Rank, installs and downloads explained

Every number in TrackWP is taken from WordPress.org, computed with a formula WordPress.org publishes, or an estimate that’s labeled as one. Here’s how to read the figures on your dashboard and on listing pages.

When numbers update

TrackWP takes a snapshot of every plugin and theme each night at 02:00 UTC, checks tracked searches at 04:00 and fetches official daily downloads at 04:30. WordPress.org keeps no rank or install history, so TrackWP’s daily history starts the night it first sees a listing.

Rank

Rank is a product’s place in WordPress.org’s popular order, among all plugins or all themes. Lower is better. An up arrow means it climbed. Your dashboard shows the change over 7 days; listing pages show the change since yesterday.

Active installs

WordPress.org rounds active installs down to a band, such as 30,000+, and TrackWP always shows that band as “reported”. When enough listings share the band, TrackWP also places an estimate inside it, mainly from popular rank, shown with ≈ and marked “(est.)”. Its confidence reads High, Medium or Low, and drops on wide bands and at 1M+.

Downloads

Downloads a day is a typical day: the middle (median) of the last two weeks of WordPress.org’s daily figures. Every automatic update counts as a download, so a release day can run 15 to 30 times a normal one, and the newest day alone would make a plugin that just released look many times bigger. When the newest day is a spike like that, it shows beside the typical one, for example “924K on Oct 21, a release”. Trends compare typical days too: the dashboard sets your latest day against a typical day, and listing pages compare a typical day in the last 30 days with the 30 before. Active installs are the better measure of reach. If your downloads fell, read Why plugin downloads drop.

Rating and support

Rating is the average star rating from WordPress.org reviews, with the number of reviews beside it. Support resolved is the share of a plugin’s support threads marked resolved in the last two months. Search’s support factor grows with the number of threads resolved in that time.

Search multiplier and positions

• Search multiplier is the six ranking factors from WordPress.org’s published formula multiplied together, such as ×1.84. Open the Rank Simulator to see each one.
• A keyword’s Position is your place in WordPress.org’s results for that search. TrackWP reads the top 100, so “not in top 100” means you’re further down or not shown at all.
• Top 10 keywords counts your tracked searches in the top 10, against a week ago.
• The chips under a product’s name, such as “#3 in Contact Form”, are its rank among listings with that tag.
• The SEO chip beside a plugin’s name is its listing audit score out of 100: green from 80, amber from 60.

History and your plan

Starter shows the last 30 days of history; Boost and FullCharge show all of it. On Boost and FullCharge, downloads go back two years, because WordPress.org publishes them, and for established plugins a dashed line on the charts shows older history read from monthly Internet Archive captures. That older history is read for every plugin you track or watch as a rival, and for a plugin with 10,000+ installs the first time anyone opens its page; it appears within about 15 minutes. The methodology page explains every number in more detail.