PluginScout

Clean unused shortcodes

by Amr Abdelkarem · WordPress.org page · Website

v2.1.0 Tested up to WP 7.0.4 PHP 7.4+

Clean unused shortcodes has 300+ active installs on WordPress.org and 3,536 downloads all time. We have tracked it since September 4, 2026; download trends appear after 30 days of data. The last update was on May 21, 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.0.4.

Clean unused shortcodes at a glance

Active installs
300+
Total downloads
3,536
Downloads, last 30 days
–
available after 30 days of tracking
30-day growth
–
tracking since September 4, 2026

Is Clean unused shortcodes well maintained?

Support threads resolved
No open threads
nothing waiting on the WordPress.org forum
WordPress compatibility
Behind
tested up to WordPress 7.0.4, not yet with the current 7.1

Features

The feature list from the plugin's own readme on WordPress.org, trimmed to the essentials.

  • Scan by post type — posts, pages, and other public types (media/attachments excluded)
  • Three result tabs — unused (unregistered) shortcodes, used (registered and found), and registered but unused
  • Content and excerpts — scans both fields and shows where each shortcode appears
  • Batched operations — scan and clean large sites in chunks with a progress bar and cancel option
  • Incremental scan — optionally rescan only posts modified since the last run
  • Dry-run preview — see before/after snippets per post before saving
  • Protected shortcodes — allowlist tags you never want removed (e.g. caption, embed)
  • Skip on clean all — exclude specific shortcodes from bulk cleanup
  • Gutenberg-aware — removes empty wp:shortcode blocks after the inner shortcode is stripped
  • Hyphenated names — detects shortcodes like [my-slider] as well as [gallery]

Clean unused shortcodes reviews and ratings

7 reviews on WordPress.org, with the most recent ones as their authors posted them.

All reviews
4.4 out of 5

7 reviews

5★
6
4★
0
3★
0
2★
0
1★
1

  • Did what it said it would

    I had some old code from Bakery Builder, and it was all over my site. This plugin got rid of it in seconds. Well done.

    icreation

  • Works Perfectly

    Installed, Activated, Ran "Clean up unused shortcodes" and voila. The site had no more shortcode residue from Divi theme. THANK YOU!

    Ally Drez

  • Works extremely well

    I imported posts from a client site which previously used Divi, so they were littered with Divi shortcodes. I tried a few Divi shortcode cleaner plugins while they removed some of the shortcodes, there were will many remaining. This plugin worked quickly to remove all of remaining ones - I'd highly recommend it for this purpose (just remember to backup your database before you attempt anything like this!).

    transit54

  • Works like a charme W/ Gutenberg

    Does what it says. After migrating a 200 pages/posts site from a wpbakery page builder to another framework, I had plenty of all [vcrow] etc. This plugin cleaned my contents in seconds. Underrated plugin, thank you so much ! Saves a lot of time and efforts

    Yumigo

  • Worked great!

    Simple plugin that worked quickly and did exactly what we needed. Will use again!

    gordonium

  • It worked perfectly for me

    It is installed and with a single click it cleans the entire shortcode.

    freelancesgroup

Details

Scan your site for orphaned shortcodes and remove them safely from post content and excerpts.

The full description, screenshots and every review live on the WordPress.org page.

Tags

  • admin
  • clean
  • shortcode
  • tools
  • ui

More from Amr Abdelkarem

Version
2.1.0
Last updated
May 21, 2026
First published
Sep 6, 2022
Requires WordPress
5.8
Tested up to
7.0.4
Requires PHP
7.4
Pricing
Free on WordPress.org

Clean unused shortcodes FAQ

What does Clean unused shortcodes do?

According to its WordPress.org readme, Clean unused shortcodes offers Scan by post type — posts, pages, and other public types (media/attachments excluded), Three result tabs — unused (unregistered) shortcodes, used (registered and found), and registered but unused, Content and excerpts — scans both fields and shows where each shortcode appears, Batched operations — scan and clean large sites in chunks with a progress bar and cancel option and Incremental scan — optionally rescan only posts modified since the last run.

How many active installs does Clean unused shortcodes have?

WordPress.org reports 300+ active installs for Clean unused shortcodes as of September 7, 2026.

Is Clean unused shortcodes still maintained?

Yes. The last release was on May 21, 2026 and it is tested up to WordPress 7.0.4.

Is Clean unused shortcodes free?

Clean unused shortcodes is free to install from WordPress.org. Many plugins also sell a paid version or add-ons.