Lightweight Widget Area Plugin – Content Aware Sidebars

Description

CAS is the Fastest and Most Powerful WordPress Sidebar Plugin yet. Create tailored widget areas in seconds.

You can optimize conversion rates, boost on-site SEO, upsell products, and much more by displaying different widget areas on different conditions.

If your website is big or in growth, CAS is the ideal solution for you.

Show or Hide Widgets on Any Page (Yes, any)

Replace your theme sidebars on different conditions, or insert widget areas with shortcodes. The following Display Conditions are available out of the box:

  • Posts, Pages & Custom Post Types
  • Content with Tags, Categories, or Custom Taxonomies
  • Content written by select Authors
  • Page Templates
  • Blog Page & Post Type Archives
  • Author Archives
  • Taxonomy Archives
  • Front Page, Search Results, 404 Not Found Page
  • bbPress Profiles, Forums & Topics
  • BuddyPress Profile Sections
  • Languages (WPML, Polylang, qTranslate X, TranslatePress, Transposh)
  • Pods Pages

You can even combine conditions in any way you like! E.g. target all posts in a select category and written by a specific author.

Add Unlimited Sidebars & Widget Areas

Create a post sidebar, a page sidebar, a category sidebar, or any custom sidebar you need – no coding required. CAS will never slow down your site, even if you create a lot of custom sidebars and conditions.

Sidebars – Quick Select© lets you add or select widget areas directly when editing a post or page.

Schedule & Disable Custom Sidebars

In the All-in-one Sidebar Manager you just pick a start and end date for when widget areas should be displayed, and CAS will take care of the rest.

1-Click Sidebar Activation© lets you activate or deactivate widget areas instantly.

The Most User-friendly Widget Manager

When adding new widgets to sidebars, Live Search will find widgets instantly, and the smart split-screen makes it a joy to manage a lot of widgets and sidebars.

The Enhanced Widget Manager adds the signature turquoise line to easily identify custom sidebars.

Sidebar Plugin Integrations & Support

CAS autodetects Custom Post Types and Taxonomies created by any plugin or theme. Built-in support for some of the most popular WordPress plugins means that you e.g. can create WooCommerce sidebars for select products or BuddyPress sidebars for your members.

Customize Your Widget Areas Your Way

Without writing any code, you can modify the HTML and CSS classes of widget areas, widgets, and widget titles. You get full control over the look and feel of your sidebars and widget areas, no matter what theme you use.

Sidebar Visibility lets you elegantly hide any widget area for logged-out users.

Content Aware Sidebars Pro – Complete control for your widget areas

Highlighted Premium Features

  • Sticky Sidebars & Widget Areas
    Make any sidebar or widget area sticky without hurting site performance. No jQuery and no bloat.
  • Widget Areas after Paragraphs
    Display a widget area after a specific number or percentage of paragraphs in your content
  • Even More Display Conditions
    • Advanced Custom Fields data
    • URLS + wildcards
    • Referrer URLs
    • Date Archives & Content by publish date
    • BuddyPress Groups
  • Widget Area Designer
    Add responsive widget columns and edit colors, backgrounds, paddings, etc.
  • Widget Areas in Theme Hooks
    Intelligently infuse new widget areas into your theme without coding
  • Automatic Widgets Backup
    Easily restore any changed or deleted widgets
  • Widget Cleaner
    Save memory and remove clutter by disabling and removing unused widgets
  • Extended User Visibility
    Show or hide widget areas for User Roles, BuddyPress Groups, and more
  • Time & Weekday Schedule
    Display widget areas only in select time ranges on given days
  • Container Widget
    Turn widget areas into reusable blocks and show the same widgets in different places
  • Duplicate Widget Areas
    A real time-saver when adding new similar widget areas
  • and so much more…

Upgrade at anytime instantly and securely from your website’s Admin Dashboard.

More Information

Screenshots

  • Easily create custom sidebars and display them on any content
  • See your widget areas at a glance in the easy Sidebar Manager
  • Filter widgets and sidebars in the Enhanced Widget Manager

FAQ

Do I need to know widget logic PHP code?

Of course not!

CAS is praised by users for its unparalleled sidebar and widget visibility options. It’s the only plugin that allows you to display widget areas on literally any condition without any code.

Will this sidebar plugin work with my theme?

Yes!

If your theme already has WordPress sidebars and widget areas, you can create new custom sidebars to replace, merge with or hide those on certain conditions.

You can also display custom sidebars using the sidebar shortcode [ca-sidebar id=””] anywhere in your content.

