Editorial Workflow Manager vs Classic Editor

Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor. Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin, and will be fully supported and maintained until 2024, or as long as is necessary. At a glance, this plugin adds the following: Administrators can select the default editor for all users. Administrators can allow users to change their default editor. When allowed, the users can choose which editor to use for each post. Each post opens in the last editor used regardless of who edited it last. This is important for maintaining a consistent experience when editing content. In addition, the Classic Editor plugin includes several filters that let other plugins control the settings, and the editor choice per post and per post type. By default, this plugin hides all functionality available in the new block editor (“Gutenberg”).

Editorial Workflow Manager adds an editorial checklist to the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) so your team can follow a consistent pre-publish checklist every time you publish. It’s built for content teams, agencies, and editors who want a lightweight publishing checklist workflow inside the editor — with clear “ready vs incomplete” feedback — without hard publish blocking. This plugin does not output anything on the front end. What you can do Create reusable checklist templates (required + optional items). Assign different editorial checklists to different post types. Track per-post checklist progress in the editor sidebar. See readiness and progress in the post list table, sidebar, post status panel, and pre-publish panel. Typical use cases Blog posts: SEO checks, featured image, categories/tags, internal links, fact check. News/Editorial: legal review, source confirmation, editor sign-off checklist. Agencies: client approvals checklist, accessibility checks, brand requirements. Teams: consistent publishing workflow across authors and editors. Key features Accessible workflows – contextual labels, live status announcements, visible focus states, and keyboard-safe template controls. Template duplication – clone checklist templates and customize the copy. Curated starter templates – includes Blog SEO, News Fact-Check, Accessibility Review, and Client Approval templates. Checklist templates – manage reusable checklists as a custom post type. Template editor (row-based UI) – add, remove, reorder items; mark each item Required or Optional. Required vs Optional items – readiness is based on required items only. Helper text + reference links – add plain guidance text and an optional reference URL to each checklist item. Per-post checklist state – each post/page stores its own checklist progress. Gutenberg / Block Editor sidebar – “Editorial Checklist” panel inside the editor. Readiness + progress indicators Sidebar summary with Ready / Incomplete and required progress wp-admin post list Readiness column for mapped post types Post Status panel summary while editing Non-blocking pre-publish warning when required items are missing Different checklist per post type – assign templates in Settings. Curated starter templates included on activation and upgrade. Fresh-install quickstart wizard – choose post types, assign starter templates, and jump straight into the editor. Lightweight editor tour – auto-open the checklist sidebar once and explain required-item readiness. Backward compatible upgrades – legacy templates still work and upgrade to UUID-based v2 items when saved. Getting started Activate the plugin and complete the Quickstart wizard. Choose the post types where editorial checklists should appear. Confirm the starter template mappings, then open the editor. Follow the one-time sidebar tour in the block editor. Complete checklist items and watch the readiness/progress summary update. Adjust mappings later in Settings → Editorial Workflow or edit templates in Checklist Templates.