WordPress Plugin Scraper - Installs, Ratings & Authors

Scrape the WordPress.org plugin and theme directory in bulk. Extract plugin name, slug, author, version, active installs, total downloads, rating, review counts, support threads and compatibility to CSV/JSON. No API key.

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What does the WordPress.org Scraper do?

This Actor turns WordPress.org data into a structured dataset. You point it at the whole directory or by keyword, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per plugin into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

WordPress.org runs a keyless directory API over its 68,000 plugins and 8,000 themes, and it publishes the numbers that matter: active installs, lifetime downloads, the full star histogram and open support threads. The Actor reads that API directly, so market-share data arrives as typed columns rather than as figures scraped off a listing page. Pagination is followed automatically until it runs out of results, hits your page limit or hits your Max items cap, whichever comes first. Every row is de-duplicated across the whole run, so you are never billed twice for the same plugin.

There is no API key, no login and no browser involved. That keeps runs fast and cheap, and it means you can schedule the Actor without worrying about credentials expiring.

Who is it for?

• Plugin and theme developers sizing a niche before building.
• WordPress agencies vetting plugins before recommending them.
• Market researchers measuring the WordPress ecosystem.
• Sales teams building a list of plugin vendors to approach.
• Security teams tracking abandoned plugins still in wide use.

Use cases

• Export every plugin for a keyword and rank by active installs.
• Find plugins with high installs but no update in years.
• Compare star histograms to spot plugins with polarised reviews.
• Measure how crowded a plugin category already is.
• Track unresolved support threads as a quality signal.

Why use this WordPress.org Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 32 fields per plugin — everything the source exposes, already typed.
• 📄 Real pagination — it walks page after page instead of returning the first screen.
• 🎯 Precise caps — Max items stops the run exactly where you want it, so the bill is predictable.
• 📊 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations.
• 💸 Pay per result — you pay for rows you actually receive, with no platform fees to calculate.

What data can you extract?

Every run produces one row per plugin, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
slug	string	WordPress.org slug, unique per plugin
name	string	Plugin or theme name with HTML stripped
itemType	string	Whether the row is a plugin or a theme
version	string	Current released version
author	string	Author name with markup stripped
authorProfile	string	WordPress.org profile URL of the author
shortDescription	string	Short description with HTML stripped
activeInstalls	number	Active installations reported by WordPress.org
downloaded	number	Lifetime download count
rating	number	Rating on the 0 to 100 scale used by the directory
ratingStars	number	The same rating converted to a 0 to 5 star value
numRatings	number	Number of ratings submitted
ratings5	number	Count of five-star ratings
ratings4	number	Count of four-star ratings
ratings3	number	Count of three-star ratings
ratings2	number	Count of two-star ratings
ratings1	number	Count of one-star ratings
supportThreads	number	Support threads opened in the last two months
supportThreadsResolved	number	Of those, how many are resolved
requiresWp	string	Minimum WordPress version required
testedWp	string	Highest WordPress version tested against
requiresPhp	string	Minimum PHP version required
addedAt	string	Date the item was added to the directory
lastUpdated	string	Date of the most recent release as published
homepage	string	Author's homepage for the item
downloadLink	string	Direct ZIP download URL
directoryUrl	string	WordPress.org directory page
iconUrl	string	Icon image URL when one is published
tags	string	Directory tags, separated by a pipe
query	string	Search term or browse mode this row came from
page	number	Result page the item appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "slug": "wordpress-seo",
  "name": "Yoast SEO \u2013 Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI",
  "itemType": "plugin",
  "version": "28.5",
  "author": "Yoast",
  "authorProfile": "https://profiles.wordpress.org/yoast/",
  "shortDescription": "Real-time SEO guidance, schema, and AI built in. Help search engines and AI systems understand your content. All AI tools included, no hidden fees.",
  "activeInstalls": 10000000,
  "downloaded": 1001331271,
  "rating": 96,
  "ratingStars": 4.8,
  "numRatings": 27819,
  "ratings5": 25990,
  "ratings4": 642,
  "ratings3": 202,
  "ratings2": 139,
  "ratings1": 846,
  "supportThreads": 26,
  "supportThreadsResolved": 24,
  "requiresWp": "6.9",
  "testedWp": "7.1.1",
  "requiresPhp": "7.4",
  "addedAt": "2010-10-11",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-09-15 6:43am GMT",
  "homepage": "https://yoa.st/1uj",
  "downloadLink": "https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wordpress-seo.28.5.zip",
  "directoryUrl": "https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/",
  "iconUrl": "https://ps.w.org/wordpress-seo/assets/icon-256x256.gif?rev=3419908",
  "tags": "Content analysis | Readability | schema | seo | xml sitemap",
  "query": "browse: popular",
  "page": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-19T11:22:03.517Z"
}

