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Shortcodes In Use icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 4.4.34

Shortcodes In Use

This is a simple administration tool that lists occurences of shortcodes within post content and/or custom fields, and/or widget settings. You can select, or search for, specific shortcodes, and it can filter down to a…

Active installs80+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d76▲ +40.7% vs prev. 30d
Rating5/58 reviews
Health score37/100At risk
All-time downloads6.2KSince Nov 2014
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 3.8PHP any
Downloads · 7d17▼ -26.1% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Shortcodes In Use shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 80+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (80+ active installs)
  • No update in 10 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 4.4 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

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

Daily downloads

3710Jun 30Aug 13Sep 27
Yesterday2
Daily average (1y)2
Peak day14Sep 10, 2026
Last 12 months584

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

Rankings

Where Shortcodes In Use stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
admin >100 10,000 Best admin plugins →
find >100 10,000 Best find plugins →
locate >100 1,177 Best locate plugins →
shortcode >100 10,000 Best shortcode plugins →
tool >100 10,000 Best tool plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.2100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 8 reviews

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

About Shortcodes In Use

From the official readme · v1.2.1

Description

  • Can’t recall where, or if, you’ve used a certain shortcode?
  • Want to remove a plugin and unsure if it provides shortcodes or whether you’re using them?
  • Don’t know what shortcodes come with WordPress?
  • Found one unrecognised shortcode but unsure where there might be others?
  • Need to swap out a theme and don’t know if it has shortcodes that you’ve used?
  • Want to use a shortcode for a specific bit of information but can’t remember exactly what it’s called?
  • Need to a change a parameter for all occurences of a shortcode?

This is a simple administration tool that lists occurences of shortcodes within post content and/or custom fields, and/or widget settings.
You can select, or search for, specific shortcodes, and it can filter down to a provider, location, or post type.
It is intended to help administrators/editors locate where shortcodes have been used, so that they can be updated, renamed, deleted, or whatever.

Features include :

  • Search string(s) to match against shortcode tags – space or comma delimited for multple search strings
  • Filter by the type of provider of shortcode – whether it is provided by a plugin, your theme, internal to WordPress (eg. [gallery]), or unknown (an inactive/deleted plugin, maybe?)
  • Filter by a specific provider – a named plugin, for example
  • Filter by any number of specific, recognised shortcodes
  • Filter by where to look for the shortcode – post content, post meta data (custom fields), or widgets
  • Filter by the type of post that contains the shortcode
  • Results include (where relevant and available) : either the widget name and its sidebar, or a linked post title and the type of post; the shortcode and its parameters; the shortcode provider (WordPress, plugin, theme, or unknown), and where it was found
  • Has its own shortcode, for use when a plugin or theme only declares a shortcode when not in the admin backend

What it does not do :

  • It does not provide any insight as to what any shortcode does, or how to use/configure it.
  • It does not look at custom tables, theme options, transients.

If you like this plugin (or if you don’t?), please consider taking a moment or two to give it a
Review : it helps others, and gives me valuable feedback.

Shortcode

The shortcode for this plugin is…

[shortcodes_in_use/]

…and output is restricted to users with edit_posts capability.

The attributes available are in line with the options available in the Tool, and each one is a filter.
Setting an attribute for all possible values is the same as omitting that attribute.

Separate filters are ANDed, ie. specifying provider="wordpress" post_type="page" limits the results
to shortcode tags that are in a page AND provided by WordPress core.

Multiple values within a filter are ORed, ie. specifying post_type="post page" provider="wordpress"
limits the results to WordPress’s own shortcode tags that are in either a post OR a page.

When you run the Tool in admin, the equivalent shortcode for the selected options is provided at the end
of the results. Also, the sanitized shortcode is repeated at the top of the shortcode’s output.

  • search (string) : A space or comma is interpreted as a delimiter, so…

    [shortcodes_in_use search="foo bar"/]
    

    …looks for any shortcode tag that contains either “foo” or “bar”.

