About this plugin
org-compliant freemium approach.
Why this is different
Everything below is verifiable in the plugin files, not a promise:
- 17 languages, translated by the community. The interface is fully internationalised (148 strings, text domain volade-breadcrumbs ) and localised through WordPress.org language packs, so translations are always current and update with WordPress. Languages are picked with SVG flag icons rather than emoji.
- Rendering the trail opens no connection. The trail, its stylesheet and its JSON-LD are built from data WordPress has already loaded. The plugin’s only outbound request is the optional licence check, which gates no feature.
- One renderer, five placements. The automatic placement, the block, the widget, the [volade_breadcrumbs] shortcode and the volade_breadcrumbs() template function all call the same code, so the markup can never differ from one of them to another.
- Four presets chosen from live previews – default, minimal, pill and numbered – drawn with the stylesheet that actually ships, not described in a dropdown.
- A per-page switch in the editor sidebar that turns off the automatic placement for one item without touching a template, while an explicit block or shortcode still wins.
- It follows the primary category you already picked in Yoast SEO or Rank Math, so switching to Volade keeps the path you curated instead of jumping to the first term.
- WooCommerce is supported, not required. The shop chain appears when WooCommerce is present and is never loaded otherwise.
- Nothing to fill in. No account, no API key and no configuration are needed before the first post shows a trail.
Features
- Automatic trail above the content of single posts, pages and custom post types, with ancestor levels taken from the page hierarchy or from your hierarchical taxonomies.
- Three ways to place it: the automatic placement, a “Breadcrumb trail” block in the editor, and a widget for any widget area. A [volade_breadcrumbs] shortcode covers everything else, including archive templates.
- volade_breadcrumbs() and volade_breadcrumbs_json_ld() template functions for themes and page builders, so a trail can go anywhere the automatic placement cannot reach.
- Understands categories, tags and custom taxonomies, post type archives, author archives, date archives, and the WooCommerce chain: shop page, product categories, product tags, single product.
- Replaces WooCommerce’s own breadcrumb, so a shop has one navigation instead of two competing ones.
- Follows the primary category already picked in Yoast SEO or Rank Math, so the trail never jumps between two equally valid paths.
- Hide the trail on one single page from the editor, without touching a template.
- Four visual presets (default, minimal, pill, numbered) shown as live previews you click to choose, plus a configurable separator, homepage label, optional maximum depth and a switch per post type.
- Hide the current page title from the trail, while search engines still receive the full path.
- JSON-LD BreadcrumbList printed only when the trail is, on the same request.
- Keyboard-visible focus ring, reduced-motion and higher-contrast support, print styles and a layout that wraps cleanly on a phone.
- Hidden on the homepage by default, since a trail of one level tells a reader nothing.
- Free features work out of the box, no external configuration required.
- Premium entitlements verified server-side via api.volade.com.
- No payments or checkout are handled inside this plugin.
- Graceful fallback: if the API is unreachable, the plugin treats the site as non-premium with a short cache, and never breaks the site.
- Dedicated top-level menu on the left of the dashboard, with a screen for Overview, Settings, License, Language, Tools and About.
- Interface localised into 17 languages through WordPress.org language packs, selected with flag icons (SVG, no emoji).
- Design and colour tokens taken verbatim from volade.com, so the admin screens match the site.
- Discreet marketing only: the Free vs Premium comparison, a review link and a newsletter link live on the plugin’s own screens. No global admin notice is ever displayed.
- Backup tools on Volade Breadcrumbs > Tools: export every setting to a JSON file, import one back, or restore the defaults. Each operation is capability-checked, nonce-checked and validated against a whitelist of this plugin’s own options.
- A System Information panel (plugin, WordPress and PHP versions, last check) that is read entirely locally: rendering it never sends a request.
- A short “Getting started” checklist on the Overview, computed from state already stored in your database. Nothing is locked behind it, and it sends nothing anywhere.
- Extension points for developers: actions and filters around the API call, the entitlement, the screens and the settings, plus wp volade-breadcrumbs WP-CLI commands.
External Services
This plugin connects to an external service to verify Premium entitlements. The connection happens only when you run a premium status check yourself from Volade Breadcrumbs > Tools. The plugin never contacts this service automatically, in the background or on a schedule, and rendering a screen or a breadcrumb trail never triggers an outbound request.
Service provider: Volade
com/
What it is used for: Verifying whether the current site holds an active Premium entitlement.
Data sent:
- Site URL ( home_url() )
- Domain (host extracted from the site URL)
- Plugin version ( VOLADE_BREADCRUMBS_VERSION )
- Plugin identifier ( volade-breadcrumbs )
- Optional license key, only if one has been entered in Settings
- Optional Authorization: Bearer header, only if an API key has been entered in Settings
No personal user data, no email addresses, no payment data and no user identifiers are collected or transmitted by this plugin.
When it is sent: Only when a premium entitlement check is performed. Results are cached in a WordPress transient (1 hour on success, 5 minutes on failure) to minimize the number of requests.
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