Set Custom Admin Footer Text

The WordPress admin footer contains two pieces of text by default: “Thank you for creating with WordPress” on the left, and the current WordPress version number on the right. For client-delivered sites, both of these are worth replacing. The default message is meaningless to most clients, and displaying the WordPress version number in the admin is a minor information leak that’s trivial to fix.

Replacing the footer text with your agency or plugin brand and a direct support link is a small detail that adds up to a more professional, polished handoff experience.

The Code

Add this to your functions.php or a site-specific plugin. Two filters handle the two sides of the footer independently.

admin_footer_text

The admin_footer_text filter controls the left side of the admin footer. The callback returns an HTML string, any valid HTML is accepted. The snippet uses sprintf() to build a string with two links: one to your site and one to a support page. Both URLs are passed through esc_url() for proper sanitisation.

You can use this space for anything: a support email address, a link to documentation, a copyright notice, or a reminder of the client’s maintenance plan. Keep it short, the footer is a small space and long text wraps awkwardly.

update_footer

The update_footer filter controls the right side of the footer, which typically shows the WordPress version number and update status. Setting it to __return_empty_string at priority 11 (higher than WordPress’s own priority of 10) clears this output entirely. The version number removal here complements the version removal from the public-facing page head covered in the Hide WordPress Version Number snippet.

Restricting to Specific Roles

If you want the custom footer to show only to administrators while leaving the default footer intact for other roles, for example if editors should still see the standard WordPress footer, wrap the add_filter calls in a current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) check. This is less common but useful for sites where different roles have very different admin experiences.

Multisite Considerations

On WordPress multisite networks, these filters apply to the sub-site admin panels. The network admin panel has its own footer text controlled by different hooks. If you need to customise the network admin footer as well, use the same filter names, they apply to both contexts, but add a check for is_network_admin() if you want different text in each context.

functions.php

// Replace the left footer text
add_filter( 'admin_footer_text', function() {
    return sprintf(
        'Built by <a href="%s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">%s</a> — need help? <a href="%s">Contact support</a>.',
        esc_url( 'https://nahnuplugins.com' ),
        'Nahnu Plugins',
        esc_url( 'https://nahnuplugins.com/support' )
    );
} );

// Remove the WordPress version number from the right side
add_filter( 'update_footer', '__return_empty_string', 11 );