WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper

Scrape structured WordPress.org plugin directory data for market research, SEO analysis, security review, agency prospecting, and competitor monitoring.

The actor collects plugin names, slugs, authors, active installs, ratings, versions, compatibility data, tags, support stats, update dates, download counts, homepages, and WordPress.org plugin URLs.

Use it when you need a repeatable dataset instead of manually opening plugin pages one by one.

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What does WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper do?

WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper turns WordPress.org plugin searches and plugin slugs into clean dataset rows.

You can:

• 🔎 Search for plugins by keywords such as seo, security, forms, cache, or ecommerce
• 🔌 Fetch known plugins directly by slug, such as woocommerce or contact-form-7
• 📈 Compare active installs, ratings, downloads, support stats, and update freshness
• 🧩 Build lists of plugin vendors and plugin homepages
• 🛡️ Monitor compatibility signals such as tested WordPress version and required PHP version
• 📦 Export the results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or through the Apify API

Who is it for?

Plugin marketers

Find competitor plugins, track ratings, monitor install counts, and discover tags used by successful products.

WordPress agencies

Research the plugin ecosystem before recommending tools to clients or auditing a website stack.

SEO analysts

Build category-level datasets for keyword, SERP, and plugin positioning research.

Security analysts

Prioritize plugins by install count, update cadence, compatibility, and support signals.

Lead generation teams

Create lists of plugin authors, vendor websites, and WordPress.org profiles for outreach workflows.

Product teams

Track market size, category saturation, and competing plugin claims across WordPress.org.

Why use this actor?

Manual plugin research is slow. WordPress.org has thousands of plugins across many categories, and the most useful signals are spread across plugin cards and plugin detail pages.

This actor helps you automate that work:

• ✅ Repeatable search inputs
• ✅ Direct slug lookups for known competitors
• ✅ Consistent field names
• ✅ Search rank captured per query
• ✅ Optional full description sections
• ✅ Low-cost HTTP-only execution
• ✅ No login needed for public directory data

Typical use cases

• Build a list of top SEO plugins by active installs
• Compare plugin ratings in a category
• Find abandoned or stale plugins in a niche
• Discover plugin vendor websites for partnerships
• Monitor competitor versions and update dates
• Export plugin directory data into BI tools
• Create enrichment input for another workflow
• Track tags used by high-install plugins

Output fields

Field	Description
sourceType	Whether the row came from a search query or direct slug lookup
query	Search query that produced the plugin, when applicable
rank	Plugin rank within that query
slug	WordPress.org plugin slug
name	Plugin name
version	Current plugin version
author	Plugin author name or organization
author_profile	WordPress.org author profile URL
homepage	Vendor or project homepage when available
requires	Required WordPress version
tested	WordPress version tested up to
requires_php	Required PHP version
rating	Aggregate rating score
ratings_count	Number of ratings
ratings_breakdown	Optional 1-star through 5-star rating counts
active_installs	Active install estimate
downloaded	Total downloads
last_updated	Last updated timestamp from WordPress.org
added	Date the plugin was added
tags	Optional WordPress.org plugin tags
short_description	Short plugin summary
description_html	Optional full description HTML
sections	Optional full plugin sections
screenshots	Screenshot metadata when available
support_threads	Recent support thread count
support_threads_resolved	Recent resolved support thread count
download_link	Plugin ZIP download link
plugin_url	Public WordPress.org plugin URL

Pricing

This Actor uses Apify pay-per-event pricing. The prices below come from the current Actor pricing configuration. Apify public plans map to Store discount tiers, so the table shows both the user-facing plan context and the pricing tier name. The final price shown in Apify depends on the user account plan and any custom agreement.

Event	What is charged	Price
start	One-time fee charged when a run starts. Covers fixed startup cost.	$0.005

Event	What is charged	Free / no discount	Starter / Bronze	Scale / Silver	Business / Gold	Custom / Platinum	Custom / Diamond
item	Per WordPress plugin record saved to the dataset	$1.15 / 1,000	$1 / 1,000	$0.78 / 1,000	$0.6 / 1,000	$0.4 / 1,000	$0.28 / 1,000

Apify may also charge platform usage for compute, storage, proxies, or data transfer outside this Actor pricing. Check the Actor run and the Apify Pricing tab for the exact cost shown to your account.

Input settings

Search queries

Use queries to discover plugins by keyword.

Example queries:

• seo
• security
• woocommerce
• forms
• analytics
• page builder
• backup

Plugin slugs

Use slugs when you already know the plugin.

Examples:

• woocommerce
• contact-form-7
• seo-by-rank-math
• wordpress-seo
• elementor

You can also paste WordPress.org plugin URLs.

Maximum plugin records

Use maxItems to cap the number of dataset rows.

Start small, inspect the output, then increase the limit for larger research jobs.

Search page size

Use perPage to control how many plugins the WordPress.org search API returns per page. The maximum is 100; smaller values are useful for quick tests.

