87
Advanced WordPress Backgrounds
Stunning parallax effects that occasionally battle YouTube aspect ratio issues.
Healthy
87/100
The plugin offers great parallax effects but YouTube video embeds often suffer from aspect ratio problems.
Active installs
~35,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 30k+
Rating
4.8★
44 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
0%
Holding steady
99 → 99 installs/day
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Holding steady · 0% in the last year
99/day a year ago→99/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayAdvanced WordPress Backgrounds is well-regarded as a straightforward, easy-to-use background plugin supporting video and parallax effects, though a notable caveat is that YouTube video embeds can suffer from aspect ratio and black bar issues with no in-plugin fix.
What people like
- +Easy to install and use out of the box×4
- +Works well with YouTube-hosted background video×2
- +Useful shortcode support makes it flexible across different page locations
- +Compatible with Gutenberg block editor×2
- +Works well alongside Jarallax for parallax effects
- +Handles background video in difficult or non-standard page locations
Common complaints
- −YouTube video embeds have aspect ratio problems and visible black bars, with no in-plugin option to fix them
- −Missing features such as dynamic mobile header resize, horizontal parallax on scroll, and default cover minimum height
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.76★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.80★
- 7%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 33% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-12-172025-03-112026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 44 total
Latest reviews · 44 analyzed
- 2025-10-07★★★★★gooddubrynski1-shot
- 2024-03-27★★★★★the definitive way to add video and parallax backgoundsTim Blankenship
- 2024-03-15★★★★★Perfect plugin to quickly apply stunning effectsanonymized-22015800
- 2024-03-15★★★★★This is a awesome plugin and easy to use.easyprovids
- 2024-01-16★★★★★It's beautifulkrjojo
- 2023-12-05★★★★★Greatheyitsj0n
- 2023-06-01★★★★★Really great pluginCarlos Pinedo
- 2023-04-21★★★★★Works so wellsherissa_r
- 2023-04-05★★★★★An amazing help3gingerbee3
- 2023-01-12★★★★★Perfect addition for JarallaxUwe Jacobs
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload 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.
187
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
102
Prior 7-day baseline
155
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
563
Mean release-day peak (30d)
194
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+83.3%
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.
33%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
2.43
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
93%
5★ share in analyzed sample
7%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.77 → 4.76★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered