Ripple
Ripple widgets works under certain conditions which are determined by your WordPress post types configuration. That’s why Ripple offer you an easy way to make the necessary changes on your post types so you can use…
Consider an alternative
Ripple shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 7 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.2 (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 Ripple stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| hierarchical | >100 |
| hierarchical related content | >100 |
| related content | >100 |
| semantic | >100 |
| semantic related content | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Ripple
From the official readme · v1.5.5Description
Ripple Dashboard
Ripple widgets works under certain conditions which are determined by your WordPress post types configuration.
That’s why Ripple offer you an easy way to make the necessary changes on your post types so you can use Ripple the best way.
In the dashboard you will be able to customize your post types in several ways.
Global configuration of your post type :
- Make a post type hierarchical or not
=> It will allow you to use the “hierarchical related content” widget on this post type
Configure the taxonomies of your post type
- Activate/deactivate the WP core taxonomies (“category”, “post_tag”) for every post type
- Activate/deactivate the custom taxonomies for custom post type
=> It will give you more possibility when using the semantic related content widget
Configure your post types with Ripple specific custom fields :
- Activate/deactivate the usage of the “external url” field that allow you to publish content form the outside World !
- … more custom fields to come 😉
Register support of WordPress feature for your post types :
- Activate/deactivate the support of the “Excerpt” field. This field may be used by Ripple widgets.
Ripple semantic related contents
Increase time spent and viewed pages by unique visitors offering related and relevant similar contents below each articles. Related contents are chosen thanks to an integrated and intelligent algorithm which selects and orders items by relevance score. The way contents items are displayed is fully customizable :
- Chose a theme or customize your own CSS
- Customize your headlines in order to catch more attention and more clicks
- You can choose to display thumbnail and/or excerpt with the headline for each content item
- Define the maximum related content items that can be displayed
- Customize the display of the related content by customizing some HTML elements
- Manage the ‘rel’ attribute of each link generated by the widget
- Choose between the “automatic display” to display the widget right after the post content or use the shortcode to display it wherever you want
Ripple hierarchical related contents
This widget allow you to display the children of the current page in the same way the “semantic” widget. It allows you to offer a better navigation experiment to the user
- Customize your headlines in order to catch more attention and more clicks
- You can chose to display thumbnail and/or excerpt with the headline for each content item
- Choose between the automatic display to display the widget right after the post content or use the shortcode to display it whereever you want
Note : this widget only works for hierarchical post type.
Ripple breadcrumbs
This widget allow you to display the navigation breadcrumbs on hierarchical content
- Customize your headlines
- Choose the separator between every breadcrumbs link
- Choose to display the home link or not
- Choose between the automatic display to display the widget right after the post content or use the shortcode to display it wherever you want
Notice that the breadcrumb is SEO friendly as it is build using Breadcrumbs markup
More information here about markups here : https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/breadcrumb
Note : this widget only works for hierarchical post type.
Plug and play, easy to customize, and advanced settings
This plugin is plug and play with optimized default settings for user experience. Several settings offer you the ability to customize its behaviour and the widget’s look & feels in order to fit with your needs.
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to the
/wp-content/plugins/plugin-namedirectory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
- That is it ! Go to the new ‘Ripple’ admin menu to configure and enjoy the plugin !
Changelog
Initial release
1.5.5
Adding the ‘clickable_item’ option for related content widgets
1.5.4
Removing support for social share widget
1.5.3
New features available for the related content widgets :
- You can choose the HTML tag that wrap every text link generated by the widget.
-
You can define a value for the “rel” attribute of each link generated by the widget
-
Ripple offer the ability to activate the ‘excerpt’ field for each post type directly from the dashboard. The excerpt field can be used by Ripple Widgets as a description for a post.
1.5.2
New configuration available in the Dashboard :
- Ripple offer the ability to activate the ‘excerpt’ field for each post type directly from the dashboard. The excerpt field can be used by Ripple Widgets as a description for a post.
1.5.1
New configuration available in the Dashboard :
- It’s now possible to activate an option that will automatically add a custom field on post types chosen by the user.
=> This custom field allow to add an “external URL” to the post type, that will be used as a permalink when Ripple spread it.
Ripple semantic related content :
- The search_base option as evolved to accept the “none” value. As a result, the widget will request for content without including any taxonomies criteria.
1.5.0
New parameters for the semantic widget shortcode !
- search_base : allow you to perform a search based on the taxonomies of the current post, a specific one or even on a custom query string (ex : search_base=”category=my_category”)
- post_type : by default the widget search related content of the same post type as the displayed one. You can bypass this behaviour by specifying every post type you want to search for
- tax_white_list : by default, related content are searched based on every (valid) taxonomies. You can bypass this behaviour and specify which taxonomies the widget should use to perform its search.
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Ripple alternatives
All hierarchical plugins →
FAQ
Ripple: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 14, 2026
Is Ripple free?
Yes. Ripple is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Ripple safe to use in 2026?
Ripple shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Ripple?
Ripple is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,577 times since it launched in December 2016. It was downloaded 73 times in the last 30 days.
Does Ripple work with WordPress 7.1?
Ripple is officially tested up to WordPress 5.2.29, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Ripple need?
Ripple requires PHP 7.0 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Ripple last updated?
The latest version, 1.5.5, was released on May 24, 2019 (7 years ago).
Who makes Ripple?
Ripple is developed and maintained by Tofferus.
What are the best alternatives to Ripple?
The most popular alternatives to Ripple are BU Navigation (100+ installs), Article Forge (50+ installs) and SF Bootstrap Menu (10+ installs).
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