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 |
16.1.1 319,083,552 April 6, 2021 5.7 |
| Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth The best WP plugin for backup, anti spam, malware scan, CDN, AMP, social, search, contact form, and integrations with Woo, Facebook, Instagram, Google |
jetpack home |
9.6 220,862,309 April 5, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 |
7.5.2 191,548,053 March 24, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 |
4.1.9 195,283,305 March 2, 2021 5.7 |
| Contact Form 7 Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. |
contact-form-7 home |
5.4 177,211,019 February 24, 2021 5.7 |
| WooCommerce WooCommerce is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution. |
woocommerce home |
5.2.0 130,879,748 April 13, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 |
3.1.4 101,608,897 March 10, 2021 5.7 |
| Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights The best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. See how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back. |
google-analytics-for-wordpress home |
7.17.0 92,705,104 March 23, 2021 5.7 |
| All in One SEO The original WordPress SEO plugin. Improve your WordPress SEO rankings with our comprehensive All in One SEO plugin and toolkit. |
all-in-one-seo-pack home |
4.0.17 76,383,318 March 17, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 with just a few clicks. |
wpforms-lite home |
1.6.6 66,170,904 April 1, 2021 5.7 |
| UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin Backup and restoration made easy. Complete backups; manual or scheduled (backup to Dropbox, S3, Google… |
updraftplus home |
1.16.53 52,348,066 April 5, 2021 5.7 |
| Marketing Toolkit by OptinMonster – Popups, Email Optin Forms & Newsletter Subscribers Create popups, opt-in forms, & floating bars to get more email newsletter subscribers, leads, and increase sales conversion – #1 marketing popup p … |
optinmonster home |
2.3.1 48,976,165 April 2, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 |
7.40 51,178,788 March 24, 2021 5.7 |
| Really Simple SSL No setup required! You only need an SSL certificate, and this plugin will do the rest. |
really-simple-ssl home |
4.0.13 53,381,355 March 24, 2021 5.7 |
| WordPress Importer Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file. |
wordpress-importer home |
0.7 35,610,862 April 4, 2020 5.4.4 |
| WP Super Cache A very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files. |
wp-super-cache home |
1.7.2 35,533,414 March 15, 2021 5.7 |
| 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 |
2.11.8 31,529,671 March 24, 2021 5.7 |
| MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress Mailchimp for WordPress, the #1 unofficial Mailchimp plugin. |
mailchimp-for-wp home |
4.8.3 32,778,590 January 21, 2021 5.6.2 |
| 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 |
3.9.2 32,207,637 April 7, 2021 5.7.0 |
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: