linux4me2

This widget allows you to insert arbitrary Text and/or HTML code (optional) to precede a list of recent posts by category. It makes it easy to add introductory comments and to achieve interesting effects like wrapping your posts list around an image. It’s designed to be lightweight and easy on resources.
<blockquote>
Note: Widget Blocks, added in WordPress 5.8, make this plugin no longer necessary. The same results can be obtained by using a Widget Group, Heading Block, Custom HTML Block, and the Latest Posts Block. The latter also allows the use of multiple categories, which is not available with this plugin. Unless something major happens to change things, I won’t be developing the plugin beyond the current version (2.0.0).
</blockquote>

HTML Plus Recent Posts by Category Widget

Like the Legacy Recent Posts widget, but adds the ability to select the category and add text or HTML before the list of posts.

Kybernetik Services

Martin Stehle

WP Cool Tools

List the most recent posts with post titles, thumbnails, excerpts, authors, categories, dates and more!
Although the plugin is built only for widget areas users reported that it works in Elementor and works in Oxygen. Whether it runs in other page builders is unknown. Please let me know in which page builder you were able to use the plugin successfully.
The plugin does not collect any personal data, so it is ready for EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
<h4>Lightweight, simple and effective</h4>
No huge widget with hundreds of options. This plugin is based on the well-known WordPress default widget ‘Recent Posts’ and extended to display more information about the posts like e.g. thumbnails, excerpts and assigned categories. And it provides more options to build custom-taylored posts lists.
The thumbnails will be built from the featured image of a post or of the first image in the post content. If there is neither a featured image nor a content image then you can define a default thumbnail.
You can set the width and height of the thumbnails in the list. The thumbnails appear left-aligned to the post titles in left-to-right languages. In right-to-left languages they appear right-aligned.
<h4>What users wrote</h4>
<ul>
<li>“This plugin performs a simple task but one that I find to be invaluable.” <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/simple-but-invaluable-plugin/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by funkster on July 1, 2025</li>
<li>“I just want to say thank you for developing such a good plugin.” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/thanks-for-developing-such-a-great-plugin-4/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by modelaid on July 3, 2024</li>
<li>“Excellent plugin!” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excellent-plugin-8567/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by mystnick on April 18, 2023</li>
<li>“… one of the dynamic and smart, yet admin and user optimized widget plugins …” in <a href="https://www.sktthemes.org/wordpress-plugins/add-widgets-wordpress-website/" rel="nofollow ugc">How to Add Widgets and Start Using Them in WordPress Website?</a> by SKT Posts Themes on September 3, 2020</li>
<li>“بهترین افزونه های نمایش آخرین نوشته ها در وردپرس” in <a href="https://modirwp.com/%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%86%D9%87-recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails/" rel="nofollow ugc">ابزارک آخرین نوشته وردپرس</a> by Ghodsi on December 16, 2019</li>
<li>“Another good all around widget, suitable for most projects” in <a href="https://howto-wordpress-tips.com/free-wordpress-recent-posts-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">Free WordPress recent posts widget – Which one is the best?</a> on December 3, 2019</li>
<li>“In just a few clicks, your website will look considerably more established and professional.” in <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/website/wordpress-thumbnail-plugins" rel="nofollow ugc">3 Best WordPress Thumbnail Plugins to Manage Images Perfectly</a> by HubSpot Staff on October 29, 2019</li>
<li>The best of the recent posts widgets in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/the-best-of-the-recent-posts-widget/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by noddemix on June 13, 2019</li>
<li>Number 8 in <a href="https://ideiasdig.com/14-plugins-para-otimizar-seu-site/#8Recent_Posts_Widget_With_Thumbnails" rel="nofollow ugc">14 Plugins para Otimizar seu Site</a> by Ideias Dig on November 8, 2018</li>
<li>“Truly EXCELLENT Plugin!” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/truly-excellent-plugin/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by dnuttal on October 11, 2018</li>
<li>“Easier than making an egg, seriously.” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/easier-than-making-an-egg-seriously/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by djackofall on October 2, 2017</li>
<li>“This plugin is INCREDIBLE” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-you-also-have-one-for-most-popular-posts/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by lucio7 on August 25, 2017</li>
<li>Widgets Users Will Love in <a href="https://speckyboy.com/free-wordpress-widget-plugins/" rel="nofollow ugc">10 Ultra-Useful Free WordPress Widget Plugins</a> by Eric Karkovack on June 16, 2017</li>
<li>listed in <a href="https://wpteamsupport.com/wordpress-plugins-engage-visitors/" rel="nofollow ugc">20 WordPress Plugins that Steals Attention to Engage Visitors of Your Site</a> by WP Team Support on March 6, 2017</li>
<li>Number 1 in <a href="https://www.nimbusthemes.com/8-essential-wordpress-widgets-to-supercharge-your-website/" rel="nofollow ugc">8 essential WordPress widgets to supercharge your website</a> by Rafay Ansari on January 31, 2017</li>
