Content Aware Sidebars vs Custom Sidebars

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

Content Aware Sidebars

by Joachim Jensen

Health B82

Custom Sidebars

by WebFactory

Health A90

Active-install trajectory

Content Aware Sidebars Custom Sidebars

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	Content Aware Sidebars	Custom Sidebars
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	30K–40K	100K–200K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	0%	0%
Overall health	B · 82	A · 90 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	77/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	97/100 ✓	93/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.87★ ✓	4.69★
Reviews	724	1,028 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	81/100	99/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Low	Low
Last updated	9mo ago	9d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	2.2K	4.8K ✓
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

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

Release activity

Content Aware Sidebars Custom Sidebars

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.