A verdict for every plugin
In use, admin tool, background or no activity — based on shortcodes, blocks, Elementor and sidebar widgets, scripts and styles, REST and AJAX calls and admin screens that actually ran.
★ Free plugin
Bloat Detector — find the WordPress plugins your site never actually uses.
The Plugins screen tells you which plugins are inactive. It says nothing about the forty active ones nobody remembers installing. Bloat Detector watches what each active plugin really does — shortcodes, blocks, Elementor widgets, scripts, admin screens, scheduled tasks — gives every plugin an honest verdict, shows what it costs to load, and finds the options and tables deleted plugins left behind.
4verdicts per plugin
Day 1content scan results
WP 7.1tested up to
- Install Bloat Detector
- Click Scan now
- Let it observe for a week
- Trial-deactivate what nothing uses
Overview
What this unused plugin finder does.
Sites collect plugins. A contact form from the first build, a slider replaced two redesigns ago, three SEO helpers, a migration tool used once. Every one of them loads on every request, and nobody wants to be the person who deactivated the one that mattered. So they stay.
Bloat Detector replaces the guesswork with evidence. It records what each active plugin actually does — on the front end, in wp-admin and in the background — and scans your published content so plugins whose shortcodes, blocks or Elementor widgets are on a page are marked in use on day one. Each plugin gets a verdict: in use, admin tool, background, or no activity, with a confidence that grows with the days observed. Plugins that only hook into mail, login or checkout are never called unused. When something really is idle, switch it off for a trial week; if nobody confirms, it switches itself back on.
Screenshots
What it looks like.
Pricing
Free. All of it.
Bloat Detector
$0
The whole plugin. Every verdict, the load-cost numbers, the Cleanup tab and trial deactivation, on as many sites as you like.
- Usage verdict for every active plugin
- Content scan results on day one
- Load time, memory and hooks per plugin
- Leftover options and tables finder
- Trial deactivation with auto-reactivate
- GPLv2 — use it on client sites
A cleanup done for you
Quoted
Want someone else to read the report, remove what is safe and speed the site up? That is work we do.
- Plugin audit and removal
- Speed optimisation
- Backups before every change
- A written report of what changed
Bloat Detector will be submitted to the WordPress.org plugin directory once our current submissions clear review. Until then the download here is the same build, straight from us. There is no Pro version and nothing in the plugin is locked.
Changelog
Release history.
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v1.0.1
New animated icon beside the page title in the admin screens.
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v1.0.0
Runtime observation of shortcodes, blocks, Elementor and sidebar widgets, assets, REST routes, AJAX actions and admin screens; daily content scan; passive-hook and cron detection; four verdicts with confidence; footprint and per-plugin load cost; trial deactivation with auto-reactivate; Cleanup tab for unclaimed options and tables; Usage column on the Plugins screen.
Questions
Questions about this unused plugin finder.
Questions about a custom plugin built for your site are on the plugin development page.
How do I find unused plugins in WordPress?
Install Bloat Detector, go to Plugins → Usage Report and click Scan now. Plugins whose shortcodes, blocks or Elementor widgets appear in your published content are marked in use straight away. Leave it running for a week or more and every active plugin gets a verdict based on what actually ran: in use, admin tool, background, or no activity.
Is it safe to delete a WordPress plugin I think is unused?
Not on a hunch. Some plugins do their work where page views cannot show it — sending mail, handling logins, running checkout. Bloat Detector labels those background and never calls them unused. For the rest, use Trial deactivate: the plugin is switched off for a week, and if you do not confirm, it is switched back on automatically. Take a backup before deleting anything.
Does it slow the site down?
No measurable amount. Each observation is a lookup in a cached name-to-plugin map and one entry in an in-memory list, and the list is written once, at the end of the request, in a single query. On very busy sites you can record only one front-end page view in five or ten.
Why does a plugin I use show "No activity"?
Because nothing it does was seen inside the observation window. Either observation has only just started — the header shows how many days — or the plugin works somewhere an observer cannot see, such as a theme template calling its functions directly. A "no activity" verdict is a reason to run a trial deactivation, not proof.
How is load cost measured?
WordPress announces each plugin as its main file finishes loading. Bloat Detector records the time and memory between those moments, keeps a moving average across real requests, and counts the hook callbacks each plugin registers. To measure every other plugin it keeps itself first in the load order, the same technique the Freemius SDK uses.
Is the Cleanup tab safe to use?
It only lists options and tables whose name matches no installed plugin, no active theme and nothing in WordPress core. That is a name-based heuristic, so read the example names first and take a backup. Deleting needs you to type the prefix or table name, and the list is re-checked on the server before anything is removed.
Which plugins are never offered a trial?
Security, backup, cache and redirect plugins — Wordfence, Sucuri, All In One WP Security, UpdraftPlus, Sitecarry, Settings Undo, LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket and Redirection — plus anything you add under Settings. They still get a verdict.
Which WordPress and PHP versions does it need?
WordPress 5.9 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer; tested up to WordPress 7.1 and PHP 8.3. No external services, no API keys, no data leaves your site.