Remote Thumbnail
Lightweight plugin to use remote images for post thumbnails and featured image. Enter remote image url into custom field ‘remote_thumbnail’ of any post.
Consider an alternative
Remote Thumbnail shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 6 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.4 (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 Remote Thumbnail stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| div | >100 |
| external thumbnail | >100 |
| remote featured image | >100 |
| remote thumbnail | >100 |
| thumbnail | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Remote Thumbnail
From the official readme · v1.1Description
Lightweight plugin to use remote images for post thumbnails and featured image. Enter remote image url into custom field ‘remote_thumbnail’ of any post.
Images will not be downloaded, therefore will not use up space from your hosting. In order to keep the same aspect ratio as an uploaded, cropped image with no distortion, the code generated will be an inline-block DIV with the image set as a background.
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
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 Remote Thumbnail alternatives
All div plugins →
FAQ
Remote Thumbnail: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026
Is Remote Thumbnail free?
Yes. Remote Thumbnail is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Remote Thumbnail safe to use in 2026?
Remote Thumbnail shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Remote Thumbnail?
Remote Thumbnail is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 3,272 times since it launched in June 2016. It was downloaded 153 times in the last 30 days.
Does Remote Thumbnail work with WordPress 7.1?
Remote Thumbnail is officially tested up to WordPress 5.4.23, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Remote Thumbnail last updated?
The latest version, 1.1, was released on August 6, 2020 (6 years ago).
Who makes Remote Thumbnail?
Remote Thumbnail is developed and maintained by Samuel Diethelm.
What are the best alternatives to Remote Thumbnail?
The most popular alternatives to Remote Thumbnail are Equal Height Columns (10K+ installs), WP-Note 2019 (300+ installs) and Magic Block (300+ installs).
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