If your theme has a built-in sidebar generator, it is recommended to disable it and/or only use CAS for maximum speed and compatibility.

Can I really display sidebars and widget areas on any page?

Yes!

In the Sidebar Editor, you can select where, when and to whom your sidebar should be displayed. Create a sidebar for each page, a sidebar for posts in a category, or any sidebar you need, all in a user-friendly UI.

You can also select sidebars directly when you’re editing a post or page.

Click here to read more about Display Conditions.

Will CAS work with block-based Widgets?

Yes!

If you prefer to manage widgets in the traditional way, you can use Classic Widgets which CAS also supports.

Moreover, the Pro version makes it possible to infuse widget areas into theme hooks, as well as insert areas between content paragraphs.

Will this plugin work with page builders?

Yes!

Many users already compliment CAS with popular page builder plugins such as Elementor, SiteOrigin Page Builder, Beaver Builder, and Visual Composer.

I have other questions, can you help?

Of course! Check out the links below:

Reviews

August 6, 2021
I would assume, as I can't find the information on the limited knowledge base, that this plugin when installed as the free version, does not support Buddypress single pages at all? Wasted a whole day, just to work out, that no matter what I did, it wouldn't add a widget on any members profile, settings, emails, friends, invitations etc.
July 5, 2021
I have tested many plugins to manage the WordPress sidebars but none of them were working as expected. This one works with all theme I tried. It is very complete and flexible, the best plugin in this category in my opinion. Thank you very much for sharing freely this plugin.
Read all 677 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Lightweight Widget Area Plugin – Content Aware Sidebars” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Lightweight Widget Area Plugin – Content Aware Sidebars” has been translated into 6 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Lightweight Widget Area Plugin – Content Aware Sidebars” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

Follow development and see all changes on GitHub

Highlights

3.16.2

  • [fixed] compatibility improvements
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library
  • [updated] freemius sdk

3.16.1

  • [fixed] warning on admin dashboard

3.16

  • [new] enable condition type cache in toolbar menu
  • [new] performance improvements
  • [new] taxonomy condition added to cache system (all condition types supported now)
  • [new] wordpress 5.8 support
  • [new] minimum wordpress version 5.0
  • [fixed] multiple taxonomy conditions now use AND properly on singular pages (long-standing bug)
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library

Pro Plan:

  • [new] totem – display widgets in floating button
  • [new] option to display container widget only if conditions are met
  • [new] sticky support for ajax powered themes such as woodmart

3.15.2

  • [new] performance improvements
  • [new] publishpress authors compatibility
  • [new] wordpress 5.7 support
  • [fixed] toolbar menu now supports theme areas registered without titles
  • [fixed] toolbar menu now displays nested custom sidebars properly
  • [updated] ui improvements for screen readers
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library
  • [updated] freemius sdk

Pro Plan:

  • [fixed] url condition compatible with wordpress installed in subdirectories
  • [fixed] acf condition supports more field types

3.15.1

  • [fixed] toolbar menu compatibility with php5.6

3.15

  • [new] toolbar menu to view conditions, theme areas, and sidebars for a given page
  • [new] better compatibility with retired custom sidebars plugin
  • [updated] ui improvements
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library

3.14.1

  • [fixed] sidebar quick select now displays all eligible sidebars
  • [updated] reinstate widgets screen if disabled by gutenberg plugin without user consent

Pro Plan:

  • [fixed] styles would not always be loaded for container widget

3.14

  • [new] ability to replace or merge with multiple sidebars
  • [new] wordpress 5.6 support
  • [new] minimum wordpress version 4.9
  • [fixed] some custom sidebar styles would not take effect in wp5.6+
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library

Pro Plan:

  • [new] time schedule displayed on overview screen
  • [fixed] conditions would not be duplicated with sidebar
  • [updated] improved time schedule ui

3.13.1

  • [new] identical taxonomy names are now displayed with their post type
  • [fixed] taxonomy and attachment condition suggestions would not display all results
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library
  • [updated] freemius sdk

Pro Plan:

  • [new] support for auto-updates

3.13

  • [new] exception conditions
  • [new] intelligent search by id in post type condition
  • [new] intelligent search by id, email in author condition
  • [new] performance improvements
  • [new] wordpress 5.5 support
  • [updated] wp-content-aware-engine library
  • [updated] freemius sdk
  • [deprecated] negated conditions
  • [deprecated] simple date archive condition

Pro Plan:

  • [new] sticky support for storefront theme
  • [fixed] sticky left sidebars in generatepress

See changelog.txt for previous changes.