Samuel Coskey

This is another simple plugin to show a list of posts from your blog. 
Use the <code>[postlist]</code> shortcode on any post or page.
The shortcode supports several options:
<ul>
<li>
category: If defined, show posts only from this category. 
Specify the category using its slug identifier. If you provide 
multiple comma-seperated category slugs then they will all be 
included.
</li>
<li>
tag: If defined, show posts only from this tag. Specify the tag 
using its slug identifier. If you provide multiple comma-seperated 
tag slugs then they will all be included.
</li>
<li>
style: One of list (default) or post. If it 
is list, then the list style is indented and bulleted. If it is post 
then the title is promoted to <code><h2 class="upcoming-entry-title"></code> and 
the list style is plain.
</li>
<li>
text: One of none (default), excerpt, excerpt-formatted, 
or normal. If it is excerpt, then the post excerpt is shown, similar 
to search results. If it is normal then the full post (up to 
the <code>[more]</code> tag) is shown.
</li>
<li>
more_text: Specify the text to append onto truncated excerpts. 
Defaults to <code>...</code>.
</li>
<li>
null_text: If no results are returned, shows this text. 
Defaults to <code>(none)</code>.
</li>
<li>
class_name: If defined, adds this class name to the generated <code><ul></code> 
element. Useful for custom styling.
</li>
<li>
show_date: If defined, the post date will precede the post title.
</li>
<li>
date_format: If showing the date, this php date format will be 
used. The default is the Date Format value from the General Settings 
page. I recommend <code>"F j, Y"</code>, which displays as “May 12, 2012”.
</li>
<li>
q: Arbitrary &-separated arguments to add to the query. See the 
<a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query/#Parameters" rel="nofollow ugc">WP_Query</a> 
page for available syntax. For example, to show only three posts and 
you want to show them in ascending instead of descending order, you would 
write <code>[postlist q="posts_per_page=3&order=ASC"]</code>.
</li>
</ul>
The output can then be further formatted using CSS. We recommend the 
plugin <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imporved-simpler-css/" rel="ugc">Improved Simpler 
CSS</a> for 
quickly styling your post list (and your site)!
This plugin can also be easily made into a widget by placing the shortcode 
into a text widget, and activating the <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shortcodes-in-sidebar/" rel="ugc">Shortcodes in 
sidebar</a> 
plugin.
Report bugs, give feedback, or fork this plugin on 
<a href="http://github.com/scoskey/Simple-post-listing-wordpress-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.

Simple post listing

Use the [postlist] shortcode to show a list of posts.

TechWebUX

Aleksandar Urošević

Posts per Cat is a simple plugin that grab all or only selected categories from blog database, and then list recent N posts from each category, organised in 1-5 columns.
If you are interested to acquisition of plugin, please <a href="https://urosevic.net/wordpress/contact/?subject=Posts-per-Cat%20Acquisition" rel="nofollow ugc">contact us</a>.
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>choose how many boxes per row will be displayed (one, two, three, four or five)</li>
<li>define number of post titles to display per category</li>
<li>define category ID’s to exclude</li>
<li>define category ID’s to include</li>
<li>toggle displaying of child categories</li>
<li>ordering boxes by category ID, title or custom (manually entered category ID’s as include list)</li>
<li>toggle displaying sticky posts</li>
<li>toggle usage of custom list CSS</li>
<li>SEO optimized permalink URI’s</li>
<li>integrate to template file, use shortcode [ppc] with options or widget</li>
<li>ready for localisation</li>
<li>template system for single post line in box defined by user in plain HTML with macro keywords for post elements</li>
</ul>
<h4>Shortcode options</h4>
You can use shortcode [ppc], with options below (set option in shortcode to override default settings above):
<ul>
<li><code>columns=2</code> – Number of columns (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5)</li>
<li><code>minh=0</code> – Minimal height of box (in px, set to 0 for auto)</li>
<li><code>include=category_ID's</code> – Include category (comma separated category ID’s)</li>
<li><code>exclude=category_ID's</code> – Exclude category (comma separated category ID’s)</li>
<li><code>parent=0</code> – Only top level categories (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>order=ID</code> – Order categories by (ID, name or custom)</li>
<li><code>catonly=0</code> – Only from displayed category archive (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>noctlink=0</code> – Do not link category name (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>more=0</code> – Standalone link to archives (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>moretxt="More from"</code> – Archive link prefix</li>
<li><code>posts=5</code> – Number of headlines per category block</li>
<li><code>porderby=date</code> – Order posts by date, modified, title, name, ID, author</li>
<li><code>porder=DESC</code> – Order sorting DESC or ASC</li>
<li><code>titlelen=34</code> – Headline length (in characters)</li>
<li><code>shorten=0</code> – Shorten headline (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>commnum=0</code> – Display comment number (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>nosticky=0</code> – Hide sticky posts (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>excerpts=none</code> – Show excerpt (none, first or all)</li>
<li><code>content=0</code> – Use post content as excerpt (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>excleng=100</code> – Excerpt length</li>
<li><code>thumb=0</code> – Show thumbnail with excerpt (0 or 1)</li>
<li><code>tsize=60</code> – Thumbnail size, set size in px for thumbnail width (height is same); or set in format WIDTHxHEIGHT (example 220×123); or set predefined custom image size (thumbnail, small, medium, large, full or cusotm defined)</li>
</ul>
Since version 1.4.0 you can use template to display custom formatted output (post line element). Example: 
 [ppc]
<h3><a href="%link%" rel="nofollow ugc">%title_short%</a></h3>
<pre><code>(<a href="%comments_link%">%comments_num% comments</a>)
%date% @ %time%
<a href="%author_posts_url%">%author_displayname%</a>
%thumbnail%
%excerpt% <a href="%link%">[read more]</a>
[/ppc]
</code></pre>
Supported macros:
<ul>
<li><code>%title%</code></li>
<li><code>%title_short%</code></li>
<li><code>%post_content%</code></li>
<li><code>%excerpt%</code></li>
<li><code>%thumbnail%</code></li>
<li><code>%link%</code></li>
<li><code>%comments_num%</code></li>
<li><code>%comments_link%</code></li>
<li><code>%comments_form_link%</code></li>
<li><code>%datetime%</code></li>
<li><code>%date%</code></li>
<li><code>%time%</code></li>
<li><code>%author_displayname%</code></li>
<li><code>%author_firstname%</code></li>
<li><code>%author_lastname%</code></li>
<li><code>%author_posts_url%</code></li>
</ul>

Posts per Cat

Group recent posts by category and show them inside boxes organized to columns.

Simple post listing vs Posts per Cat