Shoot Your Shot: Plugin Madness Nominations are Open!

March Madness brings out the best in collegiate basketball, and this year, Torque Magazine’s eighth-annual Plugin Madness competition is here to do the same for WordPress. The bracket-style contest pits the best of the best plugins from across the WordPress ecosystem against one another to find out which one the community loves most.

With more than 60,000 plugins available in the WordPress Plugin Repository, Plugin Madness shines a light on an illustrious 64, all of which are nominated and voted on by the WordPress community until a sole victor remains. These plugins all help developers find the flexibility they need to build powerful WordPress sites, and the chosen nominees will be split into four starting categories: Marketing, Optimization, Maintenance, and eCommerce.

In years past, we’ve seen some of the biggest creator names in the WordPress Plugin Repository take home the trophy. Legendary league winners include Smush, FluentCRM, and the first-ever Plugin Madness Winner: Advanced Custom Fields (ACF). Last year, we saw a Cinderella story unfold as first-time entrant Plus Add-ons for Elementor fought their way to the end and took home the top spot.

Only you can help decide if this year’s winner will be a long-time legend or if we crown another rookie of the year. Read on for a tournament breakdown and to find out how you can nominate your favorite plugin players this year.

How to Nominate Your Favorite Plugin

If you want to get an assist by helping your favorite plugin enter the tournament, here’s what you need to know.

All plugins nominated for Plugin Madness need to meet the following requirements:

1. The plugin must be available in the WordPress Plugin Repository.
2. The plugin must be compatible with WordPress version 5.7 (or higher).
3. The plugin must have been updated within the last 12 months.

That’s it! If your favorite plugin meets that threshold for entry, it’s tournament ready! All you need to do is follow this link and complete your nomination between now and February 15. 

Week 1 of the tournament will begin on Monday, February 27, and voting will reset every Monday. Week by week, we’ll slash the competition in half as plugin players are cut from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8, with our final 4 facing off in late March and the championship lineup set to square off on Monday, April 3. The winning plugin will be announced on April 17, 2023.

About Your Tournament Organizers

Plugin Madness is an annual WordPress community event sponsored and created by Torque Magazine, WP Engine’s editorially independent WordPress publication. Since July of 2013, Torque has been a leading resource for the insights and information developers need to build, grow, and optimize their WordPress sites.

Follow Torque on Twitter to keep a beat on this year’s Plugin Madness and fill your feed with fresh WordPress content. 

Nominate a Playmaking Plugin

Will your favorite flourish or flop on this year’s Plugin Madness court? Find out when you nominate a plugin you think deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame and vote along with us week by week!