Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails vs WP Popular Posts (2026)
Detailed side-by-side comparison of two WordPress plugins, based on real-time data from WordPress.org.
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails
100K+ active installs
Free
Quick Verdict
As of April 2026, Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails has a higher user rating (4.8/5 from 212 reviews) and leads in active installations (100K+ vs 100K+). Both are free WordPress plugins. Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails has accumulated 3.6M+ total downloads while WP Popular Posts has 8.6M+. WP Popular Posts has a higher support resolution rate (88% vs 75%).
Detailed Comparison
| Metric | Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails | WP Popular Posts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.8/5 | ◄ | 4.5/5 |
| Total Reviews | 212 | ► | 248 |
| Active Installs | 100K+ | 100K+ | |
| Total Downloads | 3.6M+ | ► | 8.6M+ |
| Support Resolution | 75% | ► | 88% |
| Last Updated | 4 months ago | ► | 1 month ago |
| First Released | 2014 | 2008 | |
| Age | 12 years | 18 years | |
| WP Requires | 4.6+ | 6.2+ | |
| PHP Requires | 5.2+ | 7.4+ | |
| Business Model | Free | Free | |
| Latest Version | 7.1.1 | 7.3.8 |
Rating Breakdown
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails
WP Popular Posts
Download Trends
Over the past 30 days, Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails averaged approximately 136 daily downloads while WP Popular Posts averaged 685.
Recent Reviews
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails Reviews
Niiiiice, thanks
gotta have plugin, thanks
So many settings!
It’s great that your plugin has so many settings for widgets. Thanks for making it.
Simple but Invaluable Plugin
This plugin performs a simple task but one that I find to be invaluable.
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.