Aggregating news is not a new practice. Publications from all around the world have been doing it for decades, first in print, now in digital. Nowadays, you can use WordPress plugins to help you import content, filter, and display it, all automatically.
What hasn’t changed is that aggregating news content requires expertise. The best plugins for WordPress news aggregation can do a lot of the work for you. However, you still have to pick the right news source and the right plugin for your needs.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the best plugins for WordPress news aggregation. We’ll go over what features to look out for, how to choose the right option, and how to set up a news aggregator feed. Let’s get to it!
Key Features to Look for in a News Aggregation Plugin
Essential Features
When evaluating news aggregation plugins, there are several must-have features you should look for:
RSS Feed Importing & Updating is the foundation of any aggregation plugin. Look for plugins that make it easy to add new feeds and set update intervals for them. The best plugins also support unlimited feeds, so you can set up as many news elements as you need.
Feed Filtering and Selection options help fine-tune what content gets imported. This includes keyword-based filters (whitelisting or blacklisting certain terms) so you only show relevant news. For example, you might import a tech news feed but filter out any posts that don’t contain “WordPress”. Advanced filtering is often a premium feature, but it’s one that’s necessary if yo want to fully automate news aggregation.
Customizable Display Templates give you control over how aggregated content appears on your site. Some of the essential display settings you can benefit from in a plugin include showing/hiding elements (title, date, excerpt, source), choosing between multiple layouts, and being able to use custom CSS for advanced modifications.
Multiple Feed Support & Combination is important if you plan to aggregate from many sources. The plugin should handle numerous feed URLs and either display them separately or merge them into one stream. Not all plugins do feed merging in their free versions. Ideally, the plugin can pull from unlimited sources and output a unified feed of all items sorted by date.
Content Attribution Options are important since you’re going to be showing content from other sites. The best plugins for WordPress news aggregation will give you full control over what attribution information to include with imported content.
Advanced Features
In addition to these must-haves, consider these advanced features that can set a plugin apart:
AI-Powered Content Curation is a feature that some content curation and aggregation plugins offer. A couple of the options in this list enable you to use AI integrations to rewrite content and/or spin it.
Social Media & Non-RSS Integration options enable you to publish different types of content beyond RSS feeds. Some RSS aggregators can import YouTube channel feeds as video posts, fetch tweets or Facebook posts, or integrate with other third-party services.
Monetization Options are important if you want to make money from your website. For instance, Feedzy lets you automatically add your affiliate IDs to feed item URLs, which is great for product feeds or deal aggregators.
SEO and Content Control Tools are essential to make sure the content you import doesn’t hurt your rankings. Look for features like the ability to set a canonical URL for imported posts (pointing to the original source) to prevent duplicate content concerns. Plugins importing as full posts might offer a toggle to “noindex” those posts or only use excerpts to ensure you’re not publishing full duplicate text.
5 Top WordPress Plugins for News Aggregation
1. WP RSS Aggregator
WP RSS Aggregator is one of the most widely-used RSS aggregation plugins for WordPress, with over 60,000 active installations. All of the screenshots you’ve seen so far in this article showing aggregation plugin features came straight from WP RSS Aggregator.
The free version provides a solid toolkit: you can import unlimited feeds from unlimited sources and manage them all from the dashboard. You can display feed items using blocks or shortcodes, and the plugin will automatically fetch new items at regular intervals. It also supports auto-discovery of feeds – you can simply input a website URL and it will try to find the feed, which is handy.
Where WP RSS Aggregator really shines is its array of premium features (available through paid add-on plans). By upgrading, you unlock the ability to import feeds as actual WordPress posts (Feed to Post), complete with assigning authors, categories, and images.
Premium plans add powerful filtering options (allowing you to include or exclude posts by keywords, tags, etc.) and customizable templates for display. All of these features make WP RSS Aggregator a popular option for news aggregators and other types of curation projects.
Pros:
- Supports unlimited sources and displays for free
- Offers a lot of customization options and everything you need to create a news aggregator website
- It’s highly scalable. You can start with the free version and add premium features as your project grows
- It offers a well-designed UI with scheduling support
Cons:
- Some advanced features are only available with premium plans
Pricing: WP RSS Aggregator’s premium plans are tiered. The Basic plan starts at $79/year, which includes all the core filtering and template features. The higher tiers (Plus at $149/yr, Pro at $179/yr, and All-Access at $249/yr) add on the Feed-to-Post functionality, full-text retrieval, and additional integrations at the top end.
2. Feedzy RSS Feeds
Feedzy RSS Feeds by ThemeIsle is another top-notch WordPress aggregator plugin. The free version enables you to display multiple RSS feeds on your site via shortcodes or blocks, and it’s known for being very easy to use.
Purchasing a premium Feedzy license unlocks advanced features more geared toward content aggregation at scale. With a Pro license (Personal plan starts around $99/year for one site), you can configure Feedzy to import feed items as WordPress posts (similar to WP RSS Aggregator’s Feed to Post). Premium Feedzy licenses also add features like template customization, keyword filtering, and the ability to automatically add affiliate/referral IDs to links.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and adding feeds to your website is simple
- Strong monetization features for affiliate marketers
Cons:
- The free version lacks a central feed management UI, which means you need to configure feeds manually
Pricing: Feedzy RSS Feeds offers a free version, with premium plans available for users with more advanced needs. The Personal plan starts at $99/year for one site and includes auto-blogging, and affiliate integration features, and multiple templates. Higher tiers — the Developer plan (for up to 3 sites) and the Agency plan (for up to 10 sites) — offer the same feature set with increased site licenses, making them suitable for freelancers and agencies.
3. Super RSS Reader
Super RSS Reader is a bit different from the other plugins we’ve talked about so far. It focuses mostly on displaying RSS feed content in your site’s sidebar or widget areas rather than giving you full control over where you place feeds. The plugin is geared toward news sites, though, and its base layout includes tabbed feed layouts for displaying content from multiple sources, and a news ticker element. With the free version of the plugin, you can add the “Super RSS Reader” widget to any sidebar and configure it to show feed items.
Other core features include some basic styling options (color themes for the widget), the ability to show each item’s date, and to limit the number of items. It’s very easy to set up – and shortcodes are available in the premium version if you want more control over where to place feeds.
The free version of Super RSS Reader comes with some limitations. For example, you need a premium license to combine multiple news sources into a feed. This means the free version of the plugin might not be a good fit unless you only want to display news from a single source.
Pros:
- It’s very easy to set up news widgets on a sidebar
- The news ticker is a somewhat unique element among news aggregator plugins
Cons:
- The free version of the plugin limits you to a single source for your news feeds
Pricing: There’s a free version of Super RSS Reader. Premium licenses offer advanced features like shortcode support, grid and paginated layouts, keyword filtering, and the ability to merge multiple feeds. Licenses start at $25/year for the personal plan for a single site.
4. CyberSEO Pro
CyberSEO Pro is a powerful WordPress plugin focused on advanced autoblogging and content curation. What sets this plugin apart is its wide range of supported content sources. While many aggregation plugins stick to RSS feeds, CyberSEO Pro allows you to import content from RSS, Atom, XML, JSON feeds, HTML pages, CSV files, and even social media platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, and more.
For those who want to import full articles, CyberSEO Pro includes a Full-Text RSS script that can extract complete articles from feeds that only provide excerpts. This is particularly useful when you want to offer your visitors comprehensive content without sending them to another site. Plus, CyberSEO Pro integrates with several AI services to help you automate content rewriting.
The plugin also comes with multilingual support, allowing you to automatically translate imported articles using Google Translate and Yandex Translate services. This feature can help you reach a broader audience by presenting content in multiple languages with minimal effort.
Pros:
- Supports an impressive variety of content sources beyond standard RSS feeds
- AI integration for content rewriting and summarization
- Full-text extraction capabilities for complete article imports
- Multilingual support for translating imported content
Cons:
- Premium plugin with no free version available
- May have a steeper learning curve due to its comprehensive feature set
Pricing: CyberSEO Pro doesn’t offer a free version. A 1-site license costs $34.95/yr, the 10-site license is $149.95, and the 100-site license is $299.95. All licenses come with a year of updates included.
5. WPeMatico
WPeMatico takes a campaign-based approach to content aggregation, organizing feed imports into “campaigns” where you can group multiple RSS feeds with individual settings. This structure makes it particularly useful for news aggregator that need to handle content from many different sources and display it together.
WPeMatico also offers customizable post templates, giving you control over how imported content is structured to match your site’s design. The plugin can also automatically import media files, including images, audio, and video from feeds.
In practice, WPeMatico offers a lot of the same features as WP RSS Aggregator, as well as a similar process for creating campaigns and news feeds. You get full control over how the content looks on your site and how the plugin imports it (as a post, page, or media attachment).
Pros:
- Campaign-based management makes organizing multiple feeds easier
- Flexible scheduling options for timely content updates
- Automatic multimedia import for better visuals
- Import content as pages or posts
- Some integrations are available for free, like support for custom hooks and Polylang (for multilingual news aggregators).
Cons:
- Advanced features like integrations with AI services require premium add-ons
Pricing: WPeMatico offers a free core plugin with essential aggregation features. For enhanced functionality, they offer several premium bundles: the Essentials Bundle at $82/yr (includes Professional and Full Content add-ons), the Plus Bundle at $149, and the Premium Bundle at $199.
How to Choose the Best Aggregation Plugin for Your Needs
Choosing the right aggregation plugin doesn’t have to be complicated. Before you dive in and install the first option you see, take a moment to think about what you’re actually trying to accomplish with your site. I’ve found that answering a few key questions upfront can save you a ton of headaches later.
Here’s what you should consider when selecting a news aggregation plugin:
- Define your content scope. Are you curating niche content for a specific audience or broad news for general consumption? Niche news sites often have to rely more on highly-configurable aggregation filters.
- Determine your desired level of control. Do you want to review content before it appears, or are you looking for a fully automated solution? Some site owners prefer to hand-pick what gets published, while others want content to flow automatically.
- Consider your long-term goals and needs. If you’re building a dedicated news aggregation site handling dozens or hundreds of sources, WP RSS Aggregator is a great fit. The plugin can handle content aggregation at scale without slowing your website down.
- Look for additional features – As your content strategy evolves, you’ll likely want to take advantage of more advanced features, like combining news sources, AI integrations, etc. Pick the plugin that offers the features you want to be able to use in the future, after testing the free versions.
The right choice really comes down to your specific needs. There’s no one plugin that is perfect for any use case but we can safely recommend WP RSS Aggregator for most users and use cases.
Legal and Ethical Considerations of News Aggregation
Before we wrap things up, let’s take a minute to talk about copyright compliance. Choosing the best plugin for WordPress news aggregation doesn’t mean you can avoid providing attribution for the content you import.
As a rule of thumb, always provide proper attribution for the content you display. This typically includes the source name, author (if available), and a link back to the original article. Most aggregation plugins display snippets rather than full content, which generally falls within fair use guidelines. However, displaying full articles without permission can lead to legal issues.
Understanding content rights goes beyond basic attribution, though. Some publishers explicitly prohibit content scraping or republishing in their terms of service. When in doubt, reach out to the content owner for permission.
Consider focusing on sources that use Creative Commons licenses or that explicitly allow content sharing. This reduces your legal risk and it can help you build positive relationships with content creators if you reshare their bylines often.
Monetization Strategies with Aggregation Plugins
If you’re investing time in curating the news, you might as well make some money from it. We’ve tested and talked with users that employ different monetization strategies with news aggregation sites and here’s what actually works.
- Strategic ad placement. Position ads between feed items to monetize user engagement without making the experience feel spammy. Plugins can help you streamline this process in WordPress, but we’re not recommending any specific ad options.
- Native advertising integration. Use ad formats that match the look and feel of your curated content. These typically perform much better than obvious banner ads that users have learned to ignore.
