There's no shortage of "run this SQL to trim autoload" blog posts. They work — until a mistyped WHERE clause deletes something core on a live site. Here's the honest breakdown against doing it manually.
Raw SQL is fast and free if you already know exactly which rows to touch and you never make a mistake. WP Autoload Cleaner (this site) assumes you don't know the option names off by heart, you'd like to be told which plugin left each one, and you'd very much like an undo button before you delete anything on a client's database. Speed for experts versus safety for everyone.
| Feature | WP Autoload Cleaner | phpMyAdmin / raw SQL |
|---|---|---|
| Total autoload weight, banded | ✓ Gauge with health bands | ◐ A SUM() you run yourself |
| Per-row size & share | ✓ Sorted, biggest first | ◐ ORDER BY LENGTH() |
| Source attribution per row | ✓ Core / plugin / theme / orphan | ✗ Guess from the name |
| Plain-English description | ✓ Every row | ✗ |
| Stop autoloading (keep data) | ✓ One click | ◐ UPDATE statement |
| Delete with undo | ✓ 20-entry trash + restore | ✗ Irreversible |
| Protected core options | ✓ ~30 undeletable | ✗ No guardrails |
| Expired-transient purge | ✓ One click | ◐ Careful pattern match |
| 30-day trend | ✓ Daily snapshot | ✗ Re-run each time |
| Object-cache safe (flushes alloptions) | ✓ Handled automatically | ✗ Easy to forget |
| Needs database / server access | ✓ No — wp-admin only | ✗ phpMyAdmin or SSH |
| Cost | From $49/yr · $599 lifetime | Free — plus the cost of one bad DELETE |
You're a developer who lives in the database, you already know which options are safe, and you keep fresh backups. For a one-off on your own site, raw SQL is genuinely fine.
You look after client sites, you'd rather be shown which plugin left each row, and you want an undo trash and protected core options standing between you and a broken database. Plus a trend that catches bloat before it becomes a support ticket. That's us.