A free WordPress plugin that lets you easily customize the admin bar and side menu. Change colours, add your own links, hide elements or use drag and drop to reorder them.

The WordPress admin bar is powerful — but it gets cluttered quickly. SimpleBar exists to give you back control of your WordPress admin experience.

SimpleBar is a free, lightweight tool that lets you hide what you don’t need and keep your workflow tidy.

• Hide unused admin bar items
• Reduce visual clutter in the WordPress toolbar
• Keep frequently used items accessible
• Add custom links to the admin bar
• Change colours of both the admin bar and side menu
• Live preview while editing appearance settings
• Settings tabs switch instantly without full page reload
• Built-in preset themes (including WordPress Classic default)
• Accessibility contrast guardrails for key colour pairs
• Import/export settings as JSON
• Discover and hide third-party admin bar nodes per role
• Front-end admin bar visibility rules by role and post type
• Lightweight, fast, and unobtrusive
• Built with core WordPress APIs
• No tracking, ads, or external dependencies

SimpleBar is designed for developers, site owners, and anyone who values a clean admin experience.

• New first-run default style: WordPress Classic preset, with WordPress 7.0 blue (#3858E9).
• New Appearance improvements:
  • Preset selector with one-click apply.
  • "Colour Riot" preset label refresh.
  • Live preview for admin bar and admin menu colours.
  • Contrast guardrails with pass/warning feedback.
• New settings UX polish:
  • Tabs now switch without full page reload.
  • Title Case headings and button labels.
  • Improved spacing in Roles & Links reorder section.
• New Tools tab:
  • Export all settings as JSON.
  • Import settings from a SimpleBar export file.
• New Roles & Links improvements:
  • Discover third-party admin bar node IDs from current admin context.
  • Hide discovered IDs per role.
• New front-end toolbar visibility rules:
  • Hide by selected roles.
  • Hide on selected public post types.
  • Optional "wp-admin only" mode.

Admin bar customisation options

Cleaned-up admin bar in action

Install directly from the plugin directory:

👉 https://wordpress.org/plugins/simplebar-admin-bar-customizer/

1. Download or clone this repository
2. Upload the simplebar-admin-bar-customizer folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Activate the plugin via Plugins → Installed Plugins

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4 or higher

• Minor UX refinements based on real-world usage
• Compatibility testing with future WordPress releases
• Documentation polish

Feature requests are welcome!

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

Built by Luke Dunsmore
Designer / Developer / Builder of Practical Tools

• Website: https://www.lukedunsmore.com
• WordPress.org: https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukedunsmoto/

GPL v2 or later
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html