9 Best WordPress News Plugins in 2026 (Completely Free)

A news website constantly keeps an eye on all big-to-small stories in its niche. If you lose focus on the systematic workflow, then you may lose traffic.

As a blog website that shares constant WordPress news, SiteNerdy understands this workload. To help you effectively manage your content, you need the right tools.

In this article, we have a handpicked list of the best WordPress news plugins. We’ve considered factors like features, pricing, user ratings, and active users.

Go through these best WordPress plugins for news sites to get maximum engagement. Now, let’s start!

Comparison of the Best WordPress News Plugins

In a hurry? Here’s a comparison table of the best plugins for WordPress news sites.

Keep reading to find out more details!

9 Best WordPress Plugins for News Websites

There’s a wide range of features that news websites require. Accordingly, we’ve listed some of the most ideal, essential, and top plugins for WordPress news sites.

1. Ditty

Ditty, previously referred to as Ditty News Ticker, is a popular multi-functional WordPress plugin for showcasing news content. It lets you display your latest news and custom text through options such as News Ticker, Slider, and List.

Moreover, you can improve your news website experience. That’s through moving, scrolling, and sliding functionalities for the news content.

Plus, it lets you customize your news content with built-in options. You can use custom code to further enhance the layouts. In addition, it has extensions, like:

Key Features

• You can use date ranges, weekly settings, and daily settings to schedule the visibility of your Ditty items.
• Add Facebook and Instagram posts and images for news updates.
• Insert several RSS feeds and XML data feeds to your news website.
• Ability to show your news content in customizable, responsive grids.
• Select specific posts to include in Ditty items through queries and post types.

Pricing

Ditty is a freemium WordPress plugin with both free and premium versions. You can download the free plugin from the WordPress.org plugin directory to upload to your website. Otherwise, you can install the plugin right inside your admin area.

These are the pricing plans of the premium version based on the number of sites:

• Single Site: $29/year or $89 for lifetime.
• 2-5 Sites: $49/year or $149 for lifetime use.
• Unlimited Sites: $99/year or $299 for a one-time payment.

2. RSS Aggregator by Feedzy

If you plan to launch a news website with automatic functionality, then here’s RSS Aggregator by Feedzy. Its main aim is to quickly import unlimited RSS feeds within a few minutes.

This can be news feeds, YouTube video feeds, or any kind of possible RSS feeds. Hence, you can simply curate content and create an autoblog, even for news sites.

Not just news, but auto-publishing of images, categories, and tags is also possible. In fact, you can embed RSS content through shortcodes, blocks, and widgets.

Key Features

• Select feeds based on post, pages, or post type that you want to show.
• Filters like keyword, time range, and conditions (contains, equals, etc.).
• Feedzy can detect duplicate and unique items on your website.
• Lets you automatically delete old, outdated, or time-sensitive imports.
• You can assign imported posts to a specific author profile.
• Ability to schedule imports hourly, daily, weekly, or on custom schedules.

Pricing

Feedzy is also a freemium WordPress plugin. Just like any other WordPress plugin, you can install the free plan on your WordPress dashboard.

If you seek premium features without restrictions, go with one of these plans:

• Personal: $99/year, 1 site, smart filters, unlimited imports, and more.
• Developer: $199/year, 3 sites, priority support, AI content transform, etc.
• Agency: $399/year, 50 sites, premium support, free content translation, etc.

3. Blog Designer Pack

If you want a news website that stands out, then here’s the Blog Designer Pack plugin. It can work like a news page builder to create a news site with different layouts.

Some of the news layouts include news grid, slider, carousel, list, masonry, grid box, news ticker, news vertical scrolling, etc.

Key Features

• Offers 6 shortcodes with 2 designs for every news layout.
• 1 post ticker shortcode and 2 widgets for latest posts and vertical scrolling.
• 5 different pagination options like Ajax pagination, infinite scroll, and more.
• Compatible with Elementor and WPBakery Page Builder.
• Lets you filter news based on categories and tags.

Pricing

There are both free and premium pricing schemes for this plugin. As said before, you can download and install the free plugin on your WordPress website.

If you want all the advanced features, then pick a plan based on the billing period:

• Annually: $39/year for 1 site license, free setup and installation, and more.
• Lifetime: $99 one-time payment for 1 site license and all premium features.

4. GN Publisher

Dream of listing your news content on Google News? Then, here’s GN Publisher.

This plugin creates RSS feeds that comply with the Google News RSS Feed Technical Requirements. That’s how your website can appear in the Google News Publisher Center.

Generally, this plugin aims to reduce RSS compatibility issues. That includes incomplete articles, duplicate images, missing images, title errors, and more.

Key Features

• Lets you apply for Google News or troubleshoot existing issues.
• Supports Flipboard, PublishPress Authors, TranslatePress, Yandex Turbo, etc.
• Include Google News sitemap for showcasing your news on Google.
• Provides content scraping protection in the premium version.
• Latest Google ping and feed fetch times to troubleshoot empty sections.
• Pings Google automatically when feeds update to speed up content updates.

Pricing

GN Publisher is also a freemium WordPress plugin. It’s downloadable from WordPress.org. So, you can install the free plugin in your WordPress dashboard.

The paid version, on the other hand, is available on these plans based on site license:

• Personal: $99, 1 site license, pro features, 1 year of updates, and support.
• Multiple: $129, 3-sites license, and all Personal plan features.
• Webmaster: $199, 10-sites license, and all Multiple plan features.
• Freelancer: $249, 25-sites license, and all Webmaster plan features.
• Agency: $499, unlimited-sites license, lifetime updates, and all features.
• Lifetime: $999, 1 site license, and all Agency plan features.

