If you didn't like the new Wordpress 5.3 accessibility blue style for the buttons and other parts of the admin UI, this plugin is for you.
As of April 2026, Old Style Admin UI is a WordPress ui plugin with 100 active installations and a 5/5 rating from 9 reviews. It has been downloaded 3.1K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.2.3+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2019. Last updated 6 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Top alternative: Radio Buttons for Taxonomies.
After I updated WordPress to 5.3, I thought something had gone wrong with the update when I saw those borders in the admin area, the blue color of texts on the form elements and the lack of design subtlety of the UI. So I decided to create a plugin that would undo that.
The plugin styles the WordPress 5.3+ admin panel back to how it was before the 5.3 update. So, if you also disliked the vivid blue texts and strong borders of the form elements, like buttons, inputs and selects, or found them to be way too prominent, this back-to-the-good-old-days “legacy” plugin will allow you to update WordPress to 5.3 and benefit from its code updates, while still retaining all of the previous version’s backend UI styles.
Very very lightweight and easy to use.
| WordPress | 4.2.3+ requiredTested up to 5.3.21 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Extended the old style UI to Gutenberg and other common editors. Added compatibility with the Advanced Custom Fields and its recent CSS updates.
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.