BLACK FRIDAY
Save 59% on PageForge Annual $191/year $485/year
Claim 59% Off →
Recent Posts icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 2.6.2 #1 in latest

Recent Posts

Recent Posts displays a list of your blog’s newest posts. The output can be customised in many ways.

Active installs500+100+ tier
Downloads · 30d104▼ -8.8% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score27/100At risk
All-time downloads73.4KSince Mar 2008
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 1.5PHP any
Downloads · 7d28▼ -3.4% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Recent Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 500+ sites and was last updated 18 years ago, and scores 27/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (500+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 18 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 2.6 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

4914Jul 2Aug 15Sep 29
Yesterday5
Daily average (1y)3
Peak day28Jun 20, 2026
Last 12 months1K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Recent Posts stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
latest >100 9,509 Best latest plugins →
newest >100 930 Best newest plugins →
posts >100 10,000 Best posts plugins →
recent >100 4,230 Best recent plugins →
recent posts >100 2,859 Best recent posts plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 2.6100.0%

About Recent Posts

From the official readme · v2.6.2.0

Description

Recent Posts displays a list of your blog’s newest posts. The output can be customised in many ways.

This plugin requires the latest version of the Post-Plugin Library: download it now.

Version History

  • 2.6.2.0
    • new {imagealt} output tag — rather like {imagesrc}
    • {excerpt} can now trim to whole sentences
    • content filter can now take parameter string
    • widget can now take parameter string
    • output can be appended to posts & feeds
  • 2.6.1.0
    • the current post can be marked manually
    • widgets now honour the option to show no output if list is empty
  • 2.6.0.1
    • bug fix: installation code was failing on some systems
  • 2.6.0.0
    • version bump to indicate compatibility with WP 2.6
    • fix to really include attachments
    • new parameter for {imagesrc} to append a suffix to the image name, e.g. to get the thumbnail for attachments
  • 2.5.0.11
    • new option to include attachments
    • {php} tag now accepts nested tags
    • new output tag {authorurl} — permalink to archive of author’s posts
  • 2.5.0.10
    • fix for page selection in old versions of WP
    • made omit current post try harder to find current post ID
  • 2.5.0.9
    • new option to order by date of last edit rather than date of creation
    • new option to match the current post’s author
    • extended options for snippet and excerpt output tags
  • 2.5.0.7
    • new option to show by status, i.e., published/private/draft/future
    • {categorynames} and {categorylinks} apply ‘single_cat_name’ filter
    • fixes bug in WP pre-2.2 causing installation to fail
  • 2.5.0
    • {image} has new post, link, and default parameters
    • new {imagesrc} tag
    • fix to empty category bug
    • excluded posts bug fix
    • fix for intermittent bug with ‘omit current post’ option
  • 2.5b26
    • reverted thumbnail serving (speed)
    • fix current post after extra query
  • 2.5b25
    • option to sort output, group templates
    • removed ‘trim_before’ option added more logical ‘divider’
    • {date:raw}, {commentdate:raw}, etc.
    • fix for {image} resizing when and not
    • {image} now serves real thumbnails
  • 2.5b24
    • fix for recursive replacement by content filter
    • fix to {gravatar} to allow for ‘identicon’ etc.
    • fix to {commenter} to allow trimming
    • fix a warning in safe mode
  • 2.5b23
    • new option to filter on custom fields
    • nested braces in {if}; condition now taggable
    • improved bug report feature
    • better way to omit user comments
  • 2.5b22
    • show_pages option can now show only pages
    • fixes for tag bugs
  • 2.5b19
    • fix for content replacement filter
  • 2.5b18
    • fix output filter bug
    • add conditional tag {if:condition:yes:no}
  • 2.5b16
    • fix for {php}
  • 2.5b15
    • fix bugs, add ‘included posts’ setting
  • 2.5b14
    • fix file-encoding, installation error, etc.
  • 2.5b11
    • some widget fixes
  • 2.5b9

    • clarifying installation instructions
  • previous versions

Installation

  1. IMPORTANT! If you are upgrading from a previous version first deactivate the plugin, then delete the plugin folder from your server.

  2. Upload the plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder. If you haven’t already you should also install the Post-Plugin Library>.

  3. Go to the Plugins page and activate the plugin.

  4. Put <?php recent_posts(); ?> at the place in your template where you want the list to appear or use the plugin as a widget.

  5. Use the Options/Settings page to adjust the behaviour of the plugin.

My web site has full instructions and information on customisation.

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.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Recent Posts alternatives

All latest plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
2 Recent Comments Recent Comments Displays a list of recent comments. by RobMarsh 200+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 18 years ago 26
3 ETH Redirect to Latest Post ETH Redirect to Latest Post Redirect a chosen slug, "latest" by default, to, well, the most-recently-published post. by Erick Hitter 100+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (8) 8 months ago 50
4 Get Post Get Post Get Post adds a tag that allows you to retrieve and display the latest post identified by a… by jtatum 100+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 15 years ago 25
5 Stealth Update Stealth Update Adds the ability to update a post without having WordPress automatically update the post's… by Scott Reilly 100+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (5) 10 years ago 37
6 Featured Podcast Widget Featured Podcast Widget A widget that enables you to display your latest podcast from a category or featured… by Richard Farrar 60+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 10 years ago 32
7 Newstastic Post Slider Newstastic Post Slider A quick way to display your recent posts on any page with a slider for paging. by David Henry 50+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.3 (8) 12 years ago 30
8 Latest Posts with Order Option Latest Posts with Order Option Widget for listing your latest posts in the order you choose from widget options. by Gravuj Miklos Henrich 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (1) 13 years ago 31
9 Latest Spotify Activity Latest Spotify Activity A simple widget that displays your Spotify activity on your site. Powered by Spotify's… by Justin DoCanto 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 15 years ago 30
10 Simple Latest Posts Shortcode Simple Latest Posts Shortcode A simple plugin for rendering latest post previews in a list view using shortcode. by mkerstner 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 11 years ago 23
11 Cubecolour New Plugins Cubecolour New Plugins Adds "New" and "Beta Testing" tabs to the "Add Plugins" admin page. by cubecolour 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (5) 1 year ago 44

FAQ

Recent Posts: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 30, 2026

Is Recent Posts free?

Yes. Recent Posts is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Recent Posts safe to use in 2026?

Recent Posts shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 500+ sites and was last updated 18 years ago, and scores 27/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Recent Posts?

Recent Posts is active on 500+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 73,411 times since it launched in March 2008. It was downloaded 104 times in the last 30 days.

Does Recent Posts work with WordPress 7.1?

Recent Posts is officially tested up to WordPress 2.6.2, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Recent Posts last updated?

The latest version, 2.6.2.0, was released on September 9, 2008 (18 years ago).

Who makes Recent Posts?

Recent Posts is developed and maintained by RobMarsh.

What are the best alternatives to Recent Posts?

The most popular alternatives to Recent Posts are Recent Comments (200+ installs), ETH Redirect to Latest Post (100+ installs) and Get Post (100+ 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
Sarah is here to help!
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?
Sarah
Sarah
Online & Ready to Help
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?

We'll use this to continue our conversation

Just now ✓ Verified

Join 500+ SEO Pros Scaling Their Strategy

Get exclusive programmatic SEO tactics, AI content workflows, and the latest PageForge updates delivered straight to your inbox. Stay ahead of the algorithm.

We care about your data in our privacy policy.