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Menu Rules icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 3.5.2 #8 in context

Menu Rules

Context Manager does the same job as Menu Rules, but comes with many more features to save you time and unnecessary coding.

Active installs10+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d45▲ +7.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score23/100At risk
All-time downloads9.1KSince Mar 2012
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 3.2PHP any
Downloads · 7d9▼ -57.1% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Menu Rules shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (10+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 13 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 3.5 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

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

Daily downloads

369Jun 30Aug 13Sep 27
Yesterday0
Daily average (1y)2
Peak day138Oct 6, 2025
Last 12 months554

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

Rankings

Where Menu Rules stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
context >100 3,943 Best context plugins →
menu >100 10,000 Best menu plugins →
menus >100 2,645 Best menus plugins →
parent menu >100 2,050 Best parent menu plugins →
rules >100 8,203 Best rules plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.2100.0%

About Menu Rules

From the official readme · v1.2.2

Description

This plugin has been replaced by Context Manager

Context Manager does the same job as Menu Rules, but comes with many more features to save you time and unnecessary coding.

Menu Rules can run alongside Context Manager while you migrate your rules across. Speak to me on Twitter if you need any help with the transfer.

About Menu Rules

In WordPress there’s no way to apply context to the menu system. Menu Rules solves this problem and gives you a framework to write your own menu extensions.

Example usage

You have an e-commerce website that has a custom post type called ‘products’. You have a page that lists products which is listed in your main menu. A user visits the page and the menu item becomes ‘active’. You click through to a product and the menu item loses its active state. This is how to fix it with menu rules:

  1. Install the Menu Rules plugin
  2. Add a menu rule
  3. Give it a meaningful name in the title field. This is just for administration purposes
  4. In the conditions field enter is_singular( 'product' )
  5. Choose Emulate current page as a child but do not create a menu item. as the menu rule
  6. Find your products page in the menu dropdown
  7. Hit publish

Extending Menu Rules

  1. Create a class that extends Menu_Rules_Handler and includes a handler method.
  2. Write your custom functionality
  3. Register your class using add_action( 'plugins_loaded', create_function( '', 'Menu_Rules::register( "Your_Menu_Rule_Class" );' ) );

Built-in rules are found in menu-rules/rules/

Support

If you’re stuck, ask me for help on Twitter.

Installation

  1. Download and unzip the folder from the WordPress plugins repository
  2. Upload the menu-rules folder into to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  4. Open the ‘Appearance’ menu item and click the ‘Menu Rules’ link
  5. Add a new menu rule and click ok.

Changelog

Menu Rules has been superseded by Context Manager - more features, less coding. This plugin is being deprecated.

1.2.2

  • Upgrade notice to Context Manager

1.2.1

  • Fixed fatal bug in PHP 5.4

1.2

  • Conditions and Reactions divided into 2 meta boxes to improve usability
  • Theme improvements
  • Added description and footer options to PB Framework forms
  • Moved plugin meta box styles into PB Framework
  • Added default meta box display in PB Framework
  • Added field setter for PB Framework meta box class
  • Bugfix where frontend assets weren’t being loaded when on a new menu rule
  • Bugfix in meta box get_fields()
  • Bugfix for post updated messages

Note: Some stylesheets and Javascript files have had their handles changed.

1.1

  • Added new force inactive parent rule
  • Changed behaviour to one rule per item
  • Minor enhancements to PB Framework
  • Cleaned some unused code

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.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Menu Rules alternatives

All context plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
1 Conditional Menus Conditional Menus This plugin enables you to set conditional menus per posts, pages, categories, archive… by themifyme 60K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 (72) 2 months ago 76
2 Widget Context Widget Context Show and hide widgets on specific posts, pages and sections of your site. by Kaspars 30K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (97) 4 months ago 67
3 Widgets Control Widgets Control A Widget toolbox that adds visibility management and helps to control where widgets… by itthinx 800+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 (15) 9 months ago 53
4 Widget Manager Light Widget Manager Light Widget Manager lets you control on which pages widgets appear via nice and easy interface… by OTWthemes 600+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 (11) 5 years ago 34
5 Conditional Tags Shortcode Conditional Tags Shortcode A shortcode to display content based on context. by shazdeh 100+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 6 years ago 32
6 Inline Context Inline Context Add inline expandable notes or tooltips to provide context, definitions, and references… by Joop Laan 30+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 4 weeks ago 78
7 Context Manager Context Manager Make your site react to users' context by changing your theme's CSS and JavaScript files… by Phill Brown 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (5) 13 years ago 36
9 İçerik Bulutu İçerik Bulutu This plugin imports and synchronizes your purchased contents from İçerik Bulutu. by ahmetdurmusoglu 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 6 years ago 23
10 In-Context Comment In-Context Comment "In-Context Comment" lets readers leave comments right next to the content being commented… by InContext 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 1 (1) 15 years ago 18

FAQ

Menu Rules: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026

Is Menu Rules free?

Yes. Menu Rules is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Menu Rules safe to use in 2026?

Menu Rules shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Menu Rules?

Menu Rules is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 9,095 times since it launched in March 2012. It was downloaded 45 times in the last 30 days.

Does Menu Rules work with WordPress 7.1?

Menu Rules is officially tested up to WordPress 3.5.2, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Menu Rules last updated?

The latest version, 1.2.2, was released on December 17, 2012 (14 years ago).

Who makes Menu Rules?

Menu Rules is developed and maintained by Phill Brown.

What are the best alternatives to Menu Rules?

The most popular alternatives to Menu Rules are Conditional Menus (60K+ installs), Widget Context (30K+ installs) and Widgets Control (800+ installs).

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