Description

Block Manager gives you complete control over the WordPress Block Editor by allowing you to:

✅ Disable Blocks – Remove unwanted blocks from the Block Inserter and Editor
✅ Disable Patterns – Hide block patterns you don’t need with a single click
✅ Change Block Categories – Reorganize blocks by updating their categories for better workflow

Simplify your WordPress editing experience by removing clutter and organizing blocks exactly how you need them. Perfect for client sites, custom workflows, and maintaining a clean, focused Block Editor.

Key Features

Disable Blocks
– Globally remove any block from the Block Inserter and Block Editor.
– Disable block variations individually while keeping the core block.
– Control Embed blocks (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) to remove unwanted options.
– Toggle entire block categories on/off with one click.

Disable Block Patterns
– Remove unwanted block patterns with a simple toggle.
– Hide core WordPress patterns that don’t fit your site.
– Clean up the pattern library for a focused editing experience.

Change Block Categories
– Update the category of any block to better organize your Block Inserter.
– Create a custom workflow that matches your editing process.
– Improve findability by grouping related blocks together.

Additional Features
– Code Hooks: Use filters to control blocks and patterns via functions.php.
– Search and Filter: Quickly locate blocks and patterns with built-in search.
– Export Options: Generate code snippets for syncing across environments.
– Status Reports: View active and disabled blocks at a glance.

Hooks & Filters

Use Block Manager hooks to controls blocks via code and sync options across multiple WordPress environments.

gbm_disabled_blocks

Use the gbm_disabled_blocks hook to remove blocks via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_disabled_blocks', function() {
    return [
        'core/buttons',
        'core/columns',
        'core/freeform',
        'core/table'
    ];
});

gbm_disabled_patterns

Use the gbm_disabled_patterns hook to remove block patterns via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_disabled_patterns', function() {
   return ['gbm/core-patterns', 'core/query-standard-posts', 'core/query-medium-posts'];
});

gbm_block_categories

Use the gbm_block_categories hook to update block categories via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_block_categories', function() {
    return [
        [ 'block' => 'core/html', 'cat' => 'design' ],
        [ 'block' => 'core/cover', 'cat' => 'design' ],
        [ 'block' => 'core/details', 'cat' => 'design' ]
    ];
});

block_manager_user_role

Update the minimum user role allowed to access the Block Manager plugin.

// functions.php
add_filter(
    'block_manager_user_role',
    'edit_theme_options' // Default: activate_plugins
);

Screenshots

Disable Blocks: Easily remove unwanted WordPress blocks by toggling the active state of each block.
Block Toggle: Disable all blocks in a block categories with a single click.
Block Categories: Improve the admin editing experience by updating the category of each block using the Category Switcher.
Disable Block Patterns: Remove unwanted block patterns and core patterns by toggling the active state of each pattern.
Status Reports: Total active and disabled blocks are displayed in the plugin sidebar.
Embed Blocks: Choose the Embed blocks you want to allow on your site and remove the majority of useless options.

Installation

How to install Block Manager.

Using The WordPress Dashboard

Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
Search for ‘Block Manager’
Click ‘Install Now’
Activate the plugin on the Plugin dashboard

Uploading in WordPress Dashboard

Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
Navigate to the ‘Upload’ area
Select block-manager.zip from your computer
Click ‘Install Now’
Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard

Using FTP

Download block-manager.zip
Extract the block-manager directory to your computer
Upload the block-manager directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard

Then navigate to wp-admin -> Settings -> Block Manager to use the plugin.

Reviews

jaloin 14 มกราคม 2026 1 reply

Brilliant solution!

Christian Saborio 18 เมษายน 2025 1 reply

What a wonderful plugin! It’s amazing how WP adds all kinds of crap and no way to turn it off – I don’t use patterns, don’t want my clients to use them, and this is the perfect solution to avoid these types of issues. Fantastic way to remove unwanted core blocks as well, sanity at last, THANK YOU!

magicratfish 4 กุมภาพันธ์ 2024 1 reply

Great plugin, thank you. Let me tame my plug in beast and bring order to the Press. I combined it with the php filter ‘block_categories_all’ to move them to my own categories as well. Together, they have made a world of difference.

Milan Ivanovic 3 ตุลาคม 2023

Extremely useful plugin and one of the first I added to all of my installs. Thank you, Darren!

skylabb 19 พฤศจิกายน 2022 2 replies

I wanted to like this plug for the nice UI design. When I open the block manager screen, the two grey tabs where block listings are suppose to display are empty. It looks like some kind of glitch. Update: I added a couple more review stars for author’s response. Hopefully the issue gets fixed soon.

tomreed25 15 กันยายน 2022 1 reply

Having the ability to disable some of the more obscure, unnecessary blocks is essential and this plugin features on every site I work on. Thanks!

