Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline) vs Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes

Horizontal & Vertical Timeline, History Timeline Slider Cool Timeline is an advanced WordPress plugin that helps you easily create timeline sliders for your website. You can use it to display your company’s history, product roadmaps, personal stories, or key events in a vertical layout. Using Cool Timeline, you can create timeline stories in two ways: Gutenberg Timeline Block: Add and manage timeline stories easily using the built-in block in the WordPress editor. Great for showing steps, events, or roadmaps with a clean design. Shortcode-Based Classic Timelines: Using the classic editor? Just add a simple shortcode to display your timeline on any page or post and customize it the way you like. Check Free Version Demos Key Features Timeline Slider: Display your stories in a stunning vertical or horizontal timeline layout. Gutenberg and Classic Editor Support: Create timelines easily using the Gutenberg block or a simple shortcode. This works with both new and classic WordPress editors. Smart Shortcode Generator: Use shortcodes to display timeline slider anywhere on your site without needing the code. Cool Timeline Shortcode: [cool-timeline layout=”default” skin=”default” date-format=”F j” icons=”YES” show-posts=”20″ order=”DESC” story-content=”full”] Works with Page Builders: Compatible with popular page builders like Gutenberg, WPBakery, and Classic Editor. Elementor and Divi users can also create timelines with additional plugins. ASC/DESC Order: Arrange your timeline stories in ascending or descending order as needed. Customizable Description: Choose to show either a summary or the full description for each timeline story, depending on how much detail you want to present. Story Order (ASC / DESC): Sort your stories in ascending (oldest to newest) or descending (newest to oldest) order based on your timeline. Date Format: Choose from various date formats to display your timeline stories according to your requirements. Customizable Colors & Fonts: Change colors, fonts, and styles to fit your brand or website design. Pagination: Set how many stories you want to display per page to easily manage multiple timelines. Icons or Dots: Highlight events using custom icons or simple dots to visually distinguish each story on the timeline. Content Alignment: Align your timeline content left, right, or center to match your website’s style and improve readability. Multiple Timelines: Create and manage several timeline sliders on one site, like company history, product updates, or personal stories. Animation Effects: Add subtle animations to your timeline items as they appear, making the overall experience more interactive and engaging. Where can you use the Cool Timeline? Company History Showcase: Display your company’s growth and key milestones in a timeline format. Event Highlights: Present a timeline of events for conferences, seminars, or special occasions. Product Launch Timeline: Highlight the different stages and key dates leading up to a product or service launch. Personal Journey: Share your personal story, career progression, or life journey using a timeline. Project Roadmap: Create a visual timeline of project phases, deadlines, and achievements. Achievements and Awards: Showcase significant accomplishments, recognitions, and awards over time. Nonprofit or Charity Timeline: Present the key initiatives and impact of your nonprofit organization through a timeline. Portfolio Showcase: Display your work history or project portfolio in chronological order. Historical Events Documentation: Document important historical events or milestones in a timeline. School or Educational Timeline: Highlight significant academic events, school history, or student progress. Wedding or Family Timeline: Capture important family milestones like weddings, anniversaries, or life events. Event Planning: Outline and share a detailed timeline for upcoming events or project plans. Real Estate Development: Display the various stages of a property’s development from start to completion. Startup Journey: Share your startup’s timeline, from idea conception to growth and scaling phases. Sports Achievements: Highlight key moments and accomplishments in an athlete’s or team’s career. Cool Timeline Pro Features Upgrading to the Cool Timeline Pro plugin unlocks the advanced features like access to multiple layouts, including Horizontal layout, Category-Based Timelines, Ajax Load More, Multimedia ( images, videos & slideshow), and more: Timeline Slider Designs: Cool Timeline Pro offers 4 layout types Vertical Timeline Vertical Compact Timeline Vertical One-Side Timeline Horizontal Timeline Each with 6+ design styles like Classic, Modern, Elegant, etc., and 3 skins (Light, Dark, Colorful). Check All Demos. Advance