Authors as Taxonomy
Decouple authors from users. Instead of using users as authors use a special taxonomy for it.
Consider an alternative
Authors as Taxonomy shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 8 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.9 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Authors as Taxonomy stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| authors | >100 |
| calmPress | #1 |
| multiple authors | >100 |
| security | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Authors as Taxonomy
From the official readme · v1.0.0Description
Decouple authors from users. Instead of using users as authors use a special taxonomy for it.
The plugin gives a simple way to have “guest author”, user generated content, multiple authors,
or any other setting in which you might not want to give people access permissions to the admin
side of WordPress but still want to give credit to the author and have some way to aggregate
his/hers posts on the site.
You can combine this plugin with any other plugin which prevent user enumeration to prevent
user name leakage and
Read more on the plugins main page https://calmpress.org/authors-as-taxonomy/
Documentation
Contribute
Pull Requests, bug reports and/or enhancement suggestions are welcome at https://github.com/calmPress/Authors-as-taxonomy
Installation
After installing the plugin via your favorite installation method, you will probably want
to go over existing posts, and create and associate authors with them.
In the case you have many posts, and a theme that displays author informtion (why would you use the plugin otherwise 😉 )
and do not feel the need to have an author associated with all of them, you will probably want to modify your theme
to display author information only when it is not “empty”.
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.
Best Authors as Taxonomy alternatives
All authors plugins →
FAQ
Authors as Taxonomy: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026
Is Authors as Taxonomy free?
Yes. Authors as Taxonomy is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Authors as Taxonomy safe to use in 2026?
Authors as Taxonomy shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Authors as Taxonomy?
Authors as Taxonomy is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 1,662 times since it launched in December 2017. It was downloaded 36 times in the last 30 days.
Does Authors as Taxonomy work with WordPress 7.1?
Authors as Taxonomy is officially tested up to WordPress 4.9.33, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Authors as Taxonomy need?
Authors as Taxonomy requires PHP 7.0 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Authors as Taxonomy last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.0, was released on December 16, 2017 (9 years ago).
Who makes Authors as Taxonomy?
Authors as Taxonomy is developed and maintained by Mark-k.
What are the best alternatives to Authors as Taxonomy?
The most popular alternatives to Authors as Taxonomy are Co-Authors, Multiple Author… (20K+ installs), Co-Authors Plus (20K+ installs) and Smart User Slug Hider (3K+ installs).
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