jmarreros

This Plugin allows to use an external image as Featured Image, this can be especially useful if you house your images in another location.
This Plugin is compatible with Nelio External Featured Image Metadata, so you can reuse your data in case you want to uninstall Nelio Plugin.

External URL Featured Image

It is what I was looking for: simplicity.

$external_image = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_dcms_eufi_img', true );

Works well for me

Use an external url image as Featured Image for your posts, pages, and other kind of post types.

Archivarix Support

Archivarix

Archivarix External Images Importer scans your posts and pages for external URLs in src/srcset attributes of all img tags. Based on configured settings, the plugin can:
<ul>
<li>Download images from their original external sources</li>
<li>Download images from Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)</li>
<li>Try to download from original source first, then from Internet Archive if failed</li>
<li>Try to download from Internet Archive first, then from original source if failed</li>
<li>Restore missing local images (404) from Web Archive</li>
</ul>
You can choose what to do with images that could not be downloaded:
<ul>
<li>Keep image unchanged</li>
<li>Remove image from post completely</li>
<li>Replace with 1×1 pixel placeholder</li>
</ul>
<h4>Key Features in Version 2.0</h4>
<ul>
<li>Full compatibility with WordPress 6.9</li>
<li>Modern AJAX interface with real-time progress</li>
<li>Background processing – you can close the browser while processing continues</li>
<li>Detailed import statistics and logs with CSV export</li>
<li>Custom filename patterns support</li>
<li>Automatic restoration of missing local images</li>
<li>srcset attribute support</li>
<li>Custom post types support</li>
<li>Invalid URL detection and handling</li>
<li>Improved error handling and logging</li>
<li>Responsive design for all devices</li>
</ul>
Available in English, Russian (Русский), Spanish (Español), French (Français), Portuguese (Português), and German (Deutsch).
For more information, visit the <a href="https://archivarix.com/en/wordpress/" rel="nofollow ugc">plugin documentation</a>.

Archivarix External Images Importer

Works great!
I imported several posts into a site running WordPress 5.9.3 with Gutenberg and the Archivarix External Images Importer plugin imported the external images without any issues. I've tested a few other image importer plugins but none of them had the ability to scan a site and import from existing content like this one does.

Works with Gutenberg

Import external images in posts and pages from external sources or Web Archive if original sources are not available anymore.

External URL Featured Image vs Archivarix External Images Importer