Plugin Pulse Beta
← Pulse

Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews

by Noah Hearle · Uncategorized

Also makes 1 other plugin · 25K+ installs across the portfolio →

Completely restriction-free Google reviews and rating as Block or Shortcode. Extensive display options; delicious themes; includes Structured Data.

Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.

Health

A 90/100

no flags

Active installs

20K+

≈28K estimated

Momentum

-36%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: Swap “structured data” for “reviews”. “structured data” isn't earning its slot: it only gets you to #11. “reviews” sits at #5 untagged, close enough for a declared tag to move it up. All five slots are taken, so one has to go.

How scoring works →
90 Health · A
Maintenance 100/100
Rating quality 97/100
Support 70/100
Security 79/100

Install conversion

How it's measured →

1.9%

of downloads still active

At least 20K of 1M lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,783 plugins.

Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.

This plugin shipped 2 releases in the last 12 months, and every existing install that updated counted as another download. wp.org publishes no split between first installs and updates, so we show the raw rate rather than guess at one.

Details

Version
6.1
Last updated
2mo ago
Added
2019-07-29 · 7 yrs old
Requires WP
5.3
Tested up to
7.1.4
Requires PHP
7.4

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.

95 / 100

Excellent listing optimization

Well tuned across the board

Update recency 100/100

Updated 64 days ago

WP compatibility 100/100

Tested up to WordPress 7.1.4, the current branch or newer

Rating quality 95/100

4.9★ over 184 reviews, weighted for review count to 4.7★

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

Support resolution 75/100

3 of 4 support threads resolved in the last 2 months

Daily downloads

Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,492 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

-36% vs prior 30d
04 Nov 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 51K · peaks are release surges

4K4 Nov 2026

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

Reviews and Rating · #1322youWP Google Review Sli · #1060Smart Showcase for G · #15831Get Google Reviews · #15655

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.94 Nov 2026

Health trend

Composite health score, snapshotted daily

904 Nov 2026

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.

2024 Nov 2026

Release cadence

Occasionally updated
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.

2

releases in the last 12 months

2mo ago

latest release · v6.1 · 1 Sep 2026

142

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

6.1 · 1 Sep 20266.0 · 27 Aug 20265.10 · 31 Jan 20255.9 · 8 Dec 20245.8 · 1 Dec 20245.7 · 23 Nov 20245.6 · 28 Sep 20245.5 · 7 Sep 20245.4 · 9 Jun 20245.3 · 24 May 20245.2 · 24 May 20245.1 · 4 Apr 20245.0 · 22 Mar 20244.30 · 14 Feb 2024

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

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

v5.10 82%
v5.1 0.7%
Older / other versions 17%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “20K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
20K–30K ≈28K

Crossed into this band 5.3 years ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 80% of the way through.

Install history since 12 Aug 2020

20K4 Nov 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ darshith
    4mo ago

    Say bye bye to paid plugins just to show reviews , this plugin is well sorted and have plenty of features . Awesome plugin overall.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ Sean Moeschl
    8mo ago

    Lightweight. Outputs as html with structured data for HTML. Just perfect.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ kovacslace
    10mo ago

    Very customizable, I could do everything I wanted!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ coralsp
    10mo ago

    Love this plugin, it has a lot of features, with more being added!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. ★★★★★ kimmergeek
    12mo ago

    This works perfectly for what I need to do, and I appreciate the options in the Advanced tab. Great work on giving me control over the reviews that are displayed. Please keep this plugin going, it’s exactly the type of plugin we all appreciate: effective, easy to use, and well-documented.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. ★★★★★ peperod
    1.1y ago

    I wish you could preview the lots of different styles easier because it is very tedious at this time to view them one by one. This topic was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by peperod.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. ★★★★★ IanErickson
    1.2y ago

    I am using this plugin on several websites and it works great. Getting the API stuff from Google is always a bit confusing, but not too difficult if enough time is budgeted. It looks good and works good.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. ★★★★★ urko2376
    1.3y ago

    I have been looking for a Google Reviews plugin and this one hits the nail on the head. Easy to setup and highly customisable. Does exactly what it says it will do. Keep up the good work.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Latest updates

via wp.org changelog

Recent releases and news for this plugin

  1. — Version 5.10 Added missing values for name_format parameter Improved HTML Import to find more author URLs and improve identification of ratings Improved HTML Import to ignore service scores within reviews 5.10
  2. — Version 5.9 Fixed CSS Shortcode parameter value for star and star_gray 5.9
  3. — Version 5.8 Improved support for relative times (Thanks to @ziegel) Fixed parameter for stars to allow color strings (Thanks to @ziegel) 5.8
  4. — Version 5.7 Added Croatian and Serbian language support for relative times (Thanks to Chaky) Fixed _load_textdomain_just_in_time warning Tested with WordPress 6.7.1 5.7
  5. — Version 5.6 Added immediate start parameter for stars animation Extended HTML Import to accept Google My Business version Tested with WordPress 6.6.2 5.6
  6. — Version 5.5 Added support for inline SVG stars Added Hungarian and Japanese language support for relative times (Thanks to Örs and Kevin) Improved rating star animation: initiating when in view Restricted effect of avatar dimension 5.5

Security history

via Wordfence Intelligence

All 3 disclosed vulnerabilities are patched in the current version (6.1). Sites still on an older version should update.

  1. 2026-08-25 CVE-2026-2388 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 5.10 Patched in 6.0
  2. 2024-05-24 CVE-2024-5218 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 5.2 Patched in 5.3
  3. 2023-01-20 CVE-2023-23986 Missing Authorization Affects 4.14 Patched in 4.15

Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.

CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 8 languages, 1 at 90% or more

English (UK) 100%
German 78%
French (France) 17%
Slovak 14%
Dutch 11%
Spanish (Spain) 11%
German (Formal) 5%
Czech 1%

AI assistants

How it's measured →

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

This plugin’s searches fall outside the topics measured so far. See the topics measured so far.

Readme readiness

7 of 8 pass · checked 4 Nov 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "Completely restriction-free Google reviews and rating as Block or Shortcode. Extensive display options; del..."
  • ✓ Has a FAQ 21 questions in the FAQ.
  • ✓ FAQ asks real questions 21 of 21 read like questions a user would type.
  • ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
  • ✓ Names what it works with Mentions Google Maps.
  • ✓ Headings and lists 12 headings and 8 lists.
  • ✓ Enough to quote 7,860 characters of description.
  • ✓ Tags match the text 3 of 5 tags appear in the text; "gmb reviews", "google rating" do not.

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2021-07-22 10K+ → 20K+ up after 224 days in tier
  2. 2020-12-10 9K+ → 10K+ up after 70 days in tier
  3. 2020-10-01 8K+ → 9K+ up after 50 days in tier
  4. 2020-08-12 7K+ → 8K+ up after 31 days in tier
  5. 2020-07-12 5K+ → 7K+ up after 63 days in tier
  6. 2020-05-10 4K+ → 5K+ up after 11 days in tier
  7. 2020-04-29 500+ → 4K+ up after 164 days in tier
  8. 2019-11-17 30+ → 500+ up

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).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/g-business-reviews-rating" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews: 20K+ active installs, 4.9★ (184 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-04. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/g-business-reviews-rating

Spotted a number that looks wrong? Report a data issue and we'll check it against the source.