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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Footnotes

13 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Footnotes

All 13 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for footnotes 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 13 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. 13 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. Easy Footnotes Best overall 84/100
  2. 2. Modern Footnotes 84/100
  3. 3. Footnotes Made Easy 81/100
  4. 4. Blank Footnotes 78/100
  5. 5. Footnotes & Content 77/100
  6. 6. CM Footnotes 74/100
  7. 7. Citations 53/100
  8. 8. FD Footnotes Plugin 50/100
  9. 9. Simple Footnotes 49/100
  10. 10. WP-Bigfoot 46/100
  11. 11. Footnotation 46/100
  12. 12. Footnotes for WordPress 46/100
  13. 13. Endnotes 46/100
1 Easy Footnotes
Best overall Free by Jason Yingling

Easy Footnotes

Easy Footnotes lets you quickly and easily add footnotes throughout your WordPress posts using a simple shortcode in the text editor.

4.8★
from 33 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
2 Modern Footnotes
Free by prismtechstudios

Modern Footnotes

Add inline footnotes to your posts. On desktop, the footnotes will appear as tooltips. On mobile, the footnote will expand beneath the text.

4.8★
from 32 ratings
6k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
6 CM Footnotes
Free by CreativeMindsSolutions

CM Footnotes

Add and manage footnotes, citations, and bibliography with this footnotes Plugin. Improve clarity and provide references.

4.2★
from 6 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
May 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
74

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 Citations
Free by WP Munich

Citations

This Plugin introduces practical citation functionality to the WordPress Block Editor, aiming to streamline the process of adding references to your c …

5★
from 2 ratings
200+
active installs
Updated
Sep 2023
Tested to
WP 6.3.10
53

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Simple Footnotes
Free by Andrew Nacin

Simple Footnotes

Create simple, elegant footnotes on your site. Use the [ref] shortcode and the plugin takes care of the rest.

4.7★
from 15 ratings
600+
active installs
Updated
Nov 2014
Tested to
WP 4.1.42
49

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 WP-Bigfoot
Free by Adam Martinez

WP-Bigfoot

Create simple, elegant footnotes on your site. Use the [footnote] shortcode and the plugin takes care of the rest.

4.2★
from 5 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
Jan 2023
Tested to
WP 6.1.12
46

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org