Grade A

Embed PDF Viewer

Name: Embed PDF Viewer
Rating: 4.7 (19 reviews)
Author: Andy Fragen

⤓ Download v2.4.8 on WordPress.org ↗

by Andy Fragenupdated 2026-02-21💎The Hidden Gem

Simple and sweet until you try to view it on a phone.

HealthyGrowing

83/100

The plugin is easy to use but lacks essential mobile responsiveness and settings.

Loved28/40

Trustworthy14/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained15/18

Momentum11/12

✂️

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

Show the snippet

add_shortcode( 'pdf', function( $atts ) {
    $atts = shortcode_atts( [
        'url'    => '',
        'width'  => '100%',
        'height' => '600px',
    ], $atts );

    $url = esc_url( $atts['url'] );
    if ( ! $url ) {
        return '';
    }

    // Use Google Doc Viewer for Chrome / mobile, direct iframe otherwise.
    $is_chrome = isset( $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ) &&
                 str_contains( $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'Chrome' );
    $src = $is_chrome
        ? 'https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=' . rawurlencode( $url ) . '&embedded=true'
        : $url;

    return sprintf(
        '<iframe src="%s" width="%s" height="%s" style="border:none;"></iframe>',
        esc_url( $src ),
        esc_attr( $atts['width'] ),
        esc_attr( $atts['height'] )
    );
} );

Keep in mind:The plugin also registers a Gutenberg block and an oEmbed handler; this snippet covers only the shortcode approach.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~25,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+

→ on track for 30k+in ~6 months

Rating

4.7★

19 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

+48%

Growing fast

72 → 107 installs/day

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

Growing fast · +48% in the last year

72/day a year ago→107/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Embed PDF Viewer is well-regarded as a lightweight, no-fuss PDF embedding solution for WordPress, though it has notable limitations around mobile display, settings, and occasional download/embed method concerns.

What people like

+Very easy to use with minimal or no configuration required — just paste a URL or upload from the media library×7
+Works well within the Block Editor (Gutenberg)×2
+Includes print and download buttons without requiring a paid upgrade
+Responsive developer who addressed reported bugs quickly
+Reported to work on mobile by at least one user

Common complaints

−Poor mobile experience — adds excessive whitespace and falls back to Google embed on mobile devices
−PDF display is cut off or requires scrolling to see a full page, with very limited layout/size settings
−Uses Google Docs to embed PDFs rather than the browser's native PDF renderer, which can prevent downloading
−No settings page to adjust embed size or other display options×2
−Fullscreen feature does not work as expected in Chrome

Review trustMostly organic

4.74★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.70★
5%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 · 19 total

5★

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 20 analyzed

2024-07-31★★★★★Amazing plugin Abdul qadir
2024-03-12★★★★★Works Great but no preview on mobile yu4nf3n1-shot
2023-11-20★★★★★Perfect!melissajclark
2023-05-06★★★★★This is the one!grunk1905
2023-04-24★★★★★Fantastic Masum Billah
2023-01-14★★★★★Works great pwhenderson
2022-07-08★★★★★Simple and easy to use pannetouch
2022-07-08★★★★★Scroll enabled and easy to use pannetouch
2021-10-31★★★★★Super plugin with no problems stevec195
2021-03-16★★★★★Simple et efficace takannaka

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2026-02-21v2.4.8
2026-02-05v2.4.7
2024-11-01v2.4.6
2024-10-08v2.4.5
2024-08-16v2.4.4
2024-08-08v2.4.3
2024-08-06v2.4.0
2024-07-11v2.3.1

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

100

Prior 7-day baseline

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

103

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

-7.0%

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

3.06

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

85%

5★ share in analyzed sample

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

4.75 → 4.74★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered