing your business address or place ID that you configured in the A1 Tools dashboard.

When data is sent:
– Only when a page containing the [a1tools_google_map type="embed"] shortcode is loaded
– The embed is loaded client-side by the visitor’s browser directly from Google

What data is received: Google Maps returns the embedded map showing your business location. Google may collect visitor data according to their privacy policy.

Service Provider: Google LLC
Embed URL: https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place
Terms of Service: https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/terms_maps/
Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Installation

  1. Upload the a1-tools folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Ensure your site is registered in your A1 Tools dashboard under Integrations > WordPress Sites
  4. Configure your site variables in A1 Tools under Marketing Tools > Web Management > Site Variables
  5. Use the shortcodes in your pages, posts, or widgets

Frequently asked questions

How do I get an A1 Tools account?

A1 Tools is a business management platform. Contact A1 Chimney Service for access information.

Why are my variables not showing?

Verify your site URL in A1 Tools matches your WordPress site URL exactly (including https://) Check that you have saved variables for this site in A1 Tools Go to A1 Tools in your admin menu and click “Clear Cache Now” to fetch fresh data

How often do variables update?

Variables are cached based on your settings (default 5 minutes). You can configure the cache duration or disable caching entirely in the A1 Tools settings page. To force an immediate update, use the “Clear Cache Now” button on the settings page.

Can I use this with Elementor?

Yes! The plugin registers dynamic tags that appear under the “A1 Tools” group in Elementor. You can also use the Shortcode widget with any of the available shortcodes.

Is this plugin free?

The plugin is free and open source. However, it requires an A1 Tools account to function, as it retrieves data from the A1 Tools platform.

What data does this plugin send to external services?

See the “External Services” section above for complete details. In summary, the plugin sends your site URL to the A1 Tools API to retrieve the site variables you have configured. No personal user data from your visitors is collected or transmitted.

Changelog

Adds the A1 Review Funnel (star-rating widget, shortcode, and optional floating button) plus a Review Link site variable. Collected feedback appears in the A1 Tools CRM under Customer Experience.

3.4.1

  • A1 Gallery: both galleries now have previous and next arrows on their pagination. The Our Work gallery had page numbers but no arrows at all; it now matches the Projects gallery. Arrows stay visible at the ends of the list rather than disappearing — the one you cannot use is simply greyed out, so the controls do not move around under your cursor as you page through.
  • A1 Gallery: the “…” in a long pager is now a button. Click it and every page number appears, so you can jump straight to page 7 of 12 instead of stepping there. Each gallery remembers its own expanded list, and the Projects list returns to the short form when you search or change category, because filtering changes how many pages there are.
  • The arrows are drawn slightly larger than the numbers so the chevrons match them in height, and they stay that size on tablet and mobile.
  • Keyboard and screen-reader users can now reach all of it: the arrows and the “…” are real buttons, a disabled arrow is announced as unavailable rather than vanishing, and after expanding the list the focus moves to the page you are on so you do not lose your place.
  • Nothing else about the galleries changes — images, their order, categories, captions, search, filtering, the lightbox, hover effects, per-page counts, borders and all Elementor colour and typography settings are untouched.

3.4.0

  • A1 Contact Info: business hours now read the way a person would say them. Days that share a schedule collapse into one row — “Sun – Thu 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM”, then “Friday”, then “Saturday” — instead of listing all seven. A weekend that shares hours joins up across the end of the week too, so Saturday and Sunday appear together rather than at opposite ends of the list. Closed days group the same way, and Hide Closed Days still removes them.
  • A range is only joined across the end of the week when it stays short and obvious. Six days wrapping around a single closed midweek day would print as “Thu – Tue” and leave you working out which day was missing, so in that case the rows stay separate and each one says plainly what it means.
  • Your own wording is preserved exactly. Whether a site writes “8:00 AM – 10:00 PM” with a hyphen or an en dash, that is what shows; the difference is only used behind the scenes to decide that two days match. “Closed” and a blank day are treated as the same thing.
  • This applies to A1 Chimney’s own websites. Every other site keeps the previous seven-row hours exactly as before, and the internal hosts (app, tools, crm, tech, calls, report) are excluded.
  • Existing widgets need no changes and no re-saving — the same CSS classes are used, so all current Hours styling, colours, typography and spacing carry over, including in footers. The Elementor editor preview groups identically to the live page and updates as you edit Closed Text and Hide Closed Days.

