In this podcast episode, host Michelle Frechette interviews Remco Nieuwenhuis, a WordPress professional from the Netherlands and founder of WPSupporters and WPoptic. Remco shares his journey from military and police service to tech entrepreneurship, discusses the creation of WP Optic—a fast, accurate browser extension for detecting WordPress themes and plugins—and demonstrates its features live. The conversation covers challenges, future plans, and community involvement, ending with the host encouraging listeners to try WP Optic and announcing a brief podcast break for WordCamp US.

Top Takeaways:

• WPoptic is a fast, WordPress-focused browser extension: Remco Nieuwenhuizen developed WPoptic to quickly detect if a site is built with WordPress, along with its themes and plugins. Unlike broader tools like BuiltWith or Wappalyzer, WPoptic focuses specifically on WordPress and boasts near-instant detection speeds, currently identifying around 17,000 plugins with plans to expand to over 50,000.
• Development involved overcoming early challenges: The first version of WPoptic was built by an overseas developer but lacked scalability, security, and depth in plugin detection. After receiving feedback from a competitor-turned-collaborator, Remco decided to rebuild the tool from scratch, prioritizing speed, security, and accuracy. This pivot confirmed market demand and improved the product’s professional quality.
• Growth and monetization plans center on data and community: WPoptic has around 800 Chrome users and aims to monetize through features like an export function, AI-assisted plugin detection, and potentially dashboards for plugin developers to track installations and competition. Remco emphasizes organic growth, user feedback, and avoiding heavy reliance on advertising, preferring to fund development through his other business, WPSupporters.

Mentioned In The Show:

• WPoptic
• Wave
• Built With
• WPSupporters
• Wappalyzer
• WPfounders article about Remco Nieuwenhuizen
• Elementor
• WPBakery
• Divi

🙏 Sponsor: A2Hosting

A2 Hosting offers solutions for WordPress and WooCommerce that are both blazing fast and ultra-reliable. WordPress can be used on ANY Web Hosting plan from A2.  You can deploy WordPress easily on Shared, VPS, or Dedicated Hosting plans. A2 also offers Managed WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting. Take a look at a2hosting.com today!

🐦 You can follow Post Status and our guests online:

• Remco Nieuwenhuizen (Founder, WPoptic)
• Michelle Frechette (Director of Community Relations, Post Status)
• Olivia Bisset (Intern, Post Status)

The Post Status  podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. 📝

Browse our archives, and don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, Simplecast, or RSS. 🎧