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Posts Slideshow Widget

by apgossips · Media

Try it live ↗ wp.org ↗

This plugin enables you to have a side bar widget with slider (slideshow) of featured images from posts from a selected category.

Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews

Health

D 45/100

Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews

Active installs

70+

≈76 estimated

Momentum

-39%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: “featured”, “posts” and “slide” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

See the detail → Get the free audit
How scoring works →
45 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 74/100
Support 70/100

45 health vs 62 average across 3,284 Media plugins

70+

Active installs

≈76 estimated

11.6K

Total downloads

since 2013 · 0.6% still active

4.0/5

Rating

4.2 on wp.org · 5 reviews

-39%

63

Downloads · 30d

category median +9%

Install conversion

How it's measured →

0.6%

of downloads still active

At least 70 of 11.6K lifetime downloads are still running, in line with its category: the median Media plugin keeps 0.8%, across 2,319 plugins.

Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Media plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.

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 13+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.5.2, well behind 6.8.

Ratings · 5 reviews

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

Details

Version
1.0
Last updated
13.5y ago
Added
2013-04-26 · 13 yrs old
Requires WP
3.0
Tested up to
3.5.2
Requires PHP
—
Changelog ↗Support forum ↗Reviews ↗Advanced stats ↗

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.

37 / 100

Under-optimized

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 0/100

Updated 4937 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 2/100

Tested up to WordPress 3.5.2; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 56/100

4.2★ over 5 reviews, smoothed to 4.11★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 4937 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 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

-39% vs prior 30d
031 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 158 · peaks are release surges

6131 Oct 2026

Directory rank

Ranked about #18,200 to #19,000, alongside the other plugins at 70+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 21 Oct 2026.

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.231 Oct 2026

Update activity

Downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites.

Not enough installs to measure. This needs at least 100 active sites; below that, a handful of downloads reads as tens of thousands.

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 “70+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
70–80 ≈76

Crossed into this band 5 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 56% of the way through.

Install history since 8 Oct 2015

7031 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ bart19
    10.7y ago

    I inherited a site that uses this plugin, and the forward and back buttons on the slideshow have a layout issue and so I consider this plugin broken at this point. It doesn’t cause any bugs and the general functionality is still good. It’s a shame.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ NoJetLagForFood
    11.7y ago

    Is this plugin dead? If so does anyone know another plugin with the exact same functions?

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ sytaco
    13.0y ago

    good

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ dev4
    13.3y ago

    By using this plugin. i have converted it into displaying posts content in the sidebar of my site. Thanks to your efforts.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. ★★★★★ apgossips
    13.5y ago

    This is one of the best plugin for displaying slideshow of a beautiful sidebar widget of featured posts from photo gallery posts or content posts.

    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

AI assistants

How it's measured →

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Readme readiness

2 of 8 pass · checked 26 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "This plugin enables you to have a side bar widget with slider (slideshow) of featured images from posts fro..."
  • ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
  • ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
  • ! Names who it is for One audience phrase ("if you have"); say who the plugin is for and what they use it for.
  • ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
  • ! Headings and lists 1 heading and 1 list; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
  • ! Enough to quote 812 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
  • ✓ Tags match the text All 5 tags appear in the text.

Growth timeline

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

  1. 2026-05-25 80+ → 70+ down after 334 days in tier
  2. 2025-06-25 90+ → 80+ down after 21 days in tier
  3. 2025-06-04 80+ → 90+ up after 64 days in tier
  4. 2025-04-01 90+ → 80+ down after 9 days in tier
  5. 2025-03-23 80+ → 90+ up after 13 days in tier
  6. 2025-03-10 90+ → 80+ down after 1 days in tier
  7. 2025-03-09 80+ → 90+ up after 6 days in tier
  8. 2025-03-03 90+ → 80+ down after 2 days in tier

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).

Embed this report card

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

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

Posts Slideshow Widget: 70+ active installs, 4.2★ (5 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/posts-slideshow-widget

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