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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Classic Editor

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Classic Editor

All 15 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for classic editor comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. Classic Editor Best overall 95/100
  2. 2. Advanced Editor Tools 93/100
  3. 3. Disable Gutenberg 93/100
  4. 4. Classic Editor + 87/100
  5. 5. Classic Editor and Classic Widgets 85/100
  6. 6. Title and Nofollow For Links 84/100
  7. 7. No Gutenberg? 84/100
  8. 8. Highlighting Code Block 83/100
  9. 9. PixCodes 83/100
  10. 10. Enlighter 82/100
  11. 11. Paste As Plain Text By Default 82/100
  12. 12. StreamWeasels Twitch Integration 81/100
  13. 13. Always Edit In HTML 80/100
  14. 14. Classic Visual Editor Options 80/100
  15. 15. Safelayout Elegant Icons 80/100
1 Classic Editor
Best overall Free by WordPress.org

Classic Editor

Enables the previous "classic" editor and the old-style Edit Post screen with TinyMCE, Meta Boxes, etc. Supports all plugins that extend this screen.

4.9★
from 1,246 ratings
8M+
active installs
Updated
May 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
95

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
3 Disable Gutenberg
Free by Jeff Starr

Disable Gutenberg

Disable Gutenberg Block Editor and restore the Classic Editor and original Edit Post screen (TinyMCE, meta boxes, etc.).

5★
from 733 ratings
500k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
93

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 Classic Editor +
Free by Pieter Bos

Classic Editor +

The "Classic Editor +" plugin disables the block editor, removes enqueued scripts/styles and brings back classic Widgets.

4.9★
from 31 ratings
40k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
87

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
6 Title and Nofollow For Links
Free by WPKube

Title and Nofollow For Links

The plugin adds a title and a rel="nofollow" checkbox to the insert link popup box. Only for Classic Editor, NOT Block Editor.

4.5★
from 23 ratings
20k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 No Gutenberg?
Free by Fernando Tellado

No Gutenberg?

Decide where the block editor stays and where the Classic Editor comes back. It also removes Global Styles, patterns, block widgets and block CSS.

5★
from 16 ratings
9k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 PixCodes
Free by pixelgrade

PixCodes

PixCodes offers a Classic Editor interface for inserting Pixelgrade shortcodes.

4★
from 1 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 Enlighter
Free by Andi Dittrich

Enlighter

All-in-one Syntax Highlighting solution. Full Gutenberg and Classic Editor integration. Graphical theme customizer. Based on EnlighterJS.

4.8★
from 65 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Apr 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 Always Edit In HTML
Free by DeveloperWil

Always Edit In HTML

Always opens up a specific page or post in HTML mode to preserve HTML code (classic editor only).

4.4★
from 7 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
15 Safelayout Elegant Icons
Free by safelayout

Safelayout Elegant Icons

Beautiful SVG icons in Gutenberg, Elementor, Classic Editor and Site Menu. High-quality "Icon List", "Icon Box" and "Social Share Icons".

5★
from 4 ratings
700+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org