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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Copyright

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Copyright

All 15 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for copyright 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. Current Year, Symbols and IP Shortcode Best overall 84/100
  2. 2. Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 83/100
  3. 3. Dynamic Year Block 82/100
  4. 4. WF Magnific Lightbox 81/100
  5. 5. Dynamic Copyright Year 78/100
  6. 6. FSM Custom Featured Image Caption 77/100
  7. 7. DMCA Website Protection Badge 76/100
  8. 8. Dynamic Copyright Year Customizer 74/100
  9. 9. Footer Copyright 70/100
  10. 10. Smart Copyright Year 69/100
  11. 11. WP-Copyright-Protection 65/100
  12. 12. Sidebar & Copyright Manager for Storefront by Wp-Centrics 65/100
  13. 13. Copyrighted Post 64/100
  14. 14. Next Watermark 62/100
  15. 15. Auto Copyright Year Updater 59/100
4 WF Magnific Lightbox
Free by wunderfarm

WF Magnific Lightbox

WF Magnific Lightbox allows the user to view larger versions of images and galleries in a speed optimized and full-responsive lightbox (overlay).

5★
from 12 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 Dynamic Copyright Year
Free by 5 Star Plugins (Rob)

Dynamic Copyright Year

Take year updates off your New Year’s list. This plugin dynamically updates copyright year in realtime with local timezone precision. No shortcode.

3★
from 3 ratings
800+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
78

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 DMCA Website Protection Badge
Free by NewClarity

DMCA Website Protection Badge

The DMCA Protection plugin for WordPress lets you install protection badges on your site in order to deter content thieves and protect your content

3.2★
from 19 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
76

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Footer Copyright
Free by Zafor Iqbal

Footer Copyright

A simple plugin for website footer to display copyright symbol, text, year and company name in different order. Year updates automatically.

5★
from 1 ratings
500+
active installs
Updated
Oct 2025
Tested to
WP 6.8.8
70

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 Smart Copyright Year
Free by Nisaurl Amin Naim

Smart Copyright Year

Smart Copyright Year is a super lite plugin which provides [year] shortcode to auto-display current year in copyright info.

5★
from 2 ratings
200+
active installs
Updated
Oct 2025
Tested to
WP 6.8.8
69

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 WP-Copyright-Protection
Free by Dave Ligthart

WP-Copyright-Protection

Simple copyright protection for your images and text. No right click, no text selections, no screenshots. A very lean and clean plugin.

4.4★
from 21 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Feb 2025
Tested to
WP 6.7.7
65

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 Next Watermark
Free by nxtweb

Next Watermark

Next Watermark helps you easily add automatically text or/and image watermarks on your images (GIF, JPEG, PNG and WEBP formats supported)! Backup/rest …

3.4★
from 11 ratings
200+
active installs
Updated
May 2025
Tested to
WP 6.8.8
62

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org