Today, I am announcing the Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins, a small project of mine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of WordPress and the thousands of plugins that make it special. It does so by displaying the most popular WordPress plugins in a unique way. Before I tell you more about it, here it is in its full glory:
Over 10 years ago I first stumbled upon the Periodic Table of Drupal Modules by Amazee Labs. It showed the most popular Drupal modules in a layout that you might remember from chemistry class. That work inspired me to create a similar version for WordPress plugins, but with a twist — plugintable.com was born.
It was meant as a showcase of WordPress plugins that automatically updates itself daily. While it was web-only, I’ve always thought about doing a print version as well. You can see this in the archived version depicted below (notice the poster note in the blue header?).
The site was dynamic from the beginning. It regularly fetched the most popular plugins from the WordPress.org plugin directory and ranked them by the number of active installations. Then, it generated symbol names for each “element”. The plugins were then displayed in a “table” using CSS floats and jQuery 1.9.0. Clicking on each plugin revealed further information such as the description and author name.
Showcasing the Most Popular WordPress Plugins
Over the past few months I have rediscovered and resurrected this old project of mine. I figured it would be a cool thing to share for the 20th anniversary of WordPress. After all, WordPress turns 20 on May 27, 2023! 🎉
So today, I am re-introducing The Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins. Complete with a modernized look & feel, more curation and more useful information than before. And even a poster version!
A lot has happened in the past decade. For example, the number of WordPress plugins has tripled from 20,000 to over 60,000! It’s great to see many new rising stars among all these plugins. However, the top contenders remain largely unchanged with names like Akismet, Jetpack, and Contact Form 7. Here are some of my observations looking at the current list:
- Yoast SEO is the #1 most popular WordPress plugin according to publicly available information (active installs, downloads, ratings).
- Really Simple SSL is the only plugin with 5+ million active installs and a solid 5.0/5.0 rating. Impressive!
- In the top 20, Site Kit by Google — first released in October 2019 — is the youngest “element” with 3+ million active installs in a little over 3 years.
- XML Sitemaps is the oldest plugin in the list with its first release in June 2005.
- Among the most popular plugins, WooCommerce Shipping & Tax has the worst rating with 900k+ active installs and only 2 out of 5 stars.
Grab your Physical Copy Today
Did I already mention the periodic table of WordPress plugins is also available as a unique poster? I finally made my dream come true with the help of a print-on-demand provider and Shopify, so that anyone who wants to hang this on their wall can now do so!
It is available in multiple sizes, with or without frame, and even in a dark mode option! Check out all options in the shop →.
First and foremost this poster is meant as a nice wall decoration for WordPress enthusiasts like me. The little money this generates will be donated straight back to the WordPress community, so it’s 100% not for profit. Please help me spread the word and consider getting a copy yourself!
If you prefer printing the poster yourself or perhaps want to use it as a desktop wallpaper on your computer, you can also download the files here:
Feedback Welcome
In the future, I will write more about how I built the site, why I chose Shopify over WooCommerce, and my experience selling physical goods online for the first time.
For now, I am interested in your feedback. Please leave comments or send me an email with any thoughts and questions you might have. Thank you!
Leave a Reply