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The Best Popular Post Plugins for WordPress in 2024

By James LePage
 on March 9, 2022

The Best Popular Post Plugins for WordPress in 2024

By James LePage
 on March 9, 2022

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS, or content management systems, used to build websites of all types today. If you want to promote the most popular posts of yours but are unsure of how to go about doing so, check out our list of the best popular post plugins for WordPress below.

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We've scoured the web to find today's most popular WordPress plugins that are not only designed to promote popular posts, but offer seamless integration and updated SEO techniques. With this list, find a popular post plugin that is right for your WordPress blog or eCommerce store. 

Best of Roundup

Best Free Option

Our favorite free option for managing popular posts has to be WordPress Popular Posts.

Best Overall Option

Our best overall pick is Relevant for those interested in simplifying the management of their website's most popular posts.

Best Value Option

For those interested in optimizing analytics, MonsterInsights provides the most value.

Here is the complete list of the top popular posts plugin solutions for WordPress today.

WordPress Popular Posts

One of the most popular plugins for WordPress posts is, well, WordPress Popular Posts. This plugin is simple and straight to the point, but offers a variety of features to help it stand out amongst the competition.  Currently, WordPress Popular Posts has more than 300,000 active installs in total, making it one of the most downloaded WordPress plugins for posts.

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Features

There are quite a few features that come with WordPress Popular Posts, such as:

  • Multiple widgets: This plugin can be used multiple times within the same or different sidebar.
  • Time range: Set specific time ranges of posts that you would like to feature and specific dates on which to share those posts.
  • Sorting options: Order your posts based on popularity, views, or even by the number of individual posts you share receive.
  • Custom CSS: It is also possible to use your very own CSS, or Cascading Style Sheet to fully customize how your posts appear.
  • Show post information: Choose to show post excerpts, thumbnails, comment counts, view count, and even the author's name to fit your website's current layout and theme.
  • Caching features: Includes a built in caching system and features to help ensure your site's performance remains optimal at all times.

Ease of Use

Using WordPress Popular Posts is simple and can be done by searching for the plugin via the backend of your WordPress install or by downloading the zip file and uploading it yourself.

Company Behind the Product & Support

WordPress Popular Posts was developed and released by Hector Cabrera.

Pricing

This plugin is available completely free of charge, which is why it is one of the most popular post plugins available to download and install today.

Competitors

While there are many competitors when it comes to post plugins for WordPress, Stylish Popular Posts is one that appears the most similar to WordPress Popular Posts.

For an inclusive all-in-one popular post solution for a new or high-traffic site, give WordPress Popular Posts a chance. 

Jetpack

Jetpack is another one of the best popular posts plugins that does much more than simply feature top-performing posts. Jetpack provides increased WordPress security, design tools, optimization solutions, and even marketing tools to help create the blog, website, or online storefront of your wildest dreams. With over 5 million installs, it's no wonder so many choose to use Jetpack as their all-in-one WordPress management suite.

Jetpack Related Posts

Features

Jetpack does not limit you to featuring specific posts. Instead, it offers a range of features, including:

  • Custom post type support: Custom post types provide total flexibility over the type of content you are creating in a flash.
  • Custom CSS: Use custom CSS with any posts, media, or widgets you implement
  • Popular posts: Feature posts that are trending or most relevant to your website a the moment.
  • Contact form: Use a contact form on your website for visitors to keep in touch
  • Carousel: Display photos and posts using a carousel plugin that is included with Jetpack.
  • Ads: Display integrated ads and ad blocks throughout various post blocks and sections of your site.
  • Extra widgets: Install additional widgets into your sidebar including Facebook Like extensions, timeline feeds for Twitter, and even RSS links.

Ease of Use

Jetpack is one of the most user friendly WordPress plugins for popular posts and more. Because Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress suite, it provides numerous tools that can help even the newest WordPress user and developer to quickly become acquainted with the system.

Company Behind the Product & Support

Jetpack is owned by Automattic, developed by those who are also responsible for WordPress and WooCommerce themselves. In addition to Jetpack and WordPress, Automattic is also responsible for developing Tumblr, Gravatar, Akismet, Longreads, Simplenote, and many more.

Pricing

Jetpack is completely free to download for both personal and professional use. This feature-rich plugin is one of the most downloaded popular posts plugins for WordPress and includes so much more.

Competitors

If you are interested in learning more about the competitors of plugins such as Jetpack, one of the most similar plugins includes UpdraftPlus.

MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is a bit of a different posts plugin for WordPress, as it is tied to the use of Google Analytics. MonsterInsights provides some of the best and most in-depth analytics with the use of Google Analytics, resulting in more than 2 million active installations across the web. If you are interested in keeping an eye on your website's data and visitors in real-time, give MonsterInsights a go.

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Features

MonsterInsights works exclusively alongside Google Analytics but provides the ability to view and display posts based on popularity using a built-in Popular Posts feature. From displaying popular posts to displaying your eCommerce store's top-performing products, you can do it all with MonsterInsights.

And, MonsterInsights doesn't stop there. There are numerous features available with this plugin, which is why it is one of the best WordPress popular posts plugins to date.

Some of the most notable features of MonsterInsights include:

  • Universal Tracking: If you're interested in tracking your blog post updates throughout your entire website along with various campaigns, MonsterInsights can help.
  • Additional tracking features: Affiliate link tracking, outbound link tracking, forms tracking, Google AMP tracking, scroll tracking, enhanced link tracking, file download tracking, logged-in user tracking, userID tracking, author tracking, category tracking, tag tracking, keyword tracking, and more are all available via MonsterInsights.
  • Custom reports: Generate custom email summaries, page insights, and reports in real-time to better understand your audience and the demographics your latest posts are reaching. Discover which posts are receiving the most page views and which posts are in need of a display post thumbnail or additional promotion.
  • Integrations: Not only does MonsterInsights offer a plethora of valuable tools and features, but it also includes the ability to integrate the plugin with various solutions on the web. Integrations include WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms, WPForms, all WordPress Forms Plugins, and more.

Ease of Use

MonsterInsights is one of the most user-friendly WordPress dashboard plugins available on this list. This plugin was originally designed to eliminate the need for coding and managing Google Analytics data for those who are interested in simplified solutions.

If you want to know how many page views your website is getting or how many posts are performing above average, you can do so with Google Analytics and MonsterInsights.

There is a no-code installation process included with MonsterInsights, making it easier than ever to implement into your WordPress websites without a hassle. A guided setup is also included to help better understand how to work MonsterInsights on your WordPress sites.

Company Behind the Product & Support

MonsterInsights was founded and developed by Syed Balhki (CEO of MonsterInsights) as well as Chris Christoff, the lead developer. The company is also run by Thomas Griffin, an adviser at MonsterInsights with a deep knowledge of bringing products to the mass market.

Pricing

With more than 3,000,000 installs, MonsterInsights is one of the most popular posts plugins for WordPress today. Currently, there are three pricing plans available with MonsterInsights:

Plus: $99.50/year includes use on 1 site, standard analytics, standard reports, standard tracking, standard integration

Pro: 199.50/year includes use on 5 sites, advanced analytics, enhanced tracking, advanced reporting, advanced integration

Agency: 399.50/year includes everything in pro as well as use on 25 sites, WordPress Multisite support, advanced access control, as well as client license management.

Competitors

Using Google Analytics on its own is one of the top competitors of MonsterInsights due to the use of Google Analytics throughout the plugin itself. Aside from Google Analytics, however, the top competitors of MonsterInsights on the market today include Semrush, Heap, and Mixpanel.

Relevant

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If you're looking for a way to display posts based on popularity or even the latest posts you have created, you can do so with the Relevant WordPress popular posts plugin. This popular posts plugin is simple and does not include a variety of bells and whistles, but it does help to get the job done. If you want to show off featured posts that you wish to highlight but do not want an entire suite of additional features, check out Relevant.

Features

Relevant, while simple, is not lacking. It includes just about everything you need to get started with organizing your posts. Some of the most notable features of Relevant include:

  • Multiple widgets in one: Managing your posts based on various factors has never been easier than with Relevant.
  • Manage posts: Organize your posts based on whether you wish to feature them, view your latest posts, or even showcase related posts. Use of the related posts functionality is a great way to encourage readers to stay on your site.
  • Display posts: Display posts based on author, excerpts, thumbnails, and even by overall views and the number of comments a post recieves.
  • Built-in settings page: Manage the settings of this plugin from a built-in setting page that will appear when managing the popular posts plugins, trending posts on your site, or even the top posts altogether.

Ease of Use

Using this WordPress plugin is simple and only requires a few minutes to get started. Once the installation of Relevant is complete, you can immediately begin managing your featured and most popular posts by selecting the new built-in "Settings" section within your WordPress admin's sidebar.

Company Behind the Product & Support

Relevant was developed by bestwebsoft, a leading WordPress development company. Bestwebsoft is responsible for more than 30+ completely free-of-charge WordPress plugins and extensions available today.

