Change Author
Do you have a blog/website with a lot of contributing authors but you do not want to give them the rights to publish the articles themselves for whatever reason? In that case it would be nice when you are able to give…
Consider an alternative
Change Author shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4/5 and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 35/100 on our health check.
- No update in 8 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.8 (latest is 7.1)
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Change Author stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| any user author | >100 |
| author | >100 |
| custom author | >100 |
| custom post author | >100 |
| user | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4 from 12 reviews
About Change Author
From the official readme · v1.3Description
Do you have a blog/website with a lot of contributing authors but you do not want to give them the rights to publish
the articles themselves for whatever reason? In that case it would be nice when you are able to give them credit for
what they wrote anyway. Since WordPress cannot override the author with a non-author by default, this plugin overrides
the Author meta-box with a meta box that can select any user.
So whenever you want to place an article that was written by someone else, you just create a user with subscriber role
(if he/she hasn’t already) and assign the article to that user!
Installation
Install via WordPress Admin
- Go to Admin > Plugins > Add New
- Either search for Change Author or upload the zip file and click “Install”
- After installation, activate it
Install via FTP
- First unzip the plugin file
- Using FTP go to your server’s wp-content/plugins directory
- Upload the unzipped plugin here
- Once finished login into your WP Admin and go to Admin > Plugins
- Look for Change Author and activate it
Changelog
1.0
- Initial release
1.1
- Fixed translation
- Updated tags
1.2
- Updated to work on pages too (credits to @jondaley)
1.3
- Updated to support custom post types
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.
FAQ
Change Author: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026
Is Change Author free?
Yes. Change Author is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Change Author safe to use in 2026?
Change Author shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4/5 and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 35/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Change Author?
Change Author is active on 1K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 40,936 times since it launched in May 2014. It was downloaded 255 times in the last 30 days.
Does Change Author work with WordPress 7.1?
Change Author is officially tested up to WordPress 4.8.32, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Change Author last updated?
The latest version, 1.3, was released on November 28, 2017 (9 years ago).
Who makes Change Author?
Change Author is developed and maintained by Martin Teley.
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