Captivate Sync

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

36 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 9 listed. 27 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words).

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

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 80% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 5.7 years ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 90% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ askgenesis

   9mo ago

   Missing some features, yet it fit nicely into our workflow.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ vacelso523

   1.1y ago

   This new version is a big improvement! The added features work seamlessly and make a noticeable difference. I’d love to see even more features and improvements added in future updates—great work so far!

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ wigglypoppins

   1.9y ago

   I spotted an issue where this plugin was breaking some thumbnails on a clients site which I reported and added a fix for, I’ve had no response from a developer and other people are reporting the same issue. Additionally, I’ve discovered from another support request that this plugin is blocking ALL blog posts from being indexed in Google, this is an SEO nightmare and a massive flaw in their code, this issue has also not received a response from the developers. Terrible code, no testing, no response, would not reccommend.

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ makeitbritish

   1.9y ago

   This was the review I wrote that Captivate deleted: AVOID THIS PLUGIN AT ALL COSTSIt took me weeks to work out why the traffic to my site dropped off a cliff. Finally discovered that an update to this Captivate plugin had added ‘noindex’ to ALL of my website posts. Search engines stopped crawling my site as a result and I literally lost all my business overnight. I am still fighting to get it back.What’s worse, Captivate don’t care at all. They know about the ‘noindex’ issue but have not been quick to fix it and have not warned customers about it.They are very good at marketing their podcast hosting service, but their tech support is shocking.Regret the day I ever signed up with Captivate. They’ll probably delete this one too claiming it’s a support ticket and not a review!! This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by makeitbritish.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ Lukas Cech

   1.9y ago

   I can’t believe how poorly this plugin is coded. It set <meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex’> to all our posts, even the ones without anything to do with podcasts. Blank overwrite of all meta tags to no index, our traffic was suffering for months, now we know why. This plugin doesn’t even have any settings, it doesn’t tell you it is noindexing everything, it just does it upon activation. That is very bad practice – to apply such a disruptive setting cross-site without a word of warning.Stay away from it.

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ jre1043

   2.5y ago

   The idea is good but it’s just not ready yet. It doesn’t quite communicate with WordPress so formatting between WordPress and captivate do not show up correctly, so by using this you are essentially creating double or triple the work completely negating the sole purpose of making your life easier. Also the sync feature needs to be able to work just one way meaning you can bring in from sync but then have the freedom to customize the word press end without effecting the captivate side. Again this ties back to the fact that captivate and WordPress don’t communicate well to each other so this just creates massive formatting issues, plus a lot of time you just want to be able to import your podcast quickly and efficiently and then have the ability to customize it only for the word press side.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ moderateparty

   2.6y ago

   This plugin technically works. It provides a player for each episode. However, it is extremely limited. It lacks support for custom fields and is essentially bricked – you can’t easily edit or style your episodes. They don’t even display a featured image — even though it shows episode artwork on the backend. When I was looking to switch my podcast host (previously using castos), one of the factors that lead me to captivate was the WordPress Sync. But it’s pretty bad. With my previous host, I had much more control over my episodes and my website was something I’m really proud of. Since switching to captivate, I don’t feel the same. Really, really disappointed.

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ Jesse Goplen

   6.4y ago

   I’m using this with seven podcasts on the same website right now, and it does exactly what it should. My next step is to style the custom post type it creates with Elementor and pull in those custom fields. I don’t foresee any problem with that since it seems to populate everything correctly when it publishes the episode, but I will try to update my review at some point once I’ve had some experience with that. Very impressed with Captivate and the plugin so far, super easy for multiple podcasts.

   Read on wp.org ↗

All 4 disclosed vulnerabilities are patched in the current version (3.3.3). Sites still on an older version should update.

1. Patched Medium · 4.9 Captivate Sync <= 3.3.2 - Authenticated (Editor+) SQL Injection ↗
   2026-10-01 CVE-2026-62060 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command Affects <= 3.3.2 Patched in 3.3.3
2. Patched Medium · 4.9 Captivate Sync <= 3.2.2 - Authenticated (Administrator+) SQL Injection ↗
   2025-12-21 CVE-2025-68570 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command Affects <= 3.2.2 Patched in 3.3.0
3. Patched High · 8.1 Captivate Sync <= 3.0.3 - Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection ↗
   2025-05-05 CVE-2025-60221 Deserialization of Untrusted Data Affects <= 3.0.3 Patched in 3.2.2
4. Patched Medium · 6.4 Captivate Sync <= 2.0.22 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via shortcode ↗
   2024-12-02 CVE-2024-53820 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 2.0.22 Patched in 2.0.26

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 7.0

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.

Growth timeline

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

1. 2021-02-25 900+ → 1K+ up after 100 days in tier
2. 2020-11-17 800+ → 900+ 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 Captivate Sync into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Captivate Sync: 1K+ active installs, 3.2★ (10 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/captivatesync-trade