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Best Related Posts Plugins for WordPress (2026)

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Best related posts plugins for WordPress compared

For most WordPress blogs the best related posts plugin is Contextual Related Posts: it is free, it was updated this month, it matches on the words in your posts rather than only your tags, and it caches its output. If your categories and tags are tidy and you want something small, Related Posts by Taxonomy is the lighter pick. If you already run Jetpack, its built-in related posts may be all you need. And if you only want a short, hand-picked “further reading” list, you may not need a plugin at all.

The right choice depends on three boring questions: how it decides what is “related”, what that costs your server on every page view, and whether its links are real HTML a crawler can follow.

How we checked: every version number, update date and install count below comes from the WordPress.org plugin API, pulled on 10 October 2026. Feature descriptions come from each plugin’s own listing, and we only repeat what the listing says. We did not benchmark these plugins for this article, so you will find no speed numbers here, and we would be suspicious of any roundup that gives you some without a test setup next to them. Our own plugin is described from its source code.

Quick picks

  • Best overall, free: Contextual Related Posts. Content matching, caching, a block, a shortcode and automatic placement.
  • Best if your taxonomy is clean: Related Posts by Taxonomy. Matches on shared terms, lots of control, small.
  • Best if you already use Jetpack: Jetpack’s Related Posts. Nothing extra to install, but it needs a WordPress.com account.
  • Best for “pick the matches once, then hand-edit”: Related Posts for WordPress. Does the work in the admin and lets you fix mistakes per post.
  • Best for thumbnail grids: Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin. Built around images under the post.
  • Best for boxes inside the article: Inline Related Posts.
  • Not a related posts widget, despite the name confusion: Yoast SEO Premium’s internal linking suggestions. Those are for you, the writer, not your readers.

We covered whether related posts help SEO at all in our piece on related posts and SEO, so we will not redo that here. Short version: they are internal links, they are good at getting forgotten posts crawled, and they are weaker than a link you write into a sentence. This section is only about telling the plugins apart.

There are two main approaches, and most plugins pick one or blend both.

  • Shared categories and tags. The plugin finds posts that share the most terms with the current one. Predictable and cheap. It is only as good as your taxonomy, though. If half your posts sit in one category called “Blog”, you get six fairly random posts.
  • Content similarity. The plugin compares the actual words in titles and body text. It copes better with messy tagging and can find pairs you never filed together. Done properly it uses an index (MySQL FULLTEXT, or a scored index the plugin builds itself). Done badly it scans every post body on every request.

What it costs on every page view

A related posts block runs a query for every visitor on every article. The question is whether it runs the expensive version every time, or works the answer out once and reuses it. Look for one of these in the plugin’s own description: a cache of results, precomputing relationships in the admin, or a dedicated index. Page caching hides the cost from logged-out visitors, but your logged-in users, cache misses and crawlers still pay it. If a listing says nothing at all about caching, test it before you trust it on a big site.

Placement: automatic, shortcode or block

Automatic placement appends the list after your content and needs no editing, which is great until you want it somewhere else on a few posts. A shortcode or a block gives you control per post. A widget puts it in a sidebar, where it competes with everything else in the sidebar. The best plugins offer all of these and let you switch off the automatic one.

Placement also changes who sees it. A list at the very bottom only reaches people who finished the article. On long posts, a table of contents does more for the reader who is scanning, and a related list does more for the one who is done and wondering what next. They are different jobs and you can have both.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails get more eyes. They also cost image requests, and the grid falls apart when half your old posts have no featured image. Check what the plugin does when there is no image, and make sure the post title is still printed as text. A link wrapped around an image with no title text is a weak link.

This one matters more than it sounds. Some plugins, or some settings inside them, load the list after the page with JavaScript (often called lazy loading or Ajax loading). It is sold as a speed option, and for the visible page it is one. But the crawl benefit of related posts depends on the links being in the HTML your server sends. To check, open a post, use View Source (not the inspector) and search for one of the related URLs. If it is not there, the block is not helping discovery.

