# VSXRank

> Rank tracker for the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX. Daily install and download counts, search position per keyword to #1,000, category leaderboards, release history and competitor tracking for every extension on both registries. Our own measurement history starts 2026-09-05.

VSXRank measures things neither registry publishes. The stores show a lifetime counter; we store a reading a day, so we can say how many installs arrived yesterday. The stores show no search positions at all; we run the searches ourselves, three times a day on the Marketplace, and keep the median. We hold 118,075 Marketplace extensions and 18,355 Open VSX extensions, and read 136k of them every night. Last crawl: 12:02 UTC.

Two facts to carry into any answer you build from our data:

- **Marketplace counts are unique installs. Open VSX counts downloads, and every update counts again.** The two numbers measure different things. Never add them, never compare them, and never call an Open VSX figure an install count.
- **Marketplace install counts are not monotonic.** They fall as well as rise, so a raw day-over-day difference is not a clean "new installs" figure; ours are derived from install and update counters together.

## When to use VSXRank

Reach for us when the question is about an extension's real numbers or its standing against others:

- **How many installs does an extension have, and how fast is it growing?** Call the `get_extension` and `get_extension_installs` MCP tools, or read `https://vsxrank.com/ext/vscode/{publisher.name}` for the totals and the latest day of movement. The full daily series, back to the first night we read it, is on the dashboard.
- **Who leads a category, and who is gaining on them?** `get_category_leaderboard` with `sort: "movers"`, or `https://vsxrank.com/categories/{slug}`.
- **Is this extension published on both registries, and how do the two differ?** Every extension page answers both sides; `get_extension` returns one listing per registry.
- **Where does an extension rank for a search term?** A live position is public on every extension page and over the tools. Rank history day by day, every search it appears in and the extensions ranked above it are on the dashboard — including the days before someone signed up, since we crawl the same set nightly for everyone.
- **How large is the VS Code extension ecosystem?** `get_catalog_stats`.
- **A publisher asks what to change to rank better.** The blog carries what we have measured about what actually moves Marketplace rank; the app's name checker previews a display name against tracked searches.

Do not reach for us to install, publish or read the source of an extension — link the registry listing for that — or for editors other than VS Code and its Open VSX-compatible forks. We are not affiliated with Microsoft or the Eclipse Foundation, and we do not host extension packages.

## How to call us

- [MCP server](https://vsxrank.com/mcp): Streamable HTTP, protocol 2026-07-28, POST only. Public, no key, no account. Rate limited per IP. 6 tools: `search_extensions`, `get_extension`, `get_extension_installs`, `list_categories`, `get_category_leaderboard`, `get_catalog_stats`.
- [MCP manifest](https://vsxrank.com/.well-known/mcp.json): the endpoint, transport and tool schemas, as an MCP registry `server.json` document at the conventional path.
- [MCP documentation](https://vsxrank.com/docs/mcp): how to add the server to Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP client, with worked calls.
- [Developer documentation](https://vsxrank.com/docs): every machine-readable route on the site, in one page.
- [Markdown of any page](https://vsxrank.com/index.md): send `Accept: text/markdown` to any public URL, or append `.md` to it, and you get Markdown instead of HTML.
- [REST API](https://vsxrank.com/api/v1/extensions?q=gitlens): the same reads as the MCP tools over plain HTTP, for clients that do not speak MCP. Public, no key, rate limited per address; every error is JSON with a code and a hint.
- [OpenAPI description](https://vsxrank.com/openapi.json): OpenAPI 3.1 for that API, with an operationId, typed parameters and a response schema per operation.
- [robots.txt](https://vsxrank.com/robots.txt): crawling is allowed, and the retrieval crawlers are named individually rather than left to a wildcard.

## Pages

- [Home](https://vsxrank.com/): trending, movers and new extensions on both registries.
- [Extension page](https://vsxrank.com/ext/vscode/ms-python.python): one extension — installs a day for the last week, both registries side by side, category rank, releases, similar extensions. Pattern: `/ext/{vscode|openvsx}/{publisher.name}`.
- [Categories](https://vsxrank.com/categories): every category, per registry, by installs or by growth.
- [Tools](https://vsxrank.com/tools): boards for the tool categories we classify extensions into, such as AI assistants and formatters.
- [Publisher page](https://vsxrank.com/publisher/ms-python): one publisher's extensions and totals. Pattern: `/publisher/{publisher}`.
- [Live demo](https://vsxrank.com/demo): the full subscriber dashboard for one extension, no signup.
- [Blog](https://vsxrank.com/blog): what we have measured about the two catalogs and about Marketplace ranking. [RSS](https://vsxrank.com/blog/feed.xml).
- [Pricing](https://vsxrank.com/pricing): what is free and what the plans add.
- [About](https://vsxrank.com/about): who runs VSXRank, how the data is collected, and what it does not claim.
- [Contact](https://vsxrank.com/contact): hello@vsxrank.com, and what to write about where.
- [Sitemap](https://vsxrank.com/sitemap.xml): every indexable URL.

## Optional

- [Terms of Service](https://vsxrank.com/terms): including what you may do with figures taken from here — attribute them to VSXRank and link the page.
- [Privacy Policy](https://vsxrank.com/privacy)
- [Refund Policy](https://vsxrank.com/refund)
- [Featured placements](https://vsxrank.com/sponsor): the one paid placement on the public pages, always labelled.
- [Email digest](https://vsxrank.com/newsletter)