Third Column
by Marcus Downing · Admin & Utilities
Adds a third column on the Edit Post screen.
45 health vs 56 average across 1,794 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 12+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.9.40, 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 4390 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
50
now · peak 165
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 “30+”. The real number sits in this band.
Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.
Install history · since 2022-10-04 · 1,379 observations
Details
Growth timeline
Install-band crossings we have observed, and how long each band took to outgrow
- 2025-12-16 40+ → 30+ down after 624 days in band
- 2024-04-01 50+ → 40+ down
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach — closest match first
- R Require Featured Image 3K+ installs · 3.9★ · 2 shared tags D
-
Three Column Screen Layout 1K+ installs · 3.8★ · 2 shared tags D -
Roles & Capabilities 1K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags B -
Loginizer 1M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
Redux Framework 900K+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag A -
Admin Menu Editor 300K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag A
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<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/third-column" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Third Column — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Third Column: 30+ active installs, 5.0★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-07-17. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/third-column