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Character Countdown

by Maeve Lander · Uncategorized

Also makes 5 other plugins · 11.3K+ installs across the portfolio →

Free audit wp.org ↗

Show character countdown in the Editor for Pages, Posts 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 56 average across 16,377 Uncategorized plugins

40+

Active installs

≈47 estimated

4.0K

Total downloads

since 2014

4.12★

Rating (adjusted)

5.0★ raw · 3 reviews

+54%

40

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 11+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.7.35, 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.

38 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 8/100
Rating quality 54/100
Listing tuning 100/100

To rank higher: Last updated 4269 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 · 1,427 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+54% vs prior 30d
-9Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

40

now · peak 96

4230d 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

Character Countdown · #21295 you Posts Character Coun · #5210 Name: Word Counter · #31497 Character Counter fo · #55163

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.

1.1Kper 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

11.8y ago

latest release · v1.0

1

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.0 · 11.8y ago

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.

v1.0 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “40+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
40–50 ≈47

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

Install history · since 2015-04-01 · 1,380 observations

40Installs · 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
1.0
Last updated
11.7y ago
Added
2014-11-17 · 11 yrs old
Requires WP
3.1
Tested up to
4.7.35
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ sonofbruce
    7.7y ago

    I’ve just installed WordPress 5.0 and the Classic Editor plugin, and Character Countdown continues to work like a champ. (It does not, of course, appear in a Gutenberg text block.)

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ VS-Couche
    11.4y ago

    I was needed a counter for a SEO option. Exactly what I needed! Thank you.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ Maeve Lander
    11.8y ago

    Well of course it does, it’s my plugin!

    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. 2026-03-24 50+ → 40+ down after 11 days in tier
  2. 2026-03-13 40+ → 50+ up after 9 days in tier
  3. 2026-03-04 50+ → 40+ down after 24 days in tier
  4. 2026-02-08 40+ → 50+ up after 2 days in tier
  5. 2026-02-06 50+ → 40+ down after 243 days in tier
  6. 2025-06-08 60+ → 50+ down after 1 days in tier
  7. 2025-06-07 50+ → 60+ up after 2 days in tier
  8. 2025-06-05 60+ → 50+ down 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 ↗

Character Countdown: 40+ active installs, 5.0★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/character-countdown