Epoch – A native Disqus alternative with a focus on speed and privacy
by Josh Pollock · Performance
Epoch - 100% realtime chat and commenting in a tiny little package that is fully CDN and cache compatible.
47 health vs 68 average across 598 Performance plugins
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance 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 10+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.4.34, 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.
Under-optimized
Biggest win: Update recency
To rank higher: Last updated 3865 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 · 1,381 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges
198
now · peak 329
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
Downloads per 1k installs · 30d
Engagement proxy · release spikes are signal, a long slide is an aging base
Estimated active installs
wp.org reports only “70+”. The real number sits in this band.
Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.
Install history · since 2022-10-04 · 1,382 observations
Details
Growth timeline
Install-band crossings we have observed, and how long each band took to outgrow
- 2026-03-15 80+ → 70+ down after 7 days in band
- 2026-03-08 70+ → 80+ up after 1 days in band
- 2026-03-07 80+ → 70+ down after 2 days in band
- 2026-03-05 70+ → 80+ up after 15 days in band
- 2026-02-18 80+ → 70+ down after 3 days in band
- 2026-02-15 70+ → 80+ up after 1 days in band
- 2026-02-14 80+ → 70+ down after 74 days in band
- 2025-12-02 90+ → 80+ down after 120 days in band
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach — closest match first
-
SpeedyCache – Cache, Optimization, Performance 600K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags A -
Breeze Cache 400K+ installs · 3.6★ · 2 shared tags B -
Comments – wpDiscuz 70K+ installs · 4.7★ · 2 shared tags A -
Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 60K+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A -
Pantheon Advanced Page Cache 10K+ installs · 4.0★ · 2 shared tags B -
Swift Performance Lite 6K+ installs · 3.6★ · 2 shared tags B
Embed this report card
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<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/epoch" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Epoch – A native Disqus alternative with a focus on speed and privacy — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Epoch – A native Disqus alternative with a focus on speed and privacy: 70+ active installs, 4.5★ (21 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-07-17. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/epoch