Easy Popular Posts
This easy to use WordPress plugin is designed to add a new feature for theme developers. Used on many of my own websites as well as those of my clients, the plugin allows me to quickly add a collection of popular posts…
Consider an alternative
Easy Popular Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 3.3/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 14/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Low rating so far — 3.3/5 from only 4 reviews
- No update in 10 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.5 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Easy Popular Posts stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| easy | >100 |
| php | >100 |
| popular | >100 |
| posts | >100 |
| theme | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 3.3 from 4 reviews
About Easy Popular Posts
From the official readme · v15.01.12Description
This easy to use WordPress plugin is designed to add a new feature for theme developers. Used on many of my own websites as well as those of my clients, the plugin allows me to quickly add a collection of popular posts to any theme element.
The plugin can easily be used by website owners as a WordPress Widget, adding lists of posts to the Sidebar of a WordPress website.
About the plugin
More advanced users can also call the functionality of the plugin from a WordPress shortcode by adding the code [thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts] to any Post or Page within WordPress.
Finally, theme authors may also take advantage of the plugin by calling the functionality directly from theme files with the code thisismyurl_easy_popular_posts();.
This plugin was originally authored by Christopher Ross.
Questions about this plugin can be posted to the WordPress.org forums at https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-popular-posts/, or to the Issues tab at the GitHub https://github.com/thisismyurl/easy-popular-posts repository for the plugin.
This plugin is currently available in:
- English
- French
- German
Updates
Updates to this plugin will be posted to the GitHub repository for testing prior to updates on WordPress.org, if you’d like to help make this plugin better please consider taking part in regular code reviews of releases at the GitHub repository.
Donations
Open source software such as this free WordPress plugin only work through the hard work of community members, volunteering their time or resources to make the software freely available. If you would like to show your support for this software, please consider donating towards the development effort.
If you can’t contribute to the plugin in any other way, please consider translating it to your local language.
Installation
To install the plugin, please upload the plugin folder to your plugins folder and active the plugin.
Changelog
15.01.12
- Fixed an error displaying the plugin as a PHP call
- Cleaned up inline documentation
15.01
- Rewrote plugin core
- Added better error checking
- Moved to 15.01 plugin structure
- Made plugin OOP
- added support for RAND, ASC, DESC sorting
- Tested for WordPress 4.1
2.1.4
- Fixed popular setting
2.1.2
- Added thumbnail option
- Added excerpt option
- Added optional credit link
2.0
- Tested up to WordPress 3.2
- Added controls to Widget
- Renamed functions for compatibility
- Reduced font size on credit link
1.7
- Added shortcode
- Replaced widget code with WP_Widget class
- Added comments option to filter
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Easy Popular Posts alternatives
All easy plugins →
FAQ
Easy Popular Posts: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 14, 2026
Is Easy Popular Posts free?
Yes. Easy Popular Posts is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Easy Popular Posts safe to use in 2026?
Easy Popular Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 3.3/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 14/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Easy Popular Posts?
Easy Popular Posts is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 234,412 times since it launched in May 2009. It was downloaded 79 times in the last 30 days.
Does Easy Popular Posts work with WordPress 7.1?
Easy Popular Posts is officially tested up to WordPress 4.5.0, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Easy Popular Posts last updated?
The latest version, 15.01.12, was released on April 6, 2016 (11 years ago).
Who makes Easy Popular Posts?
Easy Popular Posts is developed and maintained by Nick Adams.
What are the best alternatives to Easy Popular Posts?
The most popular alternatives to Easy Popular Posts are Easy Image Gallery (4K+ installs), Advanced CSS Editor (4K+ installs) and Call To Action Customizable… (1K+ installs).
Powered by PageForge
Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.
This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.
- CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
- AI content, schema & internal links per page
- Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
- Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
