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Scripts To Footer
Move your scripts to the footer to help speed up perceived page load times and improve user experience.
The facts
- Rating
- 4.7★ from 37
- Active installs
- 7k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 17 Nov 2025
- Added
- Jan 2013
- Requires WP
- 5.3
- Tested up to
- WP 6.8.8
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 256,176
Our analysis
AI-assistedScripts To Footer is a WordPress plugin that moves scripts to the footer of your site. It is designed to improve performance by ensuring that scripts are loaded after the content, which can enhance page load times. The plugin allows you to disable it on specific pages, posts, or archive pages through the settings or edit screens.
The plugin also provides options to keep specific scripts, such as jQuery, in the header if needed. It supports custom post types and offers filters for advanced users to exclude certain scripts or apply the functionality to additional post types.
Best for: This plugin is suitable for WordPress users looking to optimise their site's performance by managing script placement.
What it does well
- ✓Moves scripts to the footer for better performance
- ✓Allows disabling on specific pages and posts
- ✓Supports custom post types
- ✓Provides options to keep specific scripts in the header
- ✓Includes filters for advanced customisation
Where it falls short
- •Requires correct use of wp_enqueue_scripts in theme/plugins
- •Limited information on advanced features
Verdict
Scripts To Footer offers practical functionality for those wanting to enhance their site's speed. It is particularly useful for users comfortable with basic coding and customisation.
From the developer
Joshua David Nelson's own description of Scripts To Footer, lightly tidied.
This small plugin moves scripts to the footer. Note that this only works if you have plugins and a theme that utilizes wp_enqueue_scripts correctly.
You can disable the plugin on specific pages and posts directly via the post/page edit screen metabox.
You can disable the plugin on specific archive pages (blog page, search page, post type and taxonomy archives) via the settings page.
Everything Broken? Try placing jQuery back into the header via Settings > Scripts to Footer, “Keep jQuery in the Header” checkbox. If that doesn’t work, refer to the walkthrough below for using the stf_exclude_scripts filter for the script that is causing the issue.
Check out the documentation on GitHub or some quick walkthroughs below.
Keeping specific Scripts in the Header
As of version 0.6 you can now keep specific scripts in the header. Note: this will print any scripts they depend on as well (if you want to keep jquery-effects-core in the header, you’ll also get jQuery in the header, so no need to add both).
Specifically for jQuery, see the settings page option, as it is a common request we’ve built it into the settings.
For any other scripts, use this filter:
add_filter( 'stf_exclude_scripts', 'jdn_header_scripts', 10, 1 );
function jdn_header_scripts( $scripts ) {
$scripts[] = 'backbone'; // Replace 'backbone' with the script slug
return $scripts;
}
You will need the correct script slug, which is used when the script is registered, and the script will only be printed into the header if it’s enqueued. Check out the scripts that come registered out-of-the-box with WordPress.
Note: As of version 0.6.3, conditional tags will work with the stf_exclude_scripts filter.
Custom Post Type Support
If you’re comfortable with code you can use the scripts_to_footer_post_types filter to change the post types this applies to (it only applies to pages and posts by default). For example, if you have a custom post type called “project” you could add support for this metabox via the post type filter like this:
function stf_add_cpt_support( $post_types ) {
$post_types[] = 'project';
return $post_types;
}
add_filter( 'scripts_to_footer_post_types', 'stf_add_cpt_support' );
Excluding Pages/Posts/Templates Via Filter
Tagged as
industry
Library & Archive
quality
Speed & Performance
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