3.3.5

  • A1 Contact Info: business hours now fit whatever space they are given, instead of forcing a sideways scrollbar. When there is room, a day and its time sit on one line. When there is not, the whole time range drops onto its own line directly under that day — never beside it, never under the next day, and never split in the middle of a time. If even that is too tight, only the hours text shrinks, down to a readable floor, leaving your phone, email, address, titles and icons at their normal size. This adapts to how wide the widget itself is, not how wide the screen is, so hours placed in a narrow column behave correctly on a large monitor. Your saved Day and Time typography stays the normal size and is never overwritten.
  • A1 Contact Info: removed the colon after each day name, so rows read “Monday 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM”.

3.3.4

  • A1 Web Chat: the widget now tells A1 Tools when a visitor closes the chat or leaves the page, so the dispatcher answering them can see whether anyone is still on the other end. A live chat has no hangup — a visitor who shuts the tab leaves a conversation that looks exactly like one where they are still waiting, and dispatchers were composing careful replies to people who had left hours earlier. Uses the browser’s beacon API, which costs nothing on the page and does not delay it unloading. Nothing to configure, and the chat behaves exactly as before for the visitor.

3.3.3

  • A1 Gallery: the View Our Projects button now sits below the Our Work pagination instead of above the grid, and Back to Our Work likewise sits at the bottom of the Projects view. Both are centered at every screen size, and both got the same larger treatment — bigger bold text, roomier padding, square corners, yellow with black text, turning orange on hover and on keyboard focus. Switching views, filtering, search, the lightbox, and pagination all work exactly as before.
  • A1 Contact Info: business hours now read as one compact line per day — Monday: 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM — instead of a day column separated from the time by a large gap. A time can no longer wrap onto a second line. The old Day Column Width slider is gone, since it was the control that created that gap; existing widgets pick up the new layout with nothing to re-save.
  • A1 Contact Info: Phone, Email, and Location each gained an Additional … repeater, so a site can list several numbers, addresses, or offices under one icon and heading. Each entry takes an optional label (“Sales”, “Warehouse”) and its own click-to-call / mailto / Google Maps toggle. The value from A1 Tools stays the first entry; extras stack underneath it in the order you set and inherit the widget’s existing typography, colors, and link styling. A new Value Spacing control in the Layout section sets the gap. Widgets with no extra entries render exactly as before.
  • A1 Team: bios reliably appear when Show Bio is on. Sites still holding a team payload cached from before bios were served showed none of them, which looked like the switch was broken; this update refreshes that cache on upgrade.
  • Fix: the plugin’s internal version constant said 3.3.1 while the plugin header said 3.3.2, so WordPress and the plugin disagreed about which version was installed and the upgrade routine re-ran on every page load. Both now read the same value.

3.3.2

  • A1 Tools moved to a new address. Every endpoint this plugin calls now points at app.a-1chimney.com instead of tools.a-1chimney.com. Nothing changes on your site and no settings need updating — the old address still forwards, but this update means your site stops depending on that forward.

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

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Best A1 Tools alternatives

All Business Information plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
2 WP_Places WP_Places WP_Places populates up-to-the-minute information about almost any location or business… by Gary Kovar 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (9) 8 years ago 35

FAQ

A1 Tools: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 13, 2026

Is A1 Tools free?

Yes. A1 Tools is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is A1 Tools safe to use in 2026?

A1 Tools works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 20+ sites and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 51/100 on our health check.

How many websites use A1 Tools?

A1 Tools is active on 20+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 6,146 times since it launched in February 2026. It was downloaded 163 times in the last 30 days.

Does A1 Tools work with WordPress 7.1?

A1 Tools is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.10, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

What PHP version does A1 Tools need?

A1 Tools requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.

When was A1 Tools last updated?

The latest version, 3.4.1, was released on August 26, 2026 (2 months ago).

Who makes A1 Tools?

A1 Tools is developed and maintained by a1tools.

What are the best alternatives to A1 Tools?

The most popular alternatives to A1 Tools are WP_Places (10+ installs).

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