Advanced Categories Widget
by darrinb · Admin & Utilities
Also makes 10 other plugins · 1.4K+ installs across the portfolio →
A highly customizable categories widget for WordPress with thumbnails and descriptions.
48 health vs 54 average across 3,790 Admin & Utilities plugins
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance 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 10+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.5.33, well behind 6.8.
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
Biggest win: Update recency
To rank higher: Last updated 3670 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 2022-10-05 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges
89
now · peak 3.3K
Directory rank vs rivals
wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you
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.
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% 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 “700+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.
Install history · since 2020-10-24 · 1,422 observations
Estimated value
What this plugin might earn a year, and what it might sell for. Modeled from public signals; we don't see anyone's books.
Est. annual revenue
Est. acquisition value
No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from. A declining trend compresses what a buyer would pay.
Details
Recent review vibe
read from the latest 8 reviews to 2017-03-31Reviewers call it simple to set up and easy to customise with a bit of CSS, with one asking for translatable Post/Posts labels.
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ Jesus Parrado Alameda9.4y ago
You save me a lot of work, thank you!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ geokongr9.5y ago
Very useful. In a future update i suggest to give the ability to translate the words Post/Posts. I did that by just editing the 372 line of the fileclass-advanced-categories-widget-views.php with the following code with the following: __(‘$type_text’, ‘advanced-categories-widget’)
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Ian Erlwanger9.6y ago
Very simple and easy to use. You need a little coding experience to get the most out of it, but with just cursory knowledge of CSS you can completely customise every aspect of the category display.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ cagraphicdesign9.6y ago
The look is clean and simple and the only plugin I found where I can easily select the categories to display. I used it in two separate widgets in one sidebar and it looks great
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ stevanator9.6y ago
Saved me a lot of time
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ jrcollins10.1y ago
This plugin is highly customizable and easily configured. It’s a great way to show off your categories.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ IdeFixx10.2y ago
This plugin is just exactly what I was looking for! With another plugin “Widget logic” works perfectly – quick and easy settings on a website with many categories which are specifically splitted.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ spaceshipb10.3y ago
A great way to highlight important categories when your category count starts to get unruly.
Read on wp.org ↗
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.2.4
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-07-21 800+ → 700+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2026-07-20 700+ → 800+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-07-19 800+ → 700+ down after 3 days in tier
- 2026-07-16 700+ → 800+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-07-15 800+ → 700+ down after 169 days in tier
- 2026-01-27 900+ → 800+ down after 5 days in tier
- 2026-01-22 800+ → 900+ up after 2 days in tier
- 2026-01-20 900+ → 800+ down after 8 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ installs · 4.5★ · 2 shared tags A -
Category Posts Block 40K+ installs · 4.4★ · 2 shared tags A -
Media Library Categories 20K+ installs · 4.2★ · 2 shared tags A - R Recent Posts by Category Widget 4K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags D
- C Custom Recent Posts Widget 1K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags D
-
WP Media Categories 800+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Advanced Categories Widget into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/advanced-categories-widget" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Advanced Categories Widget — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Advanced Categories Widget: 700+ active installs, 5.0★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/advanced-categories-widget