HTML Special Characters Helper
by Scott Reilly · Admin & Utilities
Admin widget on the Add/Edit Post pages for inserting HTML encodings of special characters into the post.
46 health vs 54 average across 2,515 Admin & Utilities 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 9+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.7.33, 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 3432 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
51
now · peak 1.0K
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 “200+”. 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
- 2025-03-01 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in band
- 2025-02-28 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in band
- 2025-02-27 300+ → 200+ down after 8 days in band
- 2025-02-19 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in band
- 2025-02-18 300+ → 200+ down after 8 days in band
- 2025-02-10 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in band
- 2025-02-09 300+ → 200+ down after 2 days in band
- 2025-02-07 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in band
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach — closest match first
-
Post Duplicator 200K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
Header and Footer Scripts 200K+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag B -
Post Type Switcher 200K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A - A Advanced Excerpt 70K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag D
- A Add From Server 60K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag D
- R Revision Control 40K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag D
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<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/html-special-characters-helper" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="HTML Special Characters Helper — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> HTML Special Characters Helper: 200+ active installs, 5.0★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-07-17. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/html-special-characters-helper