Hao Nguyen

Init Recent Comments is a developer-friendly plugin that lets you display the latest comments anywhere via a simple shortcode. It uses clean HTML, minimal CSS, and fully customizable templates.
No widgets, no bloated options. Just lightweight, extendable code — made for real sites.
Key design goals:
<ul>
<li>Templated rendering with override support from themes</li>
<li>Clean CSS you can disable or replace</li>
<li>REST-ready architecture (future-proof)</li>
<li>No jQuery, no nonsense</li>
</ul>
Perfect for blogs, news sites, or anyone who wants a better way to show active discussions.
This plugin is part of the <a href="https://en.inithtml.com/init-plugin-suite-minimalist-powerful-and-free-wordpress-plugins/" rel="nofollow ugc">Init Plugin Suite</a> — a collection of minimalist, fast, and developer-focused tools for WordPress.
GitHub repository: <a href="https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-recent-comments" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-recent-comments</a>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Simple shortcode: <code>[init_recent_comments]</code></li>
<li>Template-based rendering (<code>comment-item.php</code>, <code>wrapper.php</code>)</li>
<li>CSS can be disabled to use your theme’s design</li>
<li>No widgets, no jQuery, no frontend bloat</li>
<li>Developer-ready: extend with filters, REST, and lazy loading (planned)</li>
<li>Translation-ready (<code>.pot</code> included)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Usage</h3>
Use the shortcode anywhere:
<pre><code>[init_recent_comments number="5" maxheight="400px"]
</code></pre>
Attributes:
<ul>
<li><code>number</code> – Total comments to show (default: 5)</li>
<li><code>maxheight</code> – Optional max height with scroll and hidden scrollbar (example: <code>300px</code>)</li>
</ul>
To override templates, create the folder in your theme:
<pre><code>your-theme/
└── init-recent-comments/
 ├── wrapper.php
 └── comment-item.php<h3>Filters for Developers</h3>
</code></pre>
This plugin provides multiple filters to help developers customize caching behavior and performance for recent comments, reviews, and total comment count queries.
<code>init_plugin_suite_recent_comments_ttl</code> 
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for recent comments. 
Applies to: Recent Comments Query 
Params: <code>int $ttl</code>
<code>init_plugin_suite_recent_comments_query_args</code> 
Allows developers to modify or extend the WP_Comment query arguments before the query runs. 
Applies to: Recent Comments Query 
Params: <code>array $args</code>
<code>init_plugin_suite_recent_reviews_ttl</code> 
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for recent reviews. 
Applies to: Recent Reviews Query 
Params: <code>int $ttl</code>
<code>init_plugin_suite_total_comments_ttl</code> 
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for total approved comment counts by post type. 
Applies to: Total Comments Query 
Params: <code>int $ttl</code>, <code>array $post_types</code>
<code>init_plugin_suite_total_by_posts_ttl</code> 
Control the cache TTL (in seconds) for total approved comment counts across multiple post IDs. 
Applies to: Total by Post IDs Query 
Params: <code>int $ttl</code>, <code>array $post_ids</code>
<h3>License</h3>
This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later. 
You are free to use, modify, and distribute it under the same license.

Init Recent Comments – Templated, Modern, Minimal

Display recent comments with customizable templates and clean CSS. Lightweight, flexible, and built for modern WordPress sites.

purva24

nidarshana

shruti_11

Saumya

nikita08

Advanced Widget Pack plugin comprises of seven widgets: Author Details, Author List, Popular Posts, Featured Posts, Recent Comments, Random Posts and Recent Posts. 
Author Details: This widget displays author gravatar and allows you to align the gravatar to left or right. It also allows you to display author description which is already given by the user in his profile or you can add custom description.at the end you can add a read more link which will take you to your desired page and another option to display author\’s archive link. 
Author List: This widget displays names of all authors who have published a post. It allows you to exclude one or more authors from the list by adding their IDs. you can also limit the number of authors to display.
Popular Post: By default, the title for this widget is Popular Posts. You can specify the title of your choice if you want. 
You can also specify the number of popular posts to be displayed in the \”Number of Posts\” field. By default, 5 popular posts will be displayed. 
There are two radio buttons to sort the popular posts according to the number of views and number of comments. You can select either of the two options. By default, popular posts are sorted according to views. 
After the radio buttons, there are check-boxes. You can select any number of check-boxes to display the content related to the posts.
Random Posts: This widget displays the posts in random order each time your window refresh. 
First field is the title field where you can specify the title of your choice. By default, the title is Recent Posts. 
Then there are check-boxes. You can select any number of check-boxes to display the content related to the posts. 
In the \”Number of Posts\” field, you can specify the number of posts to be displayed. By default, 5 recent posts will be displayed.
Recent Posts: This widget displays the recent posts in your sidebar. 
First field is the title field where you can specify the title of your choice. By default, the title is Recent Posts. 
Then there are check-boxes. You can select any number of check-boxes to display the content related to the posts. 
In the \”Number of Posts\” field, you can specify the number of posts to be displayed. By default, 5 recent posts will be displayed.
Recent Comments: This widget is used to display the most recent comments on your website. 
In the title field, you can specify the title for your widget. You can select the check-boxes if you want to display the comment text and the commentator\’s gravatar respectively. 
You also specify the number of recent comments to be displayed.
Featured Posts: You can change the default title in the title field and number of posts to display. 
You can select any number of check-boxes to display the content related to the posts. 
You can choose to display the posts belonging to a particular category only.

Advance Widget Pack

This plugin displays the featured posts, recent posts, recent comments, popular posts, author details and author list.

Init Recent Comments – Templated, Modern, Minimal vs Advance Widget Pack