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Shortcake (Shortcode UI)

by Daniel Bachhuber · Uncategorized

Also makes 8 other plugins · 51.3K+ installs across the portfolio →

Shortcake makes using WordPress shortcodes a piece of cake.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned
How scoring works →
45 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 75/100
Support 70/100

45 health vs 56 average across 16,376 Uncategorized 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 7+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 5.0.27, 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.

34 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 1/100
WP compatibility 11/100
Rating quality 81/100
Listing tuning 52/100

To rank higher: Last updated 2783 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 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+16% vs prior 30d
36Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

1.4K

now · peak 3.8K

1.4K30d 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

Shortcake (Shortcode · #2019 you Shortcodes Ultimate · #145 Column Shortcodes · #651 Apollo13 Framework E · #1241

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.1Stars · 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.

137per 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

7.6y ago

latest release · v0.7.4

15

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

0.7.4 · 7.6y ago0.7.3 · 9.0y ago0.7.2 · 9.3y ago0.7.1 · 9.5y ago0.7.0 · 9.8y ago0.6.2 · 10.8y ago0.6.1 · 10.8y ago0.6.0 · 10.8y ago0.5.0 · 11.0y ago0.4.0 · 11.2y ago0.3.0 · 11.4y ago0.2.3 · 11.4y ago0.2.2 · 11.4y ago0.2.1 · 11.5y ago

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 99% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v0.7 99%
v0.6 0.6%

Estimated active installs

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

tracked estimate
10K–20K ≈19K

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

Install history · since 2015-11-01 · 1,500 observations

10KInstalls · 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.

Details

Version
0.7.4
Last updated
7.6y ago
Added
2015-03-18 · 11 yrs old
Requires WP
4.5
Tested up to
5.0.27
Requires PHP

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. Janice Thewa
    6.8y ago

    Love using short codes, The block editor is handy too, but short codes are so nice. Good job.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. Rae M. Anderson
    8.7y ago

    nice

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. jeb
    8.7y ago

    This plugin is god awful. Not only does it break parts of woocommerce their update notifications are insanely irritating when combined with profilepress. Shortcodes aren’t that hard to add so it baffles me why people need a plugin like this to do such a simple task. https://generatewp.com/shortcodes/

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. Anonymous
    8.7y ago

    Good Plugin for useful shortcode!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. musiclovers
    8.8y ago

    love this plugin! thanks.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. thezman
    8.8y ago

    This is a fantastic idea, it retains the normal functionality of WordPress Shortcodes where as developers can properly control the output and the end users simply use the shortcode in a more intuitive way. Please develop THIS and NOT GUTENBERG. PS bonus round: WooCommerce is training wheels for Magento, if you are using Woo and not liking it then its time for you to get off the the pedal bike and buy a real car, ie: Magento.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. malcolmparsons
    8.8y ago

    Guys, like the plugin, it is a useful one. But there are errors, please develop it. Thank you!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. wiloke
    9.1y ago

    Absolutely love this idea.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Latest updates

via wp.org changelog

Recent releases and news for this plugin

  1. Version 0.7.4 Block editor compatability: prevent templates from being output before the document head, which forced the browser into quirksmode, breaking some CSS styles in the block editor. Bug fix: the above bugfix. Bug fix: Fix a 0.7.4
  2. Version 0.7.3 Security: Use nonce validation in ajax render shortcode callback to protect against CSRF. Bug fix: Make sure that the same js hooks fire on all field types. Bug fix: Fix bugs affecting multiple select fields (values coul 0.7.3
  3. Version 0.7.2 Bug fix: Fix behavior in WordPress 4.7.4 where editing a shortcode would insert a new shortcode into the editor rather than updating the shortcode being edited. Bug fix: The replacement used to escape percent (%) charact 0.7.2
  4. Version 0.7.1 Change shortcode formatting to add a space before the self-closing trailing slash. Fix alignment of attachment previews with long filenames. Bug fix: Set an initial value on select fields (previously, no value would be s 0.7.1
  5. Version 0.7.0 Adds “Add post element” button to media buttons – one click to open the shortcode list, rather than clicking “Add media” button and then finding “insert post element” in the menu. Added “Term Select” field type. Added “U 0.7.0
  6. Version 0.6.2 Bug fix: Listens for “change” event on radio buttons and checkboxes to ensure shortcode attributes are updated. Bug fix: Ensures register_shortcode_ui is always run before calling get_shortcodes(). Fixes post select AJAX 0.6.2

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

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 21 languages, 10 at 90% or more

Czech 100%
Dutch 100%
English (Canada) 100%
English (UK) 100%
German 100%
German (Formal) 100%
Spanish (Chile) 100%
Spanish (Spain) 100%
Japanese 90%
Portuguese (Portugal) 90%
French (France) 85%
Danish 80%
Italian 80%
Slovak 76%
Chinese (China) 71%
Russian 66%
Portuguese (Brazil) 52%
Polish 47%
Turkish 9%
Swedish 4%
Ukrainian 4%

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2023-11-26 20K+ → 10K+ down after 2 days in tier
  2. 2023-11-24 10K+ → 20K+ up after 1 days in tier
  3. 2023-11-23 20K+ → 10K+ 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 →

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Shortcake (Shortcode UI): 10K+ active installs, 4.1★ (24 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-30. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/shortcode-ui