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Advanced Comments Widget

by darrinb · Admin & Utilities

Also makes 10 other plugins · 1.4K+ installs across the portfolio →

Free audit wp.org ↗

A highly customizable recent comments widget with avatars and excerpts.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
46 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 78/100
Support 70/100

46 health vs 54 average across 3,791 Admin & Utilities plugins

60+

Active installs

≈67 estimated

4.2K

Total downloads

since 2016

4.12★

Rating (adjusted)

5.0★ raw · 3 reviews

+18%

59

Downloads · 30d

category median +19%

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance 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.

36 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 6/100
Rating quality 54/100
Listing tuning 92/100

To rank higher: Last updated 3789 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 · 1,426 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+18% vs prior 30d
1Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

59

now · peak 81

5930d downloads · Aug 26

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

Advanced Comments Wi · #18934 you Better Recent Commen · #4454 Akismet Anti-spam: S · #8 Widgets for Google R · #68

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.

983per 1k installs · Aug 26

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share 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.

v1.1 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “60+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
60–70 ≈67

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

Install history · since 2016-03-24 · 1,384 observations

60Installs · Aug 26

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

N/A

Est. acquisition value

N/A

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.

Ratings · 3 reviews

Read on wp.org ↗
5★
3 4★
0 3★
0 2★
0 1★
0

Details

Version
1.1.2
Last updated
10.4y ago
Added
2016-03-21 · 10 yrs old
Requires WP
4.4
Tested up to
4.5.33
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

Recent review vibe

read from the latest 3 reviews to 2016-06-15
Positive PraiseFeature requests

Reviewers like how easy the widget is to set up and customize, though one flags comment authors being paired with the wrong comments and an unwanted horizontal scrollbar.

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ fomenkoandrey
    10.2y ago

    The idea is good. However, when outputting DIV blocks: the first author has no comment. his comment at the top of the second author, and so on. last comment is not the author. In addition, for some reason, there was a horizontal scroll bar for content. http://savepic.net/8236533.png

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ jbakuk
    10.3y ago

    Thanks for creating this great plugin. Works perfectly and is easy peasy to configure.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ Jaakko Pöntinen
    10.3y ago

    Thank you for a great and easily customizable widget, everything has id and class tags so everything is retouchable 🙂 Made me smile! – Jaakko Pöntinen

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.2.4

✓ Low memory footprint
✓ Low page-speed impact
✓ Runs on latest PHP + WP
✓ No PHP errors
✓ No JS errors
✓ Activates cleanly
✓ No resource errors
✓ No external HTTP errors
✓ Optimized database use
✕ Frequently updated

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2026-06-27 70+ → 60+ down after 23 days in tier
  2. 2026-06-04 60+ → 70+ up after 10 days in tier
  3. 2026-05-25 70+ → 60+ down after 163 days in tier
  4. 2025-12-13 80+ → 70+ down after 2 days in tier
  5. 2025-12-11 70+ → 80+ up after 1 days in tier
  6. 2025-12-10 80+ → 70+ down after 23 days in tier
  7. 2025-11-17 70+ → 80+ up after 5 days in tier
  8. 2025-11-12 80+ → 70+ down after 144 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).

Compare head to head →

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Preview card ↗

Advanced Comments Widget: 60+ active installs, 5.0★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/advanced-comments-widget