PluginRank was acquired by Awesome Motive in 2021. Since then: no public changelog, no visible roadmap, no evidence of meaningful development. The homepage schema markup still shows a dateModified of July 2020. You can still subscribe. Nothing will improve.
For plugin developers who relied on it to track WordPress.org keyword positions, that gap has been filling in slowly. This is a list of the tools worth using in 2026 instead.
What PluginRank actually did
Iain Poulson built it to solve a real, specific problem. WordPress.org has no native rank tracking. If you want to know where your plugin shows up when someone searches for the thing it does, you either search manually or you use a tool.
PluginRank tracked keyword positions. You gave it your plugin and a set of keywords, it showed your positions over time, flagged movement, and emailed reports. Focused, useful, specific. Poulson launched it in 2020 and had an acquisition offer from Awesome Motive within about twelve months. He wrote a clear-eyed exit post about it and sold.
The product went into what looks like permanent maintenance mode. This is a recognizable pattern with small SaaS acquisitions inside larger portfolios. The acquirer has real reasons to buy, then other priorities take over, and the product drifts.
Two different things you might need
Before getting into the alternatives, it is worth being precise about what you are looking for. PluginRank did one specific thing: keyword position tracking on WordPress.org search. That is different from plugin analytics more broadly.
If you want to know where your plugin ranks for specific search terms on WordPress.org, WPMonitor is the closest current replacement (more on that below).
If you want to understand how your plugin is growing, who is using it, how it compares to competitors, and whether it is healthy, there are several solid options. Most of the alternatives below address that second question.
The 8 best alternatives
1. AutomagicWP plugin directory
AutomagicWP's plugin directory at /plugins/ tracks stats for 15,000+ WordPress.org plugins: download trends, active install trajectories, health scores, update frequency, support quality, and version history. It is public and free to browse.
What it gives you that PluginRank did not: competitive context. You can see how your plugin's install growth compares to others in the same category, whether competitor plugins are gaining or losing ground, and which plugins in your space have the strongest health scores. It draws from real WordPress.org data, updated regularly.
What it does not give you: keyword-by-keyword position data. For that, see WPMonitor below.
Best for: plugin developers who want to understand how their plugin fits in its category. Free.
2. WPMonitor
WPMonitor is the closest thing to a PluginRank replacement. It tracks keyword rankings on WordPress.org search, covering up to 5 keywords per plugin and showing positions up to rank 100. You can see position history over time, which is exactly what PluginRank provided.
Beyond keyword tracking, it covers 62,000+ plugins with 24-hour, 7-day, and 30-day install trends, a side-by-side plugin comparison tool, theme data, WordPress and PHP version adoption statistics, and author profiles. The breadth makes it useful as a general plugin research tool, not just a rank tracker.
One caveat: the keyword tracking is stored in localStorage with no account system. That means your tracked keywords live in your browser only. Clear your browser data, switch to a different device, or open a different browser and they are gone. It works fine as long as you treat it as a single-browser tool and do not expect your history to follow you around.
Best for: plugin developers who need keyword position tracking on WordPress.org search. Free.
3. wp-rankings.com
wp-rankings.com tracks where plugins rank on WordPress.org by active install count. It shows 24-hour and 7-day rank trends, covering the full directory, not just the top 1,980 plugins that WordPress.org officially lists to logged-in users.
The site was built specifically because WordPress.org removed its plugin growth charts, leaving developers with no way to track install-count trajectory. The ranking here is based on active installs, which is the primary factor in the WordPress.org popular plugins list.
One distinction worth noting: this is not keyword rank tracking. It tells you your position among all plugins by install count, not where you appear when someone searches a specific term. That is a different but still useful signal.
Best for: plugin developers who want to track their install-count rank relative to the directory. Free.
4. WordPress.org native advanced stats
Every plugin on WordPress.org has a stats page. Go to wordpress.org/plugins/your-plugin-slug/advanced/ and you get daily and weekly download graphs, version distribution, and WordPress version breakdown. Most developers underuse it.
The limitations are real: no competitor data, no install velocity, no support quality metrics, and the graphs cover downloads not active installs. But the data is authoritative and free, pulling from the same database that powers the WordPress.org API.
If you have not looked at your plugin's advanced stats page recently, start there. It is the floor, not the ceiling.
Best for: any WordPress.org plugin developer. Free, no account required.
5. Appsero
Appsero is a usage analytics and license management platform built specifically for WordPress plugin and theme developers. You add a small PHP SDK to your plugin, and it starts tracking active installs, deactivations, upgrade events, PHP version distributions, WordPress version distributions, and country breakdowns. The paid plan adds license key management.
The install data Appsero provides goes beyond what WordPress.org shows natively. You can see which versions users are running and where deactivations happen in the lifecycle, which is useful for identifying friction points and prioritizing support.
One thing to know: Appsero requires users to opt in via a notice on first activation. Your tracked install count will be lower than your WordPress.org active install count, depending on opt-in rate.
Best for: plugin developers who want granular usage data from within the plugin. Free plan available, paid plans from $99/year.
6. Freemius Insights
If you distribute a premium or freemium plugin through Freemius, the Insights dashboard is a strong analytics layer. It tracks installs, activations, deactivations, upgrades, downgrades, trial conversions, and revenue in one place, all tied together.
