54
Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar
A pretty progress bar that might lie about your reading time.
Declining
54/100
The progress bar looks nice but the reading time calculation is often broken.
Active installs
~15,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+
Rating
4.5★
19 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-41%
Declining fast
46 → 27 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 41% vs a year ago
- MINORnot updated in 11 months
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 · -41% in the last year
46/day a year ago→27/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayRead Meter is generally praised for its easy setup and customizable progress bar, but many users report that the reading time consistently shows only one minute and lacks flexibility in counting words or placement.
What people like
- +Works out of the box
- +Customizable progress bar
- +Accurate reading time for posts
- +Features usable for most websites
Common complaints
- −Read time always shows 1 minute regardless of post length×3
- −Does not count words in custom blocks or custom field text
- −No option to display word count
- −Difficulty translating the reading time text with TranslatePress
- −Top progress bar may not display or only works when logged in
- −Conflicts with hide admin bar plugins
- −Progress bar placement limited to bottom, no top/side options
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.53★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.50★
- 0%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 100% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2025-02-092025-10-072026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 19 total
Latest reviews · 19 analyzed
- 2025-01-14★★★★★Nice and intuitivetampopo1969
- 2023-05-12★★★★★Does not count custom fieldsranmma
- 2022-12-26★★★★★Progress Bar is Cool; Read Time Brokensteveoh88
- 2022-04-25★★★★★Nice and easyJmarc
- 2022-03-29★★★★★Keep it simpel with this pluginimeco
- 2022-03-06★★★★★Such a good plugin!aethronos
- 2021-09-08★★★★★Easy, light, and works wellDutchintouch
- 2021-05-26★★★★★1 minute reading time everywherecreative99
- 2021-01-20★★★★★Really HelpfulAbu Zar Mishwani
- 2020-11-20★★★★★ExcellentHugh Lashbrooke
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.
23
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
30
Prior 7-day baseline
15
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
23
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-23.3%
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.
100%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
4.00
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
84%
5★ share in analyzed sample
0%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.53 → 4.53★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered