Simple Feature Requests Review: WordPress Feedback & Roadmap Plugin

What Is Simple Feature Requests?

If you run a membership site, sell software, or manage online courses, there's a good chance your users have opinions about what you should build next. The challenge is collecting that feedback in an organized way and actually doing something with it.

Simple Feature Requests is a WordPress plugin designed to solve exactly that problem. It adds a custom post type to your WordPress dashboard where users can submit feature requests, upvote ideas from other community members, and see the status of each request. On the admin side, you get full control over which requests are approved, declined, planned, or already in progress.

The plugin also includes a roadmap shortcode, so you can publicly share what you're working on and what's coming next. It's a straightforward way to keep your audience engaged and feeling heard without bolting on a third-party SaaS tool.

Setting Up the Plugin on Your WordPress Site

Getting Simple Feature Requests up and running is surprisingly quick. Once the plugin is installed and activated, it creates a new custom post type called "Requests" in your WordPress sidebar. From there, the setup boils down to a few steps.

First, you'll need to create an archive page where your feature requests will be displayed publicly. Head over to the plugin's settings, copy the provided shortcode, and paste it into a new WordPress page. You can name it whatever makes sense for your site — "Feature Requests," "Ideas Board," or something similar. After publishing the page, go back into the plugin settings and select that page as your archive page.

That's essentially it for the basic setup. The plugin automatically inherits your theme's styling, so it won't look out of place on your site. Buttons, fonts, and layout will match whatever theme you're running without any extra CSS work.

How the Feedback System Works

Once your archive page is live, visitors can register for an account, log in, and start submitting feature requests. Each submission includes a title and an optional description where users can elaborate on what they're looking for and why it matters.

After a request is submitted, it goes into a pending state. As the site admin, you'll review each submission from the WordPress dashboard and assign it a status — published, under review, planned, started, completed, or declined. These statuses are visible on the front end, so users can see exactly where their request stands in the pipeline.

Other users can upvote requests they care about, which naturally surfaces the most popular ideas to the top. There's also a sidebar widget that displays top requests at a glance, so visitors don't have to scroll through everything to find the most-requested features. If you want to keep things clean, you can disable comments on individual requests and even remove the "Powered by Simple Feature Requests" branding from the plugin settings.

Organizing Feedback With Categories

Things get more interesting if you offer multiple products or services. Simple Feature Requests supports categories, which means you can segment feedback by product, service tier, or any other grouping that makes sense for your business.

Setting up categories is done from the Requests menu in your WordPress dashboard. Once you've created a few categories, they show up on the front end as filter options. Users can sort requests by category using a dropdown or the sidebar, and when submitting a new request, they can assign it to the relevant category.

This is a small feature that makes a big difference if you're managing feedback across multiple offerings. Instead of one giant list of mixed requests, everything stays organized and easy to navigate for both you and your users.

Customizing the Layout With Shortcodes and Elementor

The default layout includes a main content area and a sidebar, but you're not locked into that arrangement. Simple Feature Requests offers several shortcode variations that give you control over what's displayed and how.

For example, there's a shortcode that renders just the feature request list without the sidebar, giving you a full-width layout. There's also a separate shortcode for the sidebar alone, which opens up some creative possibilities. You could embed the sidebar in an Elementor popup, for instance, so users can access login, top requests, and filtering options without cluttering the main page.

In the video walkthrough, Dave demonstrates exactly this approach — creating a fixed "Request a Feature" button in the corner of the screen that triggers a slide-in popup containing the sidebar shortcode. It's a slick way to keep the feedback system accessible without it dominating the page layout. The point isn't that you need to use Elementor specifically, but that the shortcode-based approach gives you flexibility to integrate the plugin into whatever page builder or layout strategy you prefer.

Displaying a Public Product Roadmap

Collecting feedback is only half the equation. The other half is showing your audience what you're actually doing with their input, and that's where the roadmap feature comes in.

Simple Feature Requests includes a dedicated roadmap shortcode that you can drop into any page. The roadmap automatically organizes requests into columns based on their status — under review, planned, started, and so on. Only requests that have been given a status will appear on the roadmap, so random pending submissions won't clutter things up.

The shortcode accepts parameters for further customization, but even the default configuration gives you a clean, Kanban-style board that communicates progress at a glance. It's a simple but effective way to build transparency with your community and show that their feedback is actually influencing your development priorities.

One thing worth noting: the roadmap headings inherit your theme's typography settings, so if your H2 tags are set to something large, the roadmap headers might look oversized. That's a quick fix in your theme's customizer rather than anything wrong with the plugin itself.

Final Verdict: Is Simple Feature Requests Worth It?

Simple Feature Requests lives up to its name. It's a focused, no-nonsense WordPress plugin that handles user feedback collection and roadmap display without overcomplicating things. The setup takes just a few minutes, it plays nicely with WordPress themes and page builders, and the category system keeps things organized as your feedback volume grows.

If you're already running a WordPress site and want to avoid paying monthly fees for a standalone feedback tool like Canny or UserVoice, this plugin is a compelling alternative. It keeps everything within your WordPress ecosystem, gives you full control over the data, and provides enough customization options to make it fit your specific workflow.

The plugin is best suited for WordPress-based businesses that want a lightweight, self-hosted feedback loop. If you need advanced analytics, complex voting rules, or deep integrations with project management tools, you might outgrow it eventually. But for most small to mid-sized communities, it covers the essentials and does so cleanly.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.