8 Best Debug Bar Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Debug Bar has 20,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 8 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 8 closest alternatives to Debug Bar
- 1
Query Monitor
Closest match4.9 (469) 200,000+ active installsQuery Monitor is the developer tools panel for WordPress and WooCommerce.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 4.1, last updated June 20, 2026.
- 2
4.9 (38) 4,000+ active installsAdds 9 awesome widgets to your WP Dashboard. Includes User Notes, Social Buttons, System Info, Debug/Error Logs, and more!
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About a quarter of the installs, last updated July 17, 2026.
- 3
Plugin Detective – Troubleshooting Conflicts
4.0 (49) 5,000+ active installsQuickly find and fix WordPress plugin conflicts, recover from fatal errors, and clear stuck maintenance mode without any coding.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About a quarter of the installs, last updated 24 days ago.
- 4
5.0 (21) 10,000+ active installsA support/troubleshooting plugin for WordPress.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About half the installs, last updated 25 days ago.
- 5
Code Profiler – WordPress Performance Profiling and Debugging Made Easy
4.3 (35) 8,000+ active installsA profiler to measure the performance of your WordPress plugins and themes.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, last updated 22 days ago.
- 6
Debug Log Manager – Conveniently Monitor and Inspect Errors
5.0 (25) 10,000+ active installsLog PHP, database and JavaScript errors via WP_DEBUG with one click. Conveniently create, view, filter and clear the debug.log file.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About half the installs, last updated June 26, 2026.
- 7
4.5 (165) 300,000+ active installsTake control of the cron events on your WordPress website or WooCommerce store with WP Crontrol.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. About 15 times the installs, rated 4.5 against 4.1, last updated 8 days ago.
- 8
5.0 (26) 1,000+ active installsMaking sense of the rewrite mess. Display and play with your rewrite rules.
Shares the debug tag on WordPress.org. 1,000+ installs against 20,000+, no update since May 12, 2011.
Switching from Debug Bar: common questions
What is the best alternative to Debug Bar?
Query Monitor is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 200,000+ active installs with a 4.9 out of 5 rating.
Which Debug Bar alternative has the most users?
WP Crontrol, with 300,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Debug Bar alternative is rated highest?
Query Monitor, rated 4.9 out of 5 by 469 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Debug Bar alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with Debug Bar score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against Debug Bar on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
Query Monitor is the closest match to Debug Bar by the data we track, and WP Crontrol has the widest reach with 300,000+ active installs. WP Crontrol shipped the most recent release, on August 29, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.