8 Best Popular Posts Plugins for WordPress (Compared)

Introduction: Why Use a Popular Posts Plugin?

Popular posts plugins are indispensable tools for WordPress websites seeking to enhance user engagement, reduce bounce rates, and improve overall SEO. These plugins automatically track and display the most visited or engaged-with content on your site, highlighting your best work and encouraging users to explore further. By strategically showcasing your most popular articles, you guide visitors toward content that has already proven valuable, increasing time spent on your site and potentially converting casual readers into loyal followers.

Beyond user experience, popular posts plugins contribute to SEO by strengthening internal linking. When users click on popular post suggestions, they navigate through your site, signaling to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable. This increased internal linking helps search engines crawl and index your website more efficiently, leading to improved search engine rankings. Furthermore, showcasing popular posts can also help new visitors quickly understand the breadth and depth of your content, making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and increasing the likelihood they’ll return.

Choosing the right popular posts plugin can significantly impact your website’s performance and user experience. While many plugins offer similar core functionality, they often differ in features, customization options, performance impact, and ease of use. This article provides a comprehensive comparison of eight of the most popular WordPress plugins for displaying popular posts, helping you make an informed decision based on your specific needs and priorities.

1. WordPress Popular Posts

WordPress Popular Posts is one of the most widely used and feature-rich popular posts plugins available for WordPress. It offers a highly customizable solution for displaying popular content based on various metrics, including views, comments, and custom fields.

• Key Features:
• Multi-widget support: Display popular posts in multiple widget areas with different configurations.
• Time range filtering: Specify a time frame (e.g., last 24 hours, last week, last month) for calculating popularity.
• Custom post type support: Display popular posts from any custom post type.
• Thumbnail support: Display post thumbnails alongside titles for visual appeal.
• Excerpt display: Show a brief excerpt of each popular post.
• Customizable CSS: Style the appearance of the widget to match your website’s design.
• Caching support: Improve performance by caching popular posts data.
• Sorting options: Sort popular posts by views, comments, or average views per day.
• Shortcode support: Embed popular posts within posts or pages.
• GDPR compliance: Includes options to anonymize IP addresses and comply with GDPR regulations.

WordPress Popular Posts is an excellent choice for users who need a flexible and customizable solution with a wide range of options. However, its extensive feature set can be overwhelming for beginners. The plugin is generally well-coded and performs well, but complex configurations can sometimes impact performance, particularly on websites with high traffic. The free version offers substantial functionality, but the premium version unlocks advanced features like custom fields and more granular time range filtering.

2. Trending/Popular Post Slider Widget

The Trending/Popular Post Slider Widget focuses on a visually engaging way to display popular posts using a slider format. This plugin is designed to be simple to use and offers a more dynamic alternative to traditional list-based popular posts widgets.

• Key Features:
• Slider display: Presents popular posts in a visually appealing slider format.
• Customizable slider settings: Control slider speed, autoplay, and navigation.
• Multiple themes: Choose from pre-designed themes to match your website’s style.
• Thumbnail support: Displays thumbnails alongside post titles.
• Customizable CSS: Further customize the appearance with custom CSS.
• Widget and shortcode support: Use the widget or shortcode to display the slider.
• Order by options: Order posts by date, title, comment count, or random.
• Category filtering: Display popular posts from specific categories.
• Responsive design: Ensures the slider looks good on all devices.

Trending/Popular Post Slider Widget is a good option for users who want a visually appealing and easy-to-use popular posts solution. The slider format can attract attention and encourage users to click through to popular articles. However, the customization options are not as extensive as some other plugins, and the slider format may not be suitable for all website designs. Performance is generally good, but the slider animation can potentially impact performance on websites with limited resources.

3. Relevant

Relevant is a plugin that goes beyond simple popular posts by incorporating related content suggestions. It analyzes the current post and recommends relevant articles based on categories, tags, and other criteria. While not strictly a “popular posts” plugin, it can be configured to prioritize popular content within its recommendations.

• Key Features:
• Related posts suggestions: Recommends related articles based on content analysis.
• Customizable algorithms: Adjust the algorithm to prioritize popularity, recency, or other factors.
• Thumbnail support: Displays thumbnails alongside post titles.
• Customizable CSS: Style the appearance of the recommendations to match your website’s design.
• Widget and shortcode support: Use the widget or shortcode to display related posts.
• Exclusion options: Exclude specific posts or categories from the recommendations.
• Automatic linking: Automatically links to recommended articles.
• Multiple display options: Choose from different layouts and styles for the recommendations.
• Caching support: Improves performance by caching related posts data.

Relevant is a strong choice for users who want to go beyond simple popular posts and offer contextual recommendations to their readers. By suggesting related content, it can keep users engaged and exploring the website for longer. However, configuring the algorithm to prioritize popularity can be more complex than using a dedicated popular posts plugin. Performance is generally good, but the content analysis process can potentially impact performance on websites with large amounts of content.

4. Top 10

Top 10 is a simple and lightweight popular posts plugin that focuses on performance and ease of use. It tracks popular posts based on views and offers a few customization options.

• Key Features:
• Simple and lightweight: Minimal impact on website performance.
• View count tracking: Tracks popular posts based on views.
• Thumbnail support: Displays thumbnails alongside post titles.
• Customizable CSS: Style the appearance of the widget to match your website’s design.
• Widget and shortcode support: Use the widget or shortcode to display popular posts.
• Exclusion options: Exclude specific posts or categories from the list.
• Daily and overall counts: Tracks both daily and overall popular posts.
• Custom post type support: Display popular posts from any custom post type.
• Caching support: Improves performance by caching popular posts data.

Top 10 is a great option for users who prioritize performance and simplicity. It’s easy to set up and use, and it has a minimal impact on website speed. However, it lacks some of the advanced features of other popular posts plugins, such as time range filtering and more granular customization options. Its focus on simplicity makes it ideal for smaller websites or those with limited technical expertise.

5. Display Posts – Shortcodes for WordPress

While not solely a popular posts plugin, Display Posts is a powerful plugin that allows you to display posts using shortcodes with extensive filtering and customization options. You can use it to create custom popular posts lists based on views, comments, or other criteria.

• Key Features:
• Shortcode-based: Display posts using shortcodes with various attributes.
• Filtering options: Filter posts by category, tag, author, date, and more.
• Sorting options: Sort posts by date, title, author, or custom fields.
• Customizable templates: Create custom templates for displaying posts.
• Pagination support: Display posts with pagination for large lists.
• Offset option: Skip a certain number of posts in the list.
• Thumbnail support: Displays thumbnails alongside post titles.
• Excerpt display: Show a brief excerpt of each post.
• Custom CSS support: Style the appearance of the posts using custom CSS.

Display Posts is a versatile option for users who need a highly customizable solution for displaying posts. It requires some technical knowledge to use effectively, but it offers unparalleled flexibility. By combining its filtering and sorting options, you can create custom popular posts lists based on specific criteria. However, it can be more complex to set up and maintain than a dedicated popular posts plugin.

6. Jetpack’s Top Posts & Pages

If you’re already using Jetpack, its Top Posts & Pages module provides a simple and straightforward way to display popular content. It tracks views and offers basic customization options.

• Key Features:
• View count tracking: Tracks popular posts based on views.
• Simple customization: Basic options for customizing the appearance of the widget.
• Thumbnail support: Displays thumbnails alongside post titles.
• Widget support: Display popular posts in a widget area.
• Integration with Jetpack: Seamless integration with the Jetpack plugin.

Jetpack’s Top Posts & Pages is a convenient option for users who already have Jetpack installed. It’s easy to use and requires no additional plugins. However, it lacks the advanced features and customization options of dedicated popular posts plugins. It is a good option for basic functionality but might not be sufficient for more complex needs. Be mindful of Jetpack’s overall performance impact, as it can add to page load times if many modules are activated.

7. WP-PostViews

WP-PostViews is a simple plugin that focuses primarily on tracking and displaying post views. It doesn’t offer as many advanced features as some other plugins, but it’s lightweight and easy to use.

• Key Features:
• View count tracking: Tracks views for posts and pages.
• Customizable templates: Customize the display of view counts and popular posts lists.
• Widget support: Display popular posts in a widget area.
• Template tag support: Display view counts and popular posts lists directly in your theme files.
• Exclusion options: Exclude specific posts or categories from view count tracking.
• Custom post type support: Track views for custom post types.

WP-PostViews is a solid choice for users who need a simple and straightforward solution for tracking and displaying post views. Its customization options are limited compared to some other plugins, but it’s lightweight and efficient. The ability to display view counts directly in your theme files provides flexibility for developers.

8. Popular Content by DevriX

Popular Content by DevriX is a performance-oriented popular posts plugin designed for high-traffic websites. It prioritizes efficient caching and database queries to minimize the impact on website speed.

• Key Features:
• Performance optimization: Designed for high-traffic websites with efficient caching.
• View count tracking: Tracks popular posts based on views.
• Customizable display: Customize the appearance of the popular posts list.
• Widget support: Display popular posts in a widget area.
• Time range filtering: Specify a time frame for calculating popularity.
• Cache invalidation: Automatically invalidates the cache when posts are updated or published.
• Multi-site support: Compatible with WordPress multi-site installations.

Popular Content by DevriX is an excellent option for websites that require a highly performant popular posts solution. Its focus on caching and database optimization ensures minimal impact on website speed, even under heavy traffic. While it might not have as many features as some other plugins, its performance advantages make it a strong contender for high-volume websites.