76
External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window
Simple SEO control that might break your page builder.
HealthyGrowing
76/100
It manages link attributes simply but causes compatibility issues and lacks support.
Active installs
~95,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 90k+
Rating
4.3★
247 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+79%
Growing fast
179 → 320 installs/day
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
Growing fast · +79% in the last year
179/day a year ago→320/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayExternal Links is a straightforward link-attribute management plugin that satisfies users with simple needs, but is undermined by recurring compatibility breakage, unresponsive support, and meaningful limitations in its free tier.
What people like
- +Effectively manages nofollow/dofollow, noopener, and noreferrer attributes across a site with minimal setup×4
- +Supports per-domain rule customization, allowing trusted domains to be treated differently for SEO purposes
- +Free version delivers on its core promise of managing outbound link behavior×2
- +Described as lightweight and non-intrusive for basic use cases
- +Some users report long-term reliability and professional support
Common complaints
- −Causes breakage on sites using WooCommerce, Bricks Builder, Motion.page, WP Gridbuilder, and additional CSS — multiple users had to remove it×4
- −Support is unresponsive, particularly to 1-star and 5-star reviews; multiple unanswered emails reported×2
- −Only applies rules to new or individually re-saved posts; does not retroactively process existing content in bulk
- −Uninstalling the plugin leaves residual attributes (e.g. noreferrer) written into the database with no cleanup tool provided
- −Free version is considered very limited, with most useful functionality locked away
- −Does not work with bbPress/BuddyPress
- −JSON errors and disappearing templates reported
- −Concerns raised about SEO risk if link attributes differ from what search engines initially crawled, with no documentation to clarify
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.07★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.30★
- 10%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 · 247 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2025-10-29★★★★★Almost nothing at free versionAnkabird
- 2025-07-04★★★★★Essential Plugin for SEO Control Over External Linksbondimedical3
- 2025-05-08★★★★★GarbageMayhymn
- 2024-09-02★★★★★It does what I expected it to doVladimir Unguru
- 2024-07-14★★★★★No Supportdrunkfox
- 2024-06-11★★★★★It doesn't work and the editors don't responddobem
- 2024-04-29★★★★★Great plugin and good support providedEuBo
- 2024-03-26★★★★★there are better free optionsaudioscavenger
- 2024-03-01★★★★★A me sembra ottimobigportal
- 2024-02-29★★★★★Incompatible with so muchderalict
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.
287
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
326
Prior 7-day baseline
802
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
8,104
Mean release-day peak (30d)
644
Latest day · 2026-06-03(tail)
-12.0%
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.
13%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.43
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
76%
5★ share in analyzed sample
10%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.17 → 4.07★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered