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WP search category admin

by Clement Decou · Admin & Utilities

Also makes 1 other plugin · 200+ installs across the portfolio →

Add a search input into a Post edit Page to add fast category for a Post and in quick edit.

Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews

Health

D 49/100

Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews

Active installs

200+

≈250 estimated

Momentum

+22%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: “admin”, “box” and “category” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

How scoring works →
49 Health · D
Maintenance 6/100
Rating quality 84/100
Support 70/100

49 health vs 56 average across 5,895 Admin & Utilities plugins

Install conversion

How it's measured →

5.0%

of downloads still active

At least 200 of 4K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Admin & Utilities plugin keeps 0.6%, across 4,188 plugins.

Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Admin & Utilities plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.

Removal-risk signals

45/100

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 3+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.

Details

Version
1.5.1
Last updated
3.5y ago
Added
2017-07-03 · 9 yrs old
Requires WP
4.0
Tested up to
6.2.15
Requires PHP
—

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.

54 / 100

Room to improve

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 12/100

Updated 1265 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 53/100

Tested up to WordPress 6.2.15; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 62/100

5.0★ over 8 reviews, smoothed to 4.22★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 1265 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 5 Oct 2022 · 1,487 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+22% vs prior 30d
530 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 99 · peaks are release surges

9931 Oct 2026

Directory rank

Ranked about #11,300 to #12,900, alongside the other plugins at 200+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 21 Oct 2026.

Health trend

Composite health score, snapshotted daily

4931 Oct 2026

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.

49531 Oct 2026

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

3.5y ago

latest release · v1.5.1 · 15 May 2023

5

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.5.1 · 15 May 20231.5 · 21 Jan 20201.2 · 13 Aug 20191.1 · 15 Aug 20181.0 · 24 May 2018

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.

v1.5 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “200+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
200–300 ≈250

Crossed into this band 6 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.

Install history since 25 Oct 2020

20031 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ saeed
    4.0y ago

    very simple and useful!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ Tìm việc biên hòa
    4.4y ago

    this is a great plugin

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ quiquegs
    4.9y ago

    It is essentially used to search for categories on the editor’s side within posts.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ zabriskie73
    5.0y ago

    Very helpful when we have a tons of categories ! Thanks so much !

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. ★★★★★ wimvincken
    5.8y ago

    I’ve loads of categories an this really helps with looking for the right categories. Thanks a lot.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. ★★★★★ rrvoigt
    6.4y ago

    Thank you for all your hard work! Hope you will keep updating this great plugin.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. ★★★★★ Anonymous
    9.0y ago

    Great simple plugin. Very useful in my case with 5000 + categories. Works with WP 5.9. Thanks a lot!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. ★★★★★ polca
    9.3y ago

    Un plugin tout simple, mais qui aide bien quand on a beaucoup de catégories. 🙂 This topic was modified 9 years ago by polca.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.4

✓ 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

AI assistants

How it's measured →

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.

Readme readiness

2 of 8 pass · checked 31 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "Add a search input into a Post edit Page to add fast category for a Post and in quick edit."
  • ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
  • ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
  • ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
  • ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
  • ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
  • ! Enough to quote 64 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
  • ✓ Tags match the text All 5 tags appear in the text.

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2026-04-24 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  2. 2026-04-23 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in tier
  3. 2026-04-22 300+ → 200+ down after 2 days in tier
  4. 2026-04-20 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in tier
  5. 2026-04-19 300+ → 200+ down after 42 days in tier
  6. 2026-03-08 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in tier
  7. 2026-03-07 300+ → 200+ down after 14 days in tier
  8. 2026-02-21 200+ → 300+ up after 3 days in tier

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 WP search category admin into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/wp-search-category-admin" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="WP search category admin — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

WP search category admin: 200+ active installs, 5.0★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/wp-search-category-admin

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