Two plugins below offer JavaScript loading as an opt-in setting. We flag them so you know which one to leave alone.

External or sponsored items

Some recommendation widgets mix in paid links to other sites in exchange for revenue. That is a different product. None of the WordPress.org listings we checked advertise sponsored or external items, but if you ever see a setting about a “network” or “promoted” content, read it twice.

Comparison table

Versions, dates and installs are from the WordPress.org API as of October 2026. “Matching” and “Placement” are what each listing claims. “Not stated” means the listing does not say, not that the feature is missing.

Plugin Version / last updated Active installs Matching Placement Caching Thumbnails
Contextual Related Posts 4.5.0 / 2 Oct 2026 50,000+ Title and/or content (FULLTEXT), plus tags, categories, custom fields Auto, block, shortcode, widget, REST API Yes Yes
YARPP 5.30.11 / 11 Nov 2024 100,000+ Titles, content, tags, categories, custom taxonomies Auto, block, shortcode, widget, REST API Yes Yes (template)
Jetpack Related Posts Jetpack 16.3 / 6 Oct 2026 3,000,000+ (all of Jetpack) Analyses post content Automatic, block Not stated Not stated
Related Posts for WordPress 2.3.1 / 23 Sep 2026 10,000+ Wizard analyses posts and links them; manual edits Shortcode, widget Own cache, work done in admin Not stated (free)
Related Posts by Taxonomy 2.7.10 / 21 Aug 2026 10,000+ Most terms in common Shortcode, widget, after content Persistent cache (opt-in) Yes
Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin 5.0.1 / 17 Jul 2026 20,000+ Categories, tags, both, random, custom taxonomies Auto, block, shortcode, widget Not stated Yes, the main point
Inline Related Posts 3.11.0 / 3 Aug 2026 100,000+ Not stated Boxes inside the content, automatic Not stated Not stated

The plugins, one by one

Contextual Related Posts, by Ajay, is the one we would install first on a typical blog. On activation it creates MySQL FULLTEXT indexes and uses them to match posts on title and/or content, with tags, categories and selected custom fields available too. That is the “content similarity done properly” approach from above: indexed, not a scan of every post body.

It caches its output as visitors browse, appends the list after the content and in your feed by default, and also gives you a “Related Posts [CRP]” block, a [crp] shortcode, a widget and a REST API route. You can exclude categories and tags, include custom post types, and turn thumbnails and excerpts on or off. The FULLTEXT indexes take some database space, which the listing says openly, and there are options to remove them when you deactivate or delete the plugin.

There is a Pro version with custom tables, configurable cache times, a server-load threshold, bot skipping, weighting controls, page builder elements and related products for WooCommerce. One Pro option to note: lazy loading, which loads the list through JavaScript when it is about to scroll into view. That is fine for speed, but per the section above, leave it off if you want the links in the HTML. It also needs WordPress 6.9 and PHP 7.4 or newer, which is worth knowing on an older host.

Pick it if: you want one free plugin that handles matching, caching and placement without much thought.

YARPP is the name most people know, and its description is the most feature-rich on paper: an algorithm that weighs titles, content, tags, categories and custom taxonomies, a built-in cache, list or thumbnail templates plus a custom template system, automatic display, RSS options, a block, a [yarpp] shortcode, a widget, PHP functions and a REST API. It also lists multisite, bbPress and WooCommerce support, and support for languages that do not put spaces between words.

Here is the catch, and it is a factual one. As of our check, the last update on WordPress.org was 11 November 2024, and the listing says it has been tested up to WordPress 6.7.10, while the other plugins in this list are tested with 7.0 or 7.1. The description still says it is “professionally maintained” with “regular updates”. Nearly two years without a release does not mean it is broken. It does mean more risk than the alternatives. Our checklist for spotting an abandoned WordPress plugin is a good ten-minute read before you decide.

