Simple Taxonomy Ordering vs Custom Meta Widget

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

Simple Taxonomy Ordering

by Evan Herman

Health D52

Custom Meta Widget

by Luke Mlsna

Health D51

Active-install trajectory

Simple Taxonomy Ordering Custom Meta 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	Simple Taxonomy Ordering	Custom Meta Widget
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	10K–20K ✓	7K–8K
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-50%	-13% ✓
Overall health	D · 52 ✓	D · 51
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	6/100 ✓	3/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	91/100	91/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.60★ ✓	4.59★
Reviews	28 ✓	23
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	61/100 ✓	46/100
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Elevated ✓	High
Last updated	3.4y ago ✓	8.6y ago
Downloads · 30d	6.8K ✓	227
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

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

Release activity

Simple Taxonomy Ordering Custom Meta 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.