How to Remove Credits Footer in WordPress

Scrolled to the bottom of your website and saw a message that reads “Proudly Powered by WordPress.”? It’s there for a reason. You’re giving credit to WordPress with an external link for providing their content management system (CMS). However, even though millions use WordPress, it can still look unprofessional. For one, many would think you were too lazy to customize the template you started with. Also, the footer can serve a better purpose. For example, you can add other URLs, input a logo, or change the copyright text. But if you’ve decided to get rid of it, here’s how to remove the credits footer in WordPress.

Is removing the WordPress credits footer illegal?

No. Although leaving the default one is a nod to WordPress for providing the backbone, it’s free software and licensed under GPL (General Public License). You have the right to not only modify it in any way you want but also redistribute it. In other words, you can edit any part of WordPress you like without fear. With your conscience cleared, let’s get into 5 techniques to remove footer in WordPress.

1. Use Customize menu to remove footer credits in WordPress

This option doesn’t always exist. Even when it does, it might not be under the same settings or name, so you’ll have to look around a little bit. With that said, follow these steps to remove footer in WordPress via the Customize menu:

1. Access the WordPress Admin Section. Now, do either of the two:
   1. On the home page, click on Customize in the Admin bar at the top.
   2. From the Dashboard, click on Appearance > Customize in the main menu on the left-hand side.
2. When it opens, look for a similar option on your end. Here are 5 examples of where it could be:
   1. On Beaver Builder Theme. Click on Footer, then go to Footer Layout. Select None under Layout.
   2. On Vilva Pro. Click on Footer Settings. Toggle Hide Author Link and Hide WordPress Link to on, and leave the Footer Copyright Text box empty.
   3. For Astra. Click on Footer > Bottom Bar, then toggle Disable Footer Credits.
   4. For GeneratePress: Go to Appearance > Elements. Then, click on Add New > then Layout. In the Disable Elements tab, then put a checkmark in front of Footer.
   5. On some themes, under Footer, there’s a single field titled Copyright Text. Erase what’s there.

2. Although it works, avoid this method

Those with a little bit of CSS knowledge might be aware that the steps above could be replaced with one line of code. Go to Appearance > Customize, and then:

1. Select Additional CSS on any theme.
2. Paste one of the 2 codes:
   .site-info { display: none; }
.powered-by { display: none; }
3. Click on Publish in the top left corner.

And bam, the footer is gone. Unfortunately, spammers utilize a similar technique to hide links from you and your visitors. On the other hand, Google bots can still see them, flag your website, and crush your ranking and search traffic. For the same reason, shady website owners abuse the technique in hopes of getting better ratings.

3. Removing credits for individual posts or pages

The solution above is applied site-wide. But what if you want to hide the footer for certain pages or posts only? That might be possible, again depending on the WordPress theme you installed and/or website builder plugin. For example, here are the instructions to hide footer for WordPress pages and posts with BeaverBuilder:

1. Start editing the page or post in question.
2. Look for a meta box titled Page Attributes. Scroll down on Block Editor or look on the right-hand side in Classic Editor.
3. Under Template, select a No Footer option. If that doesn’t exist and you don’t mind, select No Header/Footer.
4. Click on the Update or Publish button when ready.

4. Remove footer code in footer.php

We already mentioned 2 ways to edit footer.php in method 3 when we taught you how to edit footer in WordPress. The same applies here, except that you’ll have to remove the entire code. For default WordPress themes (Twenty Seventeen and later) you can expect something very similar to the one below. Look for <div class=”powered-by”> or <div class=”site-info”>. As an example, the footer PHP code for the Twenty Twenty-One theme for WordPress looks like this:

<div class="powered-by">
<?php
printf(
/* translators: %s: WordPress. */
esc_html__( 'Proudly powered by %s.', 'twentytwentyone' ),
'<a href="' . esc_attr__( 'https://wordpress.org/', 'twentytwentyone' ) . '">WordPress</a>'
);
?>
</div><!-- .powered-by -->

This might not be the case with yours. Here’s another example of a footer code in footer.php:

get_template_part( 'template-parts/footer/site', 'info' );

As you can see, it fetches data from other locations. Regardless of your situation, erasing it and saving changes will get the job done.

I’m scared of breaking my website. How do I ensure I won’t?

First of all, you should always use a backup plugin for WordPress and store regular backups. But for more specific steps, you can:

• Add // in front of every line in code. That way, you can easily restore the original code by removing the character.
• Install a child theme in WordPress and edit the footer.php file in its folder. That ensures you won’t affect the main theme.
• Use the method below.

5. Install a WordPress plugin to remove the footer in WordPress

If you read method 6 in our footer editing guide above, you’re familiar with adding code snippets and their benefits. The main one is that you’ll prevent a theme update from messing up all your hard work. That’s what you need here too, especially if you aren’t using a child theme. With that said, here are 2 paths you can take with a third-party WordPress plugin:

1. Remove the default WordPress footer with a plugin

There are plenty of “one-click” plugins that remove the default WordPress footer and need no explanation. One such example is Remove Powered by WordPress. Here’s what to after you install the WordPress plugin:

1. Go to Customize menu again.
2. Select Theme Options on the left side.
3. Put a checkmark in front of the Remove Powered by WordPress.
4. Press Publish.

2. Guide to remove credits footer in WordPress using an advanced plugin

The method above won’t work if any changes were made to the default code. Also, it isn’t compatible with third-party WordPress themes and their own settings. Instead, we recommend this flexible option. Here’s how removing a footer in WordPress with Remove Footer Credit works:

1. Install and activate Remove Footer Credit.
2. In the main WordPress menu on the left, click on Tools, then Remove Footer Credit.
3. Paste the footer code you identified in the previous method under Step 1: Enter text/HTML to remove (one per line).
4. Since we’re not replacing text, leave the text field under Step 2: empty.
5. Click on the Save button and preview changes.