The best WordPress SEO plugin for XML sitemaps, measured

Does your sitemap plugin matter?

Less than people think for discovery, more than they think for accuracy. A sitemap does not make pages rank or guarantee indexing; it tells crawlers what exists and when it changed. For a small, well-linked site, any valid sitemap is fine. The differences above start to matter when you publish or update often (accurate lastmod helps crawlers find changes), when image search sends you traffic (see image sitemaps), or when you want taxonomy archives crawled.

Whatever plugin you use, submit the sitemap index rather than child files, and recheck it after changing settings. Our guide covers how to submit a sitemap to Google, and the sitemap troubleshooting doc lists the usual reasons a URL goes missing, most often a page cache or CDN holding an old copy.

All seven, measured

Measured on one WordPress 7.1 install (PHP 8.2, MySQL 8.0, Twenty Twenty-Five, 40 posts), each plugin alone with default settings, against a no-plugin baseline. Each column heading names the version that was measured. Bold marks the better number in each row. Full method: how we tested.

Hydrogen SEO's figures were measured on 0.0.18 and have not been re-run on later versions. The custom tables row is the exception: it is counted from the 0.0.31 source. A default install has one table, for the internal link counter. Switching on the 404 Monitor, which is off by default, creates a second for its log. Deleting the plugin removes both.

Features: free, paid or not offered

This table is not benchmark data. It is based on each plugin's WordPress.org listing, the code of its free version there, and its official documentation and pricing pages, checked on 12 November 2026, for the version in each column heading. Free means the feature is in the plugin's own free version. Paid means it needs that plugin's paid version or a paid add-on. No means the plugin's listing says it does not offer it. A dash means we could not confirm it either way; it does not mean the feature is missing. A row says a feature exists, not how complete it is. Plugins change, so check the plugin's own site before relying on a cell. If a cell is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.