News vs Custom News Widget

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

Health D46

Health D44

Active-install trajectory

Custom News Widget moved down one install band, 20+ to 10+. That's a single step across the whole window, so there's no trajectory to draw. The download trend below moves daily.

Metric	News	Custom News Widget
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	100–200 ✓	10–20
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	0% ✓	-50%
Overall health	D · 46 ✓	D · 44
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	3/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	78/100 ✓	72/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (weighted for review count)	4.1★ ✓	3.9★
Reviews	3 ✓	1
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	45/100 ✓	37/100
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Elevated ✓	High
Last updated	4.1y ago ✓	8.6y ago
Downloads · 30d	235 ✓	38
Install conversion Active installs over lifetime downloads. Downloads include every update, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower.	0.5% ✓	0.4%
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

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

Release activity

NewsCustom News 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.