dcannon1

Small, lightweight (under 7k) widget that shows posts from the same category as the current post. Several options for customization along with numerous ordering criteria for posts. Displayed only on single post pages. Based on Related Links by Category by Andrew Stephens
Options
<ul>
<li>Title – Set the title of the widget (or leave blank)</li>
<li>Number of Posts to Show – Set how many posts are listed in the widget</li>
<li>Order By – Choose how the related posts will be ordered (including random posts)</li>
<li>Show Category Names – Toggle whether category names are displayed above groups of posts</li>
<li>Link Cat Name to Archive – If category names are being shown, choose to have them link to the category archive page for that category</li>
<li>List Posts Multiple Times? – If a post is classified under multiple categories use this toggle to determine if it will be shown under each category, or only under the first category it shares with the current post. This should be set to no if you are not displaying the category names</li>
</ul>

Brecht

Custom Related Posts is a user friendly plugin for manually adding related posts to any of your posts, pages or custom post types. You have full control over those related links, choosing for yourself if they go both ways.
An overview of the features:
<ul>
<li>Set which post types the plugin is active for yourself</li>
<li>Easily define relations in one or both ways on the post edit page</li>
<li>Display related posts with a shortcode, widget or block</li>
<li>Optionally show featured images in any size</li>
<li>Import from XML using post IDs</li>
<li>Compatible with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg Block Editor</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
Need help? 
 Check out <a href="https://help.bootstrapped.ventures/collection/155-custom-related-posts" rel="nofollow ugc">our documentation</a>!
</blockquote>
This plugin is under active development. Any feature requests are welcome!

Custom Related Posts


I am using it for more than few years. Its perfect.


Awesome


Simple and light, it is all I need for my project. The Gutenberg integration is pretty cool and UI is easy to work with. Thank you.


Works perfectly


Plugin does its job and it is very usable to integrate in large projects. However, author should be caution to announce plugin HTML output change as breaking changes.


A fine plugin!

Manual related posts without slowing down your website!

Related Posts by Category Widget vs Custom Related Posts