WordPress

WordPress Plugin Statistics

How big the plugin market is, how concentrated it is, what earns money, and which niches are still underserved. · Updated Jun 8, 2026

Plugins26.8KStats

Plugins tracked

26.8K

WordPress.org directory

Total active installs

321.7M

across tracked plugins

Median installs / plugin

20

Plugins with zero installs

34.9%

Commercial (paid) plugins

2.2%

Installs from paid plugins

22.3%

Average rating

4.6

unrated plugins excluded

Top 100 share of installs

60%

The install cliff

Plugins by active-install bracket - most never get traction

Underserved categories

Installs per plugin - high demand, fewer competitors

  • schema
    91K
  • contact-form
    91K
  • performance
    39.6K
  • forms
    36.4K
  • security
    35.2K
  • comments
    35.2K
  • elementor
    31.8K
  • gutenberg
    30K
  • seo
    25.1K
  • analytics
    21.8K
  • ecommerce
    20.1K
  • email
    19.7K

Most crowded categories

Plugin count by tag - where you would compete head-on

  • woocommerce
    4.4K
  • ai
    1.2K
  • seo
    1.2K
  • security
    746
  • elementor
    690
  • gutenberg
    656
  • block
    557
  • performance
    540
  • ecommerce
    527
  • analytics
    496
  • chatbot
    460
  • shortcode
    456

Rating distribution

Rated plugins by star band - reviews skew high

Figures cover the 26.8K active plugins we track from the WordPress.org directory (321.7M active installs total). Ratings exclude the 49.9% of plugins with no reviews.

How big is the WordPress plugin market?

The WordPress.org directory is huge and brutally concentrated. Across the ~27,000 plugins we track there are more than 320 million active installs, but the distribution is a cliff: the top 10 plugins alone hold about 23% of all installs, and the top 100 hold roughly 60%. A tiny set of household names - the page builders, form plugins, SEO and security suites - own the market, while the long tail fights over what is left. If you are deciding whether to build a plugin, the headline number to internalize is not the 320M installs, it is how few plugins capture them.

Can a new plugin actually get installs?

Most plugins get almost no traction. The median plugin has around 20 active installs, roughly 35% sit at zero, and only about 7% ever clear 10,000 installs. Ratings look deceptively rosy - the average rated plugin scores about 4.6 - but that is survivorship: about half of all plugins have no ratings at all because too few people use them to leave one. The realistic bar is not building something good, it is getting discovered. A narrow, well-targeted niche beats a broad plugin competing head-on with an incumbent that already has millions of installs.

Free vs commercial - where is the money?

Paid plugins are rare but punch far above their weight. Only about 2% of tracked plugins ship a commercial (premium) version, yet they capture roughly 22% of all installs, and their median install base is about 3,000 versus 20 for free-only plugins - a ~150x gap. The clearest openings show up in demand density: categories like schema and contact-form average around 90,000 installs per plugin with relatively few players, while WooCommerce is stacked with 4,000+ plugins fighting for the same sites. High installs-per-plugin plus a thin field is the signal an underserved, monetizable niche is still open.

WordPress Plugin Statistics FAQ

How many WordPress plugins are there?
We track roughly 27,000 active plugins from the WordPress.org directory. Together they account for more than 320 million active installs, but the market is highly concentrated - the top 100 plugins hold about 60% of all installs.
How many active installs does the average WordPress plugin have?
The median plugin has only about 20 active installs, and roughly 35% have zero. Just ~7% of plugins ever reach 10,000 installs. Install counts follow a steep power law, so a handful of hits dominate while most plugins see very little usage.
What percentage of WordPress plugins are paid or commercial?
About 2% of tracked plugins offer a commercial (premium) version, but they capture roughly 22% of all active installs. Commercial plugins have a median install base near 3,000 versus about 20 for free-only plugins - a roughly 150x difference.
What is the average WordPress plugin rating?
Among plugins that have any ratings, the average score is about 4.6 out of 5. That figure is flattering, though: about half of all plugins have no ratings at all because too few people install them, so high ratings mostly reflect the small set of plugins that found an audience.
Which WordPress plugin niches are underserved?
Look at installs per plugin. Categories such as schema and contact-form average around 90,000 installs per plugin with comparatively few competitors, signaling strong demand and room to enter. Crowded tags like WooCommerce, with 4,000+ plugins, are far harder to break into despite the large audience.

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