Friends Link Widget vs Custom Link Widget

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

Friends Link Widget

by M A Vinoth Kumar

Health D45

Custom Link Widget

by pankajbiswas

Health D43

Active-install trajectory

Friends Link Widget Custom Link Widget

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	Friends Link Widget	Custom Link Widget
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	500–600	1K–2K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-17%	0% ✓
Overall health	D · 45 ✓	D · 43
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	3/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	74/100 ✓	70/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	3.98★ ✓	3.83★
Reviews	1	7 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	37/100 ✓	34/100
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	High
Last updated	9.5y ago	8.8y ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	85	148 ✓
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

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

Release activity

Friends Link Widget Custom Link Widget

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.