- Affiliate link implementation. You can curate product reviews, deals, and comparison articles from sites with affiliate programs. When your visitors click through and purchase, you can earn commissions, all thanks to aggregated content.
- Premium membership tiers. You can offer exclusive access to curated content from premium sources that aren’t freely available elsewhere or to unique content created by you or your team.
- Value-added compilations. Create “best of” collections or provide expert analyses of the news that you show users. A lot of people go to specific aggregators to get their point of view as well as the news.
Combining these strategies tends to works better than relying on just one. For example, you might use affiliate links in your free content while reserving your most valuable curated resources for members. The key is making sure your monetization efforts don’t ruin the experience for users, whether they pay or not.
SEO Best Practices for News Aggregators
SEO can be tricky when you’re dealing with aggregated content. Plugins can import hundreds of news items to your website per day depending on how many sources you set up. That means it’s not uncommon for sites to deal with duplicate content issues, spam articles, and other problems that can hurt your site’s SEO.
If you want to do content curation right and avoid SEO penalties, here’s what we recommend:
- Use canonical tags. These tell search engines that you’re not trying to compete with the original publisher by pointing to the original source as the authoritative version.
- Apply “noindex” strategically. Consider using this tag for pure feed pages and only allowing search engines to index pages where you add significant original commentary.
- Highlight relevance to your audience. Focus on explaining why the content matters specifically to your readers, adding context the original source might not provide.
- Create internal content connections. Link related aggregated content to relevant original articles on your site, creating a content web that keeps visitors engaged longer.
- Monitor in Search Console. Regularly check Google Search Console to identify and address any duplicate content issues before they affect your rankings.
The key to avoid SEO penalties with aggregated content is “showing” search engines that you’re providing value beyond just republishing content. You’re curating, organizing, and contextualizing news and important information in a way that provides value to visitors.
Future Trends in News Aggregation
Good WordPress plugins never cease to evolve and we’re seeing some very interesting trends in news aggregation tools. Some things to keep an eye out for in the future, regardless of which aggregation plugin you choose, include:
- AI-powered content summarization. You could use AI to provide additional value to visitors by showing them concise summaries of the news they care about.
- Personalized feed generation. It’s not crazy to think that aggregation plugins could show feeds based on personal user information (with their consent) and selections. Personalized elements on the web tend to lead to higher engagement, so this is a development we’re excited to see in aggregation plugins.
For now, focus on using the best plugins for WordPress news aggregation that include the features you actually need. All of the plugins we covered earlier get frequent updates so you’re likely to get to experiment with new features sooner than later.
FAQs
Can I use multiple aggregation plugins?
WordPress lets you use mostly any combination of plugins you want. We recommend against using multiple aggregation plugins, though, as this might lead to conflicts on your website.
How often should feeds be updated?
Feed update intervals should depend on your content sources and audience needs. If a source updates content often, you should set the fetch interval for new items to run frequently.
Is it legal to republish RSS content?
As long as you attribute content properly and don’t reproduce entire articles without permission, republishing RSS content should be OK. When in doubt, always include the author information and link back to the original site.
Conclusion
News aggregation plugins have transformed how WordPress sites can curate and share content. Each of the plugins we’ve discussed offers distinct advantages depending on your specific needs:
- WP RSS Aggregator provides the most comprehensive solution, especially for larger sites or those with complex requirements.
- Feedzy RSS Feeds balances functionality with ease of use, making it perfect for bloggers and small business sites.
- Super RSS Reader offers a simple widget-based approach that’s ideal for supplementary content displays.
- CyberSEO Pro is a great autoblogging solution with AI integration for content generation and support for numerous content sources beyond RSS feeds.
- WPeMatico is a campaign-based RSS aggregator with robust scheduling features and the option to combine multiple sources into individual campaigns.
Your choice ultimately depends on your specific goals, technical requirements, and future plans. For most serious content curation projects, WP RSS Aggregator offers the best combination of features, flexibility, and reliability.
Are you ready to transform your WordPress site into a dynamic content hub? Try WP RSS Aggregator and start curating the best sources today!
