WP Reading Progress
Light weight fully customizable reading progress bar. Sticks to top, bottom or sticky menu, with fallback for small screens. Includes ert (beta).
5(19 reviews)
·3.0K+ active installs·Updated 1 month agoAs of April 2026, WP Reading Progress is a WordPress reading plugin with 3.0K+ active installations and a 5/5 rating from 19 reviews. It has been downloaded 49K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.9+ and PHP 5.6+. Available on WordPress.org since 2019. Recently updated within the last 3 months. Downloads are down 12% this week. Top alternative: Reading progressbar.
5/519 reviews
3.0K+active installs
49K+total downloads
7 yearssince 2019
Overview
The reading progress bar is a great user experience on longreads. Especially if it accurately depicts the reading progress in the article text, and nothing else. This is standard on single blog posts and enabled by default.
Customization:
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Location top of screen, bottom of screen or below sticky elements.
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Select post types you wish the bar to appear, or individual posts.
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Choose color of the reading progress bar.
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Have the bar start at 0% even when part of the article is visible.
Behaviour:
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The reading progress bar has smooth initializing since part of the text may already be visible, after that a lightweight update-function ensures quick response while scrolling.
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The bar can attach itself to multiple (sticky) elements that you define as an admin, the first visible element will…
Screenshots
Ratings & Reviews
519 reviews
5 ★
19
4 ★
0
3 ★
0
2 ★
0
1 ★
0
Recent Reviews
Loads the CSS and JS on EVERY page
by hirngesicht·1 month ago·3 replies
Even when I’ve set it to only load on specific post types it still loads the CSS and JS everywhere. A pity really, because it’s really been helpful for users.
- This topic was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by hirngesicht.
Best Progress Bar Plugin
by Jimmy Lee·10 months ago
Really nice plugin, clean, fast! Thank you!
Awesome plugin with great support, perfect experience!
by uacl312·1 year ago
This plugin is great and does exactly what I need it to do. I’ve tried a few different plugins of this type and this one is by far the most user-friendly. It does what it says on the tin and it does it well.
It’s refreshing to see that the developer is as supportive as possible, and the support is second to none. If you’re looking for a progress bar for your blog/website, this is the one for you!
Simple, Successful, and great Support
by benwoony·2 years ago
After trying a dozen reading progress bars, WP Reading Progress works very well. It is simple to install, and the support is one of the best I’ve experienced from any developer.
Perfect little plugin
by sandswimmer·2 years ago
You install the plugin and that’s basically it. Adjust some minor details in Settings > WP Reading Progress, and you are good to go.
A big thank you to the developer!
Download Trends
Today: 17Yesterday: 15This week: 122Period total: 9K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 4.9+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | 5.6+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.7
50.0%
v1.6
41.9%
v1.5
5.7%
Other
2.3%
Top Alternatives to WP Reading Progress
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.7.0: only load scripts when the bar is actually on the page
1.6.1: adhere to wordpress coding standards, fixing deprecated strip_tags notice
1.6.0: add estimated reading time as beta functionality, improve sticking and detecting article
1.5.7: fix save settings and calculation correction (again)
1.5.6: adapt calculation to safari and chrome alike
1.5.5: bar top position calculation improved and allowing fractional pixels
1.5.4: escape translate stri…
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.