Some useless facts that might help you to create an unbelievable “Did you know?” fact about WordPress such as:
The
readme.txtfor the original release of WordPress contained one word – Holder.Herb Miller – December 2020
At 1,979,581 bytes, the
components.jsfile is three times larger than the whole of the first version of WordPress.Herb Miller – December 2020
Figures from Dec 2020
Plugins and Gutenberg blocks
- There are approximately 58,000 plugins. https://wordpress.org/plugins/
- Over 500 curated plugins provide Gutenberg blocks or extend blocks. https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/blocks/
- There are just over 8,000 themes. Almost half of them are considered to be Popular. https://wordpress.org/themes/
Some other miscellany
- WordPress has been around for over 17 years.
- It is now over 80 times larger than the first version. ( 51 MB vs 0.6 MB ).
- 40% of the delivered code is in JavaScript
.jsfiles. - There are quite a few
.jsfiles that are individually larger than the whole of the first version of WordPress. - The images for the new default theme Twenty Twenty-One total 2 MB.
- WordPress 5.6 has been downloaded over 6 million times. https://wordpress.org/download/counter
- The Classic editor plugins is installed on 5 million sites. https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/
Over 300K sites are using Gutenberg; nearly half of them on the latest v9.5.2. https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/advanced/ - In My Honest Opinion: Themes should not deliver blocks.
Top 19 or so WordPress plugins
All these plugins have been downloaded over 30 million times.
| Plugin name and description | Plugin links | Version, total downloads, last update, tested |
|---|---|---|
| Yoast SEO Improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using the Yoast SEO plugin. |
wordpress-seo home |
19.11 490,823,221 November 29, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth Improve your WP security with powerful one-click tools like backup and malware scan. Get essential free tools including stats, CDN and social sharing. |
jetpack home |
11.5.1 303,711,389 November 2, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan Secure your website with the most comprehensive WordPress security plugin. Firewall, malware scan, blocking, live traffic, login security & more. |
wordfence home |
7.8.0 268,186,294 November 28, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Akismet Spam Protection The best anti-spam protection to block spam comments and spam in a contact form. The most trusted antispam solution for WordPress and WooCommerce. |
akismet home |
5.0.1 265,890,527 November 8, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Contact Form 7 Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. |
contact-form-7 home |
5.6.4 244,885,568 October 19, 2022 6.1.1 |
| WooCommerce WooCommerce is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution. |
woocommerce home |
7.1.0 219,048,390 November 15, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Elementor Website Builder The Elementor Website Builder has it all: drag and drop page builder, pixel perfect design, mobile responsive editing, and more. Get started now! |
elementor home |
3.8.1 228,758,049 November 13, 2022 6.1.1 |
| MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) The best free Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. See how visitors find and use your website, so you can grow your business. |
google-analytics-for-wordpress home |
8.10.1 138,890,469 November 9, 2022 6.1.1 |
| All in One SEO – Best WordPress SEO Plugin – Easily Improve SEO Rankings & Increase Traffic 🤩 The original WordPress SEO plugin. Improve your WordPress SEO rankings and traffic with our comprehensive SEO tools and smart SEO optimizations! 🚀 |
all-in-one-seo-pack home |
4.2.7.1 106,485,919 November 8, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Contact Form by WPForms – Drag & Drop Form Builder for WordPress The best WordPress contact form plugin. Drag & Drop online form builder that helps you create beautiful contact forms + custom forms in minutes. |
wpforms-lite home |
1.7.8 129,948,351 November 10, 2022 6.1.1 |
| UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin Backup and restoration made easy. Complete backups; manual or scheduled (backup to Dropbox, S3, Google Drive, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email + others). |
updraftplus home |
1.22.23 89,474,423 October 11, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Popup Builder by OptinMonster – WordPress Popups for Optins, Email Newsletters and Lead Generation 🤩 Make popups & optin forms to get more email newsletter subscribers, leads, and sales – #1 most popular popup builder plugin! 🚀 |
optinmonster home |
2.11.1 77,085,477 November 29, 2022 6.1.1 |
| All-in-One WP Migration Move, transfer, copy, migrate, and backup a site with 1-click. Quick, easy, and reliable. |
all-in-one-wp-migration home |
7.68 90,603,709 November 17, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Really Simple SSL The easiest way to improve security! Leverage your SSL certificate and protect your website visitors. |
really-simple-ssl home |
6.0.11 103,451,710 November 21, 2022 6.1.1 |
| WordPress Importer Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file. |
wordpress-importer home |
0.8 42,240,948 September 29, 2022 6.1.1 |
| WP Super Cache A very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files. |
wp-super-cache home |
1.9.1 44,421,160 November 2, 2022 6.1.1 |
| Page Builder by SiteOrigin Build responsive page layouts using the widgets you know and love using this simple drag and drop page builder. |
siteorigin-panels home |
2.19.0 42,373,066 November 22, 2022 6.1.1 |
| MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress Mailchimp for WordPress, the #1 unofficial Mailchimp plugin. |
mailchimp-for-wp home |
4.8.11 42,021,181 November 1, 2022 6.0.3 |
| WordPress Gallery Plugin – NextGEN Gallery The most popular WordPress gallery plugin and one of the most popular plugins of all time with over 31 million downloads. |
nextgen-gallery home |
3.30 36,417,854 October 5, 2022 6.0.3 |
WordPress SEO is the first plugin to reach over 290 million downloads.
Herb Miller, 16th December 2020
References
For more information about plugins see Top 10 WordPress plugins. See also: