Plugins are the heartbeat of any WordPress website. The availability of such an enormous number of plugins is one of the most significant benefits of WordPress. If you are running or planning to run a WordPress Website or Blog, you must be aware of the most popular and must have WordPress plugins and tools. However, before installing a new plugin on your Website, you should be careful.
Before installing a new plugin to your WordPress website, do the following research :
- Check the compatibility of the plugin with your WordPress version.
- Read the reviews about the plugin to know about the user experience before installing it, as uninstalling a few plugins is not very straightforward as they create some database tables also which are to be deleted manually.
- Check the authenticity of the plugin author and the type of support they can provide.
- Take a full backup of the site before installing any new plugin.
- The new plugin should not interfere with any existing plugin’s functionality.
- Check the plugin file for a virus like PHP injectors before installing.
WordPress Plugins and Tools for Security :
1. All in One WP Security & Firewall-
It is one of the top-rated WordPress plugins for security purposes. It helps you secure your Website from any external attack or internal vulnerability. Below are the significant features :
- It doesn’t slow down your Website and is 100% free.
- Brute force attack protection in the Login process.
- Protection in the registration process by blocking spammer’s Email Ids / IPs
- Firewall protection.
- File permission management.
- Database backup and security.
2. Wordfence Security –
Wordfence is again one of the most popular WordPress plugins for the security of a WordPress website. It is available as a Free plugin with limited features and a premium version with advanced features. The major features of Wordfecne security are similar to the All in One WP security.
3. BulletProof Security –
Bulletproof security is one great offering from the WordPress community to secure your WordPress website. With 90,000+ installs and 4.5/5 ratings, it is a widely popular tool, unlike the abovementioned.
Check here the detailed list of Top Plugins to keep your WordPress Website Secure
WordPress Plugins & Tools For SEO :
4. Yoast SEO –
It is by far the best WordPress SEO plugin. Most high-end WordPress websites use it to boost their traffic. It is the most popular WordPress SEO plugin with 5 million+ installs and a 5/5 rating. You can install its basic version free from WordPress Inventory directly via your admin panel. Though it also has a premium version, its free version is very effective. Its premium version is available at $89 annually. It majorly offers the following functionalities :
- Sitemap Generation in multi parts with an index file.
- Setting up metatags like title, description, and keywords.
- Defining focus keywords, 1 focus keyword in the free version and multiple focus keywords in the premium version.
- Real-time monitoring of the post as you write for SEO best practices.
- On-the-go internal linking suggestions ( only in premium)
5. All in One SEO pack –
After Yoast SEO, it is the second-best WordPress plugin for SEO. With 3 million+ installs and 4.5/5 ratings, it is also quite popular. It has all the settings on a single page against the multipage settings on its counterparts. It is also a free plugin and a premium version for additional features. It comes as a box tool; as a beginner, you don’t need to make any specific settings. Advanced users can tweak the settings as per their preference.
Check here the detailed list of Best WordPress SEO Plugins
WordPress Plugins & Tools For Forms :
6. Gravity Forms –
This plugin is only available as a premium plugin from Gravity forms’ official Website ( (https://www.gravityforms.com). We have included it in this list as Gravity forms offer many free addons for its forms which can be used with Gravity Forms.
7. Formidable Forms –
Formidable is a very efficient form builder plugin with all basic and advanced options. It is available as a free as well as a premium version. The free version has basic functions like Creating From fields, Managing email notifications, managing success messages, and general settings. The Premium version has functions like Conditional fields, Custom field layouts, Prebuilt templates, etc.
8. Contact Form 7 –
It is a simple and easy-to-use form builder plugin with limited capabilities. Though it is pretty popular, its popularity is mainly because it comes pre-packaged with most of the Free or Premium themes.
9. Ninja Forms –
You can create any form with Ninja forms, be it registration, subscription, inquiry, etc. It is very easy to manage and offers quite a good number of options, even in the free version.
10. WP Forms –
It is more commonly termed a drag-and-drop form builder; it is very easy to use.
Check here the detailed list of the Best WordPress Form Builder Plugins
WordPress Plugins & Tools For Caching :
11. W3 Total Cache –
This is the best plugin to speed up a WordPress website and make your Website run rocket fast. With 1 million+ installs and 4.3/5 ratings, it is a popular plugin used by several popular websites.
12. WP Super Cache –
It is created by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress. This plugin works by creating static Html pages from the dynamic blog content and then serves it as and when requested, thus reducing time in processing PHP each time a resource is requested. It is also quite popular, with 1 million+ install and a 4.5/5 rating.
Check here the detailed list of Best WordPress Plugins to Speed up your Website
WordPress Plugins & Tools For Page Builder :
13. Page Builder by Site Origin –
With 1 million+ installs and 5/5 ratings, it is the most popular WordPress plugin for Page Building. It is extremely simple to use and doesn’t need any technical expertise to use.
