WPThumbs
Themes Plugins By purpose By industry Best-of lists Fix it guides

Best Free WordPress Plugins for Thumbnails

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Thumbnails

All 15 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for thumbnails comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails Best overall 89/100
  2. 2. Perfect Images: Regenerate Thumbnails, Image Sizes, WebP & A... 88/100
  3. 3. Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin for WordPress 87/100
  4. 4. Maps Widget for Google Maps 86/100
  5. 5. Related Posts by Taxonomy 85/100
  6. 6. Force Regenerate Thumbnails 84/100
  7. 7. Super RSS Reader 84/100
  8. 8. Disable Generate Thumbnails 84/100
  9. 9. Document Gallery 83/100
  10. 10. Generate Images 82/100
  11. 11. Auto Featured Image 81/100
  12. 12. reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced 80/100
  13. 13. ThumbPress 79/100
  14. 14. Video Gallery Block 79/100
  15. 15. Responsive Thumbnail Slider 79/100
4 Maps Widget for Google Maps
Free by WebFactory

Maps Widget for Google Maps

Are your Google Maps slow? Try Map Widget for Google Maps. You'll have a fast Google Maps widget with a thumbnail & lightbox map in minutes!

4.6★
from 512 ratings
30k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 Related Posts by Taxonomy
Free by keesiemeijer

Related Posts by Taxonomy

Display a list of related posts on your site based on the most terms in common. Supports thumbnails, shortcodes, a widget and more.

4.8★
from 77 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
85

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 Super RSS Reader
Free by vaakash

Super RSS Reader

Display any RSS feed(s) in widget with news ticker effect in multiple tabs, thumbnails, customizable color themes and more.

4.6★
from 66 ratings
9k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Document Gallery
Free by Dan Rossiter

Document Gallery

This plugin generates thumbnails for documents and displays them in a gallery-like format for easy sharing.

4.8★
from 112 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 Generate Images
Free by Alexandre Gaboriau

Generate Images

Generate featured images from Bing, GPT Image, Unsplash and more. Automatic, bulk or Gutenberg — based on your post title.

4.3★
from 25 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Auto Featured Image
Free by Themeisle

Auto Featured Image

Automatically generate, assign, and manage featured images in bulk so every post on your site has a featured image.

3.8★
from 118 ratings
40k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced
Free by ShortPixel

reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced

Regenerate thumbnails quickly and easily, including forced regeneration; very useful when changing a theme or adding new thumbnail sizes.

3.2★
from 59 ratings
60k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 ThumbPress
Free by Codexpert, Inc

ThumbPress

The all-in-one WordPress image optimization plugin. Disable thumbnails, compress images, convert to WebP & AVIF, clean your media library, and more.

3.6★
from 110 ratings
20k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 Video Gallery Block
Free by bPlugins

Video Gallery Block

Responsive video gallery block for Gutenberg with YouTube, Vimeo, albums, category filters, thumbnails, captions, and lightbox video popups.

4.2★
from 6 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
15 Responsive Thumbnail Slider
Free by Nks

Responsive Thumbnail Slider

A fast, lightweight responsive thumbnail slider for WordPress — modern animation engine, lightbox, captions, and full theme/builder compatibility.

4.4★
from 23 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org