Mario Peshev

Theme Mentor is a cousin of the Theme-Check plugin getting deeper into the code analysis.
It’s using different approaches to monitor for common problems regarding theme reviews from the WordPress Theme Reviewers Team. It is prone to fault analysis, so use only as a reference for improving your code base even further.
Currently supported validations:
<ul>
<li>Mark all tags in template files</li>
<li>Mark all tags in template files</li>
<li>Warn about query_posts() usage</li>
<li>capital_P_dangit control (disallow any WordPress spelling other than WordPress as is – that is WORDPRESS and WordPress, ugh)</li>
<li>wp_deregister_script(‘jquery’) is forbidden</li>
<li>wp_dequeue_script(‘jquery’) is forbidden</li>
<li>prevent global $data; call as a common troublemaker (props @pippinsplugins)</li>
</ul>
header.php specific
<ul>
<li>Make sure that wp_head is before </li>
<li>Ensure that wp_title(…) is called within and tags</li>
</ul>
footer.php specific
<ul>
<li>Make sure that wp_footer is before </li>
</ul>

Theme Mentor

Theme Mentor is a cousin of the Theme-Check plugin getting deeper into the code analysis.

notalabs

NOTA Prepublish Checker helps site owners catch common mistakes before a post goes live — missing featured image, no category, too-short content, unintended noindex, and more. All checks run inside the WordPress admin with no external services.
Main features
<ul>
<li>Per-post meta box on the editor screen showing pass / warning / error for each check</li>
<li>Status column on the posts list with count badges and item names, so you can spot low-quality drafts at a glance</li>
<li>On-save warning notice listing every item that still needs attention (publish is not blocked)</li>
<li>Admin settings page to toggle individual checks, adjust thresholds, and choose which post types to check</li>
<li>Works on both Gutenberg (block editor) and Classic Editor</li>
<li>Japanese and English admin UI included; easy to translate to other languages</li>
<li>No external API, no account, no license key</li>
</ul>
Checks included (9 total)
<ol>
<li>Title missing</li>
<li>Featured image not set</li>
<li>Category missing / only default category</li>
<li>Tags missing or below minimum count</li>
<li>Excerpt missing</li>
<li>noindex status (WordPress core + Yoast SEO / All in One SEO / SEOPress / Rank Math)</li>
<li>Content length below minimum (HTML tags excluded)</li>
<li>Too few links in content</li>
<li>Too few images in content</li>
</ol>
Each check can be turned off, and each numeric threshold (minimum content length, minimum number of tags / links / images) is configurable.
Who it’s for
<ul>
<li>Individual WordPress bloggers</li>
<li>Affiliate and niche site owners</li>
<li>Small editorial teams who want consistent quality</li>
<li>Anyone who currently checks posts manually before publishing</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pro version</h3>
Need enforced publish blocking? NOTA Prepublish Checker Pro adds publish blocking, administrator bypass, and one-click updates.
<a href="https://notalabs.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy/db60d640-b20a-452a-8c8d-84f880b4218b" rel="nofollow ugc">Get NOTA Prepublish Checker Pro</a>
The free plugin works on its own. Pro is optional and only needed if you want to prevent posts with errors from being published.
<h3>Current limitations</h3>
<ul>
<li>Publish action is not blocked (warning only).</li>
<li>noindex check covers only WordPress core setting + four major SEO plugins (Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, SEOPress, Rank Math).</li>
<li>Content statistics are based on the stored post content HTML. Very complex page-builder output may not be counted perfectly.</li>
<li>Real-time block-level updates (Gutenberg) are not provided; results refresh on save or via the Re-check button.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pro candidates (future roadmap)</h3>
The free version focuses on the minimum useful feature set. The following are tracked as potential Pro features:
<ul>
<li>Per-category required rules</li>
<li>Required custom fields</li>
<li>Category-specific required tags</li>
<li>Enforced publish block on errors</li>
<li>Bulk re-check and CSV export</li>
<li>Per-role rule control</li>
<li>Per-post-type detailed rules</li>
<li>Advanced SEO plugin integration (meta description, canonical, etc.)</li>
<li>Team-oriented shared rule sets</li>
</ul>

NOTA Prepublish Checker

Catch missing titles, featured images, tags, thin content, and unintended noindex before you publish. English and Japanese UI.

Theme Mentor vs NOTA Prepublish Checker