Grade D

Orphans

Name: Orphans
Rating: 5.0 (161 reviews)
Author: Marcin Pietrzak

⤓ Download v3.4.2 on WordPress.org ↗

by Marcin Pietrzakupdated 2026-04-24⚠️The Handle-With-Care

A typographic lifesaver for Polish sites with a suspiciously perfect score.

Declining

60/100

This niche tool solves real typographic issues but carries a suspiciously perfect rating.

Loved30/40

Trustworthy3/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained18/18

Momentum2/12

Composite 68, adjusted to 60 (×0.88) for a low verified rating or signs of review manipulation.

✂️

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

Show the snippet

add_filter( 'the_content', 'fix_typographic_orphans' );
add_filter( 'the_excerpt', 'fix_typographic_orphans' );

function fix_typographic_orphans( string $content ): string {
    // Words treated as orphans (single letters common in Polish/Czech plus short conjunctions).
    $orphans = apply_filters( 'orphans_list', array( 'a', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'w', 'z', 'że', 'by', 'do', 'na', 'od', 'po', 'we', 'ze' ) );

    foreach ( $orphans as $word ) {
        $pattern     = '/(\s)(' . preg_quote( $word, '/' ) . ')(\s)/iu';
        $replacement = '$1$2&nbsp;';
        $content     = preg_replace( $pattern, $replacement, $content );
    }

    return $content;
}

Keep in mind:The plugin also supports page builders like Bricks, Divi, and ACF fields; this snippet only covers standard post content and excerpts.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~55,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 50k+

Rating

5.0★

161 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

-48%

Declining fast

173 → 89 installs/day

What to watch out for

MAJORnear-100% 5★ in bursty pattern
MINORdownloads down 48% vs a year ago

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

Declining fast · -48% in the last year

173/day a year ago→89/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Orphans is a well-regarded Polish-language typographic plugin that automatically prevents single characters from being left at the end of lines, considered essential by many Polish WordPress users, with no major recurring complaints beyond minor dashboard notification spam.

What people like

+Considered an essential, must-install plugin for Polish-language WordPress sites×5
+Works as advertised and solves a real typographic problem×3
+Offers many options and filters, including easy exclusion of specific phrases×2
+Responsive and helpful developer support×2
+Free to use
+Compatible with Themify Ultra and Bricks Builder (after a fix)

Common complaints

−Excessive dashboard notifications — user notes the plugin spams the dashboard repeatedly
−Incompatibility with TranslatePress plugin (attributed to TranslatePress's side)
−Temporarily broke when switching from Divi to Bricks Builder, requiring developer intervention

Review trustReviews look organic

5.00★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 5.00★
11%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members

Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower

2024-01-162025-04-102026-06-04

5★ reviews1–4★ reviews

All-time ratings · 161 total

5★

161

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 90 analyzed

2026-04-24★★★★★Świetna, darmowa wtyczka szezilla
2025-11-16★★★★★Cudowny plugin maciejmabhv
2025-11-16★★★★★Polecam Joanna Malinowska
2025-04-22★★★★★Bardzo przydatna wtyczka robbe2222
2025-03-17★★★★★Super wtyczka – Od wersji Wersja 3.3.2 również dla Breakdance!!!Grzegorz
2025-02-21★★★★★Świetna wtyczka!nisiunia
2024-12-09★★★★★Każdy powinien ją mieć…macmarek
2024-10-04★★★★★satisfied piechotaluke
2024-07-24★★★★★przydatna wtyczka korneliaorwat
2024-01-18★★★★★Great support for editors Michal Zieba

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2026-04-24v3.4.2
2025-10-14v3.4.1
2025-08-27v3.4.0
2025-08-23v3.3.9
2025-05-22v3.3.8
2025-05-15v3.3.3
2025-05-15v3.3.4
2025-05-15v3.3.5

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.

165

Baseline · median of last 7 organic days

182

Prior 7-day baseline

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

271

Mean release-day peak (30d)

165

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

-9.3%

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.

18%

Max month share · biggest single 30-day window

1.49

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

100%

5★ share in analyzed sample

11%

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

5.00 → 5.00★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered