Bordered Blocks – Add subtle borders or outlines and labels to Blocks in the Editor
Bordered Blocks adds subtle borders to all blocks in the WordPress Post/Page editor to give you a much better overview of the layout of your page.
Solid choice
Bordered Blocks is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 200+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 77/100 on our health check.
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (200+ active installs)
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 Bordered Blocks stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| blocks | #92 |
| borders | #1 |
| editor | >100 |
| gutenberg | >100 |
| labels | #28 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 6 reviews
About Bordered Blocks
From the official readme · v1.2Description
Summary
Bordered Blocks adds (customizable) borders and labels to all Blocks in the Post/Page editor, to give you an instant overview of the layout of your page and how all Blocks relate to eachother.
Choose between the default CLEAN view, or a CLEAR view.
Features
- Adds borders and labels to your Blocks in the WordPress editor.
- Border styles and labels are customizable; change the color, size, type you prefer.
- Quickly switch between default clean view (showing the blocks without borders) and custom clear view (blocks with borders).
Installation
- Install Bordered Blocks from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Or, if that doesn’t work:
- Download the Bordered Blocks plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory and unzip the file.
- Upload the “bordered-blocks” directory to your “wp-content/plugins” directory.
- In your WordPress admin, go to PLUGINS and activate “Bordered Blocks”.
- When editing a Post or Page, select the “Show borders/labels” switch at the top of the page.
- Notice the borders for every block.
- Party!
Frequently asked questions
What does this plugin do, really?
By default, the WordPress editor is relatively clean and minimalistic. This is by design, but it can also be slightly confusing when you only the content itself (text & images) but not which Blocks are being used on the page, or how they’re laid out. Bordered Blocks attempts to solve that by adding borders and labels to every Block in the editor, so you can get a better sense of the layout of your content. Bonus: you can fully customize the size/color/type of the borders/labels to your needs.
Doesn’t that make the editor a lot more messy?
Although you can leave the “bordered” view on when you create/edit pages, it is not recommended, as it will indeed add a lot more information to the editor which may be distracting. It will also have some impact on the performance (although I’m working on that). The recommended use is to keep using the default editor view, and only sparingly flip the switch to show the borders and labels of the Blocks on the page.
Can borders be turned on and off instantly?
Pretty much, yes. In the plugin’s settings, you can choose to have the editor show the standard view by default, -OR- the bordered view. If you have the standard view, then flipping the switch at the top of the page will quickly show all borders/labels. If you have the bordered view, flipping the switch will quickly remove all borders/labels and go back to the standard view.
Some of my blocks don’t have a label, look weird, etc.
Bordered Blocks currently only supports the default Blocks that come with WordPress (support for WooCommerce and Jetpack is planned). If you have additional blocks added with plugins (or custom code), and they are not coded exactly following WordPress standards, they may not look as intended with borders and/or labels. If that’s the case, please reach out to the plugin developer and have them check if all their Blocks have the proper naming with “data-title” attributes. Also note that the way things look in your editor can also depend on your site’s theme. If that’s the case, try switching to…
What’s next for Bordered Blocks?
The following items are currently not supported, but are on the roadmap: Support for Jetpack Blocks Performance: have the main checkBlocks() JS function run only when a Block is being added/edited (currently it runs every second) Full multi-language support
What’s with all the “!important” things in the code? That’s bad CSS.
Nerd alert! It’s not overly clean, I know. However, this is really needed to ensure that the styles you choose for the borders/labels override any inline styles coming from the editor itself and/or the theme.
I have some ideas for this plugin. Where can I submit them?
Bordered Blocks’ community support forum at https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bordered-blocks is a good place, though if you want to add all sorts of technical details, it’s best to report it on the plugin’s Github page at https://github.com/senff/bordered-blocks/issues . This is also where I accept code contributions.
My question isn’t listed here.
Please go to the plugin’s community support forum at https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bordered-blocks and post a message. Note that support is provided on a voluntary basis and that it is always difficult to troubleshoot, as it will require access to your admin area (needless to say, NEVER include any passwords of your site on a public forum!
Changelog
Toggle button feature is back!
1.2
- Toggle button to turn borders on/off instantly is back! And backwards compatible with older WP versions.
- Code fixes.
1.1.7
- Re-adding image of beautiful girl that was accidentally removed in previous version.
1.1.6
- Removed old JS routine that caused error message in console.
1.1.5
- Adjusted some code to better adhere to plugin standards.
1.1.4
- Removed the ON/OFF toggle in the editor since it was not working with WordPress 6.6.2
1.1.3
- Fixed JS issue that appeared when saving settings
- Fixed jQuery issue to make toggle button appear again
- Fixed CSS to position H1 label properly
Screenshots
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 Bordered Blocks alternatives
All blocks plugins →
FAQ
Bordered Blocks: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 15, 2026
Is Bordered Blocks free?
Yes. Bordered Blocks is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Bordered Blocks safe to use in 2026?
Bordered Blocks is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 200+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 77/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Bordered Blocks?
Bordered Blocks is active on 200+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 4,603 times since it launched in March 2022. It was downloaded 169 times in the last 30 days.
Does Bordered Blocks work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Bordered Blocks up to WordPress 7.1.3, the latest release. It requires WordPress 6.0 or newer.
When was Bordered Blocks last updated?
The latest version, 1.2, was released on August 25, 2026 (2 months ago).
Who makes Bordered Blocks?
Bordered Blocks is developed and maintained by Senff - a11n.
What are the best alternatives to Bordered Blocks?
The most popular alternatives to Bordered Blocks are Spectra Legacy (1M+ installs), Kadence Blocks (600K+ installs) and Extendify (500K+ installs).
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