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Advanced Post Excerpt

by Steve Grunwell · Uncategorized

Also makes 6 other plugins · 2.1K+ installs across the portfolio →

Replace the default Post Excerpt meta box with a superior editing experience.

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.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews

Health

D 50/100

Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews

Active installs

2K+

≈2.9K estimated

Momentum

+58%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: “excerpts”, “tinymce” and “wysiwyg” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

How scoring works →
50 Health · D
Maintenance 10/100
Rating quality 80/100
Support 70/100

50 health vs 58 average across 25,735 Uncategorized plugins

Install conversion

How it's measured →

8.1%

of downloads still active

At least 2K of 24.7K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,766 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

28/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Not actively maintained. No update in about 2 years.

Details

Version
1.0.0
Last updated
2.9y ago
Added
2016-02-26 · 10 yrs old
Requires WP
4.5
Tested up to
6.4.14
Requires PHP
7.0

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.

54 / 100

Room to improve

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 19/100

Updated 1048 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 68/100

Tested up to WordPress 6.4.14; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 55/100

5.0★ over 4 reviews, smoothed to 4.17★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 84/100

3 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 1048 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

+58% vs prior 30d
1131 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 552 · peaks are release surges

40931 Oct 2026

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 Post Excerp · #4453youBlack Studio TinyMCE · #234Visual Term Descript · #1519Advanced TinyMCE Con · #1866

Health trend

Composite health score, snapshotted daily

5031 Oct 2026

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.

20531 Oct 2026

Release cadence

No release in a year
from wp.org release tags

How 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

2.9y ago

latest release · v1.0.0 · 18 Dec 2023

4

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.0.0 · 18 Dec 20230.2.1 · 4 Mar 20170.2.0 · 4 Mar 20170.1.0 · 26 Feb 2016

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 98% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v1.0 98%
v0.2 1.7%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “2K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
2K–3K ≈2.9K

Crossed into this band 5.7 years ago; the previous band took 14 months to cross, which places it about 90% of the way through.

Install history since 28 Feb 2017

2K31 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ bonnie333
    2.6y ago

    Perfect!!!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ Becky Melton
    6.0y ago

    This plugin resolves the most frustrating part of blog excerpts. (no HTML formatting) This makes post archive pages so much more versatile. Thanks for this plugin!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ Eddie B
    6.3y ago

    A simple plugin that does exactly what it says in the description. I now have the ability to have rich text editing in my post excerpt… exactly what I wanted. Many thanks to the author!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ Gabor Lippert
    10.3y ago

    Oh, and special thanks for lifting the excerpt field up from the page bottom – that position was really annoying.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Latest updates

via wp.org changelog

Recent releases and news for this plugin

  1. — Version 1.0.0 Added compatibility with the WordPress block editor (a.k.a. “Gutenberg”). Bumped minimum PHP version to 7.0. 1.0.0
  2. — Version 0.2.1 Ensured that the plugin was localization-ready. 0.2.1
  3. — Version 0.2.0 Removed left, center, and right alignment buttons from the default post excerpt editor. If desired, these can be restored with a single line of code . 0.2.0
  4. — Version 0.1.0 Initial public release. 0.1.0

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

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 3 languages, 2 at 90% or more

German 100%
German (Formal) 100%
Spanish (Spain) 50%

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

1 of 8 pass · checked 29 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "Replace the default Post Excerpt meta box with a superior editing experience."
  • ! Has a FAQ Only 2 questions in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
  • ! FAQ asks real questions 0 of 2 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("undefined").
  • ! 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 529 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
  • ! Tags match the text Only 1 of 3 tags appear in the text ("tinyMCE", "wysiwyg" missing).

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2021-02-04 1K+ → 2K+ up after 426 days in tier
  2. 2019-12-06 300+ → 1K+ up

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).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Advanced Post Excerpt into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

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Preview card ↗

Advanced Post Excerpt: 2K+ active installs, 5.0★ (4 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/advanced-post-excerpt

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