BLACK FRIDAY
Save 59% on PageForge Annual $191/year $485/year
Claim 59% Off →
Prism Syntax Highlighter (detached) icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 3.5.2 #8 in prism

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detached)

Adds Prism Syntax Highlighting to WordPress, using custom fields for your code examples.

Active installs10+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d47▲ +14.6% vs prev. 30d
Rating5/53 reviews
Health score30/100At risk
All-time downloads3.3KSince Sep 2012
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 3.4.0PHP any
Downloads · 7d9▼ -35.7% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 13 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (10+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 13 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 3.5 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

3711Jul 16Aug 29Oct 13
Yesterday2
Daily average (1y)1
Peak day15Sep 11, 2026
Last 12 months361

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

Rankings

Where Prism Syntax Highlighter (d… stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
prism #62 67 Best prism plugins →
syntax highlighting >100 352 Best syntax highlighting plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.5100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

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

About Prism Syntax Highlighter (detached)

From the official readme · v1.5

Description

Integrates the Prism Syntax Highlighting Library in WordPress.

It is called detached, since the code examples are not stuffed into the rich text editor, together with all the
other texts and content, but they are added separately as custom fields and just referenced via short tags (like footnotes).

Check Other Notes for usage documentation.

The official development repository is hosted on Github.

Usage

The basic procedure is:

  1. Create a custom field and paste the code into it.
  2. Insert the [prism ...] shorttag in your code, where you want the code block to appear.

Shorttag

[prism key=".." language=".." line=".." line_offset=".." post=".."]
  • key: the name of the custom field, which contains the code (required)
  • language: the language to highlight
  • line: highlighted lines (for syntax, check the offical docs)
  • line_offset: the offset, with which the line numbering should start
  • post: if you want to include a code piece of another post, you can explicitly specify the post id here

Cached Assets loader

The plugin includes (from v1.3 on) a cached assets loader, so that all needed assets are concatenated into
one js and one css file to minimize the HTTP requests.
To make use of the cached assets loader, just create a directory /cache/ inside your plugin directory and make it writable for PHP.

Supported languages

Only the ones from the official PrismJS repository

  • bash (Bash Unix Shell)
  • c
  • clike
  • coffeescript
  • cpp (C++)
  • css
  • groovy
  • java
  • javascript
  • markup (like: xHTML, MathML, SVG, LaTeX, RSS, XML, OWL, etc.)
  • php
  • python
  • scss (Sassy CSS)
  • sql

Creating Custom Extensions

Please read the wiki page: Creating A Custom Extension.

Installation

  1. Upload the files to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Changelog

No upgrade notice yet, just use it and give feedback. :-)

1.5

  • Updated PrismJS to commit: 07c0f4f6b2
  • Added plugin descriptions
  • Added new plugins: File Highlight, WebPlatform Docs
  • Added language-code descriptions
  • Added new languages: Bash (Unix Shell), C, C-like, Coffeescript, C++, Groovy, PHP, Python, Sassy CSS, and SQL
  • Added new themes: Okaida, Tomorrow, Twilight
    ** 1.5 update brought to you by JC John Sese Cuneta (http://jcsesecuneta.com) ** thank you!

1.4

  • Fixed a compatibility problem with older PHP versions (< 5.4)

1.3

  • Minor optical updates of the admin interface
  • Refactored nearly complete plugin
  • Added support for generic extensions
  • Added cached assets loader
  • Added support for experimental PHP plugin

1.2

  • Updated the prism library to 34f0bd5247

1.1

  • Load line-highlight correctly
  • Moved html attributes to the correct tag
  • Fixed wrong asset loading

1.0

  • Initial commit

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Add the code as custom field and reference it in the rich text editor via shortcode.
Add the code as custom field and reference it in the rich text editor via shortcode.
Code highlighting in the frontend
Code highlighting in the frontend
You can also specify some lines, which should be marked
You can also specify some lines, which should be marked
Code highlighting with marked lines in the frontend
Code highlighting with marked lines in the frontend
Plugin options screen
Plugin options screen

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

Best Prism Syntax Highlighter (det… alternatives

All prism plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
1 APH Prism Syntax Highlighter APH Prism Syntax Highlighter Bringing Prism into WordPress easily. User-friendly GUI, support both classic editor and… by Agus Prawoto Hadi 90+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 (7) 4 years ago 33
2 AH Code Highlighter AH Code Highlighter The easiest to use code highlighting ever. Choose between 8 different color themes to… by Andreas Hecht 60+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (1) 8 years ago 32
3 WP Prism Syntax Highlighter WP Prism Syntax Highlighter A lightweight and convenient plugin to integrate Prism Syntax Highlighter into WordPress. by GuiTeK 30+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 12 years ago 31
4 Prism Syntax Highlighter Prism Syntax Highlighter Prism is a new lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter, built with modern web standards… by Gilbert Pellegrom 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 14 years ago 24
5 Vaaky Highlighter — Syntax Highlighter, Code Blocks, Line Numbers for Gutenberg Vaaky Highlighter Lightweight syntax highlighter with code blocks, line numbers, copy-to-clipboard, and 35+… by WebHat 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (2) 5 months ago 57
6 Alkane Code Alkane Code A TinyMCE code editor with Prism syntax highlighting. by alkanesolutions 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 4 years ago 23
8 Melonpan Block – Code Melonpan Block – Code Block to display code, with highlighted syntax, which can be copied to the clipboard. by Alvaro 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 6 years ago 23
9 Syntax Highlighter with PrismJS Syntax Highlighter with PrismJS A syntax highlighter using PrismJs. by mohamad wael <10 ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 4 years ago 21
10 WebberZone Code Block Highlighting WebberZone Code Block Highlighting Syntax highlighting for the Gutenberg Code block — Prism.js, 21 themes, 40+ languages, plus… by Ajay <10 ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 3 days ago 64
11 Coywolf Code Block Enhancer Coywolf Code Block Enhancer Syntax highlighting and a copy-to-clipboard button for the native WordPress Code block… by Coywolf <10 ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (1) 2 months ago 71

FAQ

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detached): quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 14, 2026

Is Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… free?

Yes. Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… safe to use in 2026?

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 13 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac…?

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 3,269 times since it launched in September 2012. It was downloaded 47 times in the last 30 days.

Does Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… work with WordPress 7.1?

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… is officially tested up to WordPress 3.5.2, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… last updated?

The latest version, 1.5, was released on July 30, 2013 (13 years ago).

Who makes Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac…?

Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… is developed and maintained by apfelbox.

What are the best alternatives to Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac…?

The most popular alternatives to Prism Syntax Highlighter (detac… are APH Prism Syntax Highlighter (90+ installs), AH Code Highlighter (60+ installs) and WP Prism Syntax Highlighter (30+ installs).

Powered by PageForge

Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.

This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.

  • CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
  • AI content, schema & internal links per page
  • Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
  • Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
Sarah is here to help!
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?
Sarah
Sarah
Online & Ready to Help
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?

We'll use this to continue our conversation

Just now ✓ Verified

Join 500+ SEO Pros Scaling Their Strategy

Get exclusive programmatic SEO tactics, AI content workflows, and the latest PageForge updates delivered straight to your inbox. Stay ahead of the algorithm.

We care about your data in our privacy policy.