10 Best Require Featured Image Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Require Featured Image has 3,000+ 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 Require Featured Image
- 1
Tabify Edit Screen
Closest match4.9 (22) 500+ active installsEnable tabs in the edit screen and manage them from the back-end.
Shares the admin, edit, post tags on WordPress.org. 500+ installs against 3,000+, no update since February 28, 2021.
- 2
4.6 (22) 5,000+ active installsAllows adding custom captions to the featured images of the posts.
Shares the featured image, images tags on WordPress.org. About 1.7 times the installs, last updated April 27, 2026.
- 3
4.2 (45) 2,000+ active installsWP Image Borders makes it easy to add decorative image borders to pictures in your blog posts.
Shares the images, post tags on WordPress.org. About half the installs, no update since November 28, 2017.
- 4
AI WP Writer – SEO content generator, chatGPT, Gemini
4.9 (22) 3,000+ active installsCreate high-quality SEO posts, articles, AI images, WooCommerce products. Autofill website. Rewrite and translate with AI. Gemini, chatGPT, Claude
Shares the images, post tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated July 30, 2026.
- 5
4.7 (20) 3,000+ active installsDo you like giving posts a Featured Image? Try out a Featured Gallery. It's like a Featured Images ... except as many images as you want.
Shares the admin, images tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since August 2, 2018.
- 6
4.9 (26) 3,000+ active installsAdd notes to the "edit post" and "edit page" sidebars. Collaborators can also share notes on the WordPress dashboard.
Shares the admin, post tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since August 20, 2020.
- 7
4.9 (20) 4,000+ active installsUsing this plugin one can easily collapse/expand pages with children and grand children.
Shares the admin, post tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since July 9, 2019.
- 8
5.0 (50) 20,000+ active installsReplace the default taxonomy boxes with a custom metabox that uses radio buttons... effectively limiting each post to a single term in that taxonomy.
Shares the admin, post tags on WordPress.org. About 6.7 times the installs, no update since January 28, 2025.
- 9
4.6 (59) 30,000+ active installsCustomize the management screen UI.
Shares the admin, post tags on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, no update since November 20, 2024.
- 10
4.3 (52) 300+ active installsCreate forms and manage submissions easily with a simple interface. Contact forms, subscription forms, or other forms for WordPress. Absolutely FREE!
Shares the admin, post tags on WordPress.org. 300+ installs against 3,000+, no update since November 13, 2019.
Switching from Require Featured Image: common questions
What is the best alternative to Require Featured Image?
Tabify Edit Screen is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 500+ active installs with a 4.9 out of 5 rating.
Which Require Featured Image alternative has the most users?
WP Admin UI Customize, with 30,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Require Featured Image alternative is rated highest?
Radio Buttons for Taxonomies, rated 5.0 out of 5 by 50 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Require Featured Image 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 Require Featured Image 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 Require Featured Image 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
Tabify Edit Screen is the closest match to Require Featured Image by the data we track, and WP Admin UI Customize has the widest reach with 30,000+ active installs. AI WP Writer shipped the most recent release, on July 30, 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.