Pricing

Relevant is completely free of charge and can be downloaded from the official WordPress plugin directory.

Competitors

While most popular posts plugins are direct competitors with Relevant, WordPress Popular Posts seems to offer similar features without bogging down the plugin with additional and unnecessary features.

WP-PostRatings

If you are looking for one of the most popular posts plugins that also include a post rating system, look no further than WP-PostRatings. WP-PostRatings not only allows you to feature the most popular and highest-rated articles on your WordPress site, but it also allows visitors on your website to rate articles themselves.

Features

The most prominent features of WP-PostRatings include:

  • Display highest-rated posts: Display your website's highest-rated posts in various sections, widgets, and sidebars on your website.
  • Visitor voting: Allow users to rate articles and to vote for their favorites. This can help to increase overall site engagement while simultaneously providing you with lists of popular posts and updates that are truly organic. You can display popular posts by user votes only, which is optimal for anyone creating an online community with their WordPress website.

Ease of Use

Company Behind the Product & Support

WP-PostRatings was developed and released by Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan, a solo developer who has provided many contributions to the WordPress community, free of charge.

Pricing

WP-PostRatings is another completely free posts plugins for WordPress that does not include pricing tiers or additional paid version features.

Competitors

A prominent WordPress popular posts plugin that competes with WP-PostRatings is Display Posts.

DisplayPosts

DisplayPosts, as the name of the plugin suggests, includes features to manage how you display and promote your posts.

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Features

DisplayPosts is simple, yet highly effective. It's features include:

  • Display your most recent posts with the use of a shortcode
  • Display posts as a grid
  • List popular posts by the number of comments as well as by the number of social shares a post receives

Ease of Use

DisplayPosts is extremely easy to use, even for newcomers of WordPress. Uploading the free .zip file from the plugin section of your WordPress dashboard is as extensive as it gets. If you prefer a code-free method of installing plugins, you can also locate DisplayPosts in the WordPress plugin directory.

Company Behind the Product & Support

DisplayPosts was developed by Bill Erickson, a WordPress developer responsible for co-founding CultivateWP, one of today's largest WordPress agencies. In addition to co-founding CultivateWP, Erickson is also responsible as a lead contributor of the Genesis theme framework for WordPress.

Pricing

DisplayPosts is free to use by everyone, both from personal and commercial sites.

Competitors

DisplayPosts is similar to WordPress Popular Posts as well as WP-Rankings, but simplifies the already-existing ranking process that WordPress has to offer.

WP Tab Widget

WP Tab Widget is one of the quickest ways to display popular posts on your WordPress website.

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Features

With the WP Tab Widget, take advantage of the following features:

  • User-friendly: Extremely fast and user-friendly installation process makes using this popular posts widget and plugin a breeze. Simply select which ranking metrics matter most to you and where you would like to display your popular posts to get started right away.
  • Show articles based on views, tags, comments, and even your most recent posts using a singular widget.
  • Performance: This is one of the best plugins to use if you are in search of a display posts plugin that is extremely fast and optimized.
  • Show different post types: Show different types of posts in one location.

Ease of Use

Installing WP Tab Widget is a breeze and only requires a few seconds from start to finish when using the WordPress plugin directory.

Company Behind the Product & Support

WP Tab Widget was developed by MyThemeShop, a leading theme shop available for those interested in custom and premium WordPress themes.

Pricing

WP Tab Widget is free of charge and does not require a premium membership to use all of the features included.

Competitors

WP Tab Widget has a few competitors that provide accordion and tab post features, such as Responsive Tabs, Tabby Responsive Tabs, and Ultimate Blocks.

If you are building a WordPress website for the first time or if you are searching for a way to increase page views on your most popular posts, the right popular post widget can deliver just that. With the right WordPress plugin for your popular posts and analytics, keep better track of your website's popularity and the content that is drawing in the most traffic at all times.

Conclusion

Popular post plugins in WordPress are important because they allow you to keep track of what content is drawing in the most traffic on your website. This information can be helpful in determining which topics or posts are most popular with your audience and can help you create more content around those topics. Additionally, popular post plugins can help increase pageviews on your website by displaying your most popular posts in an easily-accessible location.

In this article, we have discussed popular posts plugins and widgets and their features. We have also taken a look at the company behind the product, pricing, ease of use, and competitors.

We hope that you now have a better understanding of what to look for when choosing a popular posts plugin or widget for your WordPress website.

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Article By
James LePage
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James LePage is the founder of Isotropic, a WordPress education company and digital agency. He is also the founder of CodeWP.ai, a venture backed startup bringing AI to WordPress creators.
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