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How to Change the Footer in Your WordPress Admin Panel

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Do you want to change the footer message in your WordPress admin panel?

The default footer in the WordPress dashboard simply states that the site has been made with WordPress and displays the version number. You may want to change that so you can credit yourself for developing the theme, advertise a pro version of a plugin, or even add support links for your clients.

In this article, we will show you how to change the footer in the WordPress admin panel.

How to change the footer in WordPress admin

Why Change the Admin Panel Footer?

The default footer in your WordPress website‘s admin area is very basic and doesn’t really serve a purpose for most users.

It has a link to the WordPress home page and displays the version of WordPress you’re currently running. If there’s an update available, the footer link will change to let you update your site.

Change the WordPress Admin Panel footer

That’s it. However, you can change it to have links back to your own site, provide some helpful links for your users, or just remove it entirely since the space isn’t seen all that often anyway.

With that in mind, let’s dig in and see how to change the WordPress admin footer in two different ways. Simply click the link below for the method you prefer:

To change the footer in the admin dashboard, we’re going to insert a code snippet into our theme’s functions.php file.

Normally, we only recommend pasting code snippets into your WordPress core files for advanced users because even a slight mistake can break your site. Plus, if you update your theme, any changes to the functions.php file will be erased.

That’s why we will be using the free WPCode plugin, which makes it safe for anyone to add code snippets to WordPress files.

First, you will need to install and activate WPCode. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once that’s done, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet in the admin dashboard’s left-hand menu.

Simply search for ‘footer’ and hover your mouse over the entry titled ‘Change Admin Panel Footer Text.’

Then, all you need to do is click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

Use snippet in WPCode to change the footer

Next, you’ll be taken to the Edit Snippet screen. WPCode automatically configures settings for snippets that you add from the library.

Next, you just need to change the footer text on Line 5 to whatever you want the new content to say. You will need to use HTML if you intend to include links or anything other than plain text.

WPCode edit snippet to change footer text

When you’ve changed the footer text to your liking, just toggle the switch to ‘Active’ and click the ‘Update’ button.

The new admin panel footer will now be live on your site. It will vary based on your specific changes, but if you enable to default snippet from WPCode, you will see this:

The example admin panel footer for the WPCode snippet

If you like how this code snippet works, you can take a look at the WPCode snippet library found at Code Snippets » Library.

This will show you everything that comes included for free with the plugin.

wpcode library

WPCode’s built-in library has dozens of pre-configured snippets. You can probably replace single-use plugins you have on your site. For example, WPCode can disable the WordPress REST API, WP Admin Bar, or media attachment pages.

Another method to change the footer in the WordPress admin is by adding code to your theme’s functions.php file. We recommend this for advanced users only, as even a small mistake can break your site.

For more information, see our detailed guide on how to paste code snippets from the web into WordPress.

First, you will need to connect to your site via FTP or through your WordPress hosting provider’s file manager. Then, head to your site’s /wp-content/themes/your_theme/ directory.

Where to find functions.php
Then you just need to edit the file You can open it in a plain text editor like Notepad or you can use the built in editor if your host provides one

Simply copy and paste this code into the functions.php file.

add_filter(
	'admin_footer_text',
	function ( $footer_text ) {
		// Edit the line below to customize the footer text.
		$footer_text = 'Powered by <a href="https://www.wordpress.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WordPress</a> | WordPress Tutorials: <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPBeginner</a>';
		
		return $footer_text;
	}
);
The code after it was pasted into functions.php

Be sure to change the HTML in the line that starts with $footer_text in the sample code to whatever you want as your new admin footer.

Finally, save your file. You should see the new footer in your admin right away.

The example admin panel footer for the WPCode snippet

We hope this article helped you change the footer in your WordPress admin area. You may also want to see our guide on how much does it cost to build a WordPress site, or our expert comparison of the best virtual business phone number apps for small business.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

18 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Selam Mesfin says

    In my visual Editor’s toolbar, there is no ‘Insert new tag’ button, how can this be fixed? I wanted to include ‘read more’ to my long paragraphs.

    Thank You.

  3. Schofield Bryant says

    I just tried what was explained above and my website has crashed.
    Showing the following error
    Fatal error: Cannot redeclare remove_footer_admin() (previously declared in /home/cannabotanica/public_html/wp-content/themes/green-eye/functions.php:4) in /home/cannabotanica/public_html/wp-content/themes/green-eye/functions.php on line 208

    Please I need assistance now in reviving the website and correcting the error. Even the admin panel wouldn’t load.

  4. balbeer says

    i am not able to edit the footer that is copyright @ in travelify theme please help to edit that

    • Tommy says

      Try use plugin “Cliro – Custom Admin Role for Client” you will easy to edit footer in backend with more option. I used it and very happy :)

  5. Samuel Dellicour says

    The closing P tag should be removed, it is not necessary. The text will automatically be wrapped with a paragraph (with class and id).

  6. Konstantin says

    Unfortunately you neglected to mention to hook it to the “admin_footer_text” filter. This is what’s missing:

    add_filter('admin_footer_text', 'remove_footer_admin');

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