Media Library Assistant vs Media Library Categories (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Media Library Assistant
70K+ active installs
Free
Media Library Categories
20K+ active installs
Free
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Media Library Assistant has a higher user rating (4.8/5 from 198 reviews) and leads in active installations (70K+ vs 20K+). Both are free WordPress plugins. Media Library Assistant has accumulated 2.6M+ total downloads while Media Library Categories has 560K+.
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Media Library Assistant | Media Library Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.8/5 | ◄ | 4.2/5 |
| Total Reviews | 198 | ◄ | 52 |
| Active Installs | 70K+ | ◄ | 20K+ |
| Total Downloads | 2.6M+ | ◄ | 560K+ |
| Support Resolution | 100% | N/A | |
| Last Updated | 5 days ago | ◄ | 10 months ago |
| First Released | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Age | 14 years | 13 years | |
| WP Requires | 4.7+ | 4.0+ | |
| PHP Requires | 7.4+ | false+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 3.35 | 2.0.2 |
Rating Breakdown
Media Library Assistant
Media Library Categories
Download Trends
Over the past 30 days, Media Library Assistant averaged approximately 2,062 daily downloads while Media Library Categories averaged 87.
Recent Reviews
Media Library Assistant Reviews
Lifesaver for big sites
Media manager is a lifesaver for big sites. Sorting and folder-like organization makes content work much faster
Security Risk: Server Blacklisting
Following a WordPress core update to 6.9, WordFence flagged this plugin for a known security vulnerability. Within just a few hours, and before I could disable or update it, my VPS IP was blacklisted
Good one!
Just what we needed for our sites!
Media Library Categories Reviews
Not working anymore
Actually a helpful plugin. But has not been working with WPBakery Page Builder for some time now. Among other things, it blocks adding new images to a gallery. This topic was modified 2 years,
Simple and great
Simple and great plugin for adding category taxonomy to WordPress media.
Works Great
This plugin is great, super helpful. I have been using it to create categories for media items that I then use with Loopers in Theme.co’s Pro theme with Grids and Sliders. Saved me tons of work.
More Categories Worth Comparing
Top alternatives in the same category as Media Library Assistant and Media Library Categories
Very customizable plugin to list posts by category (or tag, author and more) in a post, page or widget. Uses the [catlist] shortcode to select posts.
Tags, Categories and WordPress terms are easy with TaxoPress. Add a Tag or Category to Pages, manage your WooCommerce Categories and Tags and more.
Adds a widget that shows the most recent posts from a single category.
Replaces the plain-text category and tag description editor with a visual editor.
Adds the built in WordPress categories and tags to your pages.
This is a fix of Top Level Categories plugin for Wordpress 3.1. and above.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Comparison and analysis by PluginSift.