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TOP 3 ALTERNATIVES — RANKED
Three you should evaluate first.
Filtered from 12 candidates by feature similarity, audit score, and review velocity. The hero treatment is editorial — these earned more space because the data did.
The Events Calendar: Category Colors
category#1TOP PICK
5.0061 reviews
Not auditedAudit score
Pick if you're surveying the marketplace
Widely used on this marketplace — not a like-for-like swap. AppRanks found no app sharing NS Category Widget's category, so this is not a replacement for it — it is a widely-used category option shown for market context. Compare it against your own requirements rather than as a swap.
Taxonomy Switcher
category#2RUNNER-UP
5.0024 reviews
Not auditedAudit score
Pick if you're cost-sensitive
Adjacent tool, different job. Different use case from NS Category Widget. Listed because it is among the most-adopted category apps on this marketplace, not because it covers the same job.
WP search category admin
category#3VALUE PICK
5.008 reviews
Not auditedAudit score
Pick if you're mapping adjacent tooling
Popular alternative to evaluate on its own merits. Solves a different problem than NS Category Widget. Useful market context; verify the capability overlap yourself before treating it as an option.
SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON
NS Category Widget versus the top 3.
Five rows, all loaded above the fold. Wins are highlighted; nothing's hidden behind a tab.
RANKS #4 THROUGH #12
The next 9, denser.
Lower-ranked but legitimate. Click any row for the full profile — or compare side-by-side with NS Category Widget.
How these alternatives are ranked
Scored daily. Three signals, weighted and blended. No vendor money changes anything.
45%Feature similarity
N-gram match against NS Category Widget's feature signature, weighted by category overlap.
35%Audit + rating
Listing quality (0–100) blended with rolling 90-day rating average. Penalizes thin listings.
20%Review velocity
Reviews added in trailing 30 days, normalized by category baseline. Surfaces rising challengers.
Every WordPress alternative on this page is scraped, normalized, and re-scored every 24 hours. We don't accept paid placement, vendor-funded "best of" content, or sponsored ranking — and we publish the rules so you can audit them yourself. If a vendor disagrees with their position, that's between them and the data.
WHEN DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO SWITCH FROM NS CATEGORY WIDGET?
Four reasons people leave.
Decision triggers, not marketing. If two or more apply, your shortlist starts with the apps named below each card.
Pricing has outgrown your usage
If your usage of NS Category Widget has crossed a pricing-tier breakpoint, per-unit cost is usually where alternatives diverge most clearly. Some apps in the list above carry a free tier; others are paid from day one. Compare the published plans on each alternative's page against your current bill — the gap is the only number worth acting on, and it is specific to your usage.
Taxonomy Switcher · The Events Calendar: Category ColorsYou need a feature outside the focus
Each WordPress category has a feature spectrum. The "Similar feature set" badge above marks alternatives whose feature signature most overlaps with NS Category Widget. The "Category leader" badge marks apps that may approach the same category from a different feature angle — useful if you want to widen rather than narrow your toolset.
The Events Calendar: Category ColorsSupport response has slowed you down
Support quality is the hardest thing to read from a listing, and it is the most common reason a switch gets made. Read the most RECENT reviews on each alternative's profile rather than the lifetime average — recency is what tells you how the app is supported today, and trailing review velocity is the freshest signal AppRanks tracks.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Answers built from the data.
Built from the same scores the ranking uses — so they won't contradict the table.
For most accounts under typical category usage, the answer depends on tier. The Events Calendar: Category Colors is in the unknown band (—), while NS Category Widget is unknown (—). At parity scale, the cheaper option can save 30–60% — but feature-for-feature swaps usually narrow the gap above the second tier.
VERDICT · UPDATED TODAY
If you're moving from NS Category Widget, the most common landing spots are The Events Calendar: Category Colors (unknown feature match, audit null/100) and Taxonomy Switcher (pricing leverage + breadth). Skip Hikari Category Permalink unless your use case is unusual.
If feature parity matters most
→ The Events Calendar: Category Colors
Unknown feature parity. Audit null, 5.00★.
If pricing matters most
→ Taxonomy Switcher
Best for cost-sensitive teams. 5.00★ across 24 reviews.
If you're scaling enterprise
→ WP search category admin
Strongest scale fit when category usage exceeds typical thresholds. Vendor-evaluate before committing.
Continue your research
Audit NS Category Widget's listing
See where NS Category Widget ranks 0–100 on listing completeness, screenshots, and description quality.
Open auditNS Category Widget vs The Events Calendar: Category Colors
Side-by-side feature deltas, shared keywords, rating curves over the trailing 12 months.
Open compareWordPress category leaders
Highest-rated WordPress apps by intent. The category-by-category leaderboard.
Open best
