Nelio Featured Posts
Select the featured posts you want to show at any time and include them in your theme using a widget.
Consider an alternative
Nelio Featured Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 300+ sites, is rated 4.8/5 and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (300+ active installs)
- No update in 6 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.3 (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 Nelio Featured Posts stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| featured post | >100 |
| manual featured posts | >100 |
| relevant post | >100 |
| starred post | #27 |
| widget | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 from 9 reviews
About Nelio Featured Posts
From the official readme · v2.2.4Description
With this WordPress plugin, you can define a set of featured posts easily.
These featured posts can be added to your theme wherever you want via a widget.
The plugin is extremely simple, fast, and reliable. Once you have selected the
featured posts, they are saved in a cache, so that the amount of database
queries is kept to the minimum.
Custom Templates
Version 2.0.0 let’s you define your own templates for displaying each related
post. Just create a directory namedneliofpin your theme’s directory and
create the template you want to use such as, for instance,
template-name.php. When inserting the widget, specify that the template is
template-nameand you’re ready to go!Warning Remember to save your templates somewhere save before updating
your theme!(In the directory
template-examplesyou’ll find some examples).
Featured image by Abulic
Monkey
Features
- Featured Posts Selection Set the list of featured posts from one single
place. - Powered by a Widget Use the featured images wherever you want by simply
adding a widget. - Customization You can tweak a few details of the featured post list, such
as the section title or the number of words in the excerpt.
Featured On
- 13 Awesome Free Featured Post Widgets for
WordPress
(designcoral.com) - How To Set Up a Collection of Featured
Posts (Nelio’s blog)
Related Plugins by Nelio
- Nelio Content |
Download - Nelio A/B Testing |
Download - Nelio External Featured Image |
Download - Nelio Related Posts |
Download
Featured image by Abulic
Monkey
Changelog
Minor update.
2.2.4 (November 29, 2019)
- Compatibility check with WordPress 5.3.
2.2.3 (June 6, 2018)
- Fixed links to Nelio A/B Testing.
- Added a few more strings to be internationalized.
2.2.2 (September 1, 2017)
- Improved internationalization strings.
- Escaped some strings.
2.2.1 (July 25, 2016)
- Added i18n support.
- Translated to Spanish and Catalan.
2.2.0 (Dec 14, 2015)
- Improved behavior: you can now drag and drop items, so that you can sort
featured posts as you please. - Fixed compatibility issue with WordPress 4.4 (Delete actions were not
visible).
2.1.0
- New filter for selecting which posts are shown in the widget. The filter
neliofp_get_featured_posts lets you select which posts will be shown on
the front-end.
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 Nelio Featured Posts alternatives
All featured post plugins →
FAQ
Nelio Featured Posts: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 27, 2026
Is Nelio Featured Posts free?
Yes. Nelio Featured Posts is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Nelio Featured Posts safe to use in 2026?
Nelio Featured Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 300+ sites, is rated 4.8/5 and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Nelio Featured Posts?
Nelio Featured Posts is active on 300+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 24,993 times since it launched in September 2014. It was downloaded 116 times in the last 30 days.
Does Nelio Featured Posts work with WordPress 7.1?
Nelio Featured Posts is officially tested up to WordPress 5.3.25, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Nelio Featured Posts last updated?
The latest version, 2.2.4, was released on November 29, 2019 (7 years ago).
Who makes Nelio Featured Posts?
Nelio Featured Posts is developed and maintained by Nelio Software.
What are the best alternatives to Nelio Featured Posts?
The most popular alternatives to Nelio Featured Posts are NS Featured Posts (4K+ installs), Feature A Page Widget (3K+ installs) and Genesis Featured Widget Amp… (2K+ installs).
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