Best sparkle plugins for WordPress

The most popular sparkle plugins for WordPress in November 2026, in WordPress.org’s own popular order, which follows active installs. Shining Cursor Trail leads with 50+ active installs, ahead of Sparkling Appcast (fewer than 10). All 2 plugins tagged “sparkle” are below, with figures from WordPress.org that update every day.

Installs aren’t everything: a recent release, a “Tested up to” that matches the current WordPress, and support threads that get resolved show a plugin is looked after. Open any plugin for its downloads, rank history and alternatives.

Research this niche or see all plugins.

Top 2 sparkle plugins

1.
Shining Cursor Trail
The most installed sparkle plugin, with 50+ active installs. No reviews yet, updated 8 months ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.9.11.
2.
Sparkling Appcast
Fewer than 10 active installs. No reviews yet, last updated 1 year ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.7.11.

All 2 plugins tagged “sparkle”

Shining Cursor Trail
Up in the last 7 days:2#21,297
by Taisa - Raquel García Arévalo8 months ago
Shining Cursor Trail adds a magical sparkling effect to your cursor, that you can customize.
Installs
50+
Rating
–
Downloads
0/day
Sparkling Appcast
Down in the last 7 days:15,590#67,170
by usielriedl1 year ago
Sparkling Appcast allows you to use your WordPress site to distribute your macOS App via Sparkle offering an appcast.xml endpoint.
Installs
<10
Rating
–
Downloads
0/day