/ Plugin Category

/ Content Management

/ Blog & Article Publishing

/ RSS Feed Retriever

RSS Feed Retriever

By Travis

Content Management / Blog & Article Publishing

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

RSS Feed Retriever Review - In-Depth Analysis

The fastest RSS feeds plugin for WordPress. Includes excerpt and thumbnail image. Use as a news aggregator, autoblog, or RSS parsing.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.84/10

User Rating

4.7/5 (based on 38+ reviews)

Active Installations

6,000+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin fetches an RSS feed, or multiple feeds, and displays them in an unordered list using shortcode.

It allows you to fetch as many RSS feeds as you want and display them wherever you want using shortcode, including text widgets. You can control whether to display the entire RSS feeds content or just an excerpt, how many words display in the excerpt, and whether it has a Read more link or not.

This lightweight and fast plugin is easy to set up and can fetch thumbnail images or the first image from the feed. You can also set cache time, control the order of items, and aggregate multiple feeds into one list.

Comparing to Alternatives

RSS Feed Retriever is a strong contender in the RSS feed plugin category, with several viable alternatives available that offer similar functionalities.

Top alternatives

Strengths

High user rating with 89.5% five-star reviews.
Allows customization of feed layout with minimal coding.
Simple and effective functionality for displaying RSS feeds.
Free version supports image display, which is often a paid feature elsewhere.
No known security vulnerabilities as of the latest scan.

Weaknesses

Lacks a block editor implementation for easier use in Gutenberg.
Alters the site's own RSS feed by adding thumbnails, which some users find undesirable.
No default message for empty RSS feeds, leading to error displays.
Compatibility issues with PHP 8 due to lack of recent updates.

User Sentiment Analysis

The plugin enjoys overwhelmingly positive feedback with a 4.7 average rating from 38 users, though a small minority report issues mainly related to compatibility and feature limitations.

Positive highlights

'Excellent works a dream – simple and effective' (hmmcrunchy)
'Best RSS feed Plugin' with customizable layouts (Khubaib Mehmood)
'Does what it says, perfect for our needs' (hammersmithsociety)
'Good for simple implementations' and a great free alternative (vampyris)
'Excellent plugin – one suggestion though' highlighting ease of use (hmmcrunchy)

Common complaints

Not compatible with PHP 8 and has not been updated for over a year.

Weaknesses

Lack of block editor support limits modern WordPress integration.
Alters the site's RSS feed unexpectedly, which can be problematic.
No default message for empty feeds causes error displays.
Compatibility issues with newer PHP versions due to outdated updates.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a straightforward, customizable RSS feed display plugin with strong free features and no security concerns.

Not ideal for

Those needing seamless PHP 8 compatibility, block editor integration, or who prefer plugins that do not modify their site's own RSS feed.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers effective RSS feed display with image support and layout customization options.

Pro version

Premium features typically include advanced customization, additional feed sources, and enhanced support, although specific details are not clearly promoted.

Final Verdict

RSS Feed Retriever stands out with its high user satisfaction, ease of use, and strong free feature set, making it a solid choice for many WordPress users needing RSS feed functionality. Its lack of security vulnerabilities adds to its appeal.

However, the plugin's outdated status, lack of PHP 8 compatibility, and absence of block editor support may deter users seeking modern WordPress integration and up-to-date compatibility. Alternatives may be preferable for those needs.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free RSS Feed Retriever plugin.

News aggregator

Rss aggregator

Rss feed

FAQ

This could be because the source you’re fetching from does not include the featured image in their RSS feed. There is nothing you can do to fix this unless you have control of the source website. If so, you can simply install this plugin on the source website and it will include the featured images within the RSS feed automatically.

You can change the layout via WordPress filters. Add the following code to your themes functions.php file:

function custom_rss_layout_callback( $layout ) {     $layout = array(         'thumbnail',         'title',         'content',         'postdata',     );     return $layout; } add_filter( 'wp_rss_retriever_layout', 'custom_rss_layout_callback' );

In addition, you can add your own HTML to the output if you want to wrap elements. Example:

$layout = array(     '<div class="my-custom-class">',         'thumbnail',         'title',         'content',         'postdata',     '</div>' );

Or, if you only want to display the title:

$layout = array(     'title', );

Here’s an example of how to display an RSS feed with PHP

<?php echo do_shortcode('[wp_rss_retriever url="http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechCrunch/" items="10" excerpt="50" read_more="true" credits="true" new_window="true" thumbnail="200" cache="7200"]'); ?>