Most Popular Posts Widget
Most Popular Posts is a widget that is able to display a list of the most popular posts of your site (ranked by number of visits or number of comments). With it you can show your visitors which content are most popular…
Consider an alternative
Most Popular Posts Widget shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 11 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.3 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Most Popular Posts Widget stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| bars | >100 |
| pupular | #2 |
| pupularity | #1 |
| visits | >100 |
| widget | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Most Popular Posts Widget
From the official readme · v1.2.0Description
Most Popular Posts is a widget that is able to display a list of the most popular posts of your site (ranked by number of visits or number of comments). With it you can show your visitors which content are most popular, and built-in styles give you the ability to customize its appearance to your page. Widget / plugin is ideal for small news sites and blogs. This is an excellent way to increase click-through rate and reduce the bounce rate of page.
If you are worried about your server’s resources, I can assure you that the widget extremely tight cares about this issue. Its simple design makes you sure that the database on your server will not be filled with unnecessary data.
You can customize:
- The title of the widget
- Rank posts popularity by number of comments or visits
- The number of the displayed items (to choose from 1 to 10)
- Showing only those posts that were visited by example. Last 30 days (to choose from range from 1 to 30 days)
- Disable or enable the display of the number of visits
- Exclude from displaying specific pages and whole categories (by their ID)
- Change translation
- Change the appearance of the widget (you can choose from 6 ready styles or create your own (file custom.css), along with subsequent updates of the number of available styles will increase)
- Clean the widget data from SQL database (if you decide that take too much)
- Cache refresh time
In addition, the widget has a built-in filtering visits robots, so that the collected data do not include web bots. Widget styles perfectly cope with the parties and look great on mobile devices. Widget also support shortcode [most-popular-posts].
Widget is very simple to install and use, which should not be a straightforward problem to anyone.
Widget could be not compatible with catching plugins, like W3 Total Cache etc.
If you would like to show your support for this software, please consider donating: Donate via PayPal.
Shortcode Usage
If you wish to show widget in post first set up widget options and save them. After that just write [most-popular-posts] anywhere in your post.
Installation
- Upload the zip to ‘plugins’ directory
- Unzip (steps 1 and 2 can also be performed automatically)
- Activate the plugin
- Configure and place the widget on your sidebar
- Now wait some time until widget gather data to show bars
Or just add .zip file as a new plugin in your WordPress administration panel.
Changelog
1.2.0
- Caching added, now widget is faster
- Minor bug fixes
1.1.2
- WordPress 4.3 compatibility
1.1.1
- Shortcode bug fix
1.1.0
- Shortcode support
- Minor bug fixes
1.0.1
- Ability to rank posts by number of comments
- Now you can buy premium styles for this plugin
1.0.0
- 6 new changeable styles + custom.css file to customize bars
- Few new features
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 Most Popular Posts Widget alternatives
All bars plugins →| Rank | Plugin | Active installs |
|---|---|---|
| 2 |
Kenzap Stats
Extend your website with counters, countdowns, bars and other statistical elements. It…
|
10+ |
| 3 |
Very Simple WP Statistics Bars
Very Simple WP Statistics
|
<10 |
FAQ
Most Popular Posts Widget: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 3, 2026
Is Most Popular Posts Widget free?
Yes. Most Popular Posts Widget is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Most Popular Posts Widget safe to use in 2026?
Most Popular Posts Widget shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Most Popular Posts Widget?
Most Popular Posts Widget is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 5,788 times since it launched in January 2015. It was downloaded 62 times in the last 30 days.
Does Most Popular Posts Widget work with WordPress 7.1?
Most Popular Posts Widget is officially tested up to WordPress 4.3.34, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Most Popular Posts Widget last updated?
The latest version, 1.2.0, was released on September 18, 2015 (11 years ago).
Who makes Most Popular Posts Widget?
Most Popular Posts Widget is developed and maintained by Piotr Pesta.
What are the best alternatives to Most Popular Posts Widget?
The most popular alternatives to Most Popular Posts Widget are Kenzap Stats (10+ installs) and Very Simple WP Statistics B… (<10 installs).
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