Plugins Admin Bar – WordPress Plugin Adding Plugin Link To WP Admin Bar Sub Menu
Plugins are amazing tools in the WordPress ecosystem. Every WordPress site has at least one plugins installed/activated. Yet there is no quick link to installed plugins. Plugins Admin Bar fixes this.
Consider an alternative
Plugins Admin Bar shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 30/100 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 Plugins Admin Bar stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| admin | >100 |
| plugins | >100 |
| WP Admin Bar | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
About Plugins Admin Bar
From the official readme · v1.5Description
Plugins are amazing tools in the WordPress ecosystem. Every WordPress site has at least one plugins installed/activated. Yet there is no quick link to installed plugins. Plugins Admin Bar fixes this.
WordPress has the WP Admin Bar at the top of every site. On the front end of the site, you’ll see the name of your site as a link to /wp-admin/. Under the Site Name, there is a sub-menu with quick links to the Dashboard, Themes, Widgets, and Menus.
How It Works on a Single Install
Install the plugin and click activate. In the WP Admin Bar, at the top of your WordPress Site, hover your mouse on the +New Menu Item.
Inside is a list of the new things you can add to your site. You’ll notice a menu item called “PLugins”. Click to add a new plugin, or you can hover over the Plugins menu item and add a new plugin from the Popular, Recommended, and Favorites list.
In the WP Admin Bar, find the menu item with the Site Title. It has a house icon to the left. Hover over the Site Title menu item and you’ll now see “Plugins” included in this list as well. From here, you’ll be able to see Active and Inactive plugins.
How It Works on a Multisite Install
If you’re a super admin (you can manage the entire site):
Install the plugin and click activate. In the WP Admin Bar, at the top of your WordPress Site, hover your mouse on the +New Menu Item.
Inside is a list of the new things you can add to your site. You’ll notice a menu item called “PLugins”. Click to add a new plugin to the network, or you can hover over the Plugins menu item and add a new Popular, Recommended, and Favorites plugin to the network.
You’ll see two new menu items under the Site Title menu item in the WP Admin Bar.
“Network Plugins” & “Plugins” now appear under the Site Title. Under the “Network Plugins” menu item, you can see all of the Network Active, Inactive and Must use plugins. Under the “Plugins” menu item, you can see the Active and Inactive for each sub-site on the network.
If you are an admin of a sub-site (you can only activate/deactive plugins):
You will only see the “Plugins” menu item under the Site Title. You’ll only be able to see the Active and Inactive plugins on your sub-site. Remember, only a super admin can add a plugin.
With Plugins Admin Bar, you’ll never have to click 4 or 5 times just to view or install or a new plugin, ever again.
Installation
This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.
Using The WordPress Dashboard
- Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
- Search for ‘Plugins Admin Bar’
- Click ‘Install Now’
- Activate the plugin on the Plugin dashboard
Uploading in WordPress Dashboard
- Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
- Navigate to the ‘Upload’ area
- Select
plugins-admin-bar.zipfrom your computer - Click ‘Install Now’
- Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard
Using FTP
- Download
plugins-admin-bar.zip - Extract the
plugins-admin-bardirectory to your computer - Upload the
plugins-admin-bardirectory to the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard
Changelog
1.5
- Fixed: Showed active and inactive plugins under the site title on every wp-admin screen. Now only shows when you’re on the front end.
- Fixed: Grammar and punctuation.
- Added: Upload Plugin Button. Find the +New link in the WP-Admin Bar. In the Drop Down, you’ll see New Plugin and Upload A Plugin.
- Bump Version Number.
1.4
- Added: Plugin quicklink to the +New drop down in WP Admin Bar.
- Added: Single Site Install will now display “Recently Active” menu item if a plugin has been recently deacitvated in the allowed time frame the notice fires off. When plugin is Reactivated, menu item hides again.
- Fixed: Moved Add New Popular, Recommended, and Favorites plugins to the Drop down link in +New quicklink.
- Fixed: Menu items are only two levels deep, not three.
1.3
- Minor Changes. Just needed to escape some stuff.
- Fixed: Escape the URL’s
- Fixed: Escape the HTML’s
- Updated: Ready for translations
1.2
- Added: Conditional Checks for Multisite vs. Single Site.
- Added: If muiltisite && current user can managae options, show the full network & plugins menus.
- Added If is not multisite && current user can manage options, show full plugins menu.
- Added: There is a setting in multisite where a network admin (Super Admin) must choose to show the plugins menu item for Multisite single site admins. If selected, a site admin will see the drop down displaying all plugins, active and inactive plugins just for the specific site.
- Fixed: Typo in the FAQ section on Readme.txt.
- Updated: FAQ section on Readme.txt file answers more questions.
1.1
- Added: Support for multisite.
- Added: Support for single sites.
- If multisite, do some things a single site cant do.
- If Single site, just show regular plugins link.
1.0
- Release Date – April 16th, 2017
- First release
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Plugins Admin Bar alternatives
All admin plugins →
FAQ
Plugins Admin Bar: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 1, 2026
Is Plugins Admin Bar free?
Yes. Plugins Admin Bar is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Plugins Admin Bar safe to use in 2026?
Plugins Admin Bar shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Plugins Admin Bar?
Plugins Admin Bar is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,261 times since it launched in April 2017. It was downloaded 53 times in the last 30 days.
Does Plugins Admin Bar work with WordPress 7.1?
Plugins Admin Bar 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.
When was Plugins Admin Bar last updated?
The latest version, 1.5, was released on December 15, 2017 (9 years ago).
Who makes Plugins Admin Bar?
Plugins Admin Bar is developed and maintained by Russell Aaron.
What are the best alternatives to Plugins Admin Bar?
The most popular alternatives to Plugins Admin Bar are Loginizer (1M+ installs), Redux Framework (900K+ installs) and Admin Menu Editor (300K+ installs).
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