10 Best Media Library Categories Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Media Library Categories has 20,000+ 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 Media Library Categories
- 1
Media Cleaner
Closest matchMedia Cleaner: Clean your WordPress!
4.6 (769) 90,000+ active installsClean your WordPress! Eliminate unused and broken media files. For a faster, and better website.
Shares the library, media tags on WordPress.org. About 4.5 times the installs, rated 4.6 against 4.2, last updated 21 days ago.
- 2
5.0 (25) 8,000+ active installsA small plugin to re-enable infinite scrolling in the Media Library after WordPress 5.8 is released.
Shares the library, media tags on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, last updated February 6, 2026.
- 3
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 2 times the installs, rated 4.6 against 4.2, last updated 4 days ago.
- 4
Category 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 tags on WordPress.org. About 2 times the installs, rated 4.5 against 4.2, last updated 17 days ago.
- 5
4.8 (201) 70,000+ active installsEnhances the Media Library; powerful gallery and list shortcodes, full taxonomy support, IPTC/EXIF/XMP/PDF processing, bulk/quick edit.
Shares the categories, media tags on WordPress.org. About 3.5 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.2, last updated 20 days ago.
- 6
4.7 (97) 10,000+ active installsThe purpose of this plugin is to add the ability to output a list of link categories and a complete list of links with notes and descriptions.
Shares the library tag on WordPress.org. About half the installs, rated 4.7 against 4.2, last updated today.
- 7
4.8 (112) 8,000+ active installsThis plugin generates thumbnails for documents and displays them in a gallery-like format for easy sharing.
Shares the library tag on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.2, last updated June 30, 2026.
- 8
4.7 (25) 4,000+ active installsCreate a library of custom shortcodes and reusable content, and seamlessly insert them into your posts and pages.
Shares the library tag on WordPress.org. About a quarter of the installs, last updated 24 days ago.
- 9
4.7 (254) 80,000+ active installsVery customizable plugin to list posts by category (or tag, author and more) in a post, page or widget. Uses the [catlist] shortcode to select posts.
Shares the categories tag on WordPress.org. About 4 times the installs, rated 4.7 against 4.2, last updated July 7, 2026.
- 10
4.8 (23) 20,000+ active installsAdds the built in WordPress categories and tags to your pages.
Shares the categories tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated January 7, 2026.
Switching from Media Library Categories: common questions
What is the best alternative to Media Library Categories?
Media Cleaner is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 90,000+ active installs with a 4.6 out of 5 rating.
Which Media Library Categories alternative has the most users?
Media Cleaner, with 90,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Media Library Categories alternative is rated highest?
Media Library Assistant, rated 4.8 out of 5 by 201 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Media Library Categories 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 Media Library Categories 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 Media Library Categories 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
Media Cleaner is the closest match to Media Library Categories by the data we track, and Media Cleaner has the widest reach with 90,000+ active installs. Link Library shipped the most recent release, on September 6, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
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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.