Category Submenu Builder is a WordPress category menu and submenu builder for organizing post categories or WooCommerce product categories into useful navigation structures. Build category menus, nested submenus, mega menus, and category navigation, then display or synchronize them with shortcodes, blocks, widgets, and native WordPress menus.
It is designed for site owners who need a category menu builder for blogs, content sites, and WooCommerce stores without depending on an external service.
Main features
- Create a main category and multiple subcategories in one operation.
- Reorder and manage category groups from a dedicated visual category builder.
- Build WordPress category menus and WooCommerce category navigation with nested submenu structures.
- Category Manager with search, edit, delete, move, duplicate, bulk actions, and recovery snapshots.
- Category analytics and health checks for duplicate names, invalid slugs, orphaned relationships, empty categories, and menu usage.
- Safe repair tools with automatic lightweight backups before selected repairs.
- WooCommerce product category auto-assignment rules based on title, SKU, tags, and configured keywords.
- Product/post count badges with zero-count and placement controls.
- Category display controls for hidden, featured, badge, schedule, SEO title, SEO description, and short description metadata.
- WordPress Appearance > Menus integration with category highlighting, nesting, duplicate cleanup, and menu synchronization.
- Visual Mega Menu settings with columns, images, counts, badges, limits, and hover behavior.
- Smart utilities including shortcode generation, category intelligence, badge suggestions, and one-click storefront setup.
- Storefront layout presets plus a theme compatibility checker.
- Gutenberg blocks and Elementor integration when those editors are available.
- JSON backup/export/import and CSV export.
- CSV, TXT, TSV, and XLSX category import with preview, duplicate handling, rollback, and import history.
- Security Center with upload validation, activity history, permission checks, and plugin file integrity checks.
- Performance tools with local cache management and diagnostics.
- Optional uninstall cleanup. Category/product/post content is preserved; plugin metadata is removed only when the administrator explicitly enables cleanup.
Shortcodes
[wpcb_menu][wpcb_category_grid][wpcb_category_cards][wpcb_featured_categories][wpcb_category_carousel][wpcb_mobile_category_bar][wpcb_mobile_category_drawer][wpcb_category_search][wpcb_mega_menu]
Common options include hide_empty, show_count, depth, columns, limit, show_images, show_badges, style, and icon where supported.
Privacy and external services
The plugin does not send analytics, telemetry, category data, or user data to an external service. Category, menu, backup, diagnostics, and settings operations run on the WordPress site.
Source code
Human-readable PHP and JavaScript are included in the plugin package. Readable source counterparts are also included for minified production assets so the shipped code can be reviewed and maintained.
Screenshots
Builder dashboard for creating a main category, adding subcategories, and arranging the hierarchy for menu sync.
Category Manager for searching, reviewing, moving, duplicating, and managing category records.
Analytics view with category health checks for duplicate names, slugs, orphaned relationships, empty categories, and menu usage.
Backup, import, export, Security Center, Gutenberg, and Elementor integration tools.
Tutorial step 1: Open Category Builder from the WordPress admin menu to begin creating a category structure.
Tutorial step 2: Create the main category that will act as the parent for the submenu group.
Tutorial step 3: Add submenu categories and build the nested hierarchy under the main category.
Tutorial step 4: Save the category structure after reviewing the main category and submenu arrangement.
Tutorial step 5: Add the completed category group to a selected WordPress navigation menu.
Tutorial step 6: Verify the nested menu items in Appearance > Menus and save the menu.