79
Gwolle Guestbook
A lightweight solution that keeps your comment section from getting messy.
HealthyDeclining
79/100
Users appreciate the simple setup and reliability despite some minor layout and spam management hurdles.
Active installs
~25,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+
Rating
4.8★
113 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-58%
Declining fast
175 → 74 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 58% vs a year ago
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
Declining fast · -58% in the last year
175/day a year ago→74/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayGwolle Guestbook is a well-regarded, straightforward guestbook plugin for WordPress that users appreciate for its simplicity and reliability, with the main caveat being that meaningful extra features require purchasing a paid add-on.
What people like
- +Easy to install and configure with minimal setup required×5
- +Supports multiple guestbooks via shortcode IDs, making it flexible for multi-book use cases
- +Can be repurposed beyond a traditional guestbook using translation tools like Loco Translate
- +Responsive and helpful developer support
- +A paid add-on is available with extra features, which users found worthwhile×2
Common complaints
- −Spam can accumulate unnoticed, requiring manual cleanup
- −No per-guestbook email notification routing, limiting use on membership or multi-user sites
- −HTML/layout customization (e.g. repositioning the submission form) is not straightforward for users
- −The paid add-on does not always respect regional language variants (e.g. de_AT), displaying in the wrong language until the locale is adjusted
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.80★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.80★
- 12%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 113 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-02-16★★★★★5 stars are not enough!wpapm
- 2025-10-27★★★★★Меня пока всё устраивает.fedor77
- 2025-01-17★★★★★I love this!Michael Korte
- 2024-08-25★★★★★Terrific solution for memorial guestbooksingenuity
- 2024-05-27★★★★★Amazing plugin! but I have a suggestion:)wanfeel
- 2023-08-15★★★★★Just what I needed, thank youdigasco
- 2023-07-08★★★★★Good guestbook pluginbimam
- 2023-01-19★★★★★Symply the best!!!!!!Patrick Horemans
- 2022-12-13★★★★★The Best Guest Book!cybagirl
- 2022-09-26★★★★★Solides Pluginmthx86
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.
69
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
78
Prior 7-day baseline
60
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
71
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-11.5%
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.
14%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
2.04
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
89%
5★ share in analyzed sample
12%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.77 → 4.80★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered