When to use is_home() vs is_front_page()?

Question

I've found that is_front_page appears to return true when I'm viewing the home page and have a single sticky post assigned there.

It also returns true when I've assigned a page as the static front page via Settings > Reading.

Why would I ever want to use is_home()?

Answer 1

is_front_page() returns true if the user is on the page or page of posts that is set to the front page on Settings->Reading->Your homepage displays

So if you set about us as the front page then this conditional will only be true if showing the about us page.

is_home() return true when on the posts list page, This is usually the page that shows the latest 10 posts.

If the settings under Your homepage displays are left at default then the home page will return true for both is_front_page() and is_home()

An example of using is_home():

• You have set your posts page to a page called News.
• A user navigates there and in the header you want to show additional navigation
• You could use is_home() to do this.

Answer 2

I've discovered that is_home() and is_front_page() don't deliver what's expected for multisites. My workaround using built in PHP goodies:

if($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] == '/') {
    // you must be on the home page
}

As mentioned in the comments, this approach will not work for WP instances installed in subdirectories of the web root. Use at your discretion.

Answer 3

You'd want to use is_home() when you want to check if the user is viewing your list of blog posts (usually set to display 10 posts per page). If you have a home.php file in your theme, that will be displayed when the is_home() condition is true.

The following can possibly remove some confusion as well: when is_front_page() and is_home() conditions, both are true, the template front-page.php will be used instead of home.php.