Admin Color Schemes
by Helen Hou-Sandi · Uncategorized
Also makes 5 other plugins · 5.8K+ installs across the portfolio →
Bring some personality to your WordPress site with extra admin color schemes.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 50/100
Stale · Likely abandoned
Active installs
4K+
≈4.5K estimated
Momentum
+41%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: Update recency scores 5/100. Last updated 1735 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
50 health vs 58 average across 25,738 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →6.5%
of downloads still active
At least 4K of 61.1K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,770 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
Removal-risk signals
53/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Long abandoned. No update in 4+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Falling behind WordPress. Tested up to WordPress 5.9.20.
Details
Recent review vibe
read from the latest 12 reviews to 2022-09-06Reviewers like how the extra schemes make it easy to tell sites apart at a glance, though a few want a color picker for custom brand colors and one wonders whether it's still maintained.
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Under-optimized
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 1735 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 5.9.20; the current branch is 6.8
4.8★ over 26 reviews, smoothed to 4.34★
0 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 1735 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 450 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
wp.org popularity rank over time · lower is better
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
Health trend
Composite health score, snapshotted daily
Update activity
How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
4.8y ago
latest release · v3.0.0 · 31 Jan 2022
2
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 78% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “4K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 18 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.
Install history since 1 May 2018
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ grrog4.2y ago
Excellent for quickly differentiating the different states of the site (production, experimental and under development)!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ lausianne6.4y ago
My misconception, probably, but I thought this was for creating my own color scheme. Just adding a few additional presets, I don’t see the point, sorry. The only reason for me to change the color scheme would be to set it to the website brand colors. So if there were a thousand additional presets, there would still hardly be one that matches any of my clients colors …
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Knut Sparhell8.0y ago
A plugin all should have. Combine with “Default Admin Color Scheme” plugin.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ morespinach9.7y ago
Far simpler and cleaner than many “admin theme” plugins out there. Gorgeous, thank you!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Randall Camacho9.8y ago
i hope it is maintained 🙁 over 1 year and no updates
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ klewis10.0y ago
This is a future request for the possibility of adding a color picker tool, to allow admin users to create their own 5 color combination schemes. Great plugin, but would love to brand the admin with colors I want to use. Is this possible?
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Kyle Bondo10.1y ago
Simple. Easy. Works! You cannot ask more from a plugin!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Robert Noakes10.3y ago
Now I’m hooked on Aubergine. 🙂
Read on wp.org ↗
Latest updates
via wp.org changelogRecent releases and news for this plugin
- — Version 3.0.0 New scheme — “Modern Evergreen” theme, inspired by the WordPress 5.9 release art. New feature — Style the editor to match the selected color scheme. Update Sass files to match core changes from 5.5 – 5.9: Buttons styled 3.0.0
- — Version 2.3 Add new “Adderley” theme, inspired by the WordPress 5.4 release art. Add new “Kirk” theme, inspired by the WordPress 5.3 release art. Add new “Contrast Blue” theme, a light color scheme with high contrast text. Update Sa 2.3
- — Version 2.2 Update Sass files to match 4.4 core changes: new button styles, remove jQuery UI styles, more updates to menu focus styles. 2.2
- — Version 2.1 Update Sass files to match 4.3 core changes: touch & keyboard focus styles for admin bar, TinyMCE buttons, remove thickbox plugin styles. Update grunt tasks & packages. 2.1
- — Version 2.0 Update Sass files to match 4.1 core changes: Adds support for new elements, and fixes publish button’s color-flash on save. Stop forcing load of colors-fresh.css 2.0
- — Version 1.0 Initial Release 1.0
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.4.8 · WP 5.9
Languages
via translate.wordpress.orgTranslated into 10 languages, 10 at 90% or more
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
0 of 8 pass · checked 29 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ! Says what it does Short description names no action; say what the plugin does for the site.
- ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
- ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ! Enough to quote 131 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
- ! Tags match the text No tags set.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2025-05-01 5K+ → 4K+ down after 2 days in tier
- 2025-04-29 4K+ → 5K+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2025-04-28 5K+ → 4K+ down after 500 days in tier
- 2023-12-15 6K+ → 5K+ down after 3 days in tier
- 2023-12-12 5K+ → 6K+ up after 3 days in tier
- 2023-12-09 6K+ → 5K+ down after 972 days in tier
- 2021-04-11 5K+ → 6K+ up after 1347 days in tier
- 2017-08-03 4K+ → 5K+ up
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Admin Color Schemes into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/admin-color-schemes" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Admin Color Schemes — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Admin Color Schemes: 4K+ active installs, 4.8★ (26 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/admin-color-schemes
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