BlackBox is a plugin for plugin and theme developers. It collects and displays useful debug information (errors, executed queries, globals, profiler).
As of April 2026, BlackBox Debug Bar is a WordPress debug bar plugin with 90 active installations and a 4.6/5 rating from 15 reviews. It has been downloaded 19K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.0.0+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2011. Last updated 13 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Top alternative: Query Monitor – The developer tools….
BlackBox is symfony like unobstrusive debug bar attached to the top of the browser window.
How can it help you with development:
1. instantly inspect global variables (GET, POST, COOKIE, SERVER)
2. debug both frontend and admin area
3. executed MySQL queries and time it took to execute each query (useful for finding slow queries)
4. profiler for measuring performance of your plugins and themes
5. errors occurred when loading WordPress page
| WordPress | 3.0.0+ requiredTested up to 3.5.2 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.