Plugins

Show Your Love for the Top 100 WordPress Plugin Developers

Tom Ewer on July 3, 2012 - 17 comments

Top 100 WordPress Plugin Developers If you have been following the ManageWP blog for any length of time, you will have probably gathered that we are big supporters of theme and plugin developers of all shapes and sizes. But the fine folks who develop the kind of functionality that makes WordPress what it is often do not get enough recognition. This is especially true when it comes to free plugin developers. If you speak to any free plugin developer he or she will tell you that many users seem to have an attitude of entitlement when it comes to support – as if they had actually paid for the plugin. Of course, not all of us are like this. And with ManageWP users being a savvy bunch, I’m sure that you are far more likely to praise a plugin or theme developer than harass one. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be nice to take a moment today to show your appreciation to one or more of the huge number of free plugin developers out there who are working hard to keep WordPress on top of its game?

How this Works

We’ve spent rather a lot of time gathering and sorting data for the top 100 WordPress plugin developers, based upon total number of downloads. Unless you are brand new to WordPress, it is likely that you use at least one plugin created by the developers below. All you need to do is pick out one (or more) of your favorite developers, and take a moment to thank them. We’ve collected all of the Twitter accounts we could find, but we are sure you can find other ways of getting in touch if your chosen developer doesn’t have an account listed. Firing off a quick tweet to thank a developer for developing great free products will only take a moment, so why not do it? Furthermore, if you’re on the hunt for plugins to check out, you will find a comprehensive list below of the most popular plugins available for WordPress. Just remember to thank the developer if you start using one!

The List

Rank	Developer	Downloads	Most Popular Plugin	Plugins
1	Matt Mullenweg	11,260,094	Akismet	16	Twitter
2	Michael Torbert	11,241,563	All in One SEO Pack	9	Twitter
3	Takayuki Miyoshi	8,096,475	Contact Form 7	8	Twitter
4	Arne Brachhold	7,841,342	Google XML Sitemaps	4
5	Lester Chan	7,201,064	WP-PageNavi	18	Twitter
6	Joost de Valk	5,679,395	WordPress SEO	29	Twitter
7	Alex Rabe	5,611,442	wordTube	4
8	Mike Challis	4,432,175	Fast Secure Contact Form	3	Twitter
9	Donncha O Caoimh	3,867,013	WP Super Cache	13	Twitter
10	BraveNewCode Inc.	3,710,984	WPtouch	5	Twitter
11	Vladimir Prelovac	3,484,804	Smart YouTube PRO	25	Twitter
12	Brian Colinger	3,345,349	WordPress.com Custom CSS	17	Twitter
13	Andy Skelton	3,000,062	WordPress.com Stats	5
14	Alex King	2,690,825	ShareThis	33	Twitter
15	Michael D. Adams	2,398,238	No Self Pings	13	Twitter
16	micropat	2,287,399	Share Buttons	1	Twitter
17	John Godley	2,190,101	Gravatar Widget	22	Twitter
18	Alex Mills	2,021,868	Wphone	37	Twitter
19	Frank Bültge	1,997,360	FeedStats	36	Twitter
20	Mufasa	1,981,275	WordPress Wiki	10
21	Ronald Heft	1,931,038	Google Analyticator	5	Twitter
22	Andrew Ozz	1,756,151	TinyMCE Advanced	5	Twitter
23	Mitcho	1,667,339	Markdown	22	Twitter
24	Blogplay	1,640,664	Sociable	1	Twitter
25	Shareaholic	1,595,536	SexyBookmarks	3	Twitter
26	Janis Elsts	1,594,898	Broken Link Checker	9	Twitter
27	Owen Winkler	1,372,109	Geo Plugin	5	Twitter
28	Mark Jaquith	1,336,252	Page Links To	23	Twitter
29	BuddyPress	1,312,937	BuddyPress	7	Twitter
30	Amaury Balmer	1,173,462	Simple Tags	15	Twitter
31	Frederick Townes	1,167,505	W3 Total Cache	2	Twitter
32	Milan Petrovic	1,129,027	GD Star Rating	12	Twitter
33	Andrew Charlton	1,089,673	My Page Order	3	Twitter
34	Joseph Dolson	1,081,696	WP to Twitter	5	Twitter
35	WebsiteDefender	1,071,562	WP Security Scan	6	Twitter
36	Mike Jolley	915,209	Sidebar Login	3	Twitter
37	Marcel Bokhorst	914,097	Add Link to Facebook	11
38	Otto	892,282	Tumblr Importer	14	Twitter
39	Ozh	878,319	Admin Drop Down Menu	23	Twitter
40	Satollo	843,916	Newsletter	25
41	Simon Wheatley	840,491	Mediaburst	23	Twitter
42	weefselkweekje	825,072	Tagnetic Poetry	4
43	Michael Wöhrer	817,428	Maintenance Mode	7
44	Aaron Campbell	817,341	Authenticate	22
45	The AddThis Team	816,695	AddThis	1
46	Matthew Robinson	802,175	Subscribe2	3
47	Dan Kuykendall	793,616	podPress	1
48	Gtranslate	783,667	gtrans	1
49	Rajesh	768,183	Platinum SEO Pack	4	Twitter
50	Rob Marsh	760,148	Post-Plugin Library	10
51	primothemes	755,095	s2Member® Framework	7
52	NetCrunched	737,022	All in One Webmaster	6
53	Cincopa	723,244	Cincopa	1
54	BestWebSoft	712,430	Captcha	10	Twitter
55	Disqus	710,965	Disqus Comment System	1
56	Hiroaki Miyashita	700,138	Lightbox Gallery	4
57	SEO Design Solutions	690,332	SEO Ultimate	1
58	Modern Tribe Inc.	647,579	The Events Calendar	8	Twitter
59	Gopi R	645,900	Announcement Ticker Highlighter Scroller	56	Twitter
60	TweetMeme	641,981	TweetMeme Button	2
61	Davide Pozza	632,043	Global Translator	3
62	DevPress	630,577	Slideshow	20
63	FlippingBook WP Team	625,235	Page Flip Image Gallery	1
64	John Havlik	612,720	Breadcrumb NavXT	2	Twitter
65	Sergej Müller	606,315	AntiVirus	13
66	Blair Williams	595,312	Mingle AWeber Signup	5	Twitter
67	Thaya Kareeson	589,450	WP Greet Box	8	Twitter
68	Dave Ligthart	579,810	WP-Stats-Dashboard	9
69	Andy Bailey	574,951	CommentLuv	5
70	Charles Johnson	571,568	FeedWordPress	3
71	Xhanch Studio	569,666	My Twitter	4
72	Nathan Rice	567,898	Genesis Simple Hooks	15	Twitter
73	Matt Martz & Andy Stratton	562,301	Page Restrict	20
74	Daniel Cameron	552,865	Search Everything	11	Twitter
75	Lee Chestnutt	540,033	Slick Social Share Buttons	10
76	Rattus	531,290	GRAND Flash Album Gallery	1
77	Oliver Schlöbe	527,658	Reveal IDs	12	Twitter
78	Ricardo González Castro	524,531	Dashboard: Recent Posts Extended	13	Twitter
79	Christopher Ross	521,698	HTML5 Search	32
80	Dan Zappone	512,321	Lightbox Plus	4	Twitter
81	Luke Howell	511,440	Events Calendar	4
82	Michele Marcucci	505,858	NoFollow Free	4	Twitter
83	Qian Qin	505,088	qTranslate	1
84	Nick Momrik	494,972	Most Commented Widget	15	Twitter
85	Brian Freytag	492,407	Social Media Widget	1	Twitter
86	Martin Laine	485,092	Audio Player	2
87	Buzzinate, Denis	478,610	bShare 分享	10
88	Daniele Lippi	473,403	StatPress	2
89	wpBurn.com	465,629	WP FollowMe	1
90	Denis de Bernardy	463,022	Dofollow	18
91	Martin Fitzpatrick	456,122	Quick SMS	9
92	Stephanie Wells	453,495	Contact Form 7 Widget	5	Twitter
93	Buffer	451,944	Digg Digg	2
94	Scott Reilly	442,533	Configure SMTP	62	Twitter
95	Vivek Puri	438,535	LinksAlpha.com	6
96	Tobias Bäthge	435,482	WP-Table Reloaded	2	Twitter
97	Purwedi Kurniawan	431,686	SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2	5
98	Jeff Farthing	427,376	Theme My Login	4
99	Matt Harzewski	418,716	WP125	4
100	Josh Lobe	416,108	Ultimate TinyMCE	5

