Open Links In New Tab vs External Links in New Window / New Tab

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

Open Links In New Tab

by Reza Khan

Health D51

External Links in New Window / New Tab

by WebFactory

Health A88

Active-install trajectory

Open Links In New Tab External Links in New Window / New Tab

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	Open Links In New Tab	External Links in New Window / New Tab
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	800–900	30K–40K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-20%	0% ✓
Overall health	D · 51	A · 88 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	18/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	76/100	87/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.04★	4.44★ ✓
Reviews	6	77 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	63/100	97/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Elevated	Low ✓
Last updated	2.4y ago	12d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	109	1.9K ✓
Category	Uncategorized	Uncategorized

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

Release activity

Open Links In New Tab External Links in New Window / New Tab

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.