Visitors Online by BestWebSoft

54 Quality Score

Active Installs

14/30

At 1,000 active installs and 11 ratings, the plugin sits in niche territory with modest adoption and limited community signal.

Update Freshness

12/25

Last updated June 2025 and tested against WordPress 6.8.5, the plugin is current, but the lack of public changelog depth and no PHP version requirement disclosed is a mild concern.

User Rating

11/15

A 70 out of 100 rating across 11 reviews is acceptable but based on a small sample, so confidence in the score is limited.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads and zero resolved tickets means there is no track record of responsive help, which raises flags for troubleshooting.

WP Compatibility

11/15

Compatibility is solid, supporting WordPress 5.6 and tested on 6.8.5, though no PHP version is specified which can cause issues on stricter hosts.

Scores higher than 5% of indexed plugins

About

Display live count of online visitors who are currently browsing your WordPress website.

Active Installs 1k+

Rating ★★★½ 3.5/5

Last Updated 2025-06-09 12:27pm GMT

Requires WordPress 5.6+

Tested Up To 6.8.10

Security History

2 known vulnerabilities, all patched

1 Critical 1 Medium

Most recent: April 12, 2017

View details ▸

What It Does

Visitors Online by BestWebSoft shows a real-time count of people currently browsing your WordPress site, typically via a shortcode or widget. It tracks unique sessions using IP-based or cookie-based detection and updates the displayed number as visitors come and go. The plugin is designed as a lightweight social-proof tool rather than a full analytics suite.

Who It's For

This plugin suits small to mid-sized WordPress sites that want a simple, visible indicator of current activity without setting up Google Analytics or a heavier tracking solution. It works particularly well on blogs, community forums, course platforms, and membership sites where showing live activity encourages engagement or signals popularity. Site owners who want a quick visual nudge, like '23 visitors online right now', will get the most value here.

Who Should Skip It

If you already use a proper analytics tool such as MonsterInsights, Plausible, or Matomo, this plugin is redundant and adds no real insight beyond a vanity number. Larger e-commerce stores and high-traffic publishers should skip it because the count provides no segmentation, no source data, and no actionable metrics, while still adding a database write per pageview.

The Bottom Line

Visitors Online by BestWebSoft delivers exactly what its name promises: a basic live visitor counter, and not much more. With an overall quality score of 57.66 out of 100, thin support history, and no real analytics depth, it is a fair choice for hobbyists and small sites wanting a quick social-proof widget. Anyone needing real visitor intelligence should look at a dedicated analytics plugin instead.

Related Plugins

Seriously Simple Speakers 54/100

Pick this alternative if your priority is podcast publishing rather than visitor tracking, as the categories overlap only loosely in the plugin directory.

Use Cases

bloggers tracking readership small business websites news and magazine sites community forums membership sites e-commerce stores monitoring traffic event promotion websites portfolio websites showing popularity online learning platforms local business websites