Add Featured Image to RSS Feed

75 Quality Score

Active Installs

15/30

With roughly 2,000 active installs, this is a niche utility plugin serving a narrow but real need, not a broadly adopted tool.

Update Freshness

25/25

The plugin was last updated on June 26, 2026, and is tested against WordPress 7.0, indicating the developer is actively maintaining it.

User Rating

13/15

A score of 86 out of 100 from 12 ratings reflects solid user satisfaction, though the small sample size limits how much weight this should carry.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads and zero resolutions suggest either that the plugin works without issues or that users have nowhere to turn when problems arise.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Compatibility scores perfectly, with a minimum requirement of WordPress 2.9.0 and confirmed testing on 7.0, covering an unusually wide range of installations.

Scores higher than 40% of indexed plugins

About

Adds the featured image attached to posts to the beginning of the post content and excerpt in RSS feeds.

Active Installs 2k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.3/5

Last Updated 2026-06-26 4:29pm GMT

Requires WordPress 2.9.0+

Tested Up To 7.0.4

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

Add Featured Image to RSS Feed injects each post's featured image at the top of the post content and excerpt inside your WordPress RSS feed. This ensures subscribers using feed readers see the thumbnail inline rather than encountering a text-only entry. It works automatically on standard post types without requiring template changes.

Who It's For

This plugin is built for publishers who depend on RSS subscribers for traffic, particularly food blogs, news outlets, magazines, and photography-heavy sites where visual previews drive click-throughs. It is also helpful for any site owner who has noticed their feed looks bare in readers like Feedly, Inoreader, or NetNewsWire compared to the visual website.

Who Should Skip It

If your audience primarily consumes content through email newsletters, social media, or on-site browsing rather than RSS readers, this plugin adds no value. Sites that already include featured images via their theme's feed template or that want full control over image placement and sizing should look elsewhere.

The Bottom Line

Add Featured Image to RSS Feed does one thing and does it well, with strong maintenance signals and full compatibility scoring, though its tiny user base and absent support track record give pause. It earns a quality score of 75.18 out of 100, which is decent but not outstanding, and is best treated as a set-and-forget utility for feed-reliant publishers. If you want guaranteed help if something breaks, look at alternatives with active support communities.

Related Plugins

WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub) 85/100

Pick WebSub if your priority is push-based feed delivery speed to subscribers, not adding featured images to feed content.

Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 84/100

Choose this if you need to display recent posts with thumbnails in sidebar or footer widgets on your site, rather than in your RSS feed.

Quick Featured Images 83/100

Select Quick Featured Images if you need bulk management of featured images across many posts, which is a different problem than feed display.

Conditionally display featured image on singular posts and pages 82/100

Pick this alternative if you want fine-grained control over when featured images appear on actual post and page views, not feeds.

GN Publisher: Google News Compatible RSS Feeds 81/100

Choose GN Publisher if your main goal is optimizing feeds specifically for Google News inclusion, with featured images as part of a broader schema and feed strategy.