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Searchable Categories

by Jason Corradino · Admin & Utilities

Free audit wp.org ↗

Searchable Categories allows a quick real-time search through categories while selecting in new post/edit post view.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
44 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 72/100
Support 70/100

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

10+

Active installs

≈17 estimated

3.3K

Total downloads

since 2011

3.91★

Rating (adjusted)

4.0★ raw · 1 reviews

+16%

59

Downloads · 30d

category median +23%

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 15+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.1.4, 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.

36 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 1/100
Rating quality 50/100
Listing tuning 100/100

To rank higher: Last updated 5661 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 2022-10-06 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+16% vs prior 30d
1Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

59

now · peak 157

5930d 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

Searchable Categorie · #28389 you WP Hide Dashboard · #4905 Admin Menu Editor · #159 White Label CMS · #232

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4Stars · 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.

5.9Kper 1k installs · Aug 26

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.

v0.2 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “10+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
10–20 ≈17

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

Install history · since 2015-04-02 · 1,385 observations

10Installs · 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 · 1 reviews

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

Details

Version
0.2
Last updated
15.5y ago
Added
2011-02-28 · 15 yrs old
Requires WP
3.1
Tested up to
3.1.4
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ SuperCougar
    13.8y ago

    Just what I was looking for! There is a field to search / filter categories in the categories metabox for menus. I don’t understand why this feature is not available for posts. It should definitely be included in WordPress by default. Fortunatly I found this plugin! P.S.: I had put 5 stars but I removed one. I noticed that with this plugin, the selected categories are no more displayed on top of the list. So, you must scroll down to know what categories are selected… not very convenient! It would be perfect if this could be fixed.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3.2

✓ 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. 2026-02-18 20+ → 10+ down after 2 days in tier
  2. 2026-02-16 10+ → 20+ up after 25 days in tier
  3. 2026-01-22 20+ → 10+ down after 278 days in tier
  4. 2025-04-19 10+ → 20+ up after 12 days in tier
  5. 2025-04-07 20+ → 10+ down after 664 days in tier
  6. 2023-06-13 30+ → 20+ 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 →

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Searchable Categories into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/searchable-categories" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Searchable Categories — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

Searchable Categories: 10+ active installs, 4.0★ (1 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/searchable-categories