Off-Canvas Sidebars & Menus
Add off-canvas sidebars (Slidebars) containing widgets, menus or other content using the Slidebars jQuery plugin.
The facts
- Rating
- 4.8★ from 38
- Active installs
- 1k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 2 Feb 2026
- Added
- Feb 2016
- Requires WP
- 4.1
- Tested up to
- WP 6.8.8
- Requires PHP
- 5.4
- Downloads
- 36,207
Our analysis
AI-assistedOff-Canvas Sidebars & Menus (Slidebars) is a WordPress plugin that enables the addition of off-canvas sidebars to your website. It allows you to implement sidebars on the left, right, top, and bottom of your site using widget-ready areas, menu locations, or custom hooks.
The plugin offers various customisation options and settings accessible from the Appearances menu, along with an extensive API for PHP and JavaScript. It is suitable for users who want to enhance their site's navigation and content accessibility through off-canvas elements.
Best for: This plugin is best for WordPress users looking to implement off-canvas sidebars for improved navigation.
What it does well
- ✓Adds off-canvas sidebars to multiple positions
- ✓Supports widget-ready areas and custom hooks
- ✓Offers various customisation options
- ✓Extensive API for developers
Where it falls short
- •Compatibility depends on the theme structure
- •Known issues with fixed elements
- •Still in a 0.x version, indicating potential instability
Verdict
Off-Canvas Sidebars & Menus (Slidebars) provides useful functionality for enhancing site navigation, but users should be aware of potential compatibility issues with their themes.
From the developer
Jory Hogeveen's own description of Off-Canvas Sidebars & Menus, lightly tidied.
This plugin will add various options to implement off-canvas sidebars in your WordPress theme based on the Slidebars jQuery plugin.
Overview / Features
- Add off-canvas sidebars to the left, right, top and bottom of your website.
- Use sidebar areas (widget-ready areas), menu locations or custom hooks to place content into the off-canvas sidebars.
- You can add control buttons with a widget, menu item, shortcode or with custom code.
- Various customisation options and settings available in the Appearances menu.
- Extensive API for PHP and JS.
Compatibility (IMPORTANT!)
The structure of your theme is of great importance for this plugin. Please read the installation guide carefully!!
This plugin should work with most themes and plugins although I can’t be sure for all use-cases. Also note that at this point it’s still a 0.x version…
If the plugin does not work for your theme, please let me know through the support and add a plugins and themes list and I will take a look!
Fixed elements (like sticky menu’s)
There are known issues with fixed elements and Slidebars. Wiki
I’ve created two possible solutions for this:
- Legacy CSS solution. Use basic CSS2 positioning instead of CSS3 transform with hardware acceleration.
- JavaScript solution. It is slower but still allows the use of hardware acceleration for animations.
It’s not working! / I found a bug!
Please let me know through support and add a plugins and themes list! 🙂
Or submit an issue here on GitHub
Credits
- Slidebars jQuery plugin by Adam, thank you for this great plugin!