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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.

External Links in New Window / New Tab is the safest pick: health A · 88 against 50 for Open Links In New Tab, led by lower removal risk.

Active-install trajectory

Open Links In New Tab moved down one install band, 900+ to 800+. That's a single step across the whole window, so there's no trajectory to draw. The download trend below moves daily.

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 ✓
Active installs, change over ~6 months Compares the public install bands. One band step shows as the band change, not a percentage.	-11%	Stable ✓
Overall health	D · 50	A · 88 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	15/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	76/100	87/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (weighted for review count)	4.0★	4.4★ ✓
Reviews	6	77 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	56/100	97/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Elevated	Low ✓
Last updated	2.6y ago	3mo ago ✓
Downloads, last 30d	174	2.2K ✓
Download momentum, last 30d vs prior 30d Dips that follow a release spike are normal: wp.org counts every update as a download, so the weeks after a release run lower.	+29%	+22%
Install conversion Active installs over lifetime downloads. Downloads include every update, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower.	6.6% ✓	6.0%
Category	Uncategorized	Uncategorized

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

Release activity

Open Links In New TabExternal 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.