Better Section Navigation
Creates a new widget for listing section-based navigation -- essential for contextual navigation. Also implements a template function and a shortcode.
Use with caution
Better Section Navigation works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 600+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 10 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (600+ 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
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Better Section Navigation stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| cms | #73 |
| hierarchy | #33 |
| navigation | #10 |
| pages | >100 |
| Section | #6 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 4 reviews
About Better Section Navigation
From the official readme · v1.7.0Description
Adds a new widget type you can deploy in your sidebar regions (and/or elsewhere) to display section-based navigation, along with the ability to exclude certain pages from showing up.
The title of the widget is the top level page within the current section. The widget then can show all of the page’s published siblings (except on the top level page), all parents and grandparents (and higher), the siblings of all parents and grandparents (up to top level page), and any immediate children of the current page. It can also be called by a function inside template files.
It includes a simple widget configuration panel. From this panel you can:
- Determine whether the widget should appear on the home page
- Override standard behavior and have the widget show all pages in the current section
- Determine whether the widget should appear even if the section only has one page (the top level)
- Provide a list of pages to exclude from the output
- Determine whether the section navigation should still appear when viewing excluded pages
- Use a specific widget title (i.e. In This Section), or just use the top level page title
- Determine whether the section title should be linked
- Determine page sort order (defaults to menu order)
The widget uses standard WordPress navigation classes, in addition to a unique class around the widget, for easy styling. The UL of the page list also has a custom class, bsn-list, that can be altered via the bsn_list_class filter.
Beginning with version 1.5, Better Section Navigation also incorporates the features of the defunct Exclude Pages plugin, giving you the ability to selectively exclude specific pages from appearing in the widget generated by Better Section Navigation. This per-page control is managed via a metabox on the post edit screen. Note: On activation, BSN will automatically import the list of “excluded pages” set via that plugin, so you don’t have to manually re-assign excludes pages before deactivating the old one.
Compatible with WordPress Multisite.
This plugin started life as Simple Section Navigation Widget, but since that plugin hasn’t been updated in a while, we’ve taken up the reins with the goal of keeping it up to date with the latest WordPress conventions (i.e. getting rid of deprecation warnings) and adding a few nice-to-have features while retaining some of the simplicity of the original plugin.
Simple Section Navigation Widget is incompatible with PHP 8.x, so as of October 2022, Better Section Navigation is now a drop-in replacement for Simple Section Navigation Widget. If you’ve been using Simple Section Navigation, you can now use this one instead without changing any settings! NOTE: Deactivate Simple Section Navigation Widget before activating Better Section Navigation.
Installation
- Install easily with the WordPress plugin control panel or manually download the plugin and upload the extracted folder to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Widget users can add it to the sidebar by going to the “Widgets” menu under “Appearance” and adding the “Better Section Navigation” widget. Open the widget to configure.
- Template authors can call the navigation by using the
better_section_navfunction. The function accepts a single argument in the form of a classic WordPress set of parameters. - Users who want to display section navigation without adding a widget or editing a template can use the
[better-section-nav]shortcode.
Frequently asked questions
Can I embed this via a Gutenberg block instead of a widget?
At this time there is no Block nor any plan to create one. Instead, use the shortcode block to embed within a block editor page.
Can I embed this via a shortcode instead of a widget?
Yes, you may use the [better-section-nav] shortcode. This example will will wrap the widget in LI tags, exclude page ID 2, and will output on home page: [better-section-nav before_widget="" after_widget="" exclude="2" show_on_home="1"]
Can I hard-code this into a PHP template instead of a widget?
Yes, you may call the better_section_nav function, which accepts a single argument in the form of a classic WordPress parameter set like so:
What parameters are available for shortcodes/function calls?
Here’s the complete list: show_all – Always show all pages in current section (default: false) exclude – Page IDs, seperated by commas, of pages to exclude (default: ”) hide_on_excluded – No navigation on excluded pages (default: true) show_on_home – Show top level page list on home page (default: false) show_empty – Output even if empty section (default: false) sort_by – Page sort order; can use any WordPress page list sort value (default: menu_order) title – Provide a specific widget title; default is the top level page title (default: ”) a_heading – Show all pages in section (default…
Changelog
1.7.0
- Security update: fix a cross-site scripting vulnerability that allowed contributor users (and higher) to inject unsanitized HTML into content.
- Correct translation textdomain issues. The plugin’s user-facing text is now fully localizable.
- Miscellaneous other code cleanup.
1.6.1
- Restore Simple Section Navigation’s handling of the display of child pages not descended from the current page. Simple Section Navigation did not display other pages’ children unless the “show all pages in section” checkbox was checked, but formerly, Better Section Navigation would show all children of siblings of the current page.
1.6
- Add full backward compatibility for Simple Section Navigation. Better Section Navigation is now a drop-in replacement.
1.5.5
- Eliminating warning-level error regarding undefined nonces in the admin.
1.5.4
- Correcting bad link in admin; bumping tested-up-to WP version.
1.5.3
- Fix a bug that prevented the [better-section-nav] shortcode from displaying.
Screenshots
For developers
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FAQ
Better Section Navigation: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 2, 2026
Is Better Section Navigation free?
Yes. Better Section Navigation is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Better Section Navigation safe to use in 2026?
Better Section Navigation works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 600+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 10 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Better Section Navigation?
Better Section Navigation is active on 600+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 16,672 times since it launched in June 2017. It was downloaded 191 times in the last 30 days.
Does Better Section Navigation work with WordPress 7.1?
Better Section Navigation is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.9, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Better Section Navigation need?
Better Section Navigation requires PHP 5.6 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Better Section Navigation last updated?
The latest version, 1.7.0, was released on December 3, 2025 (10 months ago).
Who makes Better Section Navigation?
Better Section Navigation is developed and maintained by cornershop.
What are the best alternatives to Better Section Navigation?
The most popular alternatives to Better Section Navigation are White Label CMS (200K+ installs), List category posts (80K+ installs) and Cornerstone (20K+ installs).
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