That’s It!

The above list essentially symbolizes the heart of WordPress development. We hope you have found the time to express your gratitude to those who have helped you build your own blog(s). But what next? Perhaps you would like to join this illustrious group of developers. What better way to show your gratitude to the WordPress community than by contributing to it? Check out our interview with Eric Mann that we published yesterday to see how you can get started!

Tom Ewer

Tom Ewer is the founder of WordCandy.co. He has been a huge fan of WordPress since he first laid eyes on it, and has been writing educational and informative content for WordPress users since 2011. When he's not working, you're likely to find him outdoors somewhere – as far away from a screen as possible!

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17 Comments

Tahir Taous

Markdown is my favourite plugin. Writing content with markdown is much faster and simpler.

11 years ago
Reply
1. Tom
  
  Thanks Tahir!
  
  11 years ago
  Reply
mommaroodles

so many plugin developers around and i cant find one to help me complete one I’ve made – theres a couple of things I dont know how to do and am battling with

11 years ago
Reply
Robert

I’m expert in theme and plugin development.

12 years ago
Reply
Frank

I have also done no of plugins for clients, can you please add me in your list.

12 years ago
Reply
Shriganesh bhat

Great collections of world top WP developers in a one frame 🙂

12 years ago
Reply
Michael Torbert

Great job on the list! That must have taken a long time to put together.

My profile should be http://profiles.wordpress.org/hallsofmontezuma/ thought. Also, I have more than 6 plugins. 😉

12 years ago
Reply
1. Tom Ewer
  
  Author
  
  Apologies Michael – the errors have been corrected 🙂
  
  12 years ago
  Reply
Rilwis

What these developers have done for the community in invaluable! I guess everyone is using at least 3 plugins from that list. We should give a big thank to them. Thanks a lot!

12 years ago
Reply
Carlos Arnavat

Thanks to everyone on the list…..to WordPress and the entire community for the best CMS platform on the planet. Keep up the great work.

12 years ago
Reply
Christian

Great idea! THANKS!

12 years ago
Reply
1. Tom Ewer
  
  Author
  
  No problem 🙂
  
  12 years ago
  Reply
Oliver Schlöbe

Hooray, #77! 🙂

Thanks compiling the list and the post’s idea behind.

12 years ago
Reply
Cas

Love it! Can I repost this in German and use your post image for the link back?

12 years ago
Reply
1. Cas
  
  Ok, I did, assuming it would be ok with you. If not, please notify me and I‘ll remove it immediately.
  
  12 years ago
  Reply
  1. ManageWP
    
    No problem, feel free to do so!
    
    12 years ago
    Reply
    1. Cas
      
      Thx! 🙂
      
      12 years ago
      Reply