Best external plugins for WordPress
The most popular external plugins for WordPress in November 2026, in WordPress.org’s own popular order, which follows active installs. Simple Iframe leads with 6K+ active installs, ahead of GDPRess (1K+) and Cloak Affiliate Links for WooCommerce (1K+). All 37 plugins tagged “external” 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 external plugins
- 1.
Simple IframeThe most installed external plugin, with 6K+ active installs. Rated 4.7 from 17 reviews, last updated 2 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.6.0.
- 2.
GDPRess1K+ active installs. Rated 5.0 from 8 reviews, updated 5 months ago.
- 3.Cloak Affiliate Links for WooCommerce
1K+ active installs. Rated 4.3 from 12 reviews, updated 1 month ago.
- 4.
Indicate External Links600+ active installs. Rated 5.0 from 7 reviews, last updated 1 year ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.8.12.
- 5.Better WordPress External Links
400+ active installs. Only 4 reviews so far, last updated 12 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 3.9.40.
- 6.
Multiple external product URLs for WooCommerce400+ active installs. Rated 4.6 from 7 reviews, last updated 5 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.7.21.
- 7.External URL Featured Image
300+ active installs. Rated 3.9 from 8 reviews, last updated 6 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.5.24.
- 8.
Easy External Links300+ active installs. Rated 5.0 from 16 reviews, last updated 10 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.4.34.
- 9.WC External Variations
300+ active installs. Rated 5.0 from 8 reviews, last updated 1 year ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.8.12.
- 10.
Nofollow External Links (SEO)100+ active installs. Only 3 reviews so far, last updated 2 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.5.14.
All 37 plugins tagged “external”

Simple Iframe
Down in the last 7 days:2#2,849by unapersona2 years ago
Easily insert iframes inside the block editor.
- Installs
- 6K+
- Rating
- 4.7(17)
- Downloads
- 27/day

GDPRess
Up in the last 7 days:6#6,239by Daan van den Bergh5 months ago
GDPRess can be downloaded for free without any paid subscription from the official WordPress repository.
- Installs
- 1K+
- Rating
- 5.0(8)
- Downloads
- 11/day
Cloak Affiliate Links for WooCommerce
Down in the last 7 days:10#6,817by datafeedr1 month ago
Cloak your WooCommerce external & affiliate links.
- Installs
- 1K+
- Rating
- 4.3(12)
- Downloads
- 17/day

Indicate External Links
Down in the last 7 days:11#8,103by cubecolour1 year ago
Indicates external links in post, page and custom content.
- Installs
- 600+
- Rating
- 5.0(7)
- Downloads
- 11/day
Better WordPress External Links
Up in the last 7 days:14#9,781by Khang Minh12 years ago
Gives you total control over external links on your website.
- Installs
- 400+
- Rating
- 5.0(4)
- Downloads
- 0/day

Multiple external product URLs for WooCommerce
Down in the last 7 days:29#9,884by Pawel Cmachowski5 years ago
Plugins gives you ability to add multiple external product URLs on WooCommerce product edit page.
- Installs
- 400+
- Rating
- 4.6(7)
- Downloads
- 0/day
External URL Featured Image
Down in the last 7 days:32#10,162by jmarreros6 years ago
Use an external url image as Featured Image for your posts, pages, and other kind of post types.
- Installs
- 300+
- Rating
- 3.9(8)
- Downloads
- 0/day

Easy External Links
Down in the last 7 days:2#10,386by Jorge A. Gonzalez10 years ago
Take control of external links in WordPress posts, pages & comments. Insert rel=external nofollow and target=_blank to all your external links.
- Installs
- 300+
- Rating
- 5.0(16)
- Downloads
- 6/day
WC External Variations
Down in the last 7 days:33#10,841by Impossible Dreams Network1 year ago
A WordPress plugin that adds basic support for external products to WooCommerce variations/variable products. No longer under active development as of …
- Installs
- 300+
- Rating
- 5.0(8)
- Downloads
- 0/day

Nofollow External Links (SEO)
Down in the last 7 days:84#13,471by ViitorCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd2 years ago
It automatically set all external links to "nofollow" in website content.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 3.7(3)
- Downloads
- 0/day

WP Autoset Featured Image Plus
Down in the last 7 days:46#13,799by lucia.intelisano11 years ago
Check for an image inside text editor or use external images from anywhere as the featured image of your pages and posts.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 3.7(6)
- Downloads
- 0/day

Add External Media
Down in the last 7 days:174#15,347by leemon7 years ago
Add external media to the media library
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 4.7(3)
- Downloads
- 6/day

Easy Digital Downloads
Up in the last 7 days:24#16,354by DigitalME9 months ago
Adds a robust third-party product system to Easy Digital Downloads
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 5.0(2)
- Downloads
- 6/day