How to use

Option A — the whole directory

{
  "browse": "popular",
  "itemType": "plugins",
  "maxItems": 2500,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 10,
  "searchTerms": []
}

1. Open the Actor and fill in the first field.
2. Set the page limit and Max items to bound the run.
3. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Option B — by keyword

{
  "itemType": "plugins",
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 4,
  "searchTerms": [
    "seo",
    "backup",
    "woocommerce"
  ]
}

Everything in the first field is processed independently, so you can batch several targets into one run and split them apart afterwards.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	[]	Terms to search the directory for, e.
itemType	string	plugins	Export the plugin directory or the theme directory.
browse	string	popular	Ordering used when no search term is given.
maxPagesPerSearch	integer	4	How many result pages to walk for each search.
maxItems	integer	500	Stop after this many items.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• Leave the search term empty and pick a Browse mode to walk the directory by popularity or freshness.
• A search term uses the directory's own search, which matches names, descriptions and tags.
• Switch Item type to themes to export the theme directory instead.
• The API accepts 250 items per request, so a ten-page run covers 2,500 items.
• activeInstalls is bucketed by WordPress.org, so it is an order of magnitude rather than an exact figure.
• ratingStars is rating divided by 20, provided so you do not have to convert it yourself.
• High activeInstalls with an old lastUpdated is the classic abandoned-but-popular signal.
• supportThreads minus supportThreadsResolved is a usable responsiveness score.
• lastUpdated is published as a human-readable string by WordPress.org, so it is kept verbatim rather than guessed into a timestamp.
• Pair with the WordPress Scraper to connect ecosystem data to the sites that actually run it.

Integrations

Send results straight into the tools you already use: Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airtable or any Webhook. You can also schedule the Actor to run hourly, daily or weekly and have each run append to the same dataset, which is how you build a price or availability history rather than a one-off snapshot.

API usage

Run the Actor and collect results from any language. Replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"browse": "popular", "itemType": "plugins", "maxItems": 2500, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchTerms": []}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper').call({"browse": "popular", "itemType": "plugins", "maxItems": 2500, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchTerms": []});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<YOUR_TOKEN>')
run = client.actor('logiover/wordpress-plugin-directory-scraper').call(run_input={"browse": "popular", "itemType": "plugins", "maxItems": 2500, "maxPagesPerSearch": 10, "searchTerms": []})
for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available through the Apify MCP server, so an AI agent can call it as a tool. Point your agent at https://mcp.apify.com and it can run the WordPress.org Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 plugins from WordPress.org and summarise what you find." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a WordPress.org account or API key?

No. The Actor reads publicly available data only. There is nothing to authenticate and no credentials to rotate.

How many plugins can I get in one run?

As many as the source exposes. Raise the page limit and Max items together; the run stops at whichever limit it reaches first.

Why did I get fewer rows than I asked for?

The source ran out of plugins. That is normal for narrow searches — broaden the query or add more targets to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each plugin is emitted once per run, even when it appears on several pages, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

Why are some fields empty?

WordPress.org does not publish every attribute for every plugin. Empty means the source did not supply it, not that extraction failed.

What export formats are supported?

JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and RSS from the Output tab, plus the Apify API and any integration you connect.

How fast is it?

It is pure HTTP with no browser, so a page of results typically takes a second or two. Raise Max concurrency carefully — the source rate-limits aggressive crawling.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Use the Apify scheduler to run it on any interval and append each run to the same dataset for time-series analysis.

Does it work behind a proxy?

It uses Apify Proxy automatically. You can switch groups or supply your own proxies in Proxy configuration.

How often does the data change?

WordPress.org updates continuously. Re-run whenever you need current data; the Actor always reads the live source, never a cache.

Is the output schema stable?

Yes. Field names and types are fixed, so downstream pipelines will not break between runs.

What if the source changes its format?

Open an issue on the Issues tab and it gets fixed. The Actor is actively maintained.

Is it legal?

This Actor reads only publicly available data from WordPress.org — the same content any visitor or client sees without logging in. It does not bypass authentication, does not collect private data and does not attempt to defeat access controls. You are responsible for how you use the output: respect the source's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection law such as GDPR where personal data is involved. Scraping public data is generally lawful in the EU and the US, but the responsibility for the downstream use of that data sits with you.

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