Ultimate Category Excluder

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

57 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 20 listed. 23 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words).

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

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 88% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 5.9 years ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 90% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ mikelidbetter

   10mo ago

   Very basic and only works on native Post categories from what I can see, I wanted to use it for WooCommerce categories. Unable to exclude/include a category from the native WP categories list. You must go into the actual plugin to do it. Therefore it wasn’t at all useful for what I wanted. I would have given it zero stars if I could. This topic was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by mikelidbetter.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ georgepond

   1.6y ago

   Warning to Elementor users. Do not install/activate this plugin!I have an WordPress/Elementor website which has been live for months and I’ve used several plugins with it. Immediately after I activated Ultimate Category Excluder and tried to exclude one blog post category, ALL of the pages on the site lost their headers and footers.That was a very scary moment! The solution (after deleting this plugin!) is to change the site layout back to “Elementor Full Width.” For some reason, the Ultimate Category Excuder sets the site layout to “Elementor Canvas”… which hides the Header and Footer. This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by georgepond.

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ CyberCobre

   2.3y ago

   I’m thrilled to report that IT WORKS!!!!!!

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ colnago1

   2.7y ago

   Add a button to check all categories at once

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ JJNW

   2.8y ago

   THANK YOU – does what it says – very awesome, very cool – THANK YOU!!!!

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ spreaditunlimited

   4.1y ago

   It got my site to 0 organic traffic after using it to hide just 1 category

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ estiedejager

   4.2y ago

   Looks very promising, but you can only hide or exclude Blog Categories and not product categories. For that one needs some very expensive plugins. Would be neat is someone could create such a plugin though

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ ptipti23

   4.4y ago

   Hello! Can you improve your plugin for hiding category in WordPress Category Widget? Example code: function exclude_widget_categories($args) { $options = ksuce_get_options(); $exclude = array(); foreach ( $options[ 'exclude_main' ] as $value ) { $exclude[] = $value; } $args["exclude"] = implode(',', $exclude); return $args; } add_filter("widget_categories_args","exclude_widget_categories");

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. — Version 1.7 Added option to disable category exclusion if request for posts is coming from authenticated API. Thanks to Daniel Jalkut (Red Sweater) (@redsweater) for providing the code. 1.7
2. — Version 1.6 Added array checks to avoid fatal error on plugin’s admin page. 1.6
3. — Version 1.5 Corrected text domain value. 1.5
4. — Version 1.4 No code changes. Syncing files. 1.4
5. — Version 1.3 Modified implementation of text domain to match the standard approach. 1.3
6. — Version 1.2 Addressed minor vulnerability reported by SCA AppSec of Checkmarx. If concerned, review your UCE category settings to ensure they are set as expected. 1.2

The 1 disclosed vulnerability is patched in the current version (1.7). Sites still on an older version should update.

1. Patched High · 8.8 Ultimate Category Excluder <= 1.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery ↗
   2020-01-08 CVE-2020-35135 Cross-Site Request Forgery Affects <= 1.1 Patched in 1.2

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 6.1.1

Translated into 50 languages, 7 at 90% or more · development strings

Plus 26 more locales with partial translations.

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

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Growth timeline

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

1. 2020-12-20 40K+ → 50K+ up after 182 days in tier
2. 2020-06-21 50K+ → 40K+ down after 39 days in tier
3. 2020-05-13 40K+ → 50K+ up after 951 days in tier
4. 2017-10-05 30K+ → 40K+ up after 304 days in tier
5. 2016-12-05 20K+ → 30K+ up after 450 days in tier
6. 2015-09-12 30K+ → 20K+ 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).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Ultimate Category Excluder into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Ultimate Category Excluder: 50K+ active installs, 4.3★ (78 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/ultimate-category-excluder