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Better Recent Comments

By Kestrel

Communication & Messaging / Notification Management

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

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

Better Recent Comments Review - In-Depth Analysis

Enhance the Recent Comments widget with more flexibility and options. Display recent comments anywhere using a shortcode.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.71/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 16+ reviews)

Active Installations

2,000+

Update Frequency

Below 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

The default Recent Comments widget is somewhat limited. Better Recent Comments improves on this by providing a more flexible widget with options to show the user's actual comment, as well as show avatars and the ability to show or hide the comment date.

As well as the widget, there's a handy shortcode you can use to display your recent comments. This is useful if you need to display comments somewhere other than your sidebar or footer, such as on your homepage. Simply add the shortcode [better_recent_comments].

That’s not all! The plugin is also WPML compatible, which means that the comments will be restricted to those in the current language. The default WordPress widget will list all recent comments, regardless of language, so you might end up with comments for German-language posts in the sidebar of your English site. Better Recent Comments solves this and makes sure the comments are for the current language only.

Translations currently provided in Spanish, French and Italian.

Options available with the shortcode include format, number of comments to display, date format, avatar size, post status, post type, excerpts, and replies.

Comparing to Alternatives

Better Recent Comments stands out in the recent comments plugin category with its rich display options and user-friendly customization, offering a more informative and visually appealing alternative to default WordPress widgets.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Displays comment avatars and actual comment text for better context
Highly customizable with shortcode and widget options
Simple and clean design that enhances site aesthetics
No known security vulnerabilities, ensuring safe use

Weaknesses

Lacks per-widget or per-shortcode excerpt length control
Customization options may require reading documentation to fully utilize
No pro version available for advanced features

User Sentiment Analysis

With a high average rating of 4.8 out of 5 based on 16 reviews, users overwhelmingly appreciate the plugin's functionality and design, with no reported low-star complaints.

Positive highlights

'Great plugin! Works perfectly with many output options.' – litbes
'Shows a nice avatar AND the actual comment. Perfect.' – Topher
'Beautiful and simple.' – scopie
'Best way to add a recent comments widget, easy to customize.' – Rick Hellewell
'Looks perfect! Much better than the in-built WordPress widget.' – bibblybob

Common complaints

Weaknesses

No way to set excerpt length per widget or shortcode
Suggested workaround for excerpt length affects entire site, which is invasive

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a visually appealing and easy-to-customize recent comments plugin that enhances user engagement with avatars and comment excerpts.

Not ideal for

Those needing fine-grained control over excerpt lengths per widget or shortcode may find this plugin limiting without additional coding or site-wide changes.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers extensive customization options, including widgets and shortcodes with multiple display settings, sufficient for most users.

Final Verdict

Better Recent Comments is a highly rated and secure plugin that significantly improves the display of recent comments with avatars and excerpts, making it a valuable addition for WordPress sites looking to enhance user interaction. Its ease of use and customization options make it a strong choice among alternatives. However, the lack of per-widget excerpt length control may be a drawback for users wanting more granular customization.

Overall, this plugin offers excellent value as a free solution with no known security issues, making it suitable for most users. Those requiring advanced excerpt management might need to consider other options or custom solutions.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Better Recent Comments plugin.

Avatar

Comments

Shortcode

Widget

Wpml

Screenshots

FAQ

To add the widget, go to Appearance -> Widgets, and find the ‘Better Recent Comments’ widget in the list, then drag to any widget area. You can then set the title for the widget, the number of comments to show, and choose to show or hide the comment avatars, dates, comment text and post link.

If you would prefer to use the shortcode to set more specific options, add a Text widget to yout sidebar instead, and then add the [better_recent_comments] shortcode to your widget.

There is no built-in option for this, but you can set the length of the comments by adding the following code to your site.

In the code below change ’10’ to the number of words you would like. If you are using the [better_recent_comments] shortcode, make sure to add the excerpts="true" option.

add_filter( 'comment_excerpt_length', function( $number_of_words ) {     return 10; } );

Contributors and developers

“Better Recent Comments” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Kestrel

Free Version Docs

WPS

6.71

Average

Ratings

4.8 out of 5 | 16

Version

1.2.0

Last updated

2 years ago

Active installations

2,000+

WordPress version

6.5.13 or higher

PHP version

7.4 or higher

Languages

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Better Recent Comments Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (16)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (0)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.71

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