Black Bar vs BlackBox Debug Bar

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

Black Bar

by Gemini Labs

Health A86

BlackBox Debug Bar

by Greg Winiarski

Health D48

Active-install trajectory

Black Bar BlackBox Debug Bar

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	Black Bar	BlackBox Debug Bar
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	500–600 ✓	90–100
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-29%	0% ✓
Overall health	A · 86 ✓	D · 48
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	98/100 ✓	3/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	85/100 ✓	83/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.37★ ✓	4.29★
Reviews	9	15 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	91/100 ✓	33/100
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Low ✓	High
Last updated	3mo ago ✓	13.5y ago
Downloads · 30d	554 ✓	76
Category	Uncategorized	Uncategorized

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

Release activity

Black Bar BlackBox Debug Bar

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.