One of the sites we manage uses an older weather widget and it is now well out of date and has a security issue. So we are reviewing wordpress weather widgets (I could expand that alliteration as the wonderful world with wordpress weather widgets, but I won’t).
What is the use case? Present local weather for a site in the tourism industry. Noting that our page count for the site averages around 1,000 pages a day. Which could limit some of our options due to the count of API calls, if the widget appears on most pages. Also the site is commercial in nature.
Weather Plugin Search
Searching “WordPress Weather”, What have we looked at?
| Plugin | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Weather Underground | No updates since 2017 | Tested with WP6.8 Broke the theme. |
| Weather Atlas Widget | Updated July 2025 | Review |
| WP Forecast Weather | Still listed but no updates since 2014 | Ignore |
| WP Historical Weather | Still listed but no updates since 2014 | Uses Wunderground API. |
| EasyWeather widget | No updates since 2012 | Uses Wunderground API. |
| Hm Weather Widget | No updates since 2016 | Uses Wunderground API. |
| Awesome Weather Widget | Security Issue | Deprecated |
| Location Weather | Updated 2025 | Uses Open Weather Map API |
| Ventus – Weather Map | Updated 2025 | Uses windy.com API |
| Weather Firecast Widget | Updated 2025 | Uses Open Weather Map API |
| Free Weather | Updated 2025 | Uses weather25.com API |
| Weather Widget Pro | Updated 2025 | Uses weatherin.org API |
| wp-forecast | Updated 2025 | Either Open-Meteo.com and OpenWeatherMap.com |
| WeatherBot Weather Widget | Updated 2025 | Uses Google Weather API |
| Plugin | Status | Comments |
From this table there are a number of out of date plugins that might still work with their chosen API, but with many current plugins available, there is little value in testing anything not patched in the last year. So our reviews are restricted to the plugins showing some level of currency.
Further, there are a number of API’s and account-based services, so rather than starting from the plugins we started with the service websites that provide the weather data.
Weather Data Websites
A quick summary of the weather data websites that can be linked to a WordPress widget via an API of some description. In no particular order:
Windy.com
Presents a really colourful world map of wind direction and temperatures. Registering an account is apparently free and then a premium option is available at US$40-ish depending on your preferred subscription format.
Open Weather
There are multiple services on offer. There are 3 plugins that will connect to this API. Search their Price page for the “Free for Everyone Service”. You will need to sign up for an account to get an API Key and provide credit card details even if you want the ‘free’ option.
Weatherin.org presents the weather in your selected locations. Their website is useful. There does not appear to be any account or subscription requirement. They provide their own WordPress plugin, Weather Widget Pro which is reviewed below.
This site a part of the Weather Channel group. It offers data that appears to be, at least in part, from citizen science with the ability to connect your home weather station into the grid. It does require an account to get to the API keys and a free membership comes with ads and an ‘ad-free’ upgrade is only offered within the USA. Basically it appears to be all locked-up. There are multiple plugins available for this API, but if it is too hard for them to offer anything outside the USA, then maybe it is not for you.(or us for that matter.)
The Open Meteo site does not appear to offer much in the way of features to justify a EU$29(AU$60ish) per month subscription. They do offer a headline ‘Free’ API but not for commercial use which is outside our use case. Only 1 plugin offering this API so we will skip reviewing any further.
As with all things ‘Google’ you will have to have a google account of some description. It is tied into Google maps and requires a Google Cloud Project to ‘house’ the weather API. As expected it is free to use but at a cost of whatever data they pull back from your website. Only 1 plugin is in our list for this API.
This service provides no public API information on their website. The website is comprehensive for locations and weather data. There is no apparent requirement to register an account. Weather25 have provided their own WordPress plugin. See the plugin reviews for more.
The are probably other weather API’s but we reviewed based on what was available in WordPress plugins.
Weather Widget Plugins
Having looked at the weather data source API’s on offer, we turned back to the WordPress Weather Widgets to see which would align best with our use case.
Free Weather plugin is provided free of charge (as at October 2025) from weather25.com. It presents data from their website. Support for the plugin is only via the WordPress site. There are zero reviews of the plugin and only 200 installs.
Ventus – Weather Map WordPress Plugin uses the windy.com weather map site data. It is a map presentation rather than a weather forecast. With 3000+ installs and positive reviews it could be useful but will not provide the weather data we need for this use case.
Weather Widget Pro WordPress Plugin is written specifically for data from the weatherin.org website. 1,000+ installs with mostly good reviews. This one works without registering and without payment or nag-ware.
Location Weather is a minimal-ware Lite vs Pro at US$149, roughly AU$300 for a “lifetime” licence. Given the number of really ‘free’ options, this is overpriced. If you then add the cost of the OpenWeatherMap subscription, you need to have a high value return from publishing weather data.
Weather Forecast Widget will only work with a registered account with credit card details which implies a paid OpenWeatherMap.org subscription. Providing open-ended CC details is not something I recommend even if the supplier says ‘free’ they can change their mind very easily. Move on.
Weather Widget Selection
An easy and clear winner is the Weather Widget Pro WordPress Plugin which is linked to the Weather In website and provides free display of weather data. It is a widget only, but it provides a short-code option which could be published in a web page, but that was not part of our use case.
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