10 Best WP Popular Posts Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
WP Popular Posts has 100,000+ 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 WP Popular Posts
- 1
Pods
Closest matchPods – Custom Content Types and Fields
4.8 (418) 100,000+ active installsPods is a framework for creating, managing, and deploying customized content types and fields for any project.
A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 7 days ago.
- 2
Relevanssi – A Better Search
4.8 (405) 100,000+ active installsRelevanssi replaces the default search with a partial-match search that sorts results by relevance. It also indexes comments and shortcode content.
A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 21 days ago.
- 3
Disable Comments – Remove Comments & Stop Spam [Multi-Site Support]
4.7 (280) 1 million+ active installsDisable comments site-wide or by post type, delete existing comments in bulk, and block comment spam via REST API and XML-RPC. Multisite ready.
About 10 times the installs, rated 4.7 against 4.5, last updated 6 days ago.
- 4
Spam protection, Honeypot, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk
4.8 (3,211) 200,000+ active installsTop-rated antispam for contact forms, comments, WooCommerce, eCommerce, and login. No CAPTCHAs, no friction, just background anti spam protection.
About 2 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 5 days ago.
- 5
Forminator Forms
Paid version availableForminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder
4.8 (2,121) 600,000+ active installsBest WordPress form builder plugin. Create contact forms, payment forms & order forms with 1000+ integrations.
About 6 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 11 days ago.
- 6
4.7 (255) 200,000+ active installsAdd Cloudflare Turnstile to WordPress, WooCommerce, Contact Forms & more. The user-friendly, privacy-preserving reCAPTCHA alternative. 100% free!
About 2 times the installs, rated 4.7 against 4.5, last updated July 27, 2026.
- 7
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings
4.8 (7,498) 4 million+ active installsGrow your organic traffic and AI visibility with powerful SEO tools, XML sitemaps, Schema automation, and built-in AI SEO, all in one place.
About 40 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 7 days ago.
- 8
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance
4.8 (2,608) 1 million+ active installsGet caching and more with this powerful cache plugin. Cache, optimize images, clean your database and minify for maximum performance.
About 10 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.5, last updated 25 days ago.
- 9
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall
4.7 (1,715) 1 million+ active installsProtect your website investment with All-In-One Security (AIOS) – a comprehensive and easy to use security plugin designed especially for WordPress.
About 10 times the installs, rated 4.7 against 4.5, last updated 25 days ago.
- 10
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin
4.9 (4,350) 1 million+ active installsFormerly "Instagram Feed". Display clean, customizable, and responsive Instagram feeds from multiple accounts. Supports Instagram oEmbeds.
About 10 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 4.5, last updated 7 days ago.
Switching from WP Popular Posts: common questions
What is the best alternative to WP Popular Posts?
Pods is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 100,000+ active installs with a 4.8 out of 5 rating.
Which WP Popular Posts alternative has the most users?
Rank Math SEO, with 4 million+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which WP Popular Posts alternative is rated highest?
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed, rated 4.9 out of 5 by 4,350 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these WP Popular Posts 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 WP Popular Posts 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 WP Popular Posts 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
Pods is the closest match to WP Popular Posts by the data we track, and Rank Math SEO has the widest reach with 4 million+ active installs. CleanTalk shipped the most recent release, on September 2, 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.