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Expandable Menus

by Maxaud · Admin & Utilities

Also makes 2 other plugins · 610+ installs across the portfolio →

Allows you to collapse and expand the WordPress admin theme menus (Appearance > Menus).

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned
How scoring works →
49 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 86/100
Support 70/100

49 health vs 54 average across 3,793 Admin & Utilities plugins

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 13+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.6.1, 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 2/100
Rating quality 67/100
Listing tuning 92/100

To rank higher: Last updated 4937 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

+34% vs prior 30d
-2Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

47

now · peak 145

5530d 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

Expandable Menus · #13232 you Admin Menu Editor · #159 Conditional Menus · #660 WP Custom Admin Inte · #1065

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.9Stars · 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.

550per 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

13.5y ago

latest release · v2.1

4

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

2.1 · 13.5y ago2.0 · 13.5y ago1.1 · 13.9y ago1.0 · 13.9y 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.

v2.1 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “100+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
100–200 ≈140

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

Install history · since 2015-09-15 · 1,378 observations

100Installs · 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.

Details

Version
2.1
Last updated
13.5y ago
Added
2012-09-28 · 13 yrs old
Requires WP
3.0
Tested up to
3.6.1
Requires PHP

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. Al_ambique
    7.9y ago

    This very simple yet very useful plugin still works after all these years (WP 4.9!). I can’t understand why this is not a built-in feature of WordPress 🙁

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. FGU Nord / Lars
    9.6y ago

    This plugin solves a problem that should be build into WP When you have many menu-items in appearance > menusyou really need to be able to Expand and collapse menu items …. and this plugin will do the trick … but hasn’t been updatet for 4 years … and there is a bug But a friendly WP-user ( @dannyunitel ) did find the bug and made an “easy to do” fix …. https://wordpress.org/support/topic/some-fixes-ive-made/ and with his changes it works 🙂 // Lars PS. I hope that @maxaud will update his plugin some day soon 🙂 Thanks @dannyunitel

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. triggame
    10.2y ago

    Works as promised. Thank you!!!! Styling needs a little love.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. sbrenner
    10.6y ago

    If you have ever tried to drag a newly added page across a slew of other pages in your menu page to get to the proper location, you will definitely appreciate a way to collapse the menus and save a bunch of time. One thing I discovered on my server is that after a certain number of menu items, wordpress stopped adding a new page to the end. Turns out there is a php problem with passing these parameters. If you create a file named “.user.ini” that has the following contents: max_input_vars = 3000; And place that file in your public_html folder, the problem is solved.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. taggie
    11.0y ago

    With a large custom menu adding pages in the menus section has been painful. Wonderful to be able to add pages and rearrange things with ease. I don’t know how I missed this plugin before (possibly the name doesn’t help – expanded is the norm, I was looking to collapse) but I’m so glad it still works with 4.3. I agree with the first review – am surprised it’s not a native feature, each time I’ve updated WP I’ve looked to see if it has been added.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. Sanguinarius
    11.8y ago

    I was looking all over for a solution to my growing length of menu items in Appearance > Menus. I finally found exactly what I was looking for! I installed it the other day and boy, it’s been very convenient and a time-saver! I just double-click next to the menu (nest too) to expand or collapse it. I can keep sections I’m not working on collapsed and the ones I am, expanded. It makes working with my Menu a pleasure now, rather than a dread. It stores the expandable/collapsible section info in a cookie, I believe so the ones you want open will stay open and the ones you want closed will stay closed the next time you go to your Admin.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. sackerly
    12.0y ago

    This plugin has been stable and incredibly helpful over the years – can’t believe more people haven’t reviewed it!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. russelm
    13.1y ago

    This could be just what I need. Thanks

    Read on wp.org ↗

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. 2026-05-01 200+ → 100+ down after 1 days in tier
  2. 2026-04-30 100+ → 200+ up after 1 days in tier
  3. 2026-04-29 200+ → 100+ down after 1 days in tier
  4. 2026-04-28 100+ → 200+ up after 1 days in tier
  5. 2026-04-27 200+ → 100+ down after 3 days in tier
  6. 2026-04-24 100+ → 200+ up after 2 days in tier
  7. 2026-04-22 200+ → 100+ down after 586 days in tier
  8. 2024-09-13 300+ → 200+ down after 2 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 ↗

Expandable Menus: 100+ active installs, 4.9★ (12 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/expandable-menus