Easy External Links vs External Links in New Window / New Tab

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

Easy External Links

by Jorge A. Gonzalez

Health D50

External Links in New Window / New Tab

by WebFactory

Health A88

Active-install trajectory

Easy External Links 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	Easy External Links	External Links in New Window / New Tab
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	300–400	30K–40K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-25%	0% ✓
Overall health	D · 50	A · 88 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	89/100 ✓	87/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.53★ ✓	4.44★
Reviews	16	77 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	42/100	97/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	Low ✓
Last updated	10.5y ago	14d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	126	1.8K ✓
Category	SEO	Uncategorized

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

Release activity

Easy External Links 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.