PublishPress
Professional editorial, permission, and workflow management tools for WordPress content teams and digital publishers.
Best for small and mid-market publishers.
Summary review · Last verified Oct 19, 2026 · Scored on 10 criteria · Vendors can't pay for scores
Research by Vahe Arabian · Scored and edited by the SODP team
Key facts
- Score
- 3.8 / 5
- Tier
- Strong Choice
- Pricing model
- Business $149/year (1 site); Agency $29…
- Type
- Editorial workflow
- Hosting
- self-hosted
- Publishers using it
- 2
- Founded
- 2018
- Headcount
- 5
At a glance
- PublishPress scores 3.8/5 (Strong Choice) in Benchmark Grid's independent editorial calendar software benchmark, assessed on 10 published criteria.
- It is built for small and mid-market publishers.
- Strongest on Editorial workflow & approvals (4.7) and Planning & scheduling views (4.6); weakest on Performance tracking (1.2).
- Pricing: Business $149/year (1 site); Agency $299/year (5 sites); Unlimited $499/year.
- 2 publishers in our tracking use PublishPress, from ads.txt files, page code and public case studies.
- Scores last verified 19 Oct 2026. Vendors cannot pay for a score or a position.
Summary
Editor's update, July 2026: 19 Oct 2026 accuracy audit: pricing updated to current Business/Agency/Unlimited tiers.
PublishPress is a WordPress plugin suite providing editorial calendar, content notifications, editorial comments, and contributor management workflow within the WordPress dashboard.
WordPress-native editorial calendar and workflow plugin — PublishPress provides editorial calendar, content notifications, and role-based editorial workflow directly within WordPress at minimal cost.
Score breakdown
3.8 = 0.45 × 3.83 capability + 0.40 × 3.50 publisher fit + 0.15 × 4.70 cost
Σ (criterion rating × weight) across 10 criteria · scale 1 (poor) → 5 (excellent)
The tool offers a visual drag-and-drop calendar integrated directly into the WordPress dashboard for robust content scheduling.
14% of capability · What we check: Calendar, board and timeline views for planning stories and campaigns.
It provides deep functionality for creating custom editorial statuses, multi-step approval pipelines, and pre-publishing checklists.
14% of capability · What we check: Status stages, approvals and deadlines built for editorial teams.
Includes editorial comments and Slack notifications but lacks real-time simultaneous editing capabilities.
12% of capability · What we check: Assignments, comments, mentions and notifications.
As a native WordPress plugin, it integrates seamlessly with the core CMS, WooCommerce, and communication tools like Slack.
12% of capability · What we check: Connections to CMS, social scheduling and newsletter tools.
Primarily focused on WordPress content planning with some support for organizing series, but it does not natively plan non-web channels like print or social media.
10% of capability · What we check: Plans web, social, newsletter and print in one place.
Offers high flexibility through granular permission management, custom checklists, and content organization features.
10% of capability · What we check: Custom fields, story templates and saved views.
The tool provides audit logs and activity tracking but lacks engagement metrics or productivity analytics for published content.
8% of capability · What we check: Shows how published pieces performed inside the plan.
Editorial teams can easily adopt the tool due to its native integration within the familiar WordPress dashboard environment.
8% of capability · What we check: How quickly a newsroom can adopt it day to day.
Features extensive control over user roles, granular permission settings, and activity logs to secure content changes.
6% of capability · What we check: Roles, permissions and security certifications.
Standard documentation and support channels are available, typical for a widely utilized WordPress plugin.
6% of capability · What we check: Onboarding help and support availability.
PublishPress scores 3.8/5 in Benchmark Grid's independent Best Editorial Calendar Software benchmark (benchmarkgrid.com/best-editorial-calendar-software/publishpress, verified Oct 19, 2026)
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Allows for tailored content approval processes
- A comprehensive set of plugins for WordPress publishing
- Content Calendar with drag and drop functionality
- Content Display feature for blog layouts, author post lists, and newspaper front pages
- PublishPress Checklists and Statuses for custom workflow options
Limitations
- Could do better with advanced real-time collaboration features
Who uses it
Detected from site code, ads.txt records and published case studies — not from the vendor's own customer list. 1 confirmed, 1 seen in a single source.
By publisher size
By content vertical
Publishers running PublishPress2
- The 19thSMB· Law, Gov't & Politics
- Media News GroupEnterprise· News· reported
Cost of ownership
Pricing
Business $149/year (1 site); Agency $299/year (5 sites); Unlimited $499/year.
Pricing unclear for your setup? — we'll make the introduction. Free, and it never affects the score.
Cost data sourced from vendor pricing pages and community signals. Vendors may dispute any factor.
What users say
Users report significant concerns regarding plugin reliability, performance stability, and technical glitches, often noting that the interface feels heavy and difficult to manage within complex professional editorial workflows.
Sources: Reddit 54% · Bluesky 15% · X 15% · Trade press 8% · YouTube 8%
Most discussed
Recent quotes
""I'll show you why I love using PublishPress Revisions to help with ...""
Positive·YouTube
"Using PublishPress Checklists, you can define tasks that must be completed before content is published."
Positive·X
"I've only been encountering issue after issue. Works terrible with other plugins that host content and has issues editing theme/site wide changes."
Negative·Reddit·2mo ago
"I have read the documentation, but I find it confusing because it does not go into detail regarding these terms."
Negative·Reddit·5mo ago
"I've discovered that this widget only recognizes and displays standard WordPress users... while completely ignoring the 'Guest Author' profiles I create with PublishPress."
Negative·Reddit·4y ago
13 mentions from 5 independent sources, each read and scored by our analyser. Mentions we could not tie to a real user, and those flagged as promotional, are excluded. Sentiment is opinion, and is independent of the verified publisher adoptions shown above.
The company behind PublishPress
Company facts come from an independent business-data record rather than the vendor's own site.
- Founded
- 2018
- Employees
- 5
- Ownership
- Privately Held
Compare PublishPress
The head-to-heads publishers look at most, then the closest contests in the same benchmark.
FAQ
How is PublishPress scored?
PublishPress scores 3.8 out of 5 in Benchmark Grid's independent Best Editorial Calendar Software benchmark. The overall figure blends capability (45%), publisher fit (40%) and cost of ownership (15%). Capability is itself a weighted average of 10 criteria; the heaviest are planning & scheduling views (14%), editorial workflow & approvals (14%) and collaboration (12%). Vendors cannot pay for a score.
What size publisher is PublishPress built for?
PublishPress is built for small and local publishers and mid-market publishers. That is the vendor's own stated target, and it is one of the inputs to our publisher-fit score — a platform that suits a national newsroom often carries more operational load than a small one can absorb.
What does PublishPress cost?
Business $149/year (1 site); Agency $299/year (5 sites); Unlimited $499/year. Our cost-of-ownership score is 4.7/5, which weighs pricing transparency, entry cost, implementation cost, hidden-fee risk and ongoing cost. Ask the vendor for a written first-year figure that includes implementation before you commit.
Who uses PublishPress?
We have evidenced 2 publishers running PublishPress. Adoptions are detected from site code, ads.txt records and published case studies rather than taken from the vendor's own customer list, and each one is listed on this page.
Can PublishPress pay for a better score?
No. Scores come from our editorial review of the product's documentation, demos and public evidence. A vendor can claim this listing or request a re-review, but nothing they buy changes a score or a position.
Verify a claim
Enter a claim about PublishPress and our AI will check it against the benchmark data on this page. Claims we have already fact-checked are listed below.
3 verifications remaining
Is this your tool? Claim the listing, get your score badge or request a hands-on review. Neither changes the score.
