Migrate an Abandoned Amazon Affiliate Plugin in WordPress

You open an old review to fix a typo and the product box is an empty frame. Or WordPress.org now shows a yellow notice on the plugin your commissions run through. Either way you're asking the same thing: do you need to migrate your Amazon affiliate plugin, and how do you do it in WordPress without losing years of links?

Affiliate plugins go quiet all the time, and the gap between "no new features" and "broken" can be years. This guide covers how to tell which one you have, what actually fails, and how to move your ASINs to a new plugin without editing every post by hand.

Every plugin status here was read on WordPress.org or the vendor's own site on October 20, 2026. These pages change, so check again before you act.

How to tell whether an Amazon affiliate plugin is still maintained

Start with the plugin's WordPress.org page, then the vendor's changelog. Some signals settle the question. Others only tell you where to look.

Signals that settle it

• A closed notice. WordPress.org shows the closure date and a reason, such as Author Request or Security Issue. A closed plugin can't be downloaded from WordPress.org or installed from your admin (developer FAQ).
• A readme that says the plugin is unsupported. Authors can't pause a listing, and the same FAQ tells the author of an unsupported plugin to say so in the readme.
• A statement or changelog entry from the vendor.

Signals that are only evidence

The warning that a plugin "hasn't been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress" comes from one readme field, Tested up to. Authors can update it without shipping code, and WordPress.org emails them before every major release asking them to (alerts and warnings). So a plugin can carry the warning and work fine, or lack it and still fail against Amazon.

Here's how a maintained plugin can end up with the warning. Affiliate Super Assistent shipped an update on August 30, 2026, and its readme says tested up to WordPress 6.9. Once 7.2 is out, 6.9 leaves the three-release window, and a recently updated plugin would get the warning unless that readme line is bumped.

An old "Requires PHP" number proves nothing either. It's the oldest version the author supports, not a claim about PHP 8.

What actually breaks, and when

A plugin that stops getting features has no new releases. That's frustrating but rarely urgent. A plugin that stops working has a specific cause, and each cause looks different on the page.

What survives a migration, and what doesn't

Your ASIN list is the asset. The shortcodes wrapped around it belong to the old plugin and leave with it.

Comes with you

• ASINs. An ASIN is Amazon's product ID. It sits in your posts as plain text inside shortcode attributes, block attributes or URLs, and any plugin built on the Creators API can fetch the same product by it.
• Your Associate tag. It belongs to your Associates account, not to the plugin, and Amazon pays on links that carry it. Enter it in the new plugin's settings before anything goes live.

Stays behind

• Shortcodes. If the plugin that registered a shortcode is inactive, WordPress prints the shortcode as text. The do_shortcode() reference warns about exactly this.
• Blocks. For a block from a removed plugin, the editor says your site "doesn't include support for" it and offers to leave it, convert it to custom HTML, or remove it. Amazon Associates Link Builder shipped a block, so its former users can run into this.
• Cached prices and images. Amazon's policies don't allow storing product images, only links to them for up to 24 hours, and other product content can be cached for up to 24 hours before it has to be refreshed. Don't export old prices or re-host images. Let the new plugin fetch them.
• Settings, templates and click history. These live in the old plugin's own tables, and whether they export depends on the vendor. Some vendors build importers for specific plugins: AAWP's changelog lists a "Lasso Migration" in version 5.0.6.

How to migrate your Amazon affiliate plugin in WordPress

Use a staging copy if your host offers one. Either way, go in this order.

1. Back up. Tools > Export gives you a WXR file of posts, pages and custom fields (export docs). Take a full database backup from your host as well.
2. Find every post that uses the old plugin. With WP-CLI on WordPress 6.2 or later you can search post content directly:

   wp post list --post_type=any --s='old_box' --search_columns=post_content --fields=ID,post_title

   No WP-CLI? Type the old shortcode name into the search box on Posts > All Posts, then on Pages > All Pages; WordPress searches post content as well as titles.
3. List the ASINs. Copy them out of the shortcode attributes or Amazon URLs into a spreadsheet, next to the post each one came from.
4. Install the new plugin and connect it. Add your Associate tag and the Amazon connection before you touch any content.
5. Rewrite the shortcodes. WP-CLI's search-replace takes a regex and a --dry-run flag. Run the dry run, check the count, then run it for real:

   wp search-replace '\[old_box asin="([A-Z0-9]{10})"' '[psfa_product_box asin="\1"' --regex --dry-run

   Swap old_box for your old shortcode's name and match the pattern to how it writes the ASIN. If the old shortcode has a closing tag, remove that too. For blocks, the ASIN is in the block's markup; replace each block with a Shortcode block. Other attributes stay in place, and PaapiPlugin's box shortcode ignores ones it doesn't recognize (it reads only asin, style, button and nocache). No WP-CLI on your host? Ask support to run it, or edit posts in batches using the list from step 3.
6. Check the tag. On a few live pages, hover a product button or view the page source, and confirm the Amazon link carries tag= with your ID. Check the link rather than clicking it. To see the product page, open the bare amazon.com/dp/ URL for that ASIN.
7. Spot-check the front end. Look for raw shortcode text, missing-block placeholders and empty boxes. If an old ASIN no longer returns a product, swap in a current one.
8. Remove the old plugin. Once no post uses its shortcodes or blocks, deactivate and delete it, especially if WordPress.org closed it for a security issue.

Where to go next: several honest options

Any of these can be the right home. Look for one that's updated recently and tested against current WordPress, and that works from the ASINs you already have. As of October 20, 2026 (these are update dates; confirm each one's Creators API support with the vendor):

• AAWP, sold on its own site. Its changelog entry for 5.1.0, dated September 3, 2026, lists WordPress 7.1 compatibility and a Creators API SDK update.
• AffiliateX: updated October 6, 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.1.3.
• Content Egg (free version): updated September 23, 2026, tested up to 7.1.3.
• Lasso Lite, Lasso's free WordPress.org plugin: updated October 8, 2026, tested up to 7.1.3.
• PaapiPlugin: updated October 18, 2026, tested up to 7.1.3. That's us, so read the next section with that in mind.

Where PaapiPlugin fits

PaapiPlugin does the work affiliates use the plugins above for, with product boxes and comparison tables (paid add-ons) and product grids, and it adds live Amazon search on your own pages.

You can start on the Managed API, with no credentials needed yet. Setup is your Associate tag and an email address. Your tag goes on every product link on the way out, and we never add our own. When you have your own Creators API credentials, connect them and carry on.

Two trade-offs to know about. On the Managed API, search cards and product boxes don't show a price or stock level. The button sends visitors to Amazon, which shows the live price. With your own Creators API credentials, prices and availability display. Managed covers 9 Amazon stores: US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan and Australia. India and Sweden work with your own credentials.

[psfa_product_box asin="B09XS7JWHH"]

The free version is on WordPress.org and includes 600 Managed API searches a month, 20 a day. Premium is $39 a year for one site, $69 for three and $99 for unlimited sites. Product Boxes and Comparison Tables are $19 a year each, need Premium, and cover all of a license's sites.

Frequently asked questions