Related Posts Thumbnails

Related Posts by WPBrigade will add related posts thumbnails after the post. This Related Posts Plugin allows to customize thumbnail sizes, display settings and type of relation. By default it uses generated by WordPress thumbnail for the first image appeared in the post, that was uploaded on the server with sizes as set in Media settings. You can select any registered WordPress image size (thumbnail, medium, large, medium_large, and theme-registered sizes). You can also specify post custom field name to be used as thumbnails source. Thumbnails are arranged in columns under the post with related posts title/excerpt under each post thumbnail. Colors of background, border, text, text sizes, background on mouse over, title and excerpt length can be customized. See screenshot. You can specify number of related posts to display, start date, categories to show on and to include, top text, style settings, default image URL. You can select type of relation - categories, tags, categories and tags, random or custom taxonomies. You can specify where to display related posts - choose page type (main or single), post type and select categories. You can turn off automatic appending to the end of post and use <?php get_related_posts_thumbnails(); ?> php tag in the Loop of your theme. Related Posts thumbnails sidebar widget is also available. You can use [related-posts-thumbnails] shortcode in the post body. ** This Related Posts plugin has Gutenberg block ** Contributions:

• Thanks to Adnan for giving life to this plugin.

Translations:

• This plugin has Russian version
• Thanks to Li-An this plugin has French version
• Thanks to Gidibao this plugin has Italian version
• Thanks to Kuzu this plugin has Turkish version
• Thanks to Mirko this plugin has German version
• Thanks to Bejana for Indonesian translation

Related Links:

• Plugin Homepage - see possible problems and solutions.
• Rebrand your WordPress login page with LoginPress

External services WPBrigade newsletter (Mailchimp) – The plugin settings sidebar includes an optional newsletter sign-up form. Nothing is sent unless an administrator enters an email address and submits the form. On submit, the entered email address, the optional name, and the plugin identifier (rpt) are sent to https://wpbrigade.com/wpb-api/wpbrigade/v1/subscribe-to-mailchimp, which adds the subscriber to the WPBrigade mailing list hosted on Mailchimp.

• WPBrigade privacy policy: https://wpbrigade.com/privacy-policy/
• Mailchimp terms of use: https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/
• Mailchimp (Intuit) privacy statement: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement/

6.0.0 - 2026-10-19

• Security Fix: Sanitized block attributes before rendering to prevent script injection via the title field.
• Security Fix: Added a capability check to the cache cleanup so non-admins can't trigger it.
• New Feature: Introduced a modern React-powered settings dashboard for a faster, more intuitive setup experience.
• New Feature: Added related post ID caching with a one-click "Purge Cache" option in the admin bar for instant refresh.
• Enhancement: Reorganized settings with a one-time migration from the old format, started after admin confirmation.
• Enhancement: Added a new internal REST API to power the settings dashboard, protected by capability and nonce checks.
• Enhancement: Refactored the related posts query and rendering engine into dedicated classes for better maintainability and performance.
• Enhancement: Added 9:16 as a new Image Size option in the Styles dropdown.
• Enhancement: Top Text is now plain text only; choose its heading style (H1-H6) from the new Title Tag dropdown.
• Enhancement: Taxonomy and category pickers now show the slug next to the label, making similarly named taxonomies easy to tell apart.
• Improvement: Hardened output escaping across AMP and dynamic styles for stronger XSS protection.
• Improvement: Assets now automatically load unminified versions when SCRIPT_DEBUG is enabled, for easier debugging.
• Bugfix: Resolved multiple UI issues in the settings dashboard - mobile layout, tabs, sidebar icon, and color bar rendering.
• Compatibility : Compatible with PHP 8.5
• Compatibility: Tested up to WordPress 7.1.

5.0.1 - 2026-07-16

• Bugfix: Fixed enqueued asset versioning to prevent stale cached CSS/JS after updates.

5.0.0 - 2026-07-15

• New Feature: Introduced related posts by author - Now you can display posts written by the same author (great for multi-author blogs).
• New Feature: Use images from anywhere - Upload images from external sources or CDN instead of just from your WordPress library.
• New Feature: Introduce Cached, faster website - The plugin now caches results automatically, making your site load 3 times faster.
• Improvement: Smarter image loading - CSS and JavaScript now load only when needed, further speeding up your pages.
• Improvement: Better security - Added protections when using external images to keep your site safe.
• Improvement: Live image preview - See how your images look while setting them up in the plugin settings.
• Improvement: Helpful error messages - Get clear, easy-to-understand messages if something isn't quite right.
• Improvement: Quick cache refresh - New button in the admin bar to instantly refresh cached content when needed.
• Improvement: Better multilingual support - Fixed issues with translated content and language handling.
• Improvement: Updated translations - Full support for German, French, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Spanish, Dutch, and Arabic.
• Bugfix: Better styling consistency - Related posts now display consistently across different layouts.
• Compatibility: Works with WordPress 7.0 and newer.

4.3.4 – 2026-05-25

• Enhancement: General code refactoring and internal cleanup.
• Compatibility: Compatible with WordPress 7.0.

4.3.3 - 2026-03-17

• Security Fix: Added nonce verification and capability checks to prevent CSRF attacks.

4.3.2 - 2026-02-12

• Security Fix: Fixed CSRF vulnerability in settings form by verifying nonce first.
• Enhancement: Updated the translation template (POT file).
• Enhancement: Updated translations for German, French, Indonesian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.
• Enhancement: Added translations for Arabic, Spanish, and Dutch.

4.3.1 - 2025-08-06

• Bugfix: The HTML title tag now correctly defaults to its intended value.

4.3.0 - 2025-08-06

• Bugfix: Fixed PHP warnings related to taxonomy handling.
• Bugfix: Resolved date format setting issue in dashboard settings.
• Enhancement: Added new setting to control spacing between title and thumbnail.
• Enhancement: Added new setting to customize HTML tag for titles (default: h2).
• Enhancement: Improved performance with code refactoring and lazy loading implementation.
• Compatibility: Compatible with WordPress 6.8

4.2.1 – 2025-01-15

• Bugfix: Set default value for new introduced settings.
• Bugfix: Fatal Error resolved from v4.2.0
• Enhancement: Code re-factorization and optimization.

4.2.0 – 2025-01-03

• Bugfix: PHP Warning for translation hook.
• Enhancement: Introducing new feature to show 1st image in the article as thumbnail if featured image is not set.
• Enhancement: Introducing new settings to set the width/height of the thumbnail.
• Enhancement: Introducing new settings to set the column of the thumbnails.
• Enhancement: Related Posts is now AMP compatible.
• Compatibility: Compatible with WordPress 6.7

4.1.0 – 2024-09-11

• Security Fix: Fixed Opt-out and Opt-in consent.
• Enhancement: Code re-factorization and optimization.

4.0.1 - 2024-08-22

• Enhancement: Code re-factorization and optimization.
• Compatibility: Compatible with WordPress 6.6

4.0.0 - 2024-06-11

• Enhancement: Implemented a new feature on the dashboard settings page allowing users to "Copy code to clipboard".
• Enhancement: Code refactoring.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.5

3.0.2 - 2023-12-13

• Enhancement: Update the attribute aria-lable value for accessibility.

3.0.1 - 2023-11-14

• BugFix: Heading's font size in list view.
• BugFix: PHP deprecated warnings.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.4
• Compatibility : Compatible with PHP 8.2

3.0.0 - 2023-11-08

• Enhancement: Introducing new dashboard layout for related post settings.
• Enhancement: Code refactoring.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.4
• Compatibility : Compatible with PHP 8.2

2.2.0 - 2023-07-21

• New Feature: Introducing new feature to display category on the related post.
• BugFix: Removed depreciated code.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.3

2.1.0 - 2023-01-10

• BugFix: ACF field with image object, URL or ID field.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.1

2.0.3 - 2022-07-06

• BugFix: Custom field compatible with images object or URL field.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 6.0
• Compatibility : Compatible with PHP 8.1

2.0.2 - 2022-04-19

• BugFix: PHP Warning on Gutenberg block.

2.0.1 - 2022-04-18

• BugFix: The image wasn't displaying with {custom field name} setting.
• Enhancement: Code refactoring.

2.0.0 - 2022-03-22

• New Feature: Introducing date feature with 7 type of date format.
• Enhancement: Added a filter rpt_custom_relationship to get posts from multiple custom post types with same term slug.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 5.9.2

1.9.2 - 2022-02-18

• Bugfix: Border style issue.
• Enhancement: Added a filter relpost_anchor_attr to extend the HTML attributes within the related posts thumbnails anchor tag.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 5.9

1.9.1 - 2021-04-08

• Bugfix: Mobile view layout.
• New Feature : Introducing Lazy Loading filter. Use rpt-lazy-loading filter to enable the lazy loading for thumbnails. By default it's false.
• Compatibility : Compatible with PHP 8.0

1.9.0 - 2021-03-22

• New Feature : Filter to add custom sizes of thumbnails to choose from.
• New Feature : added 'rpt_exclude_post' filter to exclude posts from showing as Related Posts.
• Enhancement : Shortcode attribute to exclude posts from showing as Related Posts.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 5.7

1.8.3 - 2020-03-21

• New Feature : Filter for related posts background image.
• New Feature : Add option to disable related posts on mobile.

1.8.2 - 2019-10-16

• New Feature : Filter for related post top text.
• New Feature : Filter to prevent image size check on inner post images.
• New Feature : Filter to prevent related posts on builders.
• New Feature : Filter to remove related post with empty custom field.

1.8.1 - 2019-06-25

• Bug Fix : Thumbnails are not showing when post thumbnail source is selected.

1.8.0 - 2019-06-25

• New Feature : Added AMP support.
• New Feature : Filter to disable related posts on AMP.
• New Feature : Filter to style list for related posts on AMP.
• Refactor : Remove unused assets for gutenberg block.
• Bug Fix : Fix query for sorting latest posts.
• Bug Fix : Fix empty vairable check on custom field.

