Extend WordPress beyond hooks with Amender

Can’t find a WordPress hook? Amender has you covered.

When themes and plugins don’t give you the filter you need, Amender lets you apply changes directly to the final output, visually or with code.

WordPress has always been pluggable.

Hooks and filters are at the heart of how developers extend WordPress. They provide powerful ways to inject or modify behavior at specific points during WordPress’s execution. But while this system is flexible, it has notable limitations:

• Hooks must be intentionally provided by core or plugin developers.
• Filters operate on data before rendering, not the final HTML output.
• They’re inaccessible to most users who aren’t developers.

What if any HTML element on the page could behave like a hook?

Introducing Amender’s Universal Output Hooks

Amender is a content editor for WordPress that applies changes after the page has been fully generated. These edits can run either:

• Server-side, before the HTML is sent to the browser
• Client-side, after page load or in response to user interactions

Rather than relying on predefined PHP hooks, Amender uses familiar CSS selectors to target the final output. For example:

{
  "selector": "h2.testimonial-author",
  "action": "replace",
  "aspect": "text",
  "value": "Jane Smith",
  "event": "serverHTMLReady"
}

This is conceptually similar to:

add_filter('testimonial_author', function() {
    return 'Jane Smith';
});

Except in this case, the original plugin didn’t provide a hook. Amender steps in to give you the control that filters could have enabled, but often don’t.

It effectively turns the rendered page into a hookable interface.

Why Filters Fall Short in Practice

WordPress recommends that plugin authors use apply_filters() for any text that gets output to the frontend. But in reality, many authors skip this when focussing on core functionality (understandably so).

This leaves many site builders stuck:

• Editing plugin files directly (discouraged)
• Writing brittle JavaScript overrides
• Searching for workarounds in support forums

Amender eliminates this frustration by giving you post-render control. It doesn’t care how the content was generated, only what ends up in the final DOM.

Flexible, Safe, and Reversible

• All changes are applied at run time, just like traditional hooks.
• So if you remove an Amender change, the original content is restored.
• You can preview edits (for free) without publishing them
• A detailed review panel shows every change and overall performance impact
• Every change is fully undoable, with revision history
• You only pay for Amender when you publish your changes

More Than Text Replacements

Amender isn’t just for quick tweaks. It supports:

• Server-side HTML modifications to ensure SEO and accessibility
• Client-side logic for click, scroll, hover, and other browser events
• Structured edit commands e.g. replace: innerHTML, run: function, remove: class
• Tailwind, Alpine.js, GSAP, Three.js and other NPM packages
• Dynamic script loading for atomic, bloat-free performance

You can:

• Customize block editor and page builder elements
• Customize static PHP content in themes and plugins
• Remove/insert/update HTML
• Add or update CSS classes
• Attach event-driven JavaScript functions
• Trigger animations or track user interactions
• Lazyload anything to speed up initial page load
• And much much more…

Like a Universal Child Theme… for the Modern Stack

Traditional child themes work at the template level. But many modern WordPress setups use builders, block editors, and third-party plugins that dynamically generate content in ways child themes can’t easily override.

Amender operates after the page is assembled, making it ideal for these modern workflows. It fills in the customization gaps that hooks and filters don’t cover.

Want to learn more?

Amender overview

Whether you’re a site owner looking for point-and-click control or a developer solving edge cases, Amender gives you the tools to truly own your site output. No more waiting on plugin updates or resorting to hacks.