Optional fields

Enable optional fields when you need more detail:

• includeTags adds plugin tags
• includeRatingsBreakdown adds rating counts by star level
• includeSections adds larger full-text HTML sections
• locale requests a WordPress.org locale when supported

Verified public examples

Ready-to-run Apify Store examples verified in post-publish QA:

• Top WordPress SEO plugins
• Monitor known WordPress plugin slugs
• Security plugin details with sections

Example input

{
  "queries": ["seo", "security"],
  "slugs": ["woocommerce", "contact-form-7"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "perPage": 50,
  "includeTags": true,
  "includeRatingsBreakdown": true,
  "includeSections": false,
  "locale": "en_US"
}

Example output

{
  "sourceType": "query",
  "query": "seo",
  "rank": 1,
  "slug": "seo-by-rank-math",
  "name": "Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings",
  "version": "1.0.273",
  "author": "Rank Math SEO",
  "author_profile": "https://profiles.wordpress.org/rankmath/",
  "homepage": "https://rankmath.com/",
  "requires": "6.7",
  "tested": "7.0",
  "requires_php": "7.4",
  "rating": 96,
  "ratings_count": 7453,
  "active_installs": 4000000,
  "downloaded": 185207621,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-30 11:48am GMT",
  "added": "2018-11-19",
  "plugin_url": "https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/"
}

How to scrape WordPress plugins

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more search queries.
3. Add direct plugin slugs if you have known targets.
4. Set maxItems to the number of plugin records you need.
5. Keep optional full sections disabled for quick market scans.
6. Run the actor.
7. Download the dataset or connect it to your workflow.

Tips for better results

• Use specific category terms for focused lists.
• Use broad terms such as seo or security for market mapping.
• Add known competitor slugs to guarantee they appear in the dataset.
• Keep includeSections disabled unless you need long descriptions or changelogs.
• Run the same query on a schedule to monitor changes over time.
• Combine active_installs, rating, and last_updated to prioritize plugins.

Scheduling and monitoring

You can schedule this actor on Apify to monitor plugin categories daily, weekly, or monthly.

Useful scheduled workflows include:

• Weekly competitor install and rating snapshots
• Monthly plugin category exports
• Security watchlists for high-install plugins
• Agency reports on recommended plugin categories
• Vendor lead list refreshes

Integrations

This actor works with common Apify integrations:

• Google Sheets for lightweight research tables
• Make or Zapier for lead workflows
• Webhooks for alerts when a run finishes
• Apify datasets API for BI pipelines
• Cloud storage exports for archives
• Other Apify actors for enrichment

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper').call({
  queries: ['seo'],
  slugs: ['woocommerce'],
  maxItems: 25,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])

run = client.actor('fetch_cat/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper').call(run_input={
    'queries': ['security'],
    'maxItems': 25,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"queries":["seo"],"maxItems":25}'

MCP integration

Use Apify MCP to make this actor available to AI assistants.

Claude Code

$claude mcp add apify-wordpress-plugins "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper"

Claude Desktop

Add an MCP server configuration that points to:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper

Example JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-wordpress-plugins": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Example MCP prompts

Example prompts you can ask after connecting the MCP server:

• "Use the WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper tool to find the top WordPress SEO plugins and compare active installs and ratings."
• "Run the scraper for security plugins, then build a list with plugin authors and homepages."
• "Use the actor to check whether the slugs woocommerce, wordpress-seo, and contact-form-7 are recently updated."
• "Create a CSV-ready dataset of WooCommerce extension competitors using the Apify WordPress plugin scraper."

Export formats

After a run completes, Apify lets you export data as:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel
• XML
• RSS
• HTML table

You can also read the dataset through the Apify API.

Limits and caveats

• The actor returns public directory metadata.
• It does not log in to WordPress.org.
• It does not install, audit, or execute plugin code.
• Active install counts are directory estimates.
• Some plugin fields may be missing when WordPress.org does not provide them.
• Full sections can be large and may increase dataset size.

Legality and responsible use

This actor extracts publicly available plugin directory metadata. You are responsible for using the data lawfully and respecting WordPress.org terms, privacy rules, and applicable regulations.

Do not use exported data for spam, abusive automation, or misleading outreach.

Troubleshooting

Why did I get fewer records than maxItems?

The source may have fewer results for your query, or duplicate plugins may have been skipped across multiple queries and slugs.

Why is a field empty?

Some plugins do not provide every field. For example, a homepage, PHP requirement, screenshot list, or support statistic can be absent.

Should I enable full sections?

Enable includeSections only when you need long descriptions, changelogs, installation notes, or FAQ sections. For market scans, keep it disabled.

Can I scrape reviews?

This first version focuses on plugin metadata. Review scraping is a separate workflow and may be added later as a different dataset shape.

Related scrapers

• GitHub Repository Search Scraper for open-source repository discovery.
• Hacker News Search Scraper for developer conversation research.
• Arxiv Paper Search Scraper for research paper discovery.
• Website Contact Finder for contact enrichment workflows.

Support

If a run fails or a plugin field looks incorrect, open an issue on Apify and include:

• Input JSON: the exact actor input you used.
• Expected output: the plugin records or fields you expected to receive.
• Actual output: the dataset rows, missing fields, error message, or run log excerpt you received.
• Reproducible public URL: a WordPress.org plugin page or search URL that demonstrates the issue, plus the Apify run URL or run ID.

Summary

WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper gives marketers, agencies, analysts, and product teams a fast way to turn public WordPress.org plugin directory data into structured datasets.

Changelog

• 2026-07-28 - Feature: Added ready-to-run Apify Store example tasks

• 2026-07-28 - Feature: Launched WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper on Apify Store

  • This actor is now publicly available in the Apify Store.