Auto Prune Posts
View on WordPress.orgScores higher than 13% of indexed plugins
About
Auto deletes expires (prunes) posts after a certain amount of time. On a per category basis (single category, or all at once.
Security History
What It Does
Auto Prune Posts automatically deletes WordPress posts after they expire, either across all categories or scoped to a specific category. It runs on a per-category or site-wide basis, letting you schedule cleanup of time-sensitive content without manual intervention. In practical terms, you set the rules once and the plugin quietly trims old content from your database.
Who It's For
This plugin fits operators of news sites, job boards, real estate listings, classifieds, event calendars, and press release archives where listings have a natural shelf life. It also works well for community forums and moderators who want old threads pruned automatically. If your content becomes irrelevant or stale after a defined window, this plugin handles the tidy-up.
Who Should Skip It
Sites with evergreen content, small blogs with fewer than a few hundred posts, or anyone who wants granular per-post expiration control rather than category-wide rules should look elsewhere. Developers comfortable writing a wp_cron-based snippet in code can replicate this functionality without installing a plugin.
The Bottom Line
Auto Prune Posts does one narrow job and appears to do it competently, with active maintenance and no compatibility complaints. The unresolved support thread, small install base, and missing PHP version requirement mean it is a reasonable option but not a standout versus WP Bulk Delete or WP-Sweep. Score it a 66.8 out of 100: a capable niche tool with limited proof of community trust.
Related Plugins
Pick this when the main goal is broader database hygiene, including revisions, transients, and orphaned metadata, not just post expiration.
Pick WP-Sweep when you want a thorough one-click database cleanup that covers orphaned data beyond what Auto Prune Posts targets.
Pick WP Bulk Delete when you need flexible filtering by author, status, taxonomy, or date and want both bulk deletion and scheduled pruning.
Pick Media Cleaner when orphaned images and attachments are the bigger cleanup pain point rather than expired posts.
Pick Advanced WordPress Reset when you are wiping or resetting an entire staging or development site, not maintaining a live production install.