Customization: Set different colors for each timeline story, making your timeline more visually interesting. Add Images & Videos: Make your timeline stories more interactive by adding images, videos, and slideshows. Multiple Timelines: Create and manage several timelines on one site, like company history, product updates, or personal stories. Smart Shortcode Generator: Use shortcodes to display timelines anywhere on your site without needing to code. Works with Page Builders: Compatible with popular page builders like Gutenberg, WPBakery, and Classic Editor. Elementor and Divi users can also create timelines with additional plugins. Custom Labels: Use labels instead of dates for events, such as process steps or historical periods like AD/BC. Category Filters: Add filters so users can sort timeline stories by category. Blog Post Timeline: Display your blog posts in a timeline layout, highlighting your content by date. Ajax Load More & Pagination: Add pagination and “load more” buttons to easily manage timelines with many stories. Scrolling Navigation: Add scrolling navigation to let users move through long timelines more quickly. Custom Icons: Replace default dots with icons or custom images to make your timeline more personalized. HTML/Links Support: Add “Read More” links or custom HTML in timeline stories to guide users to full content or other pages. Customizable Date Formats: Choose from various date formats to display your timeline stories as you like. Animation Effects: Add animation effects to your timelines to make them more engaging for visitors. Premium Support: Get dedicated support as a Pro user for any help or questions. 🔗Check Pro Version Demos | Get Pro Check Our Other Timeline Plugins Timeline Widget For Elementor: Showcase your company history, product roadmap, and personal journey in vertical & horizontal layout directly inside Elementor. View Demo Timeline Block For Gutenberg: Create interactive timelines directly within the WordPress Block Editor to display step-by-step tutorials, a company’s history, and a product roadmap. View Demo Timeline Builder: Create a small timeline inside the Gutenberg block editor using a vertical or horizontal timeline. View Demo Timeline Module Pro For Divi: Showcase your personal story or company history using stunning vertical or horizontal timelines directly inside the Divi Builder. View Demo Use of 3rd Party Services: This plugin connects to the Cool Plugins API to display information about related plugins inside the dashboard. It also offers optional usage tracking and optional feedback submission on deactivation. Data is sent only after explicit user consent. No hidden tracking is performed, and no frontend visitor or site user data is collected. For more details, please review our Data Usage Policy, TOS, and Privacy Policy.

Trusted by 300,000+ WordPress sites, rated 4.9 stars with 450+ five-star reviews, actively developed for 10+ years, and translated into 15+ languages. Simple History is the complete audit log for WordPress. It tracks every meaningful change — content edits, user logins, plugin updates, security events, and more — so site owners, teams, agencies, and developers always know who did what and when. Just install and activate; no configuration required. Every event is written to be read: plain language like Updated page “About us”, relative timestamps such as “5 minutes ago”, and before/after comparisons instead of raw data dumps. 🔍 How Simple History Helps in Real Situations Track what’s happening on your site “Has anyone done anything today? Ah, Sarah uploaded the new press release and created an article for it. Great — now I don’t have to do that.” Identify issues and debug faster “The site feels slow since yesterday. Has anyone done anything special? … Ah, Steven activated ‘naughty-plugin-x’, that must be it.” Keep freelancers & agencies accountable “I hired a developer to optimize my site. But did they actually do anything? A quick glance at Simple History shows me exactly what they worked on.” Spot suspicious activity early “I see three failed logins from an unfamiliar IP address overnight. Let me click the IP to check all activity from that address — just those attempts, nothing else. Good to know.” ✨ What Simple History Tracks Security & Monitoring Failed user logins with IP tracking and filtering by type (wrong password vs. non-existent username) Core file integrity checks against official checksums Forced security auto-updates from WordPress.org Site Health status changes Admin page access denied events Content & Users Posts, pages, and custom post types — create, edit, delete, and homepage assignment Attachments with image edit details (crop, rotate, flip, scale) and thumbnail previews Taxonomies with detailed diffs of name, slug, description, and parent Comments, menus (with item-level detail), and