In short: Media Tracker is a free read-only plugin that shows where each media file is referenced across your site. Mediapapa’s usage index covers the same detection — and builds governance tools on top of it: Deletion Warnings, Safe Replace, Library Health, duplicate detection and compression. If usage visibility is your only need, Media Tracker is minimal and free. If you want to act safely on what you find, Mediapapa does both.
What Media Tracker does
Media Tracker is a lightweight free plugin that adds usage information to the WordPress media library. For each attachment, it shows which posts, pages or custom post types reference it. The information is read-only — the plugin surfaces usage data but provides no tools to act on it: no deletion protection, no bulk operations, no health scoring, no compression.
Media Tracker is useful as a diagnostic tool on sites where knowing usage context is the immediate need. It has no paid version and no active development roadmap beyond its current scope.
What Mediapapa adds on the same foundation
Mediapapa’s usage index covers the same detection — and more. It scans Gutenberg blocks, Classic Editor content, ACF fields, Elementor widget meta, widget areas, nav menus, theme options and the WordPress options table. The map that results from that scan is the foundation for everything else in the governance layer.
Deletion Warnings are triggered automatically when you attempt to delete a file the index shows as referenced. Safe Replace updates every ID and URL reference sitewide when you swap a file. Library Health scores the entire library. Media Score rates each file individually. Duplicate detection groups identical files and identifies the reference version. None of these exist in Media Tracker.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Media Tracker | Mediapapa (free) | Mediapapa Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage map per file | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gutenberg / ACF / Elementor scanning | Partial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deletion Warnings | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unused media detection | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Library Health + Media Score | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Duplicate detection | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Safe Replace (sitewide) | — | — | ✓ |
| Image compression (WebP, AVIF) | — | — | ✓ |
| AI-assisted metadata | — | ✓ (credits) | ✓ (credits) |
| Pre-publish health checks | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing | Free | Free | from $49/yr |
Key differences
Media Tracker and Mediapapa both answer the question “where is this file used?” Media Tracker stops there. Mediapapa uses the answer to that question as the input for everything else: protecting files from accidental deletion, enabling safe replacement, scoring library health, detecting duplicates.
In practice, knowing where a file is used is only valuable if you can act on that knowledge safely. A read-only usage map tells you a file is referenced in 40 posts — but does nothing to prevent you from deleting it, replacing it incorrectly, or missing the ACF field where it also appears. Mediapapa’s Deletion Warnings and Safe Replace are built directly on top of the usage index.
Mediapapa Free covers Media Tracker’s entire scope at no cost, with the addition of Deletion Warnings, unused media detection, health scoring and duplicate detection. There is no scenario where Media Tracker is the better choice over Mediapapa Free for a site that needs usage information.
Who should choose what
Choose Media Tracker if
You want the absolute minimum footprint — a single-purpose read-only usage display with nothing else installed.
You are diagnosing a specific site and want usage information only, with no intention of taking ongoing action.
Choose Mediapapa if
You want usage visibility and the ability to act on it safely — Deletion Warnings, Safe Replace, unused media cleanup.
Your site uses complex field structures where Media Tracker’s detection can be incomplete.
You want usage tracking as part of an ongoing governance layer, not a one-time diagnostic.
Frequently asked questions
No. Media Tracker is read-only. It shows where files are referenced but does not block deletion of files that are still in use. Mediapapa’s Deletion Warnings trigger automatically when you attempt to delete a referenced file, preventing accidental breakage.
Yes, for most sites. Mediapapa Free covers the same usage detection with a more comprehensive scan (Gutenberg, ACF, Elementor, serialised data) and adds Deletion Warnings, unused media detection, health scoring and duplicate detection — all at no cost.
Partially. Media Tracker scans standard post content and some custom post type relationships, but coverage of complex field structures varies. Mediapapa’s usage index scans ACF, Elementor widget meta, serialised data and the WordPress options table explicitly.
Related comparisons
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