A widget to show recent posts list based on categories or tags
As of April 2026, Custom Recent Posts Widget is a WordPress tag plugin with 1.0K+ active installations and a 4.9/5 rating from 9 reviews. It has been downloaded 51K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.1+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2012. Last updated 8 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are up 6% this week. Top alternative: Pages with category and tag.
This plugin creates a new widget which lets you show a list of recent posts based on categories or tags. This is a must have plugin if you want to exclude some categories in recent posts widget or if you want to show recent posts based on tags. By default the wordpress recent posts widget shows a posts from all category. But this plugin gives you more power to customize your recent posts widget. You can also display post date in the widget.
See the live action of this plugin on demo site or on Kennneth John Odle’s blog.
Have any questions or suggestions? Create a thread in the support forum.
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very simple to use and can be re-used in multiple areas on the site. Love it!
So simple and functional. Thank you!
Easy to use and does everything I need it to without fuss!
Simple and useful
Very easy to setup, great HTML structure and class definitions for easy styling.
| WordPress | 3.1+ requiredTested up to 3.5.2 |
| PHP | false+ required |
widget_recent_entries. No more confusions. All themes should be happy now. Thanks Adam Parnala for bringing my attention to this issue.Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.