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Unmaintained plugins

A plugin is maintained as long as someone looks after it: its author releases fixes, keeps it working with new versions of WordPress and PHP, and answers questions. An unmaintained plugin is one where that has stopped. The clearest signs are a plugin that was closed in the WordPress.org directory and a last update that lies years back.

Why it matters

Section titled “Why it matters”

A plugin that nobody maintains won’t get fixes. When a security flaw becomes known, it stays open, and when a new WordPress or PHP version changes something the plugin relies on, it may stop working, often at the moment of an update. This is upkeep, not a speed problem: an unmaintained plugin doesn’t make your pages slower than it did before.

The date alone isn’t proof, though. A small plugin that does one thing well may not need changes for a long time. Other signs help: whether “Tested up to” keeps pace with new WordPress releases, whether the support forum gets answers, and whether the plugin is still available in the directory at all.

What influences it

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WordPress: Many plugins are written by a single person or a small team, so their maintenance depends on them. When the author moves on, because the plugin no longer pays off or interest fades, the updates stop. Plugins can also be closed in the WordPress.org directory, for example after a security issue that wasn’t fixed; they then stay installed on sites but get no more updates through WordPress.

In Permo

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The No longer maintained card is in System info, tab WordPress, under Plugins. It counts the active plugins that are closed on WordPress.org or haven’t had an update for two years:

  • Red when at least one of them is closed. A closed plugin also appears on the Dashboard under Needs attention, marked as upkeep.
  • Yellow when none is closed, but at least one has gone two years without an update.
  • Green with All maintained when every active plugin from the directory is fine.

The Active plugins list further down shows each plugin with its status, its last update and the WordPress version it was tested up to. A plugin with an update waiting counts as an update, not as unmaintained, until you install it.

The data comes from WordPress.org: about once a week, Permo asks the directory about the active plugins in the background, sending only their short names (see privacy). Until the first answer is there, the card is called Maintenance and says Waiting for wordpress.org data. Plugins that aren’t in the directory, such as premium or custom plugins, have no such data; see plugins not listed on WordPress.org.

Section titled “Related”

Sources