67
PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry
A seasoned podcasting workhorse that constantly nudges you toward Blubrry hosting.
HealthyDeclining
67/100
Experienced users value the power despite a confusing interface and aggressive hosting advertisements.
Active installs
~77,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+
Rating
4.6★
231 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-33%
Declining fast
302 → 203 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 33% 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 · -33% in the last year
302/day a year ago→203/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayPowerPress is a long-standing WordPress podcasting plugin with a loyal base of experienced users who praise its reliability and support, but it is increasingly criticized for a confusing interface, bugs, and a pushy integration with Blubrry's paid hosting service.
What people like
- +Proven long-term reliability for high-volume podcast publishing×3
- +Support team is responsive, patient, and follows up with users×3
- +Capable of advanced configurations such as multiple podcast feeds, custom post types, categories, and password-protected podcasts×2
- +Works well when paired with Blubrry media hosting×2
Common complaints
- −Interface is confusing and difficult to navigate, especially for new users×4
- −Plugin aggressively promotes Blubrry hosting, making the UI feel like a sales tool×3
- −Various bugs reported: intermittent transcript display, audio not playing in the on-site player, and connectivity issues causing slow page loading×3
- −Custom post type support is broken or does not behave as expected×2
- −Plugin widget appears on every post edit page regardless of whether that post type is used for podcasting
- −Stats functionality does not work and setup instructions reference UI elements that no longer exist
- −Residual plugin data persists after deletion, preventing a clean reinstall and blocking episode imports
- −No per-episode option to hide or disable the player
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.26★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.60★
- 9%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 25% 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 · 231 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2025-08-19★★★★★Please keep your player updated!thechildrenshour
- 2025-03-20★★★★★Insanely confusing and a little buggytouchdowntech
- 2024-01-12★★★★★Interface is a mess, no cptAnonymous User 11986954
- 2023-11-22★★★★★Super!Anonymous User
- 2023-06-19★★★★★Terrible, Buggy Pluginiamklove
- 2023-04-23★★★★★Awesome PerformanceMasum Billah
- 2022-06-07★★★★★A Real Workhorse…brothered2021
- 2021-04-12★★★★★Misunderstoodali3oli
- 2021-04-06★★★★★Review deletedadabob
- 2021-03-19★★★★★I'd give it zero stars if I couldwritess
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.
349
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
255
Prior 7-day baseline
361
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
8,716
Mean release-day peak (30d)
3,684
Latest day · 2026-06-03(spike)
+36.9%
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.
25%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
2.60
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
77%
5★ share in analyzed sample
9%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.31 → 4.26★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered