WordPress Plugin Scraper — Plugin & Theme Market Intelligence

Extract comprehensive data from the WordPress.org plugin and theme directories. Get installs, ratings, downloads, support stats, version requirements, and competitive intelligence — all via the official WordPress.org REST API. No API key needed.

Key Features

• 4 Operating Modes -- Search plugins, get plugin details by slug, search themes, get theme details
• Full Data Extraction -- Installs, ratings, downloads, support stats, version requirements, author info, tags, banners
• Tracker Mode -- Auto-generated market intelligence with competitive landscape, rating distributions, support health, update frequency
• Official API -- Uses the WordPress.org REST API directly (no scraping, no auth required, no ToS violations)
• Bulk Processing -- Analyze up to 1,000 results per run with automatic pagination
• Export Anywhere -- JSON, CSV, Excel via Apify datasets; webhook integration for downstream pipelines
• PHP & WP Version Analysis -- Track ecosystem compatibility trends across the plugin landscape
• Market Concentration Metrics -- See which plugins dominate market share in any category

What does WordPress Plugin Scraper do?

WordPress Plugin Scraper connects to the official WordPress.org Plugin and Theme directories through their public REST API and extracts structured data for market research, competitor analysis, and business intelligence. Whether you need to monitor a single plugin's metrics or analyze an entire category of hundreds of plugins, this actor handles pagination, data normalization, and optional market intelligence analysis automatically.

The actor supports four operating modes: searching the plugin directory, fetching specific plugin details by slug, searching the theme directory, and fetching specific theme details. Results are delivered as clean, structured JSON records ready for import into spreadsheets, dashboards, or data pipelines.

In Tracker mode, the actor goes beyond raw data extraction to generate market intelligence including competitive landscape analysis, rating distributions, support health metrics, update frequency patterns, and auto-generated insights about market concentration.

How much does it cost?

WordPress Plugin Scraper uses a pay-per-result pricing model with no monthly fees or minimums:

Event	Cost
Actor start	$0.01 per run
Per result	$0.008 per plugin or theme record

Example costs:

• 20 plugins search: $0.01 + (20 x $0.008) = $0.17
• 100 plugins with tracker analysis: $0.01 + (100 x $0.008) = $0.81
• Single plugin details lookup: $0.01 + $0.008 = $0.018

Plus standard Apify platform compute costs (typically a few cents per run for this lightweight actor).

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Description	Default
mode	enum	Operating mode: search_plugins, plugin_details, search_themes, theme_details	search_plugins
searchQuery	string	Search term for plugin/theme search modes (e.g., "SEO", "WooCommerce")	SEO
pluginSlugs	array	Plugin slugs for detail mode (e.g., ["wordpress-seo", "woocommerce"])	—
themeSlugs	array	Theme slugs for detail mode	—
maxResults	integer	Maximum results to return (1-1000)	50
outputMode	enum	"raw" for individual records, "tracker" for market intelligence	raw
tag	string	Optional WordPress.org tag filter (e.g., "ecommerce", "seo")	—
sortBy	enum	Sort order: relevance, popularity, rating, newest	relevance

Output Format

Raw Mode — Plugin Fields

Each plugin record includes: name, slug, version, author, authorProfile, rating (0-100 scale), numRatings, activeInstalls, downloaded (total), lastUpdated, added (date first published), requiresWP, requiresPHP, testedUpTo, homepage, downloadLink, shortDescription, tags, supportThreads, supportThreadsResolved, and bannerUrl.

Raw Mode — Theme Fields

Each theme record includes: name, slug, version, author, rating, numRatings, activeInstalls, lastUpdated, homepage, downloadLink, screenshot URL, description, and tags.

Tracker Mode — Market Intelligence

When outputMode is set to "tracker", the actor generates a comprehensive analysis object alongside the raw results. The analysis includes: market overview metrics (totals and averages), top plugins/themes ranked by installs, rating, and downloads, rating distribution analysis, support thread resolution rates, update frequency breakdown (recently updated vs. stale/abandoned), tag and category popularity, competitive landscape with market share percentages, PHP and WordPress version requirements analysis, and auto-generated plain-English insights.

Example insight: "Top 3 plugins control 78% of active installs in this category."

Output Example

{
  "name": "Yoast SEO",
  "slug": "wordpress-seo",
  "version": "22.5",
  "author": "Team Yoast",
  "authorProfile": "https://profiles.wordpress.org/joostdevalk/",
  "rating": 96,
  "numRatings": 28143,
  "activeInstalls": 10000000,
  "downloaded": 582947123,
  "lastUpdated": "2026-04-10T12:00:00Z",
  "added": "2010-09-01",
  "requiresWP": "6.4",
  "requiresPHP": "7.4",
  "testedUpTo": "6.5",
  "homepage": "https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/",
  "shortDescription": "The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress.",
  "tags": ["seo", "xml-sitemap", "meta-tags", "readability", "schema"],
  "supportThreads": 872,
  "supportThreadsResolved": 741
}

Integration Examples

Python SDK

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("nexgendata/wordpress-plugin-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "mode": "search_plugins",
        "searchQuery": "WooCommerce",
        "maxResults": 50,
        "outputMode": "tracker",
    }
)

dataset = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
for item in dataset:
    if "activeInstalls" in item:
        print(f"{item['name']}: {item['activeInstalls']:,} installs, {item['rating']}/100 rating")

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~wordpress-plugin-scraper/runs" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "mode": "search_plugins",
    "searchQuery": "SEO",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "outputMode": "raw"
  }'

Use Cases

WordPress Developers: Research market gaps before building a new plugin. Understand what rating and install benchmarks you need to hit. Monitor your competitors' update frequency and support responsiveness.

