Progress Bar

76 Quality Score

Active Installs

14/30

With around 1,000 active installs, the plugin sits well below mainstream shortcode tools but still clears the popularity threshold used in scoring.

Update Freshness

25/25

The plugin was updated on 5 May 2025 and is tested against WordPress 6.7.5, indicating recent upkeep, though the changelog surface is small given the plugin's scope.

User Rating

15/15

All 24 reviewers gave it a perfect 5-star average, which is unusually uniform and may reflect a small, satisfied sample rather than broad validation.

Support Health

8/15

There are zero support threads, so the resolution rate is technically undefined; the lack of any forum activity is a mild warning sign rather than a positive one.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Requiring WordPress 2.8 or higher means near-universal compatibility, and recent version testing keeps the compatibility score at a neutral mid-range rather than penalising or rewarding it further.

Scores higher than 46% of indexed plugins

About

A simple progress bar shortcode that can be styled with CSS

Active Installs 1k+

Rating ★★★★★ 5/5

Last Updated 2026-09-13 3:04pm GMT

Requires WordPress 3.4+

Tested Up To 7.1

Requires PHP 7.0+

Security History

2 known vulnerabilities, all patched

2 Medium

Most recent: May 7, 2025

View details ▸

What It Does

Progress Bar registers a simple WordPress shortcode that renders a horizontal progress indicator on any page, post, or widget area. Styling is left entirely up to the user via custom CSS, so there is no built-in colour picker, animation library, or preset designs. It is a deliberately minimal tool focused on a single visual element.

Who It's For

This plugin suits developers and site builders who already know CSS and want a lightweight, dependency-free way to insert an animated progress indicator into a page using a shortcode. It fits well on course platforms, fundraising pages, project trackers, or portfolio sites where a custom-coded look matters more than convenience features. Non-technical users looking for drag-and-drop configuration will likely find it too bare.

Who Should Skip It

Anyone who wants a polished, GUI-driven progress bar with presets, animations, and percentage inputs baked into the editor should skip this plugin, since you will be writing CSS by hand. Larger sites already running a full shortcode suite like Shortcodes Ultimate have no reason to install a second single-purpose plugin for one element.

The Bottom Line

Progress Bar earns a perfect user rating on a very small sample and delivers exactly what it advertises: a bare-bones shortcode with no frills and no support history. At an overall quality score of 56.83/100, it is a specialist tool best suited to CSS-comfortable users who want a single tiny dependency. Most site owners will be better served by Shortcodes Ultimate or another general-purpose shortcode plugin.

Pick this if you want progress bars alongside hundreds of other content elements in a single, actively maintained package with 400,000 installs.

Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 85/100

Pick this if your primary need is wrapping existing HTML or scripts into reusable shortcodes across your site rather than just progress bars.

Shortcode in Menus 83/100

Pick this if your concrete problem is getting shortcodes to render inside WordPress navigation menus rather than adding new visual elements.

Insert Pages 83/100

Pick this if you want to embed other pages or posts inline as building blocks rather than display a single progress metric.

Advanced iframe 81/100

Pick this if your progress display depends on loading external content, dashboards, or app data inside an iframe rather than a static styled bar.