Recent & Featured Posts Widget
by graysea · Media
Display recent posts or manually selected posts with thumbnail images. Show the excerpt directly on the page or as a dropdown.
44 health vs 59 average across 2,206 Media plugins
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance 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 10+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.4.34, 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.
Under-optimized
Biggest win: Update recency
To rank higher: Last updated 3851 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 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges
88
now · peak 106
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
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
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.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow 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
10.6y ago
latest release · v1.1.0
1
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare 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.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “600+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.
Install history · since 2015-08-14 · 1,423 observations
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
Est. acquisition value
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.
Details
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ apcherry11.0y ago
This just worked straight out of the box, just add the widget to the sidebar. I haven’t changed many of the options as the default settings gave me what I wanted – it adds a nice bit of colour to the list of recent posts. I would have marked it 5 stars if there were options for defining the image to use. When first installed it seemed a bit random but then I realised that it appears to select the first photo uploaded associated with that post. It would be nice to be able to select to use the featured image or first in the post. That said though it’s a minor quibble for a great plugin.
Read on wp.org ↗
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2025-08-13 500+ → 600+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2025-08-09 600+ → 500+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2025-08-08 500+ → 600+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2025-08-04 600+ → 500+ down after 328 days in tier
- 2024-09-10 500+ → 600+ up after 44 days in tier
- 2024-07-28 400+ → 500+ up after 562 days in tier
- 2023-01-13 500+ → 400+ down after 44 days in tier
- 2022-11-30 400+ → 500+ up
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).
-
Replace Image 8K+ installs · 4.5★ · 3 shared tags C -
Inline Image Upload for BBPress 3K+ installs · 4.5★ · 3 shared tags A -
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery 100K+ installs · 4.9★ · 2 shared tags A -
Media Cleaner: Clean your WordPress! 90K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags A -
Featured Image from URL (FIFU) 70K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags A -
Media Library Assistant 70K+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Recent & Featured Posts Widget into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/recent-featured-posts-widget" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Recent & Featured Posts Widget — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Recent & Featured Posts Widget: 600+ active installs, 4.0★ (1 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/recent-featured-posts-widget