Most And Least Read Posts Widget
Provide two widgets, showing lists of the most and reast read posts.
The facts
- Rating
- 5★ from 6
- Active installs
- 900+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 14 Aug 2026
- Added
- Aug 2011
- Requires WP
- 2.9
- Tested up to
- WP 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 93,518
Our analysis
AI-assistedThe Most And Least Read Posts Widget is a WordPress plugin designed to generate lists of the most and least read posts on your site. It offers customizable options such as the number of posts to display, the ability to exclude certain titles, and the option to show post hits in different styles. The plugin counts hits from users while filtering out web crawlers and admin visits, storing the data in a custom field.
This plugin is suitable for WordPress users who want to enhance their content visibility by showcasing popular and less popular posts. It is particularly useful for bloggers and website owners looking to engage their audience by highlighting frequently read articles.
Best for: This plugin suits WordPress users who want to display popular and less popular posts on their site.
What it does well
- ✓Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
- ✓Customizable options for post display
- ✓Counts hits without external accounts
- ✓Compatible with multi-language WPML plugin
- ✓Shortcode available for easy integration
Where it falls short
- •Limited information on advanced features or support
- •No details on potential conflicts with other plugins
Verdict
The Most And Least Read Posts Widget provides a straightforward way to showcase post popularity. It is a practical tool for enhancing user engagement on your WordPress site.
From the developer
whiletrue's own description of Most And Least Read Posts Widget, lightly tidied.
“Most And Least Read Posts Widget” is a free plugin for WordPress. developed by Giuliano Polverari (WhileTrue.it) to generate lists of the most and least read posts.
The following options are customizable:
- number of posts to show
- exclude posts whose title contains certain words
- show post hits after the title (style customizable via CSS class)
- exclude posts older than XX days
The plugin starts counting hits once activated, storing them in the “custom_total_hits” custom field without the need of external accounts.
The most popular web crawlers (e.g. Googlebot) are recognized and their hits discarded; also Admin hits are discarded.
Archived post hits are shown in a column inside the backend post list.
The plugin is compatible with multi-language WPML plugin, showing most/least read posts for current language.
Optionally, the number of hits can be shown inside the post content, with:
- a custom phrase, e.g. “This post has already been read XX times!”
- a custom position (above the post, below the post, both)
- a custom CSS style
If you want to show the post hits anywhere inside the template loop, you can the PHP function provided, e.g.:
echo most_and_least_read_posts_get_hits(get_the_ID());
Shortcode
Also, [most_read_posts] a shortcode is available. Use it like this:
[most_read_posts type="most" posts_number="5" show_thumbs="false" date_from="2016-01-01" date_to="2016-04-30"]
Shortcode attributes:
- type: “most” or “least”
- posts_number
- words_excluded
- title_max_chars
- excerpt_max_chars
- show_thumbs: “true” or “false”
- add_line_break_before_thumbs: “true” or “false”
- show_hits: “true” or “false”
- show_hits_text (default: “views”)
- days_ago
- date_from and date_to: if set, overwrite the “days_ago” attribute (format: YYYY-MM-DD)