14. Elementor –
It is also a very popular plugin with 300,000 + installs and 5/5 ratings, people love to use it as it offers very high-end design elements, and you can create any modern type page design quite easily. Also, it offers several free templates to use.
15. Visual Composer –
It is not available to install free in WordPress inventory but comes with most of the premium themes pre-packaged. It has many premium design elements, especially for e-commerce websites.
Check here the detailed list of Best Page Builder WordPress Plugins to create custom Webpages
WordPress Plugins & Tools For Managing Images :
16. WP Smush Pro –
The major problem with the WordPress website is the loading speed. The image size most impacts the loading speed of a website. As you add more images to a webpage, it loads slower and slower. WP Smush works by reducing the size of the images using compression algorithms and helps the webpages load faster. It can reduce image sizes by up to 70% in some cases, which is a huge advantage. It comes as a free version with limited capabilities and a premium version with full functionalities. Get details
17. Compress JPEG and PNG images –
It is one extension of a very famous online tool to compress images – Tinypng. It is the most effective tool that can compress your image without any noticeable loss in quality of the image. The images you upload after activating this plugin will automatically be compressed, while the images already uploaded can be compressed at once by using the Bulk compress option.
With 100,000+ installs and a 4.5 /5 rating, it is among WordPress’s most famous image compression plugins. You can compress up to 500 images per month free of cost just by adding an API key from the parent website. You have connected your card for additional images and will be billed accordingly based on monthly uses. Get details
Check here the detailed list of Best Image Compression Plugin for WordPress
WordPress Plugins & Tools For Newsletter :
18. The Newsletter Plugin –
It is the complete newsletter plugin available for WordPress. It has many features like creating a subscription, creating newsletters, sending newsletters, tracking newsletters, multiple themes, a double opt-in option, etc. With these features, it works as a standalone solution. It is a free plugin with all the essential features needed for running a Newsletter system for your Website or blog.
With 200,000+install and 4.4/5 ratings, it is pretty popular among users. You can have unlimited subscribers and send unlimited newsletters; the software doesn’t restrict you, but your server may. This plugin will send a newsletter using your server’s resources, and the hosting service provider limits these resources. You must be aware of these server restrictions while using this plugin. Get details
19. Popups, Welcome Bar, Options, and Lead Generation Plugin by Icegram –
This plugin can help you immensely in creating a quality subscriber list. It can’t send new letters by itself but can be integrated with Mailchimp, and you can utilize all the features offered in the selected package. In this plugin, you can create various types of Email collection tools like Action bar, messenger, popup, toast, etc.
You are also offered multiple prebuilt templates to start with, thus creating the task extremely easy. With 30,000+ installs, it doesn’t seem to boast good popularity, but as a new plugin in the market, it can be warranted as it has 5/5 ratings from almost 170 votes.
Miscellaneous WordPress Plugins & Tools :
20. JetPack –
Jetpack is one plugin that is coming pre-installed in WordPress. It offers WordPress.com features on a WordPress.org Website. Jetpack offers advanced features like Visitor Engagement tools, enhanced security, spam filter, and social sharing options. It also has a lightweight mobile theme option, which makes your mobile user experience a breeze. Get details
21. Google Analytics by Share This –
There are several plugins available for Google Analytics integration with your WordPress website. Among them, this plugin from Share is the most powerful and precise. Once you install it, you can easily connect your Google Analytics account with your Website either by Authenticating with Google or by just entering the property Id manually. It provides options to exclude visits from specific users like – Author, Admin, Contributor, etc. Get more details
22. Akismet Anti-Spam –
Akismet is one of the plugins that come pre-installed on WordPress. It helps filter spam by blocking activities from the IP addresses identified as spammers by the Akismet tool. To make it work, you must register on the Akismet website, create an account, and get an API key. Get more details
23. Snapshot Backup Plugin –
What if someone hacks your Website, or you damage your Website accidentally? Did you take a backup of your Website? But what if the backup is also corrupted or lost? Did you take backup of a backup? Confusing right? Snapshot will help you with this confusing scenario. Snapshot lets you create a backup of your WordPress website and store it on online locations like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. The backups can also be scheduled and will run automatically. So do you want to make your Website ready for a possible attack – Get details
24. Woocommerce –
It is a vast plugin that can convert your simple WordPress website into a fully working online store, where you can sell anything from Groceries to machinery. It is by far the biggest plugin on WordPress and has many features. There are specific Themes and plugins available for Woocommerce. Get more details
25. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin –
This plugin is handy for a Blog as this plugin enables you to display the list of posts related to the main post of that page. These relations can be based on criteria like similar categories, tags, etc. You can decide on which type of relationship is to be used to display the related posts. Get details
Our research is on. More plugins are coming very soon….
Too many WordPress Plugins and tools deserve to be on this list, and we will keep updating this list regularly. We are trying to keep this list exclusive to only those WordPress plugins and tools which have some specific role and are usually covered in other such articles. Please suggest in the comments section if you are looking plugin for any specific need.
