10 Best Recent Posts by Category Widget Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Recent Posts by Category Widget has 4,000+ 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 Recent Posts by Category Widget
- 1
Category Posts
Closest matchCategory Posts Block
4.5 (79) 40,000+ active installsAdds a block that shows the most recent posts from a single category.
Shares the categories, category, recent posts tags on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 17 days ago.
- 2
4.8 (212) 100,000+ active installsList the most recent posts with post titles, thumbnails, excerpts, authors, categories, dates and more!
Shares the recent posts, sidebar, widget tags on WordPress.org. About 25 times the installs, last updated 20 days ago.
- 3
4.5 (55) 10,000+ active installsThe ultimate widget for displaying posts, custom post types or sticky posts with an array of options.
Shares the recent posts, widget tags on WordPress.org. About 2.5 times the installs, no update since July 17, 2024.
- 4
Custom Layouts – Post + Product grids made easy
5.0 (25) 3,000+ active installsBuild a list or grid layout of any post type (posts, products, pages + more).
Shares the recent posts tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated December 29, 2025.
- 5
4.1 (57) 4,000+ active installsAdds a widget which uses Javascript to dynamically expand or collapse the set of posts for each category.
Shares the categories, sidebar, widget tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated February 12, 2026.
- 6
4.7 (21) 9,000+ active installsThe List Custom Taxonomy Widget is a quick and easy way to display custom taxonomies. Simply choose the taxonomy name you want to display from an auto …
Shares the category, sidebar, widget tags on WordPress.org. About 2.3 times the installs, last updated July 19, 2026.
- 7
4.8 (34) 1,000+ active installsA plugin to add widget for listing Categories and Taxonomies. Extending Default WordPress Category Widget.
Shares the category, sidebar, widget tags on WordPress.org. About a quarter of the installs, last updated September 12, 2025.
- 8
Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms
4.6 (194) 40,000+ active installsTags, Categories and WordPress terms are easy with TaxoPress. Add a Tag or Category to Pages, manage your WooCommerce Categories and Tags and more.
Shares the categories, category tags on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 4 days ago.
- 9
4.2 (52) 20,000+ active installsAdds the ability to use categories in the media library.
Shares the categories, category tags on WordPress.org. About 5 times the installs, last updated 16 days ago.
- 10
4.6 (57) 7,000+ active installsAn advanced posts display widget with many options. Display posts in your sidebars any way you'd like!
Shares the categories, widget tags on WordPress.org. About 1.8 times the installs, no update since November 28, 2017.
Switching from Recent Posts by Category Widget: common questions
What is the best alternative to Recent Posts by Category Widget?
Category Posts is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 40,000+ active installs with a 4.5 out of 5 rating.
Which Recent Posts by Category Widget alternative has the most users?
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails, with 100,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Recent Posts by Category Widget alternative is rated highest?
Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails, rated 4.8 out of 5 by 212 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Recent Posts by Category Widget 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 Recent Posts by Category Widget 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 Recent Posts by Category Widget 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
Category Posts is the closest match to Recent Posts by Category Widget by the data we track, and Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails has the widest reach with 100,000+ active installs. Autotagger Automatically Add Terms shipped the most recent release, on September 3, 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.