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Pre-Publish Checklist icon
Maintained Tested up to 6.6.9 #1 in Blog publish checklist

Pre-Publish Checklist

Easiest way to make sure your page or post is ready to go live

Active installs1K+1K+ tier
Downloads · 30d243▲ +6.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating5/511 reviews
Health score48/100Fair
All-time downloads31.7KSince Sep 2019
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 4.7PHP 5.6+
Downloads · 7d61▲ +8.9% week over week
Our verdict

Use with caution

Pre-Publish Checklist works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 8 months ago, and scores 48/100 on our health check.

  • Only tested up to WordPress 6.6 (latest is 7.1)

Daily downloads

51015Jul 3Aug 16Sep 30
Yesterday10
Daily average (1y)6
Peak day33Apr 21, 2026
Last 12 months2.2K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Pre-Publish Checklist stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
Blog publish checklist #1 85 Best Blog publish checklist plugins →
Cross check post or page #55 1,357 Best Cross check post or page plugins →
Editorial checklist #2 73 Best Editorial checklist plugins →
Post publish checklist #2 246 Best Post publish checklist plugins →
pre-publish checklist #1 91 Best pre-publish checklist plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.1100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 11 reviews

  • 5★100.0%
  • 4★0.00%
  • 3★0.00%
  • 2★0.00%
  • 1★0.00%

About Pre-Publish Checklist

From the official readme · v1.1.4

Description

Easiest way to make sure your page or post is ready to go live

Is the fear of publishing an incomplete post haunting you already? Do you get worried about tasks like adding a featured image, updating the permalink, etc. just when you are about to click the publish button?

All of this is handled with an easy to use Pre-Publish Checklist plugin that lets you create a checklist you wish to maintain for every post type on your website. You can build a checklist with necessary tasks and prioritize them by placing them in the required order.

This will make sure that you are reminded of the remaining tasks before the post goes live.

Why worry about the things to do when the plugin will do that for you!

Try it out on a free dummy site

Key Features of Pre-Publish Checklist:

The Pre-Publish Checklist is a useful plugin that lets you monitor whether the posts, pages and custom post types on your website are complete.

With this plugin you can –

  • Manage a checklist for your pages, posts, custom post types, etc. – The plugin fetches all of them in the settings and you can select where you wish to add the checklist.

  • Create dedicated and personalized checklists for each of them – You can choose to create different checklists for pages, posts, etc. depending on the design and needs.

  • Overview the progress of posts and pages – You no longer need to open the post or page editor to see whether a checklist is completed. We have added a column that can be seen alongside the list of posts and pages that will tell you whether a checklist is completed, how many items left or if a checklist isn’t added for a particular post type.

How does it work?

The Pre-Publish Checklist plugin lets you create a checklist and enable on the specific post types you wish to have it applied to.

You can select the message that should be displayed to users when they click on the publish button without completing everything mentioned in the checklist.

A pre-publish meta box gets added to the post types that you’ve selected and the plugin does its job every time you click the publish button without completing the checklist.

Here are the points in brief –

  1. Under the General settings tab, select the action you wish to trigger when user clicks on the publish button.
  2. Select the post types you wish to get this applicable to.
  3. Create a checklist under the Checklist tab and save!

Frequently asked questions

Where will I find the pre-publish checklist settings?

Open settings in the WordPress dashboard and then click on Pre-Publish checklist to see the settings.

Where will the checklist appear?

The checklist will appear within a metabox on the post/page edit page.

Is there a default pre-publish checklist available?

Yes, there is a short list that we’ve provided within the plugin. However, we recommend you to modify it as per your needs.

Changelog

1.1.4

  • Enhancement: Compatibility with WordPress 6.6.

1.1.3

  • Fixed: Resolved an issue with visibility of the publish/update button after WordPress 6.3 update.
  • Fixed: Resolved an issue where the checklist within the post editor was not saving when users attempted to save a draft or schedule a post.

1.1.2

  • Enhancement: Improved Security in AJAX Request Handling. Props to Patchstack for reporting it privately to our team.

1.1.1

  • Fixed: Compatibility issues with WordPress 5.5.

1.1.0

  • New: Introduced support for creating an individual checklist for custom post types.
  • New: Added a list column to display the checklist status.
  • New: Added a search bar to filter posts according to pending item.

1.0.2

  • Fixed: Compatibility issues with WordPress 5.3.

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot
Pre-Publish Checklist screenshot

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

FAQ

Pre-Publish Checklist: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 1, 2026

Is Pre-Publish Checklist free?

Yes. Pre-Publish Checklist is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Pre-Publish Checklist safe to use in 2026?

Pre-Publish Checklist works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 8 months ago, and scores 48/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Pre-Publish Checklist?

Pre-Publish Checklist is active on 1K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 31,743 times since it launched in September 2019. It was downloaded 243 times in the last 30 days.

Does Pre-Publish Checklist work with WordPress 7.1?

Pre-Publish Checklist is officially tested up to WordPress 6.6.9, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

What PHP version does Pre-Publish Checklist need?

Pre-Publish Checklist requires PHP 5.6 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.

When was Pre-Publish Checklist last updated?

The latest version, 1.1.4, was released on January 19, 2026 (8 months ago).

Who makes Pre-Publish Checklist?

Pre-Publish Checklist is developed and maintained by Pratik Chaskar.

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