Grade D

Add Admin CSS

Name: Add Admin CSS
Rating: 4.9 (35 reviews)
Author: Scott Reilly

⤓ Download v2.5.1 on WordPress.org ↗

by Scott Reillyupdated 2025-12-08⚠️The Handle-With-Care

A tiny styling tool that might be drifting into retirement

Declining

64/100

This lightweight utility works well for styling the dashboard despite concerns about its maintenance.

Loved30/40

Trustworthy11/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained15/18

Momentum2/12

Composite 73, adjusted to 64 (×0.88) for a low verified rating or signs of review manipulation.

✂️

You might not need this plugin. Its core job is small enough to live in your theme's functions.php.

Show the snippet

add_action( 'admin_head', function () {
    $custom_css = '
        /* Your custom admin CSS here */
        #wpadminbar { background: #1d2327; }
    ';
    echo '<style>' . $custom_css . '</style>';
} );

// To enqueue an external CSS file instead (or as well):
add_action( 'admin_enqueue_scripts', function () {
    wp_enqueue_style( 'my-admin-css', 'https://example.com/path/to/admin.css' );
} );

Keep in mind:The plugin adds a settings UI so non-developers can paste CSS without touching code.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~15,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+

Rating

4.9★

35 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

-30%

Declining fast

49 → 34 installs/day

What to watch out for

MAJORnear-100% 5★ in bursty pattern
MINORdownloads down 30% vs a year ago

Downloads over time

real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend

2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03

organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median

Declining fast · -30% in the last year

49/day a year ago→34/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Add Admin CSS is a well-regarded, lightweight plugin for injecting custom CSS into the WordPress admin area, praised for its simplicity and reliability, though there is a concern about the CSS files feature being broken and the plugin potentially being abandoned.

What people like

+Simple and easy to use — requires no setup beyond writing CSS directly×6
+Works reliably where other admin customizer plugins fail, especially alongside WooCommerce×2
+Useful for hiding nag screens and 'Go Pro' prompts from themes and plugins
+Saves time compared to manually editing PHP or stylesheet files×2

Common complaints

−The CSS files section does not work
−Plugin appears to be abandoned by its author

Review trustMostly organic

4.91★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.90★
6%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
past spikeReview timing — up to 100% of all reviews landed in a single month
97%5★ concentration — near-perfect across only 35 reviews — not yet a proven track record

Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower

2025-10-072026-02-042026-06-04

5★ reviews1–4★ reviews

All-time ratings · 35 total

5★

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 35 analyzed

2025-09-14★★★★★Very Nice Perk ellencarnahan
2022-04-09★★★★★AWESOME mikeecho
2022-04-08★★★★★Working great !!!ipchania1-shot
2021-11-07★★★★★footer CSS code Jak
2021-06-12★★★★★Worked perfectly Topher
2021-04-29★★★★★This is a great plug-in.strettonbull
2021-04-01★★★★★Fantastic Plugin Hematoma
2020-10-08★★★★★Great plugin WillOfTheWeb
2020-07-02★★★★★finally a simple and working plugin jessy86
2019-12-07★★★★★So glad I downloaded this francibambi

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2025-12-08v2.5.1
2025-04-30v2.5
2021-05-31v2.0.1
2021-05-21v2.0
2020-09-26v1.9.1
2020-06-28v1.9
2019-12-05v1.8
2019-04-16v1.7

For developers & the curious

the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary above

Download signals

Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.

Baseline · median of last 7 organic days

Prior 7-day baseline

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

+2.9%

Week-over-week organic trend

Review signals

Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.

100%

Max month share · biggest single 30-day window

2.83

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

97%

5★ share in analyzed sample

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

4.91 → 4.91★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered