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Featured Posts Widget

by tomsinger · Admin & Utilities

Free audit wp.org ↗

A Wordpress plugin to create a Featured Posts widget

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
43 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 69/100
Support 70/100

43 health vs 54 average across 3,793 Admin & Utilities plugins

30+

Active installs

≈39 estimated

5.0K

Total downloads

since 2012

3.77★

Rating (adjusted)

3.0★ raw · 2 reviews

+23%

37

Downloads · 30d

category median +23%

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 12+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.7.41, well behind 6.8.

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

34 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 2/100
Rating quality 51/100
Listing tuning 92/100

To rank higher: Last updated 4649 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 2022-10-05 · 1,427 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+23% vs prior 30d
-9Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

37

now · peak 65

4930d downloads · Aug 26

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

Featured Posts Widge · #24137 you Bulk Images to Posts · #6621 Post List Featured I · #7149 Featured Post · #7482

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

3Stars · Aug 26

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

1.6Kper 1k installs · Aug 26

Release cadence

No release in a year
from wp.org release tags

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

0

releases in the last 12 months

12.7y ago

latest release · v1.0

2

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.0 · 12.7y ago0.1 · 14.1y ago

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v1.0 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “30+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
30–40 ≈39

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

Install history · since 2015-09-24 · 1,376 observations

30Installs · Aug 26

Estimated value

What this plugin might earn a year, and what it might sell for. Modeled from public signals; we don't see anyone's books.

Est. annual revenue

N/A

Est. acquisition value

N/A

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from.

Ratings · 2 reviews

Read on wp.org ↗
5★
1 4★
0 3★
0 2★
0 1★
1

Details

Version
1.0
Last updated
12.7y ago
Added
2012-07-18 · 14 yrs old
Requires WP
3.4.1
Tested up to
3.7.41
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ VizFactimus Maximus
    12.7y ago

    The featured post didn’t show up, and I wasn’t able to visit my homepage for a brief time.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ Eric Holmes
    12.7y ago

    This is a great and simple widget!

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.2.4

✓ Low memory footprint
✓ Low page-speed impact
✕ Runs on latest PHP + WP
✕ No PHP errors
✓ No JS errors
✓ Activates cleanly
✓ No resource errors
✓ No external HTTP errors
✓ Optimized database use
✕ Frequently updated

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2025-08-30 40+ → 30+ down after 20 days in tier
  2. 2025-08-10 30+ → 40+ up after 9 days in tier
  3. 2025-08-01 40+ → 30+ down after 401 days in tier
  4. 2024-06-26 50+ → 40+ down after 287 days in tier
  5. 2023-09-13 60+ → 50+ down after 309 days in tier
  6. 2022-11-08 70+ → 60+ down

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Compare head to head →

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Featured Posts Widget into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/featured-posts-widget" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Featured Posts Widget — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

Featured Posts Widget: 30+ active installs, 3.0★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/featured-posts-widget