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Best WordPress Plugins for External

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · External

All Free only 15 Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for external 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. External Links Best overall 86/100
  2. 2. Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO 85/100
  3. 3. External Links in New Window / New Tab 85/100
  4. 4. EXMAGE 85/100
  5. 5. Authorizer 84/100
  6. 6. NewStatPress 83/100
  7. 7. Smart Auto Upload Images 82/100
  8. 8. Local Fonts Uploader 81/100
  9. 9. No External Links 81/100
  10. 10. External Product New Tab for WooCommerce 81/100
  11. 11. Custom API for WP 81/100
  12. 12. GDPRess 81/100
  13. 13. TopNewsWp 80/100
  14. 14. URL Image Importer 80/100
  15. 15. Archivarix External Images Importer 79/100
1 External Links
Best overall Free by WebFactory

External Links

Internal links & external links manager: open in new window or tab, control nofollow, ugc, sponsored & noopener. SEO friendly.

4.3★
from 247 ratings
90k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 EXMAGE
Free by VillaTheme

EXMAGE

Add images using external links - Save your storage with EXMAGE effortlessly

5★
from 33 ratings
6k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
85

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 Authorizer
Free by Paul Ryan

Authorizer

Authorizer limits login attempts, restricts access to specific users, and authenticates against external sources (OAuth2, Google, LDAP, or CAS).

5★
from 20 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
6 NewStatPress
Free by ice00

NewStatPress

NewStatPress (Statpress plugin fork) is a real-time plugin to manage the visits' statistics about your blog (without external web analytics).

4.7★
from 84 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 Smart Auto Upload Images
Free by Burhan Nasir

Smart Auto Upload Images

Import external images automatically on save. Adds to media library and updates URLs. No manual downloads. Works with any post type.

4.3★
from 6 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
8 Local Fonts Uploader
Free by ThemeRuby

Local Fonts Uploader

Easily upload and host fonts locally. Avoid external requests to enhance security, privacy, speed, and GDPR compliance.

5★
from 6 ratings
4k+
active installs
Updated
May 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 No External Links
Free by mihdan

No External Links

Convert external links into internal links, site wide or post/page specific. Add NoFollow, Click logging, and more...

4.8★
from 16 ratings
4k+
active installs
Updated
Apr 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Custom API for WP
Free by miniOrange

Custom API for WP

Connect WordPress with External APIs and create no-code custom WordPress REST API endpoints to interact with the WordPress database to perform SQL ope …

4.8★
from 45 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 GDPRess
Free by Daan van den Bergh

GDPRess

GDPRess can be downloaded for free without any paid subscription from the official WordPress repository.

5★
from 8 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 TopNewsWp
Free by Hossni Mubarak

TopNewsWp

Create and display news in various layouts like Grid, List, Ticker etc. from internal, external and rss sources.

5★
from 7 ratings
800+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 URL Image Importer
Free by Infinite Uploads

URL Image Importer

Import external images into your WordPress Media Library from any URL, CSV, XML export, or Google Drive link. Bulk import, site migration ready.

5★
from 2 ratings
800+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org