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Display Categories Widget

by iteamweb · Admin & Utilities

Also makes 1 other plugin · 3.0K+ installs across the portfolio →

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Display Categories Widget will display Child categories on your sidebar. Can be placed on widget in sidebar.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned
How scoring works →
50 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 89/100
Support 70/100

50 health vs 54 average across 3,790 Admin & Utilities plugins

3K+

Active installs

≈3.4K estimated

86.4K

Total downloads

since 2012

4.51★

Rating (adjusted)

4.8★ raw · 25 reviews

+59%

269

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 6+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 5.2.26, 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.

48 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 1/100
WP compatibility 15/100
Rating quality 87/100
Listing tuning 100/100

To rank higher: Last updated 2491 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 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+59% vs prior 30d
11Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

269

now · peak 1.8K

27030d 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

Display Categories W · #3711 you Flexible Posts Widge · #2522 Collapsing Categorie · #3415 Recent Posts by Cate · #3436

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.8Stars · 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.

90per 1k installs · Aug 26

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 86% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v3.1 86%
v2.1 11%
Older / other versions 2.6%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “3K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
3K–4K ≈3.4K

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

Install history · since 2015-09-24 · 1,433 observations

3KInstalls · 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 · 25 reviews

Read on wp.org ↗
5★
23 4★
0 3★
1 2★
1 1★
0

Details

Version
3.1
Last updated
6.8y ago
Added
2012-08-16 · 14 yrs old
Requires WP
5.0
Tested up to
5.2.26
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

Latest updates

via wp.org changelog

Recent releases and news for this plugin

  1. — Version 3.1 Fixed warning for php 5.6 (Ternary operator updated) – Fixed: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘?’ 3.1
  2. — Version 3.0 Added default values to not initialized variables to avoid notes poping up in wp backend Fixed deprecation warning for php 7.3 (create_function is deprecated) 3.0
  3. — Version 2.2 Enable/disable display of category description Code formatting Removed Deprecated Constructor Method – Thanks https://github.com/frozzare Added sorting option by name, id, post count 2.2
  4. — Version 2.1.0 Ability to use more than 1 widget on same page with different parent categories Code formatting 2.1.0
  5. — Version 2.0.2 Bug fixes Added a label for dropdown non-selection case 2.0.2
  6. — Version 2.0.1 Removed deprecated WP_Widget 2.0.1

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

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

✓ 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. 2026-06-27 4K+ → 3K+ down after 383 days in tier
  2. 2025-06-09 5K+ → 4K+ down after 331 days in tier
  3. 2024-07-13 6K+ → 5K+ down after 303 days in tier
  4. 2023-09-14 7K+ → 6K+ down after 180 days in tier
  5. 2023-03-18 8K+ → 7K+ 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).

Compare head to head →

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Display Categories Widget: 3K+ active installs, 4.8★ (25 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/display-categories-widget