WordPress plugin comparison
Essential Performance vs Performance Lab
Essential Performance
by Vova Zubko
Fewer than 10 installs
Performance Lab
by WordPress Performance Team
100K+ installs4.3
At a glance
- Performance Lab has more active installs: 100K+, against fewer than 10 for Essential Performance.
- On a typical day, Performance Lab is downloaded about 809 times, Essential Performance about 2.
- Essential Performance has no reviews yet.
- Performance Lab was updated more recently: Aug 26, 2026, against Apr 20, 2020 for Essential Performance.
- Performance Lab is tested with a newer WordPress: 7.1.4, against 5.3.27 for Essential Performance.
- Essential Performance has been around longer: since 2019, against 2022 for Performance Lab.
Line by line
Performance Lab leads on 6 of 6 comparable lines.
| Metric | Essential Performance | Performance Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Popular rank | #52,421 | #305 |
| Active installs | Fewer than 10 | 100K+ |
| Downloads, last 30 days | 34 | 21K |
| Rating | No ratings | 4.3(51) |
| Support threads resolved | – | 50% |
| Tested up to | 5.3.27 | 7.1.4 |
| Search multiplier | ×0.00 | ×1.25 |
| Last release | 6 years ago | 2 months ago |
| Requires PHP | 7.0 | 7.4 |
From WordPress.org's public data, refreshed every night. Downloads are WordPress.org's official daily figures for the last 30 days.
Tags they share
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