Custom Sidebars vs Content Aware Sidebars

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

Custom Sidebars

by WebFactory

Health A90

Content Aware Sidebars

by Joachim Jensen

Health B82

Active-install trajectory

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

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

Release activity

Custom Sidebars Content Aware 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.