Read all 13 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Block Manager” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“Block Manager” has been translated into 6 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Block Manager” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

3.2.0 – January 14, 2026

NEW: Added support for Stretchy Paragraph and Stretchy Heading block variations.
Fix: Fixed issue with Embed block variation display.
NEW: Added WordPress version detection to improve compatibility with future WP releases.
UPDATE: Project dependency updates.
UPDATE: Various code refactoring and organization.

3.1.2 – December 8, 2025

FIX: Fixed issue WP 6.9 and missing required sprintf package.
UPDATE: Project dependency updates.

3.1.1 – March 15, 2025

FIX: Fixed issue with rendering block icons of various plugins. Now using default WP block editor BlockIcon rendering.
FIX: Fixed issue with blocks not showing in Block Manager when being registered using enqueue_block_assets hook.
UPDATE: Admin UI/UX updates.

3.1.0 – November 3, 2024

UPDATE: New admin UI.
UPDATE: Various changes for upcoming Block Manager Pro plugin.

3.0.0 – April 3, 2024

NEW: Added support for disabling block patterns and core block patterns.
FIX: Fixed incorrect number of filtered blocks display in Blocks sidebar.
FIX: Fixed issue with return value in admin_footer text.
UPDATE: Updated plugin installer vendor file.
UPDATE: Various code refactoring and organization.
UPDATE: Various security updates.

2.1.1 – November 1, 2023

HOTFIX: Fix for undefined React key warning when WP_DEBUG is enabled.

2.1.0 – November 1, 2023

NEW: Adding notification system for feedback after an action is performed.
UPDATE: Added display indicators for variation blocks.
FIX: Fixed potential upgrade issue with disabled blocks throwing admin error due to object vs array data.
FIX: Fixed issue with missing loading animation.
FIX: Fixed issue with block variations not counting towards block count.

2.0.0 – October 20, 2023

NEW – New admin interface and interactions for the Block and Block Categories pages.
NEW: Added block category export and hook gbm_block_categories to allow for changing block categories at the theme level.
UPDATE: Updated build scripts and dependencies to use wp-scripts.
UPDATE: Block Manager is now supported on Widget screen.
FIX: Fixed issue with some missing block definitions.
FIX: Fixed issues with block icons not rendering for some blocks.
FIX: Fixed issue with various blocks crashing the Block Manager edit screen.
FIX: Other various bug fixes and overall improvements.

1.2.5 – May 23, 2023

FIX – Fixed potential issue with JS errors on Site Editor screens.
UPDATE – WP version bump and testing.

1.2.4 – November 30, 2022

HOTFIX – Fixed issue with plugin not working on edit screens.

1.2.3 – November 19, 2022

FIX: Added fix for blank screen when users have JetPack plugin enabled.
FIX: Fixed issue with missing semi-colon in Block Manager export functionality.
FIX: Added fix for only loading the block removal script on New and Edit screens.

1.2.2 – August 17, 2021

NEW – Added new Reset option that will clear all disabled blocks.
FIX – Added fix for possible issue with icon width on blocks admin page.
UPDATE – Updated tab navigation inside the plugin to make it more clear which section was being edited.

1.2.1 – February 28, 2021

UPDATE – Added Category Switcher support for all block including core Gutenberg blocks.

1.2 – February 27, 2021

NEW – Added new Category Switcher.
- The Category Switcher provides functionality for changing the category core Gutenberg blocks.
- Changing a block category will update the location of the block in the Gutenberg Block Inserter while editing posts.
FIX – Fixed issue with missing semi-colon in export code.
UPDATE – Various admin UI/UX updates.

1.1 – January 19, 2021

NEW – Added new gbm_disabled_blocks filter to allow for disabling blocks via functions.php
NEW – Added Export option to dynamically build a pre-populated gbm_disabled_blocks filter.
NEW – Added Grid/List view toggle.

1.0.1 – January 2, 2021

NEW – Added support for Embed blocks (Twitter, Facebook, Spotify etc). These blocks were changed in WP 5.6 and the handler had to be updated to manage the active/inactive states.
FIX – Fixed REST API warning for missing permissions_callback.

1.0 – January 6, 2020

Initial release

Very simple, very effective!

Lifesaver, gets rid of bloat

Life Saver

Clean and handy

Block listings not displayed

Incredibly useful plugin