Preloader vs Preload Featured Images (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Preload Featured Images has a higher user rating (5/5 from 3 reviews) while Preloader leads in active installations (10K+ vs 2.0K+). Both are free WordPress plugins. Preloader has accumulated 285K+ total downloads while Preload Featured Images has 18K+.
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Preloader | Preload Featured Images | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.1/5 | ► | 5/5 |
| Total Reviews | 41 | ◄ | 3 |
| Active Installs | 10K+ | ◄ | 2.0K+ |
| Total Downloads | 285K+ | ◄ | 18K+ |
| Support Resolution | N/A | N/A | |
| Last Updated | 4 months ago | ◄ | 1 year ago |
| First Released | 2015 | 2021 | |
| Age | 11 years | 5 years | |
| WP Requires | 5.8+ | 5.0+ | |
| PHP Requires | 7.4+ | 7.4+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 2.0.2 | 1.0.0 |
Rating Breakdown
Preloader
Preload Featured Images
Download Trends
Over the past 30 days, Preloader averaged approximately 62 daily downloads while Preload Featured Images averaged 6.
Recent Reviews
Preloader Reviews
So many affiliate spam
such simple thing as preloader, didn’t expect so many affiliate links This topic was modified 10 months, 1 week ago by Mohaymenul Islam.
Got stuck on preloading screen
Preloader got stuck and never disappeared to display the website. Also you are limited to 128x128px
Terrible, Don’t Waste Your Time.
Couldn’t get it to work on a very basic WP install. Better preloader plugins to choose from. Sadly it seems a quickly built plugin just designed to generate some ad revenue and waste people’s time. Ve
Preload Featured Images Reviews
works perfectly on post blog
works with no problem on post blog. thank you dev team. hope to see this gona works with pages This topic was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Sepi.
Great, wish it worked for pages too
This is fantastic and works perfectly! It would be nice if it preloaded the featured image on pages too.
Hidden Gem!
Thanks for making this one!
More Preload Worth Comparing
Top alternatives in the same category as Preloader and Preload Featured Images
Easily add a pure CSS animated preloader to your WordPress website.
Make website faster, speed up page load time and improve performance scores in tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom, and more.
Take advantage of browser resource hints and plug-and-play features to improve page load time.
A Plugin to add awesome collection of Loaders and Spinners. Delightful and performance-focused Pure CSS animations.
Allows you to specify on individual pages or posts the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Image on that page to preload, making the page load quicker.
Page Loader is a free Wordpress plugin to show a loader animation while page is being loaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Comparison and analysis by PluginSift.