Pick it if: it is already on your site and working, or you need its template system specifically. For a new install, we would start with Contextual Related Posts.

Related Posts is one module of Jetpack, Automattic’s large bundle of security, backup, speed and growth features. Jetpack’s own FAQ says the feature “scans all of your posts’ contents, analyzes it” and shows contextual posts after the current one, and there is a Related Posts block. The same FAQ says a WordPress.com account is required for Jetpack to function, because its services are hosted by WordPress.com.

If you already run Jetpack, switching this on costs nothing new to install. If you do not, all of Jetpack plus an account connection is a lot for one widget. The listing does not say how the results are delivered to the page, so run the View Source check after you enable it.

Pick it if: Jetpack is already active and connected on your site.

Barry Kooij’s plugin takes a different angle. After activation, a wizard analyses your posts and links them to each other based on what it thinks is related. The heavy work happens in the admin, and the plugin keeps its own cache, so the listing’s pitch is that it “won’t lag your server”. You can then open any post and add, change or remove its related posts by hand. Display is through a shortcode or a widget.

Good if you want to correct the machine on your top posts. The free listing does not mention thumbnails. The Premium version adds a styling configurator, custom post type and taxonomy support, adjustable weights and multisite support, among other things.

Pick it if: you want computed relationships you can then edit, without a query on every page view.

Related Posts by Taxonomy, by keesiemeijer, does exactly what the name says: posts with the most terms in common go to the top. It works across multiple taxonomies and post types, lets you include or exclude terms and posts, and can limit by date, number or post meta. Output can be thumbnails, links, excerpts or full posts, using a widget, the [related_posts_by_tax] shortcode, or automatic display after the content (the FAQ explains how to set that up).

The “extended features” are opt-in and aimed at people comfortable with hooks: a persistent cache for the query, a REST API, theme template functions, and loading the list with Ajax after the page has loaded. That last one is the second JavaScript option we warned about. Leave it off if crawling matters to you. If you have spent time getting your categories and tags right, this plugin rewards that work directly.

Pick it if: your taxonomy is clean, you like control, and you want something small.

From WPBrigade, this one is built around a grid of thumbnails under the post, with the title or excerpt under each image. You choose the relation type (categories, tags, both, random or custom taxonomies), the thumbnail size, colours, borders, text sizes and excerpt length, plus a default image for posts without one. It appends automatically, and you can turn that off and use a PHP function, a widget, the [related-posts-thumbnails] shortcode or a Gutenberg block instead.

The listing does not mention caching, and “random” is not really related posts. Fine for a visual blog.

Pick it if: you want an image grid and a lot of style settings without writing CSS.

Inline Related Posts, now run by Data443, puts related post boxes inside your content rather than after it. It can automatically place several boxes per post, detects line breaks so it does not split paragraphs or headings, and offers more than 20 style combinations. The listing does not explain how it picks the related posts, so check the results on a handful of your own articles before rolling it out.

A link mid-article reaches people who never get to the bottom. Just watch the count, because automatic boxes plus your own links add up fast. Our guide on how many internal links per post is worth a look before you set “multiple boxes” on everything.

Pick it if: you want mid-article recirculation without editing every post.

Full disclosure: we make JnK Linkweave. It is mainly an internal linking plugin, and related posts is one feature of the Pro version, so if a related posts widget is all you want, one of the free plugins above is the simpler pick. Here is exactly what it does. You add the shortcode where you want the list, and it shows 3 to 6 posts (5 by default) as a plain HTML list of title links, with an optional short excerpt. There are no thumbnails, no automatic placement and no block, so it goes wherever you put the shortcode and nowhere else. The posts are ranked by the same content-similarity engine that powers Linkweave’s link suggestions, which uses BM25 by default with TF-IDF as the alternative. Results are cached per post and refreshed when that post is saved, so a normal page view does not recompute them. If a list comes out empty, people who can edit the post see a short note saying why, and visitors see nothing.

Pick it if: you already want Linkweave for in-text link suggestions and would like a related list from the same engine.

What about Yoast’s internal linking suggestions?

This comes up a lot, so it gets its own section. Yoast SEO Premium lists “smart internal linking suggestions” among its features. Those are suggestions shown to you while you write, so you can add links inside your own text. They are not a block your readers see under the article. Different job, different audience.

The writer-side tools are arguably the more valuable of the two, because a link inside a sentence beats a template block. If that is what you are after, our roundup of the best WordPress internal linking plugins compares the dedicated tools, and the Link Whisper review goes deep on the best-known one. A related posts plugin will not do that work for you, and a suggestion tool will not put a “Read next” list on your posts.

The no-plugin option

Before you install anything, two alternatives are worth a minute.

A hand-picked “Further reading” block. At the end of a post, add a heading and three links you chose yourself. It costs zero queries, it is always plain HTML, and the picks are better than any algorithm because you know which post is genuinely the next step. The downside is upkeep: you only do it for posts you are actively editing, and new posts never appear in old lists. For a small blog or your top 20 articles, this is often the best option on the page. Reusable blocks or synced patterns help if the same list belongs on several posts.

Your theme’s built-in block. Many themes ship a “you might also like” section. Some are fine. Some run an uncached query on every view, or forget to exclude the current post. Check the cost with Query Monitor and the HTML with View Source. If it passes both, keep it and skip the plugin.

On WooCommerce, remember that product pages already show related products out of the box. Our post on internal linking for WooCommerce covers how that fits with linking from blog posts to products, which is where most shops have the bigger gap.

Which to pick, by situation

  • A normal blog, a few hundred posts, messy tags: Contextual Related Posts. Content matching does not care how carefully you tagged.
  • Clean categories and tags, and you like control: Related Posts by Taxonomy.
  • Jetpack already installed and connected: turn on its Related Posts and see if you like the results before installing anything else.
  • Large site on modest hosting: something that does the work ahead of time or caches it. Related Posts for WordPress (computed in the admin) or Contextual Related Posts (cache plus indexes). Then measure.
  • Visual blog (recipes, travel, design): Related Posts Thumbnails, or Contextual Related Posts with thumbnails on.
  • Readers leave halfway through long articles: Inline Related Posts, used sparingly. Also look at the other causes in our guide to reducing bounce rate in WordPress, since a related block only helps people who are already looking for something next.
  • You want related posts mainly to rescue posts nothing links to: any server-rendered plugin, then run an orphan audit before and after. Finding orphaned pages in WordPress gives you the number to compare.
  • Small blog or a handful of key posts: skip the plugin and write a “Further reading” list by hand.
  • YARPP already running fine: no need to rip it out today. Keep an eye on its update date, and have a replacement in mind.

Whichever you pick, do the two checks once after setup: Query Monitor on a post to see what the block costs, and View Source to confirm the links are in the HTML. Cap the list at three to six posts and leave it alone. Time spent fiddling with its settings is better spent adding two good links inside your best articles.

Frequently asked questions

For most blogs, Contextual Related Posts. It is free, it was updated in October 2026, it matches posts on their title and content using MySQL FULLTEXT indexes, it caches its output, and it gives you automatic placement plus a block, a shortcode and a widget. If your categories and tags are well organised, Related Posts by Taxonomy is a smaller alternative that matches on shared terms.

Is YARPP still maintained?

As of October 2026, the WordPress.org listing shows YARPP’s last update as 11 November 2024, tested up to WordPress 6.7.10. That does not mean it stopped working, and many sites still run it. It does mean it is behind the other plugins in this roundup, which are tested with WordPress 7.0 or 7.1, so for a new install we would start with Contextual Related Posts.

No. A hand-written “Further reading” list of three links at the end of a post costs nothing to run and usually picks better posts than any algorithm. Many themes also include a related posts section. A plugin makes sense when you have too many posts to curate by hand and want every article covered automatically.

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