With 2023 quickly approaching, I decided to take a look at the free WordPress plugins that were released in the official WordPress.org repository in the last 12 months. Is there any useful information that we can learn from? Let’s find out.
I have a similar analysis of the Top WordPress Themes Released in 2022 on WordPress.org.
DISCLAIMER: This post was initially published with data that included plugins released in 2021 and 2022. The numbers have been corrected ~45 minutes after publication.
If you like this type of content, you might like my Youtube channel.
1. Data set
A few things before we look at the data.
- The data set includes a total of 4,195 plugins that went live in the repository between December 1st 2021 and December 1st 2022.
- All the data was pulled from wordpress.org/plugins/ on the 7th of December 2022.
2. WordPress Plugins Sorted by Active Installations
- All 4,195 plugins are active on 1,032,100+ websites;
- Only 7 plugins are active on more than 50,000 websites;
- Only 104 plugins are active on more than 1,000 websites;
- 1,219 plugins (29%) have never been updated and are active on 28,290+ websites (2.75%).
16 out of the top 104 plugins have WooCommerce in their name.
4 out of the top 104 plugins have Elementor in their name.
3. WordPress Plugins Sorted by Ratings (Reviews)
- 3,018 plugins (71.94%) have zero ratings and are active on 160,580+ websites (15.55%);
- The other 1,177 plugins have collected a total of 3,258 ratings;
- 647 plugins (15.4%) have only one rating.
| Rating | Ratings | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 2,965 | 91.01% | |
| 78 | 2.39% | |
| 39 | 1.20% | |
| 39 | 1.20% | |
| 137 | 4.21% | |
| Total | 3,258 | |
4. WordPress Plugins Sorted by Support Threads
- 1,634 support threads were created in the last 2 months.
5. WordPress Plugin Authors and Developers
- These 4,195 plugins were uploaded in 2022 by 3,139 authors;
- 11 authors have uploaded 10 or more plugins;
- 53 authors have uploaded 5 or more plugins.
| # | Author | Plugins | Actives | Actives per plugin | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bPlugins LLC | 36 | 13,670 | 380 | 46 |
| 2 | silverplugins217 | 21 | 1,680 | 80 | 25 |
| 3 | Jose Mortellaro | 20 | 1,850 | 93 | 21 |
| 4 | miniOrange | 17 | 1,000 | 59 | 17 |
| 5 | howdytheme | 15 | 150 | 10 | 2 |
| 6 | Benjamin Hagh Parast | 15 | 120 | 8 | 16 |
| 7 | 凹凸曼 | 14 | 140 | 10 | 0 |
| 8 | GamiPress | 12 | 270 | 23 | 0 |
| 9 | Michael Gangolf | 12 | 140 | 12 | 2 |
| 10 | RebrandPress | 10 | 150 | 15 | 1 |
| 11 | WPClever | 10 | 1,410 | 141 | 12 |
| 12 | Liana Technologies Oy | 9 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| 13 | IT Path Solutions | 9 | 440 | 49 | 7 |
| 14 | VillaTheme | 9 | 6,640 | 738 | 20 |
| 15 | heiblack | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | GrandPlugins | 8 | 230 | 29 | 3 |
| 17 | ExpressTech Softwares Solutions Pvt Ltd | 8 | 140 | 18 | 6 |
| 18 | Zakaria Binsaifullah | 8 | 470 | 59 | 7 |
| 19 | Geek Code Lab | 8 | 1,800 | 225 | 9 |
| 20 | dmitrylitvinov | 8 | 790 | 99 | 11 |
| 21 | Bowo | 8 | 390 | 49 | 20 |
| 22 | LWS | 7 | 15,500 | 2,214 | 0 |
| 23 | ExpressTech | 7 | 520 | 74 | 1 |
| 24 | WeCodeFuture | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 25 | Automattic | 7 | 48,300 | 6,900 | 15 |
| 26 | Phi Phan | 7 | 350 | 50 | 19 |
| Author | Plugins | Actives | Actives per plugin | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EverPress | 2 | 80,500 | 40,250 | 58 |
| Automattic | 7 | 48,300 | 6,900 | 15 |
| ThemeHunk | 2 | 11,000 | 5,500 | 0 |
| Bosa Themes | 1 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 0 |
| WPBlockArt | 2 | 7,200 | 3,600 | 8 |
| TTCK Team | 2 | 6,050 | 3,025 | 0 |
| WPZOOM | 4 | 10,510 | 2,628 | 2 |
| LWS | 7 | 15,500 | 2,214 | 0 |
| ThimPress | 2 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 1 |
| Gradient Themes | 2 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 0 |
| 果果开发 | 4 | 6,480 | 1,620 | 1 |
| Pexle Chris, Theo Gkitsos | 2 | 2,300 | 1,150 | 12 |
| Spicethemes | 4 | 4,300 | 1,075 | 0 |
| The African Boss | 2 | 2,100 | 1,050 | 5 |
| Softices | 2 | 2,020 | 1,010 | 4 |
| RelyWP | 3 | 3,010 | 1,003 | 37 |
| Jordy Meow | 3 | 3,010 | 1,003 | 37 |
| EnvoThemes | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 |
| Desertthemes | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 |
| DHL Parcel | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 |
| 51.la | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 |
6. Top Words in Plugin Names
- woocommerce – 608
- payment – 150
- block – 150
- gateway – 145
- elementor – 122
- form – 108
- product – 107
- post – 83
- contact – 82
- simple – 80
- login – 72
- custom – 70
- integration – 69
- builder – 68
- easy – 65
- image – 62
- page – 61
- forms – 57
- blocks – 57
- widget – 54
- checkout – 51
- user – 50
- manager – 49
- admin – 49
- cart – 48
- video – 48
- shipping – 47
- google – 46
- email – 46
- editor – 44
- your – 43
- slider – 42
- content – 41
- pay – 40
- button – 40
- posts – 39
- order – 38
- payments – 37
- social – 36
- gutenberg – 35
- chat – 35
- addons – 35
- search – 34
- menu – 34
- seo – 34
- add – 33
- free – 32
- ultimate – 31
- products – 30
- auto – 30
- code – 29
- embed – 29
- calculator – 29
- disable – 28
- api – 28
- generator – 27
- lite – 27
- advanced – 27
- addon – 26
- images – 26
- live – 25
- gallery – 25
- hide – 25
In Conclusion
This post is somewhat related to WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022 published by Alex Denning of Ellipsis Marketing on October 18th, 2022.
Let me know if you are interested in a similar summary about the plugins published in 2020 or 2021.
1 Comment
Hey, that’s actually a smart analysis. Well done! And yes I would be very interested a similar report for plugins that have been released in 2021.
Best Regards,
Daniel