Are you searching for the best related posts plugin for WordPress to improve your clicks and user engagement?
WordPress already has quite a few of them. How would you like a tour? We have tested and reviewed many related posts plugins and ranked the best. You can learn more about it down below.
1. WPSolr Pro+
Case studies from Recombee showing click rate increase by 40%.
WPSolr offers a related posts plugin. It offers perfectly accurate recommendations using powerful AI recommenders such as Recombee and Algolia. WPSolr Pro+ powers the recommendations on the side of this post (or any other on this website). The advantage of AI recommenders are that they not only take into account the content of the posts but also the user behaviour and history to tailor the recommendations. They will suggest the most relevant content possible for each user. They also offer different AI models to tune the effectiveness : popularity, most similar, personal, etc…
You can check out our recommendations powered by WPSolr Pro+ on the right side of the screen.
You can easily select the data to send to the recommendation engine; not only the post-type but also it’s taxonomies and fields.
Once the data is sent you can create your recommendations. Create as many as you want.
You can select the template and even create your own (they are twig templates). If you need to tweak an existing template, simply add your custom CSS in the field.
You can place the shortcode anywhere you want to display the information.
WPSolr also integrates into Woocommerce thanks to it’s add-on. You can use it to easily display the product information the users will need.
Pros :
- Instead of relying on a basic SQL based algorithm, WPSolr uses speedy and complex AI models recommend the best possible content for each individual user.
- Choose which type of content will be recommended.
- Place your recommendations anywhere using widgets and shortcodes.
- Many templates to choose from (lists, masonry, grids, sliders), you can even modify them in less than an hour to create your own.
- Allows for tweaking using custom CSS.
- Woocommerce integration to allow for product recommendations.
- Our recommendation providers offer complete dashboards for backend configuration of the recommendation engines and analytics. Create your custom and extremely specific business rules to exclude any type of content (for example, no recommendations for posts released before 2024).
- Comes with personalized search.
2. Contextual Related Posts
The Contextual related posts plugin is very complete.
Using this plugin, you can precisely choose the content that will be displayed. It can display related pages, posts and even taxonomies and for a SQL-based recommendation plugin it can be rather smart : it’s algorithm will not only take into account amtching taxonomies, but will also analyze the title and content of the posts to find the most fitting ones.
You can also set exclusion rules easily : exlude specific posts, post-types or even terms.
It can also grant a lot of freedom when it comes to appearance.
Choose if you want to display the content’s featured images and when that’s done, you can pick the theme. If all that’s not enough, you could even add custom CSS in a dedicated field in the settings.
You can also modify the title and even all of the recommendation’s HTML tags.
But each added feature can slow down your WordPress website. Well to remedy this, Contextual related posts wil automatically cache the related posts so that your pages can load as fast as possible. Of course, if you need to, you can disable this option.
Pros :
- No thumbnail or With thumbnail
- Place related posts anywhere using the settings, a code snippet or even the Gutenberg block editor.
- Exclude display of specific posts or post-types.
- Display addition information for each related post : date, author, category.
- A few style options available or create you own using custom CSS.
- The related products are automatically cached resulting in faster load times.
- Many filters and actions available for developers.
- Caching option to speed up the loading time.
Cons :
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
3. Inline related posts
The Inline related posts plugin is quite different from the others since, as it’s name implies, instead of placing a list of related posts at the bottom of the content, it will spread the recommendations evenly inside the content.
It doesn’t offer a lot of options but this can be a positive since it makes the setup process as easy and fast as possible (the creators advertise a mere 100 seconds setup time).
Once you activate the plugin, you can modify the appearance and layout in the settings.
Choose the theme : the one you choose will determine if the featured images will be displayed. Once that is done, you can set other more minor appearance customization options such as margin, text color, etc…
You can also modify the algorithm used to find related content : use both “categories” and “tags” taxonomies or only one of them.
Pros :
- Very fast to set up.
- Displays related posts inside of the content.
- A few themes available with graphical customization options (some with thumbnails).
- A little bit of query customization : choose which taxonomies will be taken into account.
Cons :
- Only takes into account user set taxonomies, not the keywords in the titles or inside the content.
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
4. Related Posts by Taxonomy
Related Posts by Taxonomy is the related posts plugins for developers. This is because it doesn’t have a settings page or any user interface at all. Instead you need to add a shortcode (default shortcode is [related_posts_by_tax]) or use a provided classic widget.
It offers a lot of customization either using the available custom functions and Hooks or by simply adding the shortcode attributes you want.
Pros :
- Recommends related posts based on the taxonomy.
- Related products with or without images.
- Total freedom for developers : tons of PHP snippets & create your own HTML templates, get related posts using WordPress REST API.
- Place recommendations anywhere using shortcodes or widgets.
Cons :
- Only finds related content using taxonomies (categories and tags).
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
5. Related Post by PickPlugins
Related Post will place related posts at the bottom of any of your chosen post-types. This plugin displays the featured images by default. It differentiates itself from other plugins by not only including a grid layout but also sliders.
You can pick and choose where the recommendations will be placed in the settings. Or you can simply add shortcodes to place them anywhere yourself.
You have customization options like ordering the elements . By default the post title will be at the top of each recommendation but you could also place it at the the bottom if you so choose.
There exists further customization options, too much to talk about here but you can also modify it yourself by adding custom CSS and JS code in dedicated fields.
Pros :
- Choose where to display related content : choose the post-types in the settings page or place shortcodes.
- Grid or slider layout.
- Some customization options and custom css.
Cons :
- Only uses taxonomy to find matching content.
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
6. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin) is a complete plugin. As you can see, this plugin can display related content with thumbnails. It is in a grid and will automatically be added at the bottom of the chosen post-types.
You can choose which posts-types will be recommmended in the settings page. You can also exclude certain content by taxonomy.
The algorithm is also customizable since you can not only decide which properties will be taken into account for the filtering but also apply priority for some.
You can customize the appearance by setting the template that will be used : either a list or a grid with thumbnails. If that does not satisfy your needs, you could also create your own using PHP.
Pros :
- Recommend Posts, Pages and/or attachements.
- More complex and customizable algorithm than most : Find matches based on title, content categories and/or tags.
- Provides templates by default (or create your own with PHP).
- Choose if you want to display images.
- Includes Woocommerce
- Exclude categories or tags.
Cons :
- Default templates seem a bit outdated.
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
7. Related Posts for WordPress
Related Posts for WordPress is an easy to setup plugin with very very little configuration options. What you see here is what you get. If you want more options, you need the Premium version.
It will automatically display the recommendations under the posts (and only posts : no pages or any other post-type) using the taxonomy. The premium version allows you to place them anywhere and overwrite your templates to modify the appearance.
Pros :
- Simple plugin : automatically displays recommendations at the bottom of posts (if you have premium, do this for all post-types and taxonomies).
- Choose to display images.
- Custom CSS.
- Custom weights.
Cons :
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
8. WordPress Related Posts Thumbnails
WordPress Related Posts Thumbnails is a simple plugin that uses taxonomies to suggest relevant content.
You can choose from the settings page which taxonomy the filtering should be based on.
When it comes to appearance, you can choose if it should display images. You also have a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to customizing the appearance. For example you can decide if the the layout should be in blocks or a list.
You can also choose if you wish to display additional information such as categories or date.
Pros :
- Displays related items with images.
- Show Posts, pages and/or attachements.
- Display additional informations such as categories or dates.
- A few graphical styling options.
- Base relations on categories, tags or both.
Cons :
- Only uses (SQL) content-based filtering. This means that there is no personalization : on the same post everyone will see the same related posts.
- No custom CSS option or alternative templates.