When doing WordPress website maintenance and management, you will work with additional plugins besides the WP core plugins. These extra, contributed, and third-party WordPress plugins are powerful and useful, but some display persistent notifications, upsell prompts, or promotional banners in the admin dashboard. While some notices are important (security warnings, update alerts), others are purely promotional and can be distracting (and sometimes annoying).

While we all need to put food on the table ☺, when all of these notices are enabled, the dashboard interface can become too messy and inefficient. We can always show our appreciation by directly going to the developers' websites and showing support by purchasing or donating.

This guide will show you safe ways to hide or manage unwanted plugin notifications without losing visibility of critical messages.

Why plugin notifications, alerts, and messages appear

WordPress plugins can display messages using the built-in admin_notices or all_admin_notices hooks. These notices may include:

• Security or error alerts
• Update reminders
• Upgrade-to-Pro promotions
• Review requests or announcements

While essential alerts should be kept, persistent marketing messages can be hidden for a cleaner workspace.

Option 1 - Use a WordPress notifications management plugin (recommended for most users)

If you're not comfortable editing code, a notice management plugin is the easiest option. These plugins let you dismiss or hide unwanted notices.

Popular options:

• Disable WP Notification - Highly recommended by the WordPress community, as of to date. Disables specific WordPress notifications.
• Disable Admin Notices - Removes admin notices and updates from the dashboard.
• Hide Admin Notices - Moves notices to a separate page.
• WP Hide Backed Notices - Hides backend admin notices to keep the dashboard clean.

Steps:

1. Install and activate the plugin.
2. Follow its instructions to hide or dismiss unwanted messages.
3. Keep security and update notices visible for site health.

Option 2 - Hide WP plugin messages with custom CSS

You can add a small snippet of CSS to your WordPress admin area to visually hide certain notices.

add_action('admin_head', function () {
    echo '<style>
        .notice, .update-nag, .notice-warning, .notice-info, .notice-success, .notice-error {
            display: none !important;
        }
    </style>';
});

Where to add:

• In your theme's functions.php file (preferably a child theme), or
• In a custom functionality plugin.

Note: This hides all notices, including important ones, so use with caution.

Option 3 - Remove WP plugin alerts from specific WordPress plugins

If you know which plugin is creating the notice, you can remove its specific action hook.

add_action('admin_init', function () {
    remove_action('admin_notices', 'example_plugin_promo_notice');
});

To find the exact function name, check the plugin's PHP files for add_action('admin_notices', ...).

Option 4 - Hide notices for certain user roles

If you want administrators to see notices but hide them from editors or authors:

add_action('admin_head', function () {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        echo '<style>.notice, .update-nag { display:none !important; }</style>';
    }
});

Check WordPress plugin settings first

Some popular plugins include a setting to disable promotional messages:

• Elementor: Settings → Advanced → Hide Pro Upgrade Messages
• Yoast SEO: General → Features → Notifications Center
• WooCommerce: Help → Remove Marketplace Suggestions

Always check the plugin's own settings before resorting to custom code.

Best practices

• Do not hide all notices blindly - keep important updates and security alerts visible.
• Always check for security notices from the dashboard backend, as these notices often provide important updates. This is a notification icon shown at the very top toolbar of your dashboard as part of WordPress core. You may also directly access from these URLs:
  • /wp-admin/update-core.php
  • /wp-admin/update-core.php?action=do-plugin-upgrade
• Test changes in a staging site before applying them to a live site.
• Regularly check the "hidden" notices section if using a notice manager plugin.

By managing plugin notifications, you can maintain a clean, distraction-free WP dashboard while still keeping your WordPress website secure and up to date.