WordPress Related Post Plugins Top Picks for 2025
In the vast WordPress ecosystem, a variety of related post plugins cater to different needs. Among them, YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin), Contextual Related Posts, Intelly Related Posts, Related For WordPress, Custom Related Posts, and Related Post by Pickplugins each offer unique features but vary significantly in terms of performance impact and database load.
YARPP, renowned for its customizability and rich features, supports pages, posts, and custom post types. It can boost pageviews by up to 10%, enhancing visitor engagement and SEO. However, it balances performance and features moderately well, making it suitable for most sites, but potentially requiring a VPS or dedicated host for resource-intensive websites [2].
On the other hand, Contextual Related Posts operates by analyzing keywords contextually. While it provides relevant posts, some hosts, such as WP Engine, flag it as highly database-intensive, potentially causing high CPU load, leading to disallowance due to MySQL and indexing issues [5].
Other plugins like Intelly Related Posts, Custom Related Posts, and Related Post by Pickplugins typically use different algorithms (keyword, taxonomy, or manual selection) but may vary in impact on site speed depending on caching and optimization. A common performance concern is that many related posts plugins make complex database queries on every page load, significantly increasing CPU usage and slowing sites [3][5].
To mitigate these effects, efficient caching strategies, such as using caching plugins like WP Rocket, and CDNs are strongly recommended [1]. Plugins like Contextual Related Posts come with their own unique caching systems to help alleviate this issue.
Related Post by Pickplugins automatically selects and displays posts that are similar to the current article, offering an optional slider view and a way to set up the related posts inside archive pages. Users can also choose the links themselves if they prefer manual selection [4].
Custom Related Posts for WordPress allows users to pick and choose which posts to display and offers bi-directional relationships between posts. It also enables users to change links on certain posts [4].
Intelly Related Posts generates related links for each post, embeds link boxes after natural breaks in content, and pulls related post featured images with proper thumbnails. It can be customized from the backend with a few default color schemes [4].
While many WordPress plugins are free, it's essential to consider the impact on performance and site speed when choosing a related post plugin. Users should carefully test each plugin’s impact on performance and consider caching solutions to minimize CPU and database strain while enhancing related content display.
Technology plays a crucial role in the performance and effectiveness of related post plugins in the WordPress ecosystem, such as YARPP, Contextual Related Posts, Intelly Related Posts, Custom Related Posts, Related For WordPress, and Related Post by Pickplugins. The choice of plugin can significantly impact pageviews, visitor engagement, SEO, and overall site speed.
