top-10-wp-plugins is a project by me Herb Miller: @bobbingwide on WordPress.
I currently use it to summarise the Top N plugins that satisfy a particular search criteria.
The most basic query is to see which plugins have been downloaded most times. It just so happens that in October 2012 the Top 12 plugins all exceeded 30 million downloads.
In June 2024 there were 15 that have exceeded 100 million downloads.
Total plugins: 59876
Limit reached: 15 at 15| Position | Plugin | Total downloads | Active | Star Rating | Tested up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yoast SEO | 840692584 | 10000000 | 4.8 | 6.8.2 |
| 2 | Elementor | 671029091 | 10000000 | 4.5 | 6.8.2 |
| 3 | Jetpack | 458196840 | 4000000 | 3.7 | 6.8.2 |
| 4 | WooCommerce | 396853584 | 7000000 | 4.5 | 6.8.2 |
| 5 | Contact Form 7 | 386971137 | 10000000 | 4 | 6.8.2 |
| 6 | Wordfence Security | 384770970 | 5000000 | 4.7 | 6.8.2 |
| 7 | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection | 372087538 | 6000000 | 4.7 | 6.8.2 |
| 8 | WPForms Lite | 285892034 | 6000000 | 4.8 | 6.8.2 |
| 9 | Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights | 232594658 | 2000000 | 4.6 | 6.8.2 |
| 10 | Site Kit by Google | 198421544 | 5000000 | 4.2 | 6.8.2 |
| 11 | Really Simple Security | 185219776 | 4000000 | 4.9 | 6.8.2 |
| 12 | All in One SEO | 184217796 | 3000000 | 4.7 | 6.8.2 |
| 13 | All-in-One WP Migration and Backup | 159257283 | 5000000 | 4.5 | 6.8.2 |
| 14 | UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore | 143032656 | 3000000 | 4.8 | 6.8.2 |
| 15 | Rank Math SEO | 141587987 | 3000000 | 4.9 | 6.8.2 |
| 15 | TOTALS | 5040825478 |
The data source used for the figures shown on the top n tables is a post processed extract of all the plugins on wordpress.org at a point in time.
I use a plugin called wp-top12 to perform the extract, summarise the data and then do a bit of analysis. The plugin is developed and run locally.
The routine that performs the extract and then produces the summary reports is called downloads.php. It’s a batch process, run from the command line, using bobbingwide/oik-batch, which is similar to WP-CLI.
The source is available at bobbingwide/wp-top12.
The summary file ( wporg_plugins.csv ) is generated by the downloads.php process and used by the [wp-top12] shortcode.
History
I probably wrote the first version of the plugin in August 2012, for the WordPress Portsmouth Meetup. I was learning about the WordPress API.
Early in 2015, I developed a number of subroutines to help compare the performance of different hosting solutions.
In the Christmas/New Year period of 2015/2016 I added bits to the plugin to Measure the effect on server response of the Top 12 WordPress plugins.
I never published the results, but I did learn quite a bit about plugins that think they own WordPress and that the only reason for the website was to allow them to hog the resources.
It was during this period that I published the first version of Twelve plugins of WordPress in December 2015.
I repeated my performance experiments in 2016/2017, with new versions of WordPress, PHP and the top 12 plugins. bobbingwide/wp-top12.
This year, 2019, I decided to resurrect the plugin, with the intention of actually publishing the results of the analysis. I haven’t done that yet. I got a bit distracted;
- updating this website
- adding the <span>[</span>wp-top12] shortcode to display a variety of top n queries
- trying to find plugins which deliver WordPress blocks for my WordPress block reference
- semi-automating the creation of the summary reports, which I run every now and then.
- and writing the latest version of Twelve plugins of WordPress – December 2019
… to be continued
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Herb
