Whenever we read or visit any blog post we try to check who has written the post. This is usually to give authority to any post.
It is also to give a personal touch to your post because in a big WordPress site like Mashable there are many authors. Hence it is important people know who the author of that post is.
Also if they like they can follow their favourite authors in different platforms like facebook, twitter etc.
Below are some of the plugins which we have used and found good:
1. Fancier Author Box by ThematoSoup
Fancier Author Box has a nice snippet about author and a profile pic/gravatar. Also listed are the authors social networking sites. So basically one may follow the author on those social sites. Also listed are few latest posts of the author.
Best part about Fancier Author Box is that it also allows for Google+ and automatic Google Authorship Verification.
Download or More info about this plugin
2. Starbox the Author Box for humans
Starbox for humans as the name suggests makes it easy for authors to engage with their site visitors by adding an author box at the end of the posts.
Additional advantage of Starbox is that it provides both google authorship as well as facebook authorship.
One can also place author box under the post title.
3. WP Author Box Lite
Very similar to Fancier Author Box in terms of working but this one is responsive. Author Box Lite gives more options to its users than Fancier. It also has Google Authorship as well as social networking site links. Recently author of this plugin updated the plugin and added Facebook Authorship as well.
More tabs on this plugin are paid apart from the latest posts.
More info about this plugin and download link
4. Author Box after Posts
Author box after posts is toned down and simple to use than the above three. All you need to do is install this plugin and use it to display your gravatar as well as social links which you enter in your profile. It increases the number of links to 10 inside profile tab. It however doesn’t offer Google Authorship. It is compatible upto WordPress 3.8.
5. DT Author Box
DT Author box again is a toned down plugin used to just add author profile under posts. It allows for adding a few social links and bio and gravatar of author. Disadvantage is that it doesn’t provide google authorship.
Advantage is it provides support for other few languages like German, Spanish, French etc. However one can use other plugins mentioned above as well with different languages.
6. WP Biographia
WP Biographia is yet another plugin doing the same thing. However the plugin offers inclusion or exclusion based on pages, posts, archives and category pages.
It doesn’t provide google authorship.
7. Social Author Bio
Social author bio is comparable to fancier author box and has more or less the same features. However social author bio offers HTML content area for bio of authors which very few other plugins provide so this is one major advantage of using Social Author Bio.
Provides Google Authorship.
Download and more info about this plugin
8. Custom About Author
Custom About Author is updated only upto 3.5.2. However for simple blog users who don’t want much settings this runs fine. However doesn’t provide any such extra features which other plugins provide.
Google authorship is missing.
9. WP About Author
Simple plugin with 3 styles, and 3 borders to choose from. Popular social links and bio can be displayed. No other fancy features.
10. Author Box Plugin With Different Description
As the name suggests if as per posts or categories you want your own author bio to be displayed but with different description this plugin comes very handy.
Simple plugin altogether however no other features other than this. Social icon links are also given. HTML editor, Google Authorship are missing.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a author plugin with google and facebook authorship then Starbox as well as WP Author Box Lite plugin comes handy. However if you are only looking for Google authorship then: Social Author Bio, and Fancier Author Box are the ones to be considered.