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WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 3.5.2

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar

WP Markdown Syntax Sugar is a simple plugin that works in conjunction with Markdown code blocks and highlight.js to properly format code.

Active installs10+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d41▲ +17.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score23/100At risk
All-time downloads2.2KSince Aug 2012
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 3.1PHP any
Downloads · 7d7▼ -46.2% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 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

134Jul 16Aug 29Oct 13
Yesterday3
Daily average (1y)1
Peak day6Sep 11, 2026
Last 12 months316

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

Rankings

Where WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
code >100 10,000 Best code plugins →
highlight.js #45 45 Best highlight.js plugins →
markdown >100 1,392 Best markdown plugins →
pre >100 5,755 Best pre plugins →
syntax >100 2,203 Best syntax plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 0.1100.0%

About WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar

From the official readme · v0.1.1

Description

WP Markdown Syntax Sugar work in conjunction with plugins such as wp-markdown
and wp-highlight.js. Markdown is fantastic markup for easily
writing blogs, and highlight.js is an extremely easy way to highlight
code examples. In most cases, highlight.js automatically detects the proper language for a block of code. In certain
cases, primarily if your code example is short, highlight.js could improperly detect the language that you are using;
that is where this plugin comes into play. By adding one line to your code blocks, you can explicitly set the language
that you are using, allowing highlight.js to properly format your code.

The concept is inspired by the wp-markdown-syntax-highlight
plugin.

The usage is extremely simple. Just add a shebang as the first line of your code example with the language you are using.

#!ruby
class Foo < Bar
  def hello
    puts "Hello World!"
  end
end

The shebang is removed, and the code is outputted as:

<pre><code class="language-ruby">class Foo < Bar
  def hello
    puts "Hello World!"
  end
end</code></pre>

Now the code block is properly formatted for highlight.js to do its magic, and the code snippet will be properly
highlighted.

Installation

Installation is standard and straight forward.

  1. Upload the wp-markdown-syntax-sugar folder (and all it’s contents) to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Modify improperly formatted code blocks with a shebang.

Changelog

0.1.0

  • Initial release

0.1.1

  • Modified output to use the HTML5 recommended syntax highlighting class names, e.g. language-ruby. For more information, see the HTML5 spec

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

For developers

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FAQ

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

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

Is WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar free?

Yes. WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar safe to use in 2026?

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.

How many websites use WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar?

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,157 times since it launched in August 2012. It was downloaded 41 times in the last 30 days.

Does WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar work with WordPress 7.1?

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar 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 WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar last updated?

The latest version, 0.1.1, was released on January 3, 2013 (14 years ago).

Who makes WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar?

WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar is developed and maintained by dwhitevisoft.

What are the best alternatives to WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar?

The most popular alternatives to WP-Markdown-Syntax-Sugar are WPCode (3M+ installs), Code Snippets (1M+ installs) and Head & Footer Code (100K+ installs).

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