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Auto Approve Comments

by Federico Andrioli · Security

Also makes 1 other plugin · 500+ installs across the portfolio →

Auto approve comments by Commenter (email, name, url), User and Role (Akismet and wpDiscuz compatible)

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
42 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 67/100
Support 70/100

42 health vs 64 average across 997 Security plugins

Removal-risk signals

53/100

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 5+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Falling behind WordPress. Tested up to WordPress 5.8.15.

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.

43 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 4/100
WP compatibility 32/100
Rating quality 55/100
Listing tuning 92/100

To rank higher: Last updated 1903 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

+49% vs prior 30d
1Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

67

now · peak 103

6730d 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

Auto Approve Comment · #12423 you Akismet Anti-spam: S · #8 Antispam Bee · #84 Comment Link Remove · #2374

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

3.2Stars · Aug 26

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.

335per 1k installs · Aug 26

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

5.2y ago

latest release · v2.8

8

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

2.8 · 5.2y ago2.7 · 7.3y ago2.6 · 7.7y ago2.5 · 7.7y ago2.1 · 9.8y ago2.0 · 10.4y ago1.5 · 10.4y ago1.2 · 10.7y ago

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 91% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v2.8 91%
v2.7 8.8%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “200+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
200–300 ≈290

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

Install history · since 2016-04-01 · 1,385 observations

200Installs · 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.

Details

Version
2.8
Last updated
5.2y ago
Added
2015-12-03 · 10 yrs old
Requires WP
3.8
Tested up to
5.8.15
Requires PHP

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. aptharsia
    6.7y ago

    Doesn’t work all the time. This topic was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by aptharsia.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. lestado
    6.9y ago

    Selecting users to be auto approved for comments is not the same as AUTO APPROVING ALL COMMENTS. I feel like the name of this plugin is deceptive. WordPress already has the option to auto approve anyone who’s had 1 post approved and I think this plugin basically does the same thing.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. patprov
    8.3y ago

    Tout est dans le titre fonctionne avec WP 4.9.6 Je vous lais que les membres de mon association aient leurs commentaires auto-approuvés et contrôler les autres, il rempli parfaitement son rôle. Si plusieurs roles sont prédéfini, bien mettre le rôle et l’identifiaint ou l’adresse mail.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. Eric Armstrong
    9.3y ago

    With WordPress 4.75, the options to select users and roles do not working. Clicking on the tabs does nothing. Prior to that, I selected myself as the user, and still had to approve every cross-link as a user. Just took my site public, and for some reason I’m not seeing any cross-links at all as comments. (Probably has nothing to do with the plugin. There must be a setting that changed somewhere.) There is no support tab for this plugin, so I’m forced to put these comments into a review — otherwise, I would have sent in the bug reports first. It’s a great idea, though. And was working after a fashion before the WordPress upgrade, so there is still hope for it. Will revise this review as conditions warrant.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. umairgull
    9.4y ago

    Developer did great work

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.4.8 · WP 5.7.2

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. 2025-07-08 300+ → 200+ down after 2 days in tier
  2. 2025-07-06 200+ → 300+ up after 6 days in tier
  3. 2025-06-30 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  4. 2025-06-29 200+ → 300+ up after 2 days in tier
  5. 2025-06-27 300+ → 200+ down after 17 days in tier
  6. 2025-06-10 200+ → 300+ up after 4 days in tier
  7. 2025-06-06 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  8. 2025-06-05 200+ → 300+ up after 1 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 ↗

Auto Approve Comments: 200+ active installs, 3.2★ (5 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/auto-approve-comments