70
Media Library Categories
Organizing is easy until you actually try to use your images.
HealthyDeclining
70/100
Bulk actions work well for free users but the essential editor filtering requires a paid upgrade.
Active installs
~25,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+
Rating
4.2★
52 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-43%
Declining fast
103 → 58 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 43% 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 · -43% in the last year
103/day a year ago→58/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayMedia Library Categories is a well-regarded free plugin for adding category taxonomy to WordPress media, appreciated for its simplicity and bulk-assign capability, but undermined by recurring complaints about filtering not working in the editor, category conflicts with posts, and confusion over which features require a paid upgrade.
What people like
- +Simple to set up and use for organizing media into categories×6
- +Bulk category assignment available in the free version, a feature locked behind paid tiers in competing plugins×4
- +Category filtering in the media library works as expected for front-end and list-view use cases×3
- +Useful for powering category-based sliders, grids, and galleries via third-party theme builders×2
- +Developer described as responsive and helpful
Common complaints
- −Category filtering does not work when inserting media inside the page editor (classic or block), showing 'no items found'×3
- −Plugin imports all post categories into media categories and deleting a media category also deletes it from posts, causing data conflicts
- −Incompatible with WPBakery Page Builder, blocking the ability to add new images to a gallery
- −Some users report key filtering functionality is absent in the free version and requires a paid upgrade×2
- −No option to filter or identify uncategorized media items
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.25★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.20★
- 8%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 50% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 52 total
Latest reviews · 52 analyzed
- 2024-06-19★★★★★Not working anymoreannzo
- 2023-07-09★★★★★Simple and greatstrarsis
- 2023-06-14★★★★★Works Greatjeffkaiser
- 2021-08-10★★★★★Great pluginMarko6548
- 2020-11-23★★★★★Fantastic utilitytodindiana
- 2020-05-08★★★★★Is not usefulkylomylo
- 2020-04-10★★★★★Excellent but one little thing missingbrookerrj
- 2019-11-19★★★★★Works. After a snag that I fixed, migrated from EnhancedJeffrey Whitmore
- 2019-08-30★★★★★Only thing missing is WPML compatibility when using seperate media categoriesjoachimpetersen1-shot
- 2019-07-05★★★★★BUG? in editor you always see no items foundjseutens
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Media Library Categories
Top Media plugins, ranked by score.For 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.
98
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
105
Prior 7-day baseline
48
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
148
Mean release-day peak (30d)
107
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-6.7%
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.
50%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
4.12
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
77%
5★ share in analyzed sample
8%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.23 → 4.25★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered