Custom Dashboard Help Widget vs Dashboard Notepad

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

Custom Dashboard Help Widget

by Jo Landers

Health D47

Dashboard Notepad

by Stephanie Leary

Health D47

Active-install trajectory

Custom Dashboard Help Widget Dashboard Notepad

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	Custom Dashboard Help Widget	Dashboard Notepad
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	800–900	10K–20K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-11%	0% ✓
Overall health	D · 47	D · 47
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	3/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	81/100	82/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.21★	4.24★ ✓
Reviews	6	12 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	36/100	36/100
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	High
Last updated	12.5y ago	9.1y ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	117	271 ✓
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

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

Release activity

Custom Dashboard Help Widget Dashboard Notepad

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.