Expanding Archives vs Extra Shortcodes (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Expanding Archives has a higher user rating (4.7/5 from 6 reviews) and leads in active installations (2.0K+ vs 1.0K+). Both are free WordPress plugins. Expanding Archives has accumulated 22K+ total downloads while Extra Shortcodes has 16K+.
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Expanding Archives | Extra Shortcodes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.7/5 | ◄ | 4.1/5 |
| Total Reviews | 6 | ► | 10 |
| Active Installs | 2.0K+ | ◄ | 1.0K+ |
| Total Downloads | 22K+ | ◄ | 16K+ |
| Support Resolution | N/A | N/A | |
| Last Updated | 2 years ago | ◄ | 2 years ago |
| First Released | 2015 | 2012 | |
| Age | 11 years | 14 years | |
| WP Requires | 3.0+ | 3.0+ | |
| PHP Requires | 7.4+ | false+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 2.1.0 | 2.2 |
Rating Breakdown
Expanding Archives
Extra Shortcodes
Download Trends
Over the past 30 days, Expanding Archives averaged approximately 10 daily downloads while Extra Shortcodes averaged 3.
Recent Reviews
Expanding Archives Reviews
Great plugin, simple yet very flexible
Very useful, lightweight plugin, will go in every theme and is easily customizeable with a bit of CSS
Awesome plugin!
Easy to use and customize.
Nice but could be cleaner
It looks nice if you only have a few posts per month, but I wish you had the option to choose whether the month will appear expanded or collapsed as a default. If you do a post per day, opening the pa
Extra Shortcodes Reviews
Super handy!
Very useful. Never had an issue on dozens of sites. Works as expected.
Awesome! Works like a charme!
Thanks for this Plugin. Great work!
Works perfectly – Better alternative for today's date plugins
Works as expected
More Archives Worth Comparing
Top alternatives in the same category as Expanding Archives and Extra Shortcodes
Disable Author Archives completely removes author archives and makes the web server return status code 404 ('Not Found') instead.
Simple Yearly Archive is a rather neat and simple Wordpress plugin that allows you to display your archives in a year-based list.
Fine grained control of how many of your posts appear on each of the various WordPress archive pages.
Improves your blog's search engine optimization by "noindexing" pages you choose. Now also for page-based (as opposed to date-based) archives.
This plugin uses Javascript to dynamically expand or collapse the set of months for each year and posts for each month in the archive listing of your …
Frequently Asked Questions
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Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Comparison and analysis by PluginSift.