5. EleSpare

If you’re using the Elementor page builder, then one option is EleSpare. It offers 350+ pre-designed templates that you can import with one click.

Moreover, it includes several post layouts. This involves news ticker, banner, post grid, post timeline, and more.

Key Features

• Header and footer builders with widgets like logo, search, tagline, etc.
• Supports Gravatar and icons.
• Customize the templates for colors, fonts, and layouts as per your brand.
• Includes category-based display designs to choose from.
• Post query controls, such as category selection, order, number of posts, etc.

Pricing

If the free features are enough for your news website, then simply install it on your WordPress dashboard. Or download it from WordPress.org and upload it to your site.

To get access to more templates and widgets, here are its premium pricing plans:

• Standard Pro: $29, 300+ template kits, 30+ pro widgets, and more.
• Power Bundle: $89, Standard Pro features, premium News themes, etc.
• Pro Plus: $44, demo installation support, and all Standard Pro plan features.

6. T4B News Ticker

T4B News Ticker is one of the best news ticker plugins for WordPress. It lets you easily add breaking news bars and scrolling text to your website. This lets you highlight your latest updates, special announcements, or trending posts. 

In addition, you can create and showcase several news tickers on the same page. One easy way to do that is duplicating existing tickers with a simple click.

Plus, you can export and import your custom ticker settings between websites. How cool is that?

Key Features

• Offers 7 animation styles, including fade, ticker, scroll, and slide.
• Lets you show the latest posts by category, tag, or custom text with links.
• Provides order, speed control, and visitor controls (pause, play, skip).
• Includes shortcodes to add news sliders anywhere on your website.
• Pull continuous scrolling text data automatically from RSS feeds or JSON.

Pricing

You can find both free and premium plans of the T4B News plugin. The free version is present at the WordPress.org plugin repository. Just install it on your site.

If you check out its website, then you’ll find the following premium pricing plans:

• Annual: $19 per year with all premium features.
• Lifetime: $49 for lifetime use with access to all paid features.

7. Vertical News Scroller

Vertical News Scroller, as the name suggests, enables live scrolling of news tickers. This can include unlimited news items in your sidebar, footer, or page section.

Further, it works as a native Gutenberg ‘News Scroller’ block that you can insert. It also supports a classic widget that you can drag and drop to widget areas. Another way is placing the scroller anywhere through shortcodes.

Key Features

• Offers two scroll styles, including jQuery scroller and marquee-style scroll.
• Lets you control scroll speed, direction, height, width, and padding.
• Ability to show complete news content or just the title.
• Insert a custom link to any news item that opens in the same or a different tab.
• Two visual styles, i.e., default and card, that let you match your site.

Pricing

Vertical News Scroller is a freemium WordPress plugin. Just install the free plugin right inside your WordPress dashboard.

If you visit its official website, you can purchase its premium version. The cost is $13.13. It includes all paid features, future updates, and dedicated support.

8. News Ticker Widget for Elementor

Another news ticker plugin for the Elementor page builder is News Ticker Widget for Elementor. Simply put, this plugin lets you display your latest news and posts in different formats. That includes marquee and slider formats.

On top of that, you can filter your posts by chosen categories and taxonomies. Furthermore, this plugin now even supports custom post types. 

In addition, it lets you customize post titles with spacing, text color, font-family, etc. Plus, you can change the background color of the news ticker, too.

Key Features

• You have control over the news ticker speed.
• Separate news posts with icons, text, a featured image, or post date.
• Ability to control the number of posts that you want to display.
• Pause the news ticker on mouse hover while reading or opening a post.
• Display or hide initial labels for your news tickers.

Pricing

This Elementor add-on plugin is completely free. You can install the plugin in your admin area for free. This adds the ticker functionality to your news website.

9. TopNewsWp

Lastly, TopNewsWp is one of the well-known WordPress news plugins that lets you display news in different layouts. This includes grid, list, ticker, featured, etc.

In fact, you can also display news based on categories. For example, business, sports, politics, education, health, etc. News can be on posts or pages, as you want.

Note that the ticker option is available in the premium version. So, if you need to showcase breaking news with a ticker, then you must buy this plugin.

Key Features

• Supports 128 famous newspaper sources for external news from 54 nations.
• Set the number of news items, title word count, news description length, etc.
• Let your readers zoom into the news’ images.
• Offers a widget to add the news content anywhere on your website.
• Ability to distinguish active and inactive news. Plus, gives order by options.

Pricing

The free features are available in the WordPress.org plugin directory. Just install the plugin on your WordPress news website.

If you want exclusive features or need many sites license, then the paid plans are:

• Single Site License: $29.99 for 1 site license and all premium features.
• Agency License: $79.99 for 5 site licenses and all premium features.
• Enterprise License: $179.99 for 20 site licenses and all premium features.

Wrapping Up

Every WordPress news plugin serves a purpose for your news website. Some add the ticker feature, some offer layouts, while some add automatic feeds.

This list points out the features and pricing of the best WordPress plugins for news websites. Based on your needs, choose a plugin. Best of all, these are free.

For more features and site usage, most of them even offer exclusive features. But which plugin did you prefer using? Comment below.

Meanwhile, check out our other blogs on the popular types of websites and how to create an autoblog with WordPress. Also, find out the best WordPress countdown timer plugins.

Lastly, follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X for more WordPress updates.

FAQs