  • provider (string) : Any one or more of unknown, wordpress, plugin, or theme,
    delimited by either a comma or a space. For example…

    [shortcodes_in_use provider="plugin unknown"/]
    

    …reports any shortcode tag whose provider cannot be determined, or whose provider has be
    determined as being a plugin.

  • location (string) : Any one or more of title, content, excerpt, meta or widget,
    delimited by either a comma or a space. For example…

    [shortcodes_in_use location="content excerpt"/]
    

    …reports any shortcode tag found in any main content or excerpt area.

  • post_type (string) : Any one or more of WordPress’s standard post types – post, page,
    attachment, etc – and/or any custom post types. Multiple post types are comma- or space-delimited.
    For example…

    [shortcodes_in_use post_type="post,page"/]
    

    …reports any shortcode tag found in a post of type ‘post’ or ‘page’.

  • tag (string) : Any one or more shortcode tags, delimited by either a comma or a space. For
    example…

    [shortcodes_in_use tag="shortcodes_in_use, custom_menu_wizard"/]
    

    …reports any occurence of either of those two shortcode tags.

  • name (string) : This allows you to specify a specific plugin and/or theme by name. Multiple
    names are comma- or space-delimited, and each name must begin with either “plugin/” or “theme/”.
    For example…

    [shortcodes_in_use name="plugin/Shortcodes In Use, theme/Twenty Fifteen"/]
    

    …reports any occurence of a shortcode tag belonging to either the Shortcodes In Use plugin or
    the Twenty Fifteen theme. Instead of the name of the plugin/theme, you can supply their
    containing folder, so this would be an alternative for the example above…

    [shortcodes_in_use name="plugin/shortcodes-in-use, theme/twentyfifteen"/]
    

Installation

  1. EITHER Upload the zip package via ‘Plugins > Add New > Upload’ in your WP Admin, OR Extract the zip package and upload shortcodes-in-use folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in your WP Admin. The widget will now be available under Admin’s Tools menu.

Changelog

Changed h2 header to h1 in line with WordPress guidelines. Added a collapse/expand all button, and removed on-page javascript. Verified 4.4 compatibility.

1.2.1

  • tweak : changed the plugin’s h2 header to h1
  • addition : a collapse/expand all button
  • tweak : remove on-page javascript

1.2.0

  • internationalization

1.1.0

  • bugfix : handle the shortcode’s callable function being specified as “someClass::someMethod”
  • addition : shortcode, for when a plugin or theme doesn’t declare their shortcode when in admin backend
  • tweak : reformatted results to not use table, added a count, and made parts collapsible
  • tweak : small optimisation changes

1.0.1

  • bugfix : ensure that checked by-location and posts-by-type filters also get hilighted when displaying results

1.0.0

  • Initial release

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Tools / Shortcodes In Use page
Tools / Shortcodes In Use page
Sample results
Sample results
Provider/Tag filter options
Provider/Tag filter options

For developers

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FAQ

Shortcodes In Use: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026

Is Shortcodes In Use free?

Yes. Shortcodes In Use is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Shortcodes In Use safe to use in 2026?

Shortcodes In Use shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 80+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Shortcodes In Use?

Shortcodes In Use is active on 80+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 6,201 times since it launched in November 2014. It was downloaded 76 times in the last 30 days.

Does Shortcodes In Use work with WordPress 7.1?

Shortcodes In Use is officially tested up to WordPress 4.4.34, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Shortcodes In Use last updated?

The latest version, 1.2.1, was released on January 26, 2016 (11 years ago).

Who makes Shortcodes In Use?

Shortcodes In Use is developed and maintained by wizzud.

What are the best alternatives to Shortcodes In Use?

The most popular alternatives to Shortcodes In Use are Loginizer (1M+ installs), Redux Framework (900K+ installs) and Admin Menu Editor (300K+ installs).

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