WordPress Plugin Directory Scraper: Installs, Ratings, Versions

Scrape the official WordPress.org Plugin Directory by keyword, slug, or category: active installs, ratings, version, WP compatibility, author, and URLs.

What it does

Queries the official WordPress.org Plugin Information API (api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.2/) for fast, structured plugin metadata. Export clean, deduplicated data as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS, or connect directly via the Apify REST API, Python/JavaScript SDKs, CLI, MCP Server, n8n, Make, or Zapier — with no login, cookies, or browser overhead.

Use cases

• B2B SaaS & Agency Lead Generation: Find high-install WordPress plugins (minActiveInstalls: 10000) with author profiles and external homepages (homepage) for partnership or acquisition outreach.
• Plugin Acquisition & Micro-PE Scouting: Spot popular plugins with high activeInstalls that haven't been updated recently (lastUpdated, testedUpTo) as acquisition targets.
• Security & Vulnerability Intelligence: Track plugin version, requiresPhp, requiresWp, and update cadence across the WordPress ecosystem with onlyChanged: true.
• Competitor & ASO Keyword Research: Benchmark ratings (rating, numRatings, 1–5 star breakdown), support thread resolution rate, and tags for any keyword.

Why use this scraper?

Feature	This Actor	Generic Browser / HTML Scrapers
Architecture	Direct structured API / JSON / feed requests (curl_cffi)	Heavy headless browser automation
Speed & reliability	2–25 seconds for 50–200 items	Minutes of high compute burn
Pricing model	Pay per result ($0.00 actor-start fee)	Monthly rental or high CU overhead
Error handling	Failed inputs logged in ERRORS key-value record and never charged	Bills compute time even on failures

Input parameters

• Search keywords (searchTerms, array): Keywords to search on WordPress.org Plugin Directory (e.g. 'seo', 'woocommerce', 'ai', 'forms').
• Browse category (optional) (browse, string): Optional browse feed when not searching by keyword ('popular', 'new', 'updated', 'top-rated').
• Specific plugin slugs (pluginSlugs, array): Optional exact WordPress.org plugin slugs (e.g. 'wordpress-seo', 'contact-form-7').
• Minimum active installs (minActiveInstalls, integer): Keep only plugins with at least this many active installations.
• Max plugins (maxItems, integer): Stop after emitting this many plugins.
• Only new or updated plugins (onlyChanged, boolean): Save version + activeInstalls + rating per plugin and emit only when a plugin updates or changes.
• Delay between requests (delaySeconds, number): Polite pause between requests (default 0.4).

Example input

{
  "searchTerms": [
    "seo"
  ],
  "maxItems": 60
}

Output & example output

One dataset row per result. Default table view columns: name, slug, version, activeInstalls, rating, numRatings, testedUpTo, lastUpdated, author, url. Full structured JSON is stored in the run's default dataset.

Example output item

{
  "slug": "seo-by-rank-math",
  "name": "Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings",
  "shortDescription": "Grow your organic traffic and AI visibility with powerful SEO tools, XML sitemaps, Schema automation, and built-in AI SEO, all in one place.",
  "version": "1.0.280",
  "activeInstalls": 4000000,
  "downloaded": 200793840,
  "rating": 96,
  "numRatings": 7517,
  "stars5": 7081,
  "stars1": 196,
  "requiresWp": "6.7",
  "testedUpTo": "7.1.3",
  "requiresPhp": "7.4",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-10-06 12:43pm GMT",
  "addedDate": "2018-11-19",
  "author": "Rank Math SEO",
  "authorProfile": "https://profiles.wordpress.org/rankmath/",
  "homepage": "https://rankmath.com/",
  "supportThreads": 46,
  "supportThreadsResolved": 42,
  "supportResolutionRate": 0.913,
  "tags": [
    "google search console",
    "redirection",
    "schema"
  ],
  "downloadLink": "https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/seo-by-rank-math.1.0.280.zip",
  "url": "https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-25T04:38:14+00:00"
}

Pricing (Pay-Per-Result)

This Actor uses transparent Pay-Per-Event pricing with a $0.00 actor-start fee:

Event	What is charged	Price
plugin-result	WordPress plugin scraped (One WordPress.org plugin record)	$0.0015 / result ($1.50 / 1,000 results)
apify-actor-start	Actor start fee	$0.00

Concrete pricing math

• plugin-result (WordPress plugin scraped): 1,000 results = $1.50 (50 results = $0.07, 10,000 results = $15.00). Apify's $5.00/month Free Tier covers up to 3,333 results/month at $0.00 out-of-pocket.
• Empty runs (0 results) & skipped duplicates (onlyNew / onlyChanged): $0.00.

Data and compliance

Official public WordPress.org API. Publisher and plugin metadata only. Requests are rate-limited and routed through Apify Proxy. Per-input errors are recorded in the run's ERRORS key-value record and are never charged.

FAQ

Do I need an account, login, or API key?
No. This Actor queries public endpoints directly and requires zero credentials.

What happens if I start a run with empty {} input via API or CLI?
Every required input defines both prefill and default values in .actor/input_schema.json, so an empty {} run automatically returns 50+ live records out of the box.