widgets User profiles, logins, logouts, and role changes Notes — the collaboration feature in WordPress 6.9 System & Updates Plugin lifecycle: install, update, activate, deactivate, delete, and auto-update toggle Theme install, update, activate, switch, and delete WordPress core updates (manual and automatic) Translation and language pack updates Available update notifications Settings and option screen changes Privacy & Compliance Privacy data export and user data erasure requests Privacy page changes IP addresses anonymized by default — no cookies, no external fonts WordPress AI plugin activity is logged without ever storing API keys or prompt content 🔌 Built-in Third-Party Plugin Support Simple History includes built-in logging for: WordPress AI plugin – Feature toggles, AI provider and model changes, and connector approval requests, grants, and revocations Jetpack – Module activations and deactivations Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) – Field group and field changes User Switching – User switch events WP Crontrol – Cron event and schedule changes Enable Media Replace – File replacement details Limit Login Attempts – Login attempts, lockouts, and config changes Redirection – Redirect and group changes, global settings Duplicate Post – Post and page cloning Beaver Builder – Layout, template, and settings saves Is your plugin missing? Plugin authors can add support using the logging API. 💬 What Users Say 450+ five-star reviews on WordPress.org: “So far the best and most comprehensive logging plugin” – @herrschuessler “The best history plugin I’ve found” – Rich Mehta “Fantastic plugin I use on all sites” – Duncan Michael-MacGregor “It is a standard plugin for all of our sites” – Mr Tibbs 🚀 View Your Log Everywhere Simple History starts tracking instantly after activation — no setup needed. It even imports recent activity so your log isn’t empty on day one. Access your log from: Dashboard widget – Activity stats summary and recent events Admin bar quick view – Dropdown with latest events on any admin page Command palette – Type “Simple History” to jump to the log for the current post Dedicated admin page – Full log with search, filters, and insights sidebar Email reports – Weekly summary delivered to your inbox RSS feed – Password-protected feed for your favorite reader WP-CLI – Command-line access for automation and scripting REST API – Programmatic access for custom integrations 📧 Weekly Email Reports – Stay Informed Without Logging In Weekly email reports deliver a summary of your site’s activity every Monday morning — total activity, daily breakdown, key metrics (logins, content updates, plugin changes), and direct links to the full log. Perfect for site owners, agencies managing client sites, and teams who need regular updates without logging in. Enable it in settings and see what the email looks like before turning it on. 🛠️ For Developers & Power Users WP-CLI – List, search, and export events from the command line — perfect for automation and managing multiple sites REST API – Full programmatic access to query the log and add custom events. See the documentation Logging API – Log your own events from themes and plugins with a single line of code RSS feed – Subscribe to changes using any feed reader AI & agent-friendly – The REST API and RSS feed make Simple History accessible to AI agents and automated workflows like Claude Code Stealth Mode – Run Simple History completely hidden from the admin interface via code; Premium adds a GUI. Ideal for agencies and client sites 🔆 Extend with Add-ons Simple History Premium Alerts & Notifications – Get notified instantly via Email, Slack, Discord, or Telegram when important events occur. Start quickly with preset rules for common scenarios or build custom rules filtered by event type, user, role, and log level. Log Forwarding – Stream events to external destinations: local log files, syslog servers (UDP/TCP/TLS), Datadog, Splunk, webhooks, or external MySQL/MariaDB databases. Perfect for centralized logging, compliance, and backup. Enhanced Controls – Custom retention periods (or keep logs forever), CSV/JSON export of filtered search results, post activity panel in the block editor, custom log entries for team decisions, stealth mode GUI, logger control to fine-tune which events are recorded, and an ad-free experience. WooCommerce Logger Track WooCommerce activity: orders, refunds, stock changes, product updates, pricing adjustments, settings modifications, and coupon usage. Debug and Monitor Monitor outgoing HTTP requests and emails, debug API calls, and see what’s happening under the hood. Essential for developers and support teams. 💚 Sponsor this project If you like this plugin please consider sponsoring the development of the free plugin. The plugin has been free for over 10 years and will continue to be free.