External url as post Featured Image (thumbnail)
Up in the last 7 days:329#16,389by Puvox Software2 years ago
[ ✅ 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐔𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐒 b𝓎 𝒫𝓊𝓋𝑜𝓍] Set External-URL as post thumbnail url.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 5.0(2)
- Downloads
- 0/day

RB External Thumbnail
Up in the last 7 days:406#18,351by Rodrigo Brito9 years ago
Enable thumbnail field to external images. You can use external images as thumbnails in the blog posts. A simple and practical way.
- Installs
- 70+
- Rating
- 5.0(3)
- Downloads
- 0/day

iFrame Me
Down in the last 7 days:83#27,008by soysudhanshu5 years ago
Easily add iframe with a simple shortcode. [iframe_me]https://example.com[/iframe_me]
- Installs
- 20+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

External Content
Down in the last 7 days:269#27,238by Thorsten Frommen11 years ago
This plugin registers a custom post type to handle external content like any other post. The post permalink is replaced by a custom post meta that hol …
- Installs
- 20+
- Rating
- 4.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Hosted Content Importer (HCI)
Up in the last 7 days:220#29,374by Bimal Poudel6 years ago
Embeds a remotely hosted content. Contributors can edit a tiny piece of your blog text externally, without having ANY access to your website.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(2)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Blank Target Replacement
Down in the last 7 days:102#29,478by Nicki Faulk7 years ago
A target=_blank replacement using a small piece of javascript and rel=external.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
Vulners Scanner
Down in the last 7 days:228#30,041by Vulners.com2 years ago
This is a WordPress plugin using Vulners service. It helps one to find vulnerabilities in OS packages and installed WP-plugins using Vulners scanner A …
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

MediaFlock
Down in the last 7 days:218#30,619by delphiknight2 months ago
Scan WordPress posts for external media files and import them into your media library with full control and detailed logging.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 6/day
rel=”external” in a New Window
Down in the last 7 days:149#30,700by Alex Moss15 years ago
Opens a new window with rel="external" instead of having to use target="_blank" or target="_new"
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 3.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Chromeless Widgets Page
#32,244by Nick Halsey3 months ago
Chromeless Widgets Page is a framework for building a specific-use page at a custom URL. Once you specify the URL slug, you can add widgets to the pag …
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

Flexible AB Results
#38,711by Easy Development12 years ago
Flexible AB Testing is an easy to use plugin that will help you handle your A/B Testing in less than a few minutes.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

Iframe for Gutenberg
Up in the last 7 days:6,708#40,927by adeleyeayodeji2 years ago
Easily insert dynamic iframes inside the block editor.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

Show External Links
#42,024by webaction7 years ago
With the plugin Show External Links easy to find all the external links on the pages of the site.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 1.0(1)
- Downloads
- 1/day
BP External Activity
#42,388by Boone Gorges16 years ago
Allows admins to import data from an arbitrary RSS feed into their BuddyPress sitewide activity stream
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
External Link Redirection
Down in the last 7 days:5,048#42,689by engasm894 years ago
The WordPress External Link Redirection plugin allows you to manage your site's external links and forward people to a waiting page with ads to m …
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 2/day
Remote Post Manager
#48,174by BluBird Interactive11 years ago
WordPress plugin to publish posts to remote site.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

Custom URL Replacer
Up in the last 7 days:428#55,127by Hyperspective1 year ago
Short Description: Replaces anchor text matching an external URL with custom text and can force external links to open in a new tab.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

WP Events Hooks Listeners
#55,472by Shaharia Azam7 years ago
Listen various events from Wordpress Core actions and perform actions. You can setup various workflow based on specific actions happening in Wordpress …
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
URL To Featured Image
Down in the last 7 days:8,723#61,966by François-Régis Ferry10 months ago
Set any external image URL as your post's featured image automatically.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 2/day
SetaLabs External Catalog
Up in the last 7 days:5,800#62,045by setalabscom2 months ago
Connects a SetaLabs-powered external marketplace catalog to WooCommerce. Works with any theme.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 2/day

Post title link
Down in the last 7 days:9,638#62,182by kinjaldalwadi1 year ago
Use to add custom link for post title.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
Media Ranger
Down in the last 7 days:4,328#67,150by Luis Ruiz2 months ago
Imports external images found in post content, downloads them to the Media Library, and replaces their URLs with local ones.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day

Featured Image from External Sources
Down in the last 7 days:15,818#73,502by DADOK - Global Internet Solutions6 years ago
Fastest way to choose Featured Image to your Posts from Yahoo Images, Seznam.cz, etc..
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 2/day
Izzygld Entry Export for Gravity Forms
#73,700by izzy goldman6 months ago
Generate secure, time-limited download links for Gravity Forms entries — allow external users to download CSV exports without WordPress admin access.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day