Digital Agencies: Evaluate plugins before recommending them to clients. Compare support health and update patterns across alternatives. Build data-driven plugin recommendation reports.

SEO Consultants: Analyze the WordPress plugin landscape for content opportunities. Track which SEO plugins are gaining or losing market share. Identify trending categories and emerging tools.

Product Managers: Monitor market dynamics for competitive intelligence. Track version requirement trends (PHP 8.x adoption, WP 6.x compatibility). Analyze rating patterns to identify quality signals.

Investors & Analysts: Size WordPress ecosystem sub-markets by active installs. Identify acquisition targets with strong ratings but growth potential. Track market concentration trends.

Competitor Comparison

Feature	WordPress Plugin Scraper	CodeCanyon	WPScan	Manual Research
Cost	$0.008/result	Listing fees + 37.5% commission	$25/mo+	Free (your time)
Data Access	Full API data	Limited to marketplace	Security-focused	Copy/paste
Automation	Fully automated	Manual browsing	API but limited	Hours of work
Market Intelligence	Built-in tracker mode	None	Vulnerability data only	Spreadsheet work
Bulk Analysis	Up to 1000 results	One at a time	Different focus	Impractical
Scheduling	Apify scheduling	None	Scheduled scans	Calendar reminders
Export Formats	JSON, CSV, Excel	None	JSON	Manual

CodeCanyon charges listing fees and takes a 37.5% commission on sales — it is a marketplace, not a research tool. WPScan provides vulnerability data starting at $25/month but does not offer market intelligence, install counts, or competitive analysis. Manual research on WordPress.org requires clicking through pages one at a time, copying data into spreadsheets, and hours of tedious work that this actor completes in seconds.

Integration & Scheduling

WordPress Plugin Scraper integrates with the full Apify ecosystem. Schedule runs daily, weekly, or monthly to track market changes over time. Connect to webhooks to trigger downstream workflows when new data arrives. Export directly to Google Sheets, Slack, email, or any API endpoint through Apify integrations.

Combine with Apify datasets for longitudinal analysis — track how plugin ratings, installs, and support metrics change over weeks and months.

Technical Details

The actor uses the official WordPress.org REST API which requires no authentication and has generous rate limits. Data is fetched using httpx with automatic retry logic (3 attempts with backoff). Pagination is handled automatically based on the API's reported total pages.

The actor runs on Python 3.12 with minimal dependencies for fast cold starts. Typical runs complete in under 30 seconds for searches under 100 results. Memory usage is minimal — the default 256 MB allocation is more than sufficient.

FAQ

Is this legal? Yes. The actor uses the official WordPress.org public REST API, which is designed for programmatic access. No scraping of HTML pages, no Terms of Service violations.

How fresh is the data? Data is fetched live from WordPress.org on every run. There is no caching — you always get the latest available data.

Can I monitor changes over time? Yes. Schedule the actor to run periodically and use Apify's dataset versioning to compare results across runs.

What are the API rate limits? The WordPress.org API is generous with rate limits. The actor includes retry logic and respectful request timing to stay well within acceptable use.

Can I use this for vulnerability research? This actor focuses on market data (installs, ratings, versions). For security vulnerability data, consider specialized tools like WPScan. You can combine both data sources for comprehensive plugin evaluation.

Support

For questions, issues, or feature requests, open an issue on the actor's GitHub repository or contact us through Apify. We actively maintain this actor and respond to feedback promptly.

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Built by NexGenData. Start extracting WordPress market intelligence today.

Sign up for Apify to get started with $5 in free credits every month.

💻 Code Example — Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/wordpress-plugin-scraper").call(run_input={
    # Fill in the input shape from the actor's input_schema
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

🌐 Code Example — cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~wordpress-plugin-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ /* input schema */ }'

❓ FAQ

Q: How do I get started? Sign up at apify.com, grab your API token from Settings → Integrations, and run the actor via the Apify console, API, Python SDK, or any integration (Zapier, Make.com, n8n).

Q: What's the typical cost per run? See the pricing section below. Most runs finish under $0.10 for typical batches.

Q: Is this actor maintained? Yes. NexGenData maintains 165+ Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get responses within 24 hours.

Q: Can I use the output commercially? Yes — you own the output data. Check the target site's Terms of Service for any usage restrictions on the scraped content itself.

Q: How do I handle rate limits? Apify manages concurrency and retries automatically. For very large batches (10K+ items), run multiple smaller jobs in parallel instead of one mega-job for better reliability.

💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for what you actually extract.

• Actor Start: $0.0001
• result: $0.0050

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Built and maintained by NexGenData — 165+ actors covering scraping, enrichment, MCP servers, and automation. 🏠 Home: thenextgennexus.com