Advanced Comments Widget vs Better Recent Comments

Head-to-head on the signals that matter, from the public WordPress.org data.

Advanced Comments Widget

by darrinb

Health D46

Better Recent Comments

by Kestrel

Health C55

Active-install trajectory

Advanced Comments Widget Better Recent Comments

Active installs, each indexed to 100 at the start of the window. A line above 100 is growing its install base, below 100 is shrinking.

Metric	Advanced Comments Widget	Better Recent Comments
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	60–70	2K–3K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-14% ✓	-33%
Overall health	D · 46	C · 55 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	18/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	78/100	87/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.12★	4.42★ ✓
Reviews	3	16 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	36/100	66/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	Elevated ✓
Last updated	10.4y ago	2.4y ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	59	210 ✓
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

✓ marks the stronger plugin on each row. Rows where they're level show no marker.

Release activity

Advanced Comments Widget Better Recent Comments

7-day average daily downloads. Downloads spike for about a week after each release as the install base re-downloads, so read this as release cadence, not growth.