The catch: Freemius Insights is only available if you use Freemius for distribution. It is not a standalone analytics tool. If you are already on Freemius for payments and licensing, the analytics come with it and are genuinely good. If you are not, migrating your distribution to Freemius is a significant decision that should not be made for analytics alone.
Best for: plugin developers already using Freemius for monetization. Pricing is revenue-based.
7. WP Hive
WP Hive is a plugin review and benchmarking platform that tests every WordPress.org plugin on a real WordPress installation. It measures memory usage, page load impact, and database queries, giving you comparative performance data.
WP Hive does not track ranking positions or download trends. It answers a different question: is my plugin lightweight, and how does it compare on performance to the alternatives users might be evaluating? For SEO plugins, form plugins, and anything that runs on every page load, that comparison matters to buyers reading reviews.
Best for: developers who want to understand their plugin's performance overhead relative to competitors. Free to browse.
8. Manual keyword tracking
For WordPress.org keyword position tracking, WPMonitor handles it for up to 5 keywords. If you need more than that, the current options are limited. Tracking it manually is still the most reliable fallback for a broader keyword set.
Pick your keywords. Search each on WordPress.org. Note your position. Record it in a spreadsheet with the date. Do it once a week at the same time. After a few months you have real trend data.
It breaks down past ten or fifteen keywords. It is also inconsistent if you do not control for being logged in, your location, or personalization. But for a focused set of terms that matter most, a consistent weekly process produces usable data.
Best for: developers tracking more keywords than WPMonitor supports. Free, but time-intensive.
Plugin rankings and comparisons — done right
Track how your plugin performs over time, benchmark it against competitors, and spot trends before they move your install counts. Join the waitlist and be first in when it launches.
How this space has changed
When PluginRank went dormant in 2021, keyword rank tracking for WordPress.org was genuinely unsolved. That has slowly improved. WPMonitor now covers keyword positions, wp-rankings.com covers install-count rank, and AutomagicWP covers competitive context and health scores. The situation is better than it was three years ago, even if no single tool does everything PluginRank did in one interface.
The part that remains thin: Ahrefs and Semrush track Google search rankings for a plugin's WordPress.org page in Google, which is a different data set. Neither can show you where you rank within WordPress.org's own search results. That still requires crawling the directory, which is what WPMonitor and PluginRank do.
AutomagicWP's /compare/ feature is building toward competitive intelligence: how your plugin compares to alternatives across install growth, health score, and support quality. The plugin directory at /plugins/ is already live if you want to start exploring.
Frequently asked questions
Is PluginRank still active in 2026?
The site is technically up and still sells subscriptions. The schema markup on the homepage shows a dateModified of July 2020. No public changelog, no blog, no visible record of features shipped after the 2021 acquisition. It functions but has not meaningfully evolved in five years.
Who bought PluginRank?
Syed Balkhi of Awesome Motive acquired it in 2021. Awesome Motive runs WPBeginner, OptinMonster, WPForms, and a large portfolio of other products. Iain Poulson, the original founder, sold to focus on WP User Manager and wrote an honest exit post about the decision.
What is the best PluginRank alternative for keyword rank tracking?
WPMonitor (wpmonitor.dev) is the closest replacement. It tracks WordPress.org keyword search positions for up to 5 keywords, with position history over time. It also covers plugin stats, trends, and comparisons for 62,000+ plugins. It is free.
What is WPMonitor?
WPMonitor is a WordPress plugin analytics platform that tracks keyword rankings on WordPress.org search, plugin install trends, version adoption, and author statistics across 62,000+ plugins. The keyword tracking feature monitors up to 5 keywords and shows positions up to rank 100. Keyword data is stored in localStorage with no account system, so it is tied to a single browser — clear your browser data and the history is gone. It is free.
What does AutomagicWP show that PluginRank did not?
AutomagicWP shows download trends over time, active install trajectories, health scores, changelog frequency, and how a plugin compares to others in its category. PluginRank showed keyword positions on WordPress.org search. The two answer different questions: where do I rank vs. how is my plugin actually growing.
What is Appsero used for?
Appsero is an analytics and license management platform for WordPress plugin developers. It tracks active installs, deactivations, upgrade events, PHP and WordPress version distributions, and country breakdowns. You integrate a PHP SDK into your plugin to enable tracking. Users opt in via a notice on first activation.
Do I need Freemius to use Freemius Insights?
Yes. Freemius Insights is part of the Freemius platform, which handles monetization, licensing, and distribution for premium plugins. If you distribute through another channel, the analytics are not available without migrating to Freemius.
What is WP Hive?
WP Hive is a plugin benchmarking site that tests every WordPress.org plugin on a real WordPress installation and measures performance impact: memory usage, page load increase, and database queries. It gives comparative performance data that WordPress.org native stats do not cover.
What is wp-rankings.com?
wp-rankings.com tracks where plugins rank on WordPress.org by active install count, showing 24-hour and 7-day trends. It covers the full directory, not just the top 1,980 plugins that WordPress.org officially lists. Built in response to WordPress.org removing its plugin growth charts. It is free.
How do I track WordPress.org keyword rankings manually?
Search your target keywords on WordPress.org, note your position, and record it in a spreadsheet with the date. Do it consistently, at the same time each week, for the keywords that matter. It works reliably up to around 10-15 keywords. Past that, the process becomes too inconsistent to trust.