<li>“Excellent (after trying a few)!” in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excellent-after-trying-a-few/" rel="ugc">reviews</a> by giorgissimo on January 6, 2017</li>
</ul>
<h4>What users filmed</h4>
Some users published video tutorials on YouTube:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKoqcLBHhkM" rel="nofollow ugc">Class 09 – Working with Plugins (Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails)</a> by WordPress Learning Bangladesh on March 7, 2017</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS9WIeaMb6s" rel="nofollow ugc">Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails Setup Tutorial – WordPress Lesson and Tip</a> by Making a Website on April 17, 2016</li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/dqzz8NZc99Q" rel="nofollow ugc">Add Recent Posts Widget with Thumbnail – WordPress</a> by eMediaCoach on August 15, 2015</li>
</ul>
<h4>Options you can set</h4>
<ol>
<li>Title of the widget</li>
<li>Number of listed posts</li>
<li>Open post links in new windows</li>
<li>Different options for post order and sorting</li>
<li>Hide the current post in list</li>
<li>Show only sticky posts</li>
<li>Hide sticky posts</li>
<li>Keep sticky posts on top of the list if not hidden</li>
<li>Hide post title</li>
<li>Maximum length of post title</li>
<li>Show post author name</li>
<li>Label for the author names</li>
<li>Show post categories</li>
<li>Show post category names as links to their archives</li>
<li>Label for categories</li>
<li>Show post date</li>
<li>Show post excerpt</li>
<li>Show number of comments</li>
<li>Excerpt length</li>
<li>Signs after excerpt</li>
<li>Ignore post excerpt field as excerpt source (builds excerpts only from the post content)</li>
<li>Ignore post content as excerpt source (builds excerpts only from the excerpt fields)</li>
<li>Show posts of selected categories (or of all categories)</li>
<li>Show post thumbnail (featured image)</li>
<li>Registered thumbnail dimensions</li>
<li>Thumbnail width in px</li>
<li>Thumbnail height in px</li>
<li>Keep the aspect ratio of thumbnails</li>
<li>Try to take the first post image as thumbnail</li>
<li>Only use the first post image as thumbnail</li>
<li>Use default thumbnail if no thumbnail is available</li>
<li>Always use default thumbnail</li>
<li>Default thumbnail URL</li>
<li>Alternative text of the default thumbnail</li>
<li>Omit all alternative texts of the thumbnails for a better accessibility</li>
<li>Print slugs of post categories in class attribute of LI elements</li>
<li>Print inline CSS instead of creating a CSS file</li>
<li>No CSS generation at all</li>
</ol>
<h4>Useful hints for developers: Supported Hooks</h4>
The plugin considers the output of actions hooked on:
<ol>
<li><code>rpwwt_widget_posts_args</code>
<ul>
<li>passed argument: the query arguments as an array</li>
<li>expected return value: an array of query arguments</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>widget_title</code>
<ul>
<li>passed arguments:
<ol>
<li>the widget title as a string</li>
<li>the widget settings as an array</li>
<li>the widget base ID as a string</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>rpwwt_excerpt_length</code>
<ul>
<li>passed argument: the maximum number of characters for the post excerpt as an integer</li>
<li>expected return value: an integer</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>rpwwt_excerpt_more</code>
<ul>
<li>passed argument: the string to append after the post excerpt</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>rpwwt_the_excerpt</code>
<ul>
<li>passed arguments:
<ol>
<li>the content of the post excerpt field as a string</li>
<li>the post object</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>the_excerpt</code>
<ul>
<li>passed argument: the post excerpt as a string</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>rpwwt_categories</code>
<ul>
<li>passed argument: the category list of each post as a string</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><code>rpwwt_list_cats</code>
<ul>
<li>passed arguments:
<ol>
<li>the category name as a string</li>
<li>the category as an array</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>expected return value: a string</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<h4>Useful hints for developers: Available CSS Selectors</h4>
To design the list and its items, you can use these CSS selectors:
<pre><code>.rpwwt-widget: the element which contains the post list
.rpwwt-widget ul: the list which contains the list items
.rpwwt-widget ul li: the list item in the list
.rpwwt-widget ul li.rpwwt-sticky: the list item of a sticky post
.rpwwt-widget ul li a: link in the list
.rpwwt-widget ul li a img: linked image
.rpwwt-widget ul li a span.rpwwt-post-title: the post title
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-author: the post author
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-categories: the post category list
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-date: the post date
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-excerpt: the post excerpt
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-excerpt .rpwwt-post-excerpt-more: the "more" text following the excerpt.
.rpwwt-widget ul li div.rpwwt-post-comments-number: the number of comments
</code></pre>
<h4>Languages</h4>
The user interface is available in several languages.
Starting from version 7.1.0 the handling for translations are moved to <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails/" rel="nofollow ugc">translate.wordpress.org</a>. 
Please help to translate into more languages, or you can re-work on the current translations if you think it’s needed. 
If you have done your translation, please leave a comment in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/recent-posts-widget-with-thumbnails" rel="ugc">plugin’s support forum</a>. I’ll take care of the review and approval.

HTML Plus Recent Posts by Category Widget vs Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails