Better Resource Hints vs Speculative Loading

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

Better Resource Hints

by Alex MacArthur

Health D46

Speculative Loading

by WordPress Performance Team

Health A89

Active-install trajectory

Better Resource Hints Speculative Loading

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	Better Resource Hints	Speculative Loading
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	200–300	70K–80K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	0%	0%
Overall health	D · 46	A · 89 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	78/100	90/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.12★	4.56★ ✓
Reviews	3	18 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	39/100	95/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	Low ✓
Last updated	7.6y ago	5d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	68	37.4K ✓
Category	Performance	Performance

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

Release activity

Better Resource Hints Speculative Loading

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.