Urvanov Syntax Highlighter

76 Quality Score

Active Installs

16/30

With 3,000 active installs it is a niche plugin, reflecting its specialised developer audience rather than mainstream appeal.

Update Freshness

24/25

Last updated on 2026-03-14 and tested against WordPress 6.9.4, the maintenance signals are excellent and the project is clearly active.

User Rating

14/15

A 90/100 score from 19 ratings is very positive, though the sample size is small enough that one or two harsh reviews could swing the average.

Support Health

8/15

One open support thread with a 0 percent resolution rate is a yellow flag, but the single data point makes it hard to draw a firm conclusion.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Tested with WordPress 6.9.4 on the required 6.9 minimum, so it is fully current with the latest core release.

Scores higher than 45% of indexed plugins

About

Reincarnation of Crayon Syntax Highlighter. Syntax Highlighter supporting multiple languages, themes, fonts, highlighting from a URL, or post text.

Active Installs 3k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.5/5

Last Updated 2026-03-14 1:49pm GMT

Requires WordPress 6.9+

Tested Up To 6.9.7

Security History

1 known vulnerability, all patched

1 Medium

Most recent: October 6, 2023

View details ▸

What It Does

Urvanov Syntax Highlighter is a WordPress plugin that colourises and formats code snippets in posts and pages, supporting numerous programming languages, themes, and fonts. It can pull source code from a URL or from post content and render it with proper line numbers, titles, and syntax rules. Functionally it is a fork of the now-abandoned Crayon Syntax Highlighter, rebuilt for modern WordPress.

Who It's For

This plugin is best suited for developers, technical writers, educators, and bloggers who publish code samples regularly and want fine-grained control over how snippets look on the front end. It fits well on programming tutorials, software documentation sites, computer science classrooms, and open source project pages where readable, well-formatted code is part of the content itself. If you have an existing Crayon-styled site and want a drop-in replacement, this is essentially the only direct path.

Who Should Skip It

If you only need to drop a small code snippet into a page every now and then, a block editor code block or a lighter plugin such as WPCode or Code Snippets will do the job without the configuration overhead. Sites without a technical audience, such as ecommerce stores, portfolios, or marketing pages, will get no benefit from a dedicated highlighter.

The Bottom Line

Urvanov Syntax Highlighter earns a solid 76.57/100 and is the clear successor for anyone still relying on Crayon, with strong maintenance and a happy if small user base. Its weak support history and tiny install count mean it is a specialist tool rather than a crowd-pleaser, so non-developers should look at WPCode or Code Snippets instead. For its intended audience, it is the most focused option available.

Pick WPCode if your real need is inserting scripts site-wide rather than displaying code for readers; it has 3 million installs and a 97.55 score.

Code Snippets 88/100

Choose Code Snippets when you want to run PHP snippets in functions.php style without formatting code for display, backed by 1 million installs.

Head & Footer Code 85/100

Head & Footer Code is the lighter option for simply injecting tracking or header scripts, with 100,000 installs.

Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 85/100

Shortcoder suits you if you want reusable shortcodes that wrap HTML or text blocks rather than true syntax highlighting.

WP Coder – Insert & Manage Code Snippets 80/100

WP Coder is a reasonable alternative if you want snippet management with some display formatting, though it has only 10,000 installs.