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.
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.
Health
D 44/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
90+
≈100 estimated
Momentum
+13%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: “featured”, “featured posts” and “image” 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.
44 health vs 62 average across 3,286 Media plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →1.3%
of downloads still active
At least 90 of 6.7K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Media plugin keeps 0.8%, across 2,320 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
63/100Maintenance 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.
Details
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
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 3915 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 4.4.34; the current branch is 6.8
4.0★ over 1 review, smoothed to 4.10★ and held back under 25 reviews
5 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 3915 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
Not enough tracked days yet to call a direction. Momentum needs at least three keywords measured a week or more apart.
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| featured your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| featured posts your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| image your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| images your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| media your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
0 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days. 5 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- “featured”, “featured posts” and “image” 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.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 106 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #16,800 to #17,400, alongside the other plugins at 90+ 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 1 Nov 2026.
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
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.
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
10.7y ago
latest release · v1.1.0 · 12 Feb 2016
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 “90+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 21 days ago and the previous band took 14 months to cross, so the real count is still just under 100.
Install history since 14 Aug 2015
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ apcherry11.2y 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 ↗
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
5 of 8 pass · checked 27 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "Display recent posts or manually selected posts with thumbnail images. Show the excerpt directly on the pag..."
- ✓ Has a FAQ 6 questions in the FAQ.
- ✓ FAQ asks real questions 5 of 6 read like questions a user would type.
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 1 list; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ✓ Enough to quote 1,162 characters of description.
- ✓ Tags match the text 4 of 5 tags appear in the text; "media" does not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-10-11 600+ → 90+ down after 424 days in tier
- 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
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 B -
Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library 90K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags A -
Media Library Assistant 70K+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A -
Simple Image Sizes 60K+ installs · 4.5★ · 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: 90+ active installs, 4.0★ (1 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/recent-featured-posts-widget
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