1.7.2 - 2019-06-10

• Bug Fix : Sorting issue when latest posts option selected.

1.7.1 - 2019-05-27

• Bug Fix : Compatibility issue with php 5.3 in newly Gutenberg block.

1.7.0 - 2019-05-24

• New Feature : Added Gutenberg block for Related posts.
• Bug Fix : Empty container class name.
• Bug Fix : Unable to show related posts on empty custom field.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 5.2

1.6.6 - 2019-03-18

• Enhancement : Add posts_number & posts_sort attributes in [related-posts-thumbnails] shortcode.
• Compatibility : Compatible with WordPress 5.1
• Enhancement : Compatible with PHP 7.3

1.6.5 - 2018-06-14

• Bug Fix : Last update broke layout because of direct function usage in templates.

1.6.4 - 2018-06-06

• Feature : Add sort by option for Related Posts.
• Enhancement : Add class attribute in list styling, if someone wants to style list Related Posts.
• Enhancement : Move thumbnails source option to its own section.
• Enhancement : Minor style changes in settings page.
• Bug Fix : Fonts are unable to change in list output style.
• Bug Fix : Unclosed div making layout break.
• Bug Fix : Left content alignment is breaking layout.
• Bug Fix : Content of alt tag of Related Posts image is breaking layout.

1.6.3 - 2018-03-26

• Feature : Multilingual Compatible. All text is now translateable.
• Feature : Add filter to left, right or center align Related Posts.
• Feature : Add filter to change priority of Related Posts under posts content.
• Enhancement : Add ALT tag in Related Posts thumbnails.
• Enhancement : Replace input types of some fields form text to number.
• Enhancement : Replace default image URL to gallery image selection.
• Enhancement : Replace some ambiguous field's titles with more clear titles.
• Bug Fix : Fix the undefined index notice on widget title.
• Bug Fix : Fix the image issue in widget.
• Bug Fix : Fix the image issue in thumbnails of Related Posts.

1.6.2 - 2018-02-27

• Feature : Change inline style to class.
• Feature : Add RTL support.
• Bug Fix : Undefined variable on shortcode.
• Bug Fix : Fix encoding tag on excerpt.
• Enhancement : Add color picker on color settings.
• Enhancement : Add date picker on date settings.

1.6.1

• BugFix: Center align output and image.

1.6.0

• Compatible with 4.8
• Multiple bugfixes.

1.5.4

• Fixed Category Settings bug.

1.5.3

• [BugFix] Improved.

1.5.2

• [BugFix] Top Text title allows h1 to h6 tags now.

1.5.1

• [BugFix] Removed deprecated constructors for Related Posts widget. Compatible with PHP 7.0

1.5.0

• Major UI changes for admin settings and compatibility with WP 4.5

1.4.0

• compatibility with WP 4.4

1.3.1

• backwards compatibility with WP 2.9

1.3

• Added support of custom post types and custom taxonomies
• Added multibyte strings support
• Fixed a bug with double quotes in title
• Fixed a bug with stripping shortcodes
• Added Indonesian translation

1.2.9

• Fixed bug: when not all categories selected and tags only, wrong behavior
• Optimized performance
• Searching for post thumbnail in post body if no assigned Featured Image was set
• Added possibility to show only posts with thumbnails for themes, that support Post Thumbnails
• Removed filter, responsible for image existence

1.2.8

• Fixed bug, if category has 1 post and relation is based on categories, than no posts will be shown
• Font-family can have quotes in settings
• Added Turkish and German versions

1.2.7

• Added clean HTML option without plugin CSS, fixed background color change

1.2.6

• Fixed relative custom url

1.2.5

• Fixed selection of categories on plugin settings page

1.2.4

• French version updated

1.2.3

• Added option to set theme php resizing script

1.2.2

• Improved plugin performance with high number of posts
• PHP configuration allow_url_fopen is taken into account
• Added start date to exclude old posts
• Fixed display, only posts now
• Separated categories - which are displayed amoung thumbnails and on which thumbnails are displayed
• Random relation, for random posts display
• PHP 4.3 compatible now according to Wordpress requirements
• tested with Wordpress 3.0

1.2.1

• Thanks to Li-An it now has French version.
• Excerpts will be generated if no excerpt were defined.
• Developer mode to see debugging info in HTML source.

1.2

• added php tag for use in theme
• added option to turn off automatic appending
• set title length 0 for no title
• added excerpt
• added sidebar widget
• added shortcode

1.1.1

• removed PHP warning on settings page somebody may experience
• full HTML support in top text field

1.1

• removed PHP warnings for getimagesize and file if wrong header was received
• fixed Categories and Tags confusion (when you selected Categories relation was based on Tags and vice versa)
• added Categories option to select specific categories
• added post custom field name option as a source for thumbnails

1.0

• Released plugin initial version