Make it so recent comments widget only appears if there are any comments to show.
As of April 2026, Smart Recent Comments is a WordPress recent comments plugin with 10 active installations and a 0/5 rating0. It has been downloaded 1.4K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 2.9+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2013. Last updated 12 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Top alternative: Recent Comments Widget Plus.
When you set up a new blog there aren’t any comments to start off with–it takes time until you get your first real person to participate in the discussion. When you use the default ‘recent comments’ widget in WordPress you are left with a ‘recent comments’ title in your sidebar and no comments listed under it. This plugin will replace that recent comments widget with a smarter one. The recent comments widget in your sidebar will not show until you start getting comments. Once you get your first comment, the widget will automatically appear so you can show off your latest comments. In all other ways this is exactly the same as the default WordPress recent comments widget. There is no configuration required with this plugin so once you install it you are…
| WordPress | 2.9+ requiredTested up to 3.6.1 |
| PHP | false+ required |
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