Classic Text Widget

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

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 · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

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

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.

1. ★★★★★ Christoph

   9.0y ago

   The default text widget broke my shortcodes. Thanks for providing an easily solution!

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2. ★★★★★ Lee Blue

   9.1y ago

   I was about to make this exact plugin. Thank you for putting this together. Works perfectly!

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3. ★★★★★ editork

   9.1y ago

   A week shot, but at least we’re back to pre-update functionality. Thanks a M I L L I O N !!!

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ BitEdge

   9.1y ago

   This bug in WP core and then this fix encompases all that is bad and all that is good about WP.

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5. ★★★★★ ahmedmusawir

   9.2y ago

   Thank you for rescuing us from the latest WP 4.8 text widget disaster … keep us the awesome work. Thanx again…

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6. ★★★★★ Kramarz

   9.2y ago

   Cheers for the plugin. As much as I like visual editor functionality brought to widgets in WP 4.8, we DO need that classic functionality as well! Hope they will fix it one way or another in some WP 4.8.1 or something… So again, big thanks for the plugin!

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ Makeworthy Media

   9.2y ago

   Thanks so much for creating this plugin. The WordPress core team doesn’t seem to understand that the appeal of the Text widget was that it was just that, a text widget, not a visual editor. I’m so pissed that now all my text widgets on my clients’ sites are defaulting to the Visual Editor view, screwing up code that was never meant to be used in a Visual Editor. It’s one of the stupidest things the core team has done in awhile. If they wanted to add that functionality they should have made it a whole new widget, not screwed with all the existing widgets. *sigh* Anyway, this helps a lot. Thanks again!

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ cthieba

   9.2y ago

   The WordPress 4.8 text widget will remove icon fonts each time the widget is opened for editing since they are “empty” html tags. This widget provides a simple alternative to avoid that problem. Thanks for solving my problem for me.

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. — Version 1.0.2 Bumped “Tested up to” tag 1.0.2
2. — Version 1.0.1 Added filter so you can provide your own custom class for the widget. If you choose not to create your own class, the default secondary class is custom-classic-textwidget. Usage: add_filter( ‘classic_text_widget_class’, 1.0.1
3. — Version 1.0.0 Initial commit based on WordPress 4.7.5 Text Widget and plugin conversion by carasmo Restores the pre 4.8 Classic WordPress text widget just like the good old days. 1.0.0

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

Translated into 3 languages, 3 at 90% or more

Growth timeline

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

1. 2025-11-07 3K+ → 2K+ down after 529 days in tier
2. 2024-05-27 4K+ → 3K+ down after 1 days in tier
3. 2024-05-26 3K+ → 4K+ up after 5 days in tier
4. 2024-05-21 4K+ → 3K+ down after 2 days in tier
5. 2024-05-19 3K+ → 4K+ up after 1 days in tier
6. 2024-05-18 4K+ → 3K+ down

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).

• Text Widget Fullscreen 10+ installs · 3.6★ · 2 shared tags D
• String locator 100K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag C
• E Enhanced Text Widget 30K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag C
• C Custom Shortcodes 5K+ installs · 4.0★ · 1 shared tag D
• Text Replace 3K+ installs · 4.2★ · 1 shared tag D
• G Gettext override translations 2K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag C

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Classic Text Widget: 2K+ active installs, 5.0★ (15 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/classic-text-widget