Best emoticons plugins for WordPress
The most popular emoticons plugins for WordPress in November 2026, in WordPress.org’s own popular order, which follows active installs. Native Emoji leads with 5K+ active installs, ahead of Really Disable Emojis (700+) and Keep Emoticons as Text (700+). All 15 plugins tagged “emoticons” are below, with figures from WordPress.org that update every day.
Installs aren’t everything: a recent release, a “Tested up to” that matches the current WordPress, and support threads that get resolved show a plugin is looked after. Open any plugin for its downloads, rank history and alternatives.
Research this niche or see all plugins.
Top 10 emoticons plugins
- 1.
Native EmojiThe most installed emoticons plugin, with 5K+ active installs. Rated 3.7 from 19 reviews, last updated 8 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.9.35.
- 2.
Really Disable Emojis700+ active installs. Rated 4.9 from 8 reviews, updated 6 days ago.
- 3.
Keep Emoticons as Text700+ active installs. Rated 5.0 from 8 reviews, updated 3 months ago.
- 4.
TinyMCE Smiley Button500+ active installs. Only 1 review so far, last updated 6 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.5.24.
- 5.
Compressed Emoji200+ active installs. Only 3 reviews so far, updated 2 months ago.
- 6.
TinyMCE Emoticons100+ active installs. Rated 3.3 from 6 reviews, last updated 11 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.1.42.
- 7.
Emoji Emoticons100+ active installs. Only 1 review so far, last updated 13 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 3.4.2.
- 8.
Convert Emoticons Font Awesome10+ active installs. No reviews yet, last updated 6 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.4.25.
- 9.
WP Smiley Switcher10+ active installs. Only 1 review so far, last updated 18 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 2.6.
- 10.
Plugin Name10+ active installs. No reviews yet, last updated 10 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.4.34.
All 15 plugins tagged “emoticons”
Native Emoji
Down in the last 7 days:9#3,130by Danny BS8 years ago
Insert emojis in your posts, pages, custom post types, and comments
- Installs
- 5K+
- Rating
- 3.7(19)
- Downloads
- 21/day
Really Disable Emojis
Up in the last 7 days:7#7,683by Christian Leuenberg6 days ago
Disables the automatic emojis (smilies) replacement function. Really! :-)
- Installs
- 700+
- Rating
- 4.9(8)
- Downloads
- 11/day
Keep Emoticons as Text
Up in the last 7 days:15#7,821by Geek Goddess3 months ago
Disables the default WordPress option of converting emoticons to image smilies
- Installs
- 700+
- Rating
- 5.0(8)
- Downloads
- 11/day
TinyMCE Smiley Button
Down in the last 7 days:25#8,555by Cople6 years ago
Add Smiley Button to TinyMCE.
- Installs
- 500+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 11/day
Compressed Emoji
Down in the last 7 days:24#12,550by Mustafa Uysal2 months ago
Same emoji, but compressed. It helps to serve emoji via your server.
- Installs
- 200+
- Rating
- 5.0(3)
- Downloads
- 11/day
TinyMCE Emoticons
Down in the last 7 days:61#14,210by Byte Labs11 years ago
TinyMCE Emoticons plugin helps to add emoticons in posts and pages easily.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 3.3(6)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Emoji Emoticons
Down in the last 7 days:96#14,212by Guilherme Baptista13 years ago
Support for Emoji Emoticons: http://www.emoji-cheat-sheet.com/
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Convert Emoticons Font Awesome
Down in the last 7 days:211#30,584by Gallagher Website Design6 years ago
Converts emoticons to Font Awesome icons.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
WP Smiley Switcher
Down in the last 7 days:797#40,460by Jenst18 years ago
Change your smileys to another smiley pack or use your own smileys.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Plugin Name
Up in the last 7 days:3,290#40,528by Z.com byGMO10 years ago
GMO TinyMCE Smiley is a plugin to let you instantly add smilies into your site from the toolbar.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
LM-Easy-Emoticons
Down in the last 7 days:306#45,474by lamb-mei12 years ago
Easy way to use Emoticons.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Tango/GNOME Smilies
Down in the last 7 days:4,471#45,703by Jeff Waugh17 years ago
Replace the blocky default (GIF) smilies with beautiful Tango/GNOME (PNG) smilies.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Slim WordPress
Down in the last 7 days:1,927#47,104by ggriesser9 years ago
Send your site on a diet and remove unnecessary WordPress features!
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
WP Emo-ello
Down in the last 7 days:11,379#47,340by viphat11 years ago
Fontello Emoticons can be inserted using either HTML, shortcode or a built-in TinyMCE plugin. This plugin also replaces Wordpress' smileys.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
Custom Smilies Directory
Down in the last 7 days:11,921#48,005by Jose Pardilla14 years ago
Light plugin that tells WordPress to load Smilies from your theme's directory. This allows you to use custom Smilies without loosing them when yo …
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day