Auto Submenu
Dynamic menus: Add a page to your menu and then let WordPress automatically add the child pages.
The facts
- Rating
- 4★ from 25
- Active installs
- 2k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 28 Aug 2026
- Added
- Apr 2012
- Requires WP
- 5.4
- Tested up to
- WP 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 58,383
Our analysis
AI-assistedAuto Submenu is a WordPress plugin that enhances the default menu functionality by allowing you to automatically include child pages in your site's navigation menu. It provides additional configuration options for each page in your menu, enabling you to specify whether to add child pages, control their nesting depth, and customise their titles using wildcards.
This plugin is suitable for users who want to create more dynamic and organised navigation menus, particularly those managing sites with multiple child pages. It supports both the Customizer and Full Site Editing with the Gutenberg Block Editor, making it versatile for different WordPress setups.
Best for: This plugin suits WordPress users looking to enhance their site's navigation structure.
What it does well
- ✓Automatically includes child pages in the menu
- ✓Supports Customizer and Full Site Editing
- ✓Customisable titles using wildcards
- ✓Configurable nesting depth for child pages
- ✓Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
Where it falls short
- •Free version does not allow control over nesting depth for all subpages
Verdict
Auto Submenu provides useful features for managing navigation menus, particularly for sites with complex page structures. However, the limitations in the free version may affect users with specific needs.
From the developer
Diana van de Laarschot's own description of Auto Submenu, lightly tidied.
The default custom menu in WordPress only allows checking the “Automatically add new top-level pages” (Appearance > Menus) or adding a Navigation block with all pages and all child pages (Appearance > Editor).
With Auto Submenu you get extra functionality to automatically include child pages into the menu.
NEW: ASM now provides support for the Customizer via Appearance > Customize
NEW: ASM now provides support for Full Site Editing with the Gutenberg Block Editor via Appearance > Editor
Using it
Enable the plugin and go to Appearance > Editor.
For each Page in your menu, you now have the following extra configuration options:
- Add child pages as submenu y/n;
- child pages are ordered ascending by Menu Order;
- specify the (maximum) nesting depth of children you want to show (max 3);
- specify the title for the child pages. For this you can use %post_title, %post_author and other wildcards, see ‘Other Notes > Wildcards’. Default value: %post_title
Via Appearance > Menus and Appearance > Customize you also get the following option:
- Check the “Automatically add new top-level and all its child pages to this menu (Auto Submenu)”-checkbox.
- If this option is checked, all top-level pages will automatically be added and will automatically have all child pages added as submenu.
With the Free version you cannot control the nesting depth of the child pages, all subpages are added, regardless the depth of the page tree.
Wildcards
You can control the title of the menu items generated by the plug-in with the following wildcards:
- %post_title
- %post_author
- %post_date for the unformatted post date: 2012-11-10 18:14:23
- %post_date() for a formatted post date with the following default formatting: November 10th, 2012
- %post_date(<your formatting here>) for custom date formatting. Example: %post_date(l jS \of F Y, h:i:s A). See https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time for formatting options.
- %post_date_gmt
- %post_date_gmt()
- %post_date_gmt(<your formatting here>)