Image Widget vs WP Popular Posts (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Image Widget has a higher user rating (4.9/5 from 287 reviews) and leads in active installations (100K+ vs 100K+). Both are free WordPress plugins. Image Widget has accumulated 4.6M+ total downloads while WP Popular Posts has 8.6M+.
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Image Widget | WP Popular Posts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.9/5 | ◄ | 4.5/5 |
| Total Reviews | 287 | ◄ | 248 |
| Active Installs | 100K+ | 100K+ | |
| Total Downloads | 4.6M+ | ► | 8.6M+ |
| Support Resolution | N/A | 88% | |
| Last Updated | 1 year ago | ► | 1 month ago |
| First Released | 2008 | 2008 | |
| Age | 18 years | 18 years | |
| WP Requires | 3.5+ | 6.2+ | |
| PHP Requires | false+ | 7.4+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 4.4.11 | 7.3.8 |
Rating Breakdown
Image Widget
WP Popular Posts
Download Trends
Over the past 30 days, Image Widget averaged approximately 131 daily downloads while WP Popular Posts averaged 685.
Recent Reviews
Image Widget Reviews
Perfect image widget
This is perfect image widget. Thank you very much for such helpful solution.
Very nice, working great
I like this image widget plugin, certainly better than the default one, also works with some external lightbox plugins, so that’s a bonus. Also, it works without a problem on WordPress v5.4.2.
Very nice plugin
This is very nice plugin! Thank you for your work! Everything work fast without any problems.
WP Popular Posts Reviews
Complete Design Flaw
WordPress Popular Posts is fundamentally broken for cached sites. It defeats the entire purpose of Nginx/WP Rocket caching. There you spend all your energy optimizing to reduce every imaginable PHP FP
Great plugin – great support
I’ve only been using the plugin for a few days. At first I had a problem, thanks to the good and fast support I was able to solve the problem quickly, it was not due to the plugin, but to my theme. Si
No css customization option
Out of sheer frustration I would like to give only one star because the css style cannot be changed in the normal way. I have tried for hours. It is only possible with great effort, e.g. via changes i
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Comparison and analysis by PluginSift.