Ocean Custom Sidebar

82 Quality Score

Active Installs

19/30

With 30,000 active installs the plugin has a modest but real user base, mostly concentrated in the OceanWP ecosystem, which is why popularity scores in the mid-range.

Update Freshness

25/25

A recent update on 2026-05-20 and a tested-with-WordPress 7.0 tag suggest the developer is actively keeping the plugin current, earning a perfect maintenance score.

User Rating

15/15

A perfect 100 from 8 reviewers is a positive signal, though the small sample size means the rating should be treated as encouraging rather than conclusive.

Support Health

8/15

There are zero support threads and zero resolutions on record, which makes it impossible to verify how the developer handles user issues and pulls the support score down.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Requiring WordPress 5.6 and tested up to 7.0, with no stated PHP requirement, gives the plugin broad compatibility across modern hosting environments.

Scores higher than 87% of indexed plugins

About

Generates an unlimited number of sidebars and place them on any page you wish. Go to Theme Panel > Sidebars to create your custom sidebars.

Active Installs 20k+

Rating ★★★★★ 5/5

Last Updated 2026-08-18 2:33pm GMT

Requires WordPress 5.6+

Tested Up To 7.1

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

Ocean Custom Sidebar lets you create an unlimited number of widget areas and assign them to specific pages, posts, or sections of your WordPress site. Configuration happens through the Theme Panel under the Sidebars menu, which assumes you are running an OceanWP-based theme or a compatible framework. Once registered, the custom sidebars can replace the default sidebar on any chosen template.

Who It's For

This plugin is best suited for sites running OceanWP or a similar Ocean-family theme that need different sidebar widgets on different pages, such as a real estate agency showing featured listings on one page and testimonials on another. It also works for online magazines, multi-author blogs, and service businesses that want tailored calls-to-action or contact forms per section without touching code.

Who Should Skip It

If your site already runs on a theme with native per-page sidebar support, or you use a block-based theme that relies on the template editor for layout, this plugin adds no meaningful value. Users who need fine-grained replacement of specific widgets (rather than whole sidebars) should also look at Custom Sidebars or a full block-editor solution instead.

The Bottom Line

Ocean Custom Sidebar scores 82.55/100 and delivers exactly what its name promises: unlimited custom sidebars with per-page assignment, tightly integrated with the OceanWP theme panel. The perfect user-rating score and recent maintenance are genuine strengths, but the absence of any public support threads is a real gap that larger or mission-critical sites should weigh carefully. For OceanWP users who need flexible sidebar layouts it is a solid pick; everyone else will likely get more mileage from Custom Sidebars or a block-editor approach.

Pick this instead if you want similar per-page sidebar replacement but with a far larger install base (100,000+) and a more documented support history.

White Label CMS 85/100

Choose this when your priority is client-facing branding of the WordPress dashboard rather than granular sidebar control, and you need a highly polished, widely used solution.

Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 84/100

Reach for this when you only need richer sidebar widgets for displaying recent content, not the ability to swap entire sidebars across pages.

Gallery Custom Links 82/100

Pick this if your real problem is linking gallery images to custom URLs rather than managing multiple sidebar layouts.

Custom Block Builder – Lazy Blocks 81/100

Choose this when you want to build entirely custom block-based widgets and layouts for sidebars, especially on sites leaning into the block editor.