10 Best Compact Archives Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Compact Archives has 2,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 10 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 10 closest alternatives to Compact Archives
- 1
Simple Yearly Archive
Closest match4.7 (30) 6,000+ active installsSimple Yearly Archive is a rather neat and simple Wordpress plugin that allows you to display your archives in a year-based list.
Shares the archive, archives tags on WordPress.org. About 3 times the installs, last updated 23 days ago.
- 2
4.1 (21) 3,000+ active installsThis plugin uses Javascript to dynamically expand or collapse the set of months for each year and posts for each month in the archive listing of your …
Shares the archives, widget tags on WordPress.org. About 1.5 times the installs, last updated February 12, 2026.
- 3
4.6 (25) 700+ active installsMap your archives to pages. Map 404 and term archives as well.
Shares the archives tag on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, last updated 12 days ago.
- 4
4.8 (45) 3,000+ active installsA JS widget (can be used in posts) for displaying an archive list with some effects.
Shares the archive tag on WordPress.org. About 1.5 times the installs, last updated April 3, 2026.
- 5
4.5 (151) 6,000+ active installsAuto Excerpt for your posts on home, search and archive pages. Customize Read More button and thumbnail image. Easy to configure and have a lot of opt …
Shares the archive tag on WordPress.org. About 3 times the installs, no update since April 16, 2024.
- 6
4.9 (36) 5,000+ active installsUse an "Archived" status to unpublish content without having to trash it.
Shares the archive tag on WordPress.org. About 2.5 times the installs, last updated February 17, 2026.
- 7
4.3 (29) 20,000+ active installsSearch Meter tracks what your readers are searching for on your site. View full details of recent searches or stats for the last day, week or month.
Shares the widget tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated December 3, 2025.
- 8
4.7 (27) 20,000+ active installsEasy, simple setup to add a PayPal Donation button as a Widget or with a shortcode.
Shares the widget tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 21 days ago.
- 9
4.4 (38) 10,000+ active installsGenerate QR Code through Widgets and Shortcodes, without any dependencies.
Shares the widget tag on WordPress.org. About 5 times the installs, last updated May 17, 2026.
- 10
4.8 (40) 20,000+ active installsExtend Gutenberg Reusable Blocks feature with a complete admin panel, widgets, shortcodes and PHP functions.
Shares the widget tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 10 days ago.
Switching from Compact Archives: common questions
What is the best alternative to Compact Archives?
Simple Yearly Archive is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 6,000+ active installs with a 4.7 out of 5 rating.
Which Compact Archives alternative has the most users?
Search Meter, with 20,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Compact Archives alternative is rated highest?
Easy Custom Auto Excerpt, rated 4.5 out of 5 by 151 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Compact Archives alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with Compact Archives score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against Compact Archives on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
Simple Yearly Archive is the closest match to Compact Archives by the data we track, and Search Meter has the widest reach with 20,000+ active installs. Reusable Blocks Extended shipped the most recent release, on August 28, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.