#399 by installs
Image Widget
A simple image widget that uses the native WordPress media manager to add image widgets to your site.
- Installs
- 100,000+
- Rating
- 4.9 (287)
- Updated
- 6 months ago
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails
List the most recent posts with post titles, thumbnails, excerpts, authors, categories, dates and more!
- Active installs
- 100,000+
- #353 of 1,000
- Downloads, all time
- 3.7M
- 3,705,835
- Downloads, 30 days
- 21.7K
- 4.8K in the last 7
- Rating
- 4.8 / 5
- 215 reviews
- Last updated
- 21 days ago
- Oct 10, 2026
- Version
- 7.2.0
- 8 releases
Upkeep and compatibility
| Last updated | October 10, 2026Updated in the last 3 months |
|---|---|
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.1.4Covers WordPress 7.1.4, the current release |
| Needs WordPress | 4.6 or newer |
| Needs PHP | 5.6 or newer |
| First published | June 12, 2014 |
| Support, last two months | 2 of 2 threads resolved (100%) |
Reviews
4.8 / 5 from 215 reviews
| 5 stars | 193 |
|---|---|
| 4 stars | 12 |
| 3 stars | 4 |
| 2 stars | 2 |
| 1 star | 4 |
Downloads, last 30 days
What the author says it does
List the most recent posts with post titles, thumbnails, excerpts, authors, categories, dates and more!
Although the plugin is built only for widget areas users reported that it works in Elementor and works in Oxygen. Whether it runs in other page builders is unknown. Please let me know in which page builder you were able to use the plugin successfully.
The plugin does not collect any personal data, so it is ready for EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
Lightweight, simple and effective
No huge widget with hundreds of options. This plugin is based on the well-known WordPress default widget ‘Recent Posts’ and extended to display more information about the posts like e.g. thumbnails, excerpts and assigned categories. And it provides more options to build custom-taylored posts lists.
The thumbnails will be built from the featured image of a post or of the first image in the post content. If there is neither a featured image nor a content image then you can define a default thumbnail.
You can set the width and height of the thumbnails in the list. The thumbnails appear left-aligned to the post titles in left-to-right languages. In right-to-left languages they appear right-aligned.
Custom Post Type
If you want to list custom post types with the featured image, please check out our plugin Ultimate Post List Pro.
Demo
The opening of the plugin's own description. The full text, installation notes and changelog are on its WordPress.org page.
Questions the author answers
What are the requirements for this plugin?
The WordPress version must be at least 4.6.
The PHP version must be at least 5.6.
The theme should support wp_head() in the HTML header section to print the CSS code for a beautiful alignment of the thumbnails.
Can I set a default thumbnail?
Yes. Type in the web address of the thumbnail and click on “Save”. That’s all.
Can I set the width and height of the thumbnail?
Yes. You can enter the desired width and height of the thumbnails or select one of the sizes as set in ‘Settings’ > ‘Media’.
Can I change the alignment of the thumbnails in the list?
To keep the plugin lightweight: no. Please set the alignment in the CSS of your theme instead.
Where can I set the CSS of the list?
To keep the plugin lightweight: no. Please set the CSS in the Customizer at “Additional CSS”.
Can the plugin take the first image of a post as thumbnail image?
Yes. It works with images previously uploaded into the media library. You can select to prefer the first image to the featured image or to use the first image only.
Latest changelog entry
- Added direct file access prevention
- Avoided ambiguous WordPress global naming
- Completed translation domains and literal strings
- Added context for translators
- Used WordPress-native utility functions
- Enforced strict array comparisons
- Improved accessibility for screen reader
- Removed deprecated wp_get_sites usage
- Raised minimum WordPress version to 4.6
- Raised minimum PHP version to 5.6
- Corrected the SQL placeholder usage for attachment lookups
- Hardened escaping for widget settings and frontend output
Screenshots
The first screenshot shows the widget in the sidebar with five teasers of current posts. Each list item shows the title, image, date,… 
The second screenshot shows the widget on the Widget Management Page in the backend.
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- 1+ million
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Where this page's numbers come from
Read from the WordPress.org plugin API on , when WordPress 7.1.4 was the current release. WordPress.org rounds active installs into buckets. These are the directory's figures, not my verdict, and I haven't tested this plugin. The author takes donations at their donate page.