June 26th, 2020 | Updated on March 29th, 2024
Any WP website needs a certain set of plugins to help it to work to its best capability. Mostly the niche of your website would decide what all plugins would be suitable.
Security, speed, SEO are some of the things that most website owners are concerned about. There are many plugins that are useful but not all of them can be used.
Officially there are nearly 55000 plugins and these can handle every feature or function. You may also find multiple plugins for one feature.
Choose from our list and read their reviews before committing. Here are the 11 WP plugins that are extremely popular and used by most people to operate their website.
1. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 manages multiple customizable contact forms with simple markup. It supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering.
Find documentation and support on contactform7.com and the WordPress.org support forum. The plugin doesn’t track users, store personal data, or send data externally by default.
Certain features may send personal data to service providers, so review privacy policies. Recommended plugins include Flamingo for message storage and Bogo for multilingual support.
2. Yoast SEO
This WordPress SEO plugin helps you with your search engine optimization. As Yoast’s mission is SEO for Everyone, the plugin’s users range from the bakery around the corner to some of the most popular sites on the planet.
Yoast SEO does everything in its power to please both visitors and search engine spiders. A dedicated team of developers, testers, architects and SEO experts work daily to improve the plugin with every release.
Whether you are a business owner or blogger, a content creator, a developer or an SEO expert: Yoast SEO helps you keep your website in perfect shape.
3. Akismet Anti-Spam
Akismet Anti-Spam provides robust protection against spam comments and contact form submissions for WordPress and WooCommerce.
It utilizes a global spam database to filter out malicious content, ensuring your site remains safe.
Key features include automatic spam detection, status history for comments, URL visibility, user comment approval counts, and a discard feature to block severe spam, optimizing site performance.
4. Classic Editor
Classic Editor, an official WordPress plugin, reverts to the previous editor and “Edit Post” screen. It facilitates plugin use that extends the screen, adds old-style meta boxes, or relies on the prior editor.
Fully supported until 2024, it offers admin options to set default editors and allows user changes. Each post opens in the last used editor, ensuring consistency.
Filters enable plugin control over settings and editor choice. Gutenberg features are hidden by default.
5. WooCommerce
WooCommerce, the open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress, offers a free, customizable solution with support from a global community.
With full ownership of content and data, you can build storefronts blending content and commerce effortlessly.
Choose from themes to match your brand, optimize shopping carts, and customize product pages with modular blocks.
Sell physical and digital goods, subscriptions, bookings, or memberships with ease. Leverage WordPress’ SEO advantage, scale your business, and manage operations efficiently with built-in tools and integrations.
WooCommerce Payments, shipping options, tax automation, and WooCommerce Admin streamline processes, while extensions and mobile app enhance functionality and accessibility.
6. Jetpack
Jetpack, a WordPress plugin, enhances content creation, subscriber growth, monetization, and website security, speed, and safety.
Track website traffic with Jetpack stats, improve content with Jetpack AI, and start newsletters to engage and convert subscribers.
Jetpack Creator helps craft beautiful content, while Jetpack Boost maintains site speed. Installation is quick and free, with paid plans offering advanced features for security, performance, and design.
Enjoy 24/7 site security with backups, malware scans, and spam protection.
Boost speed with a CDN and video hosting. Customize site search and enhance WooCommerce sites. Recommended alongside WP Super Cache for optimal speed.
7. Elementor Page Builder
With Elementor’s unique features, you can create websites that have that certain ‘designer touch’.
Among our page builder features are: Box Shadows, Background Overlays, Hover Effects, Headline Effects, Animations, Shape Dividers, Gradient Backgrounds and much more.
Blocks are pre-designed section templates that can be easily combined into any page.
Blocks include a variety of categories: services, testimonials, call to action and more. Save and reuse Elementor templates on different pages, or export them to a different website with a click.
8. Really Simple SSL
Really Simple SSL optimizes your website’s SSL usage automatically, enhancing security. Benefit from features like easy SSL migration with one-click HTTPS setup, Let’s Encrypt integration for SSL certificate installation, server health checks, WordPress hardening for improved security, and vulnerability detection for timely action on plugin, theme, or core vulnerabilities. Keep your site secure and up-to-date effortlessly.
9. Duplicate Post
This plugin allows users to clone posts of any type, or copy them to new drafts for further editing. There is also a template tag, so you can put it in your templates and clone your posts/pages from the front-end.
Clicking on the link will lead you to the edit page for the new draft, just like the admin bar link. Duplicate Post has many useful settings to customize its behavior and restrict its use to certain roles or post types.
10. All-in-One WP Migration
This plugin exports your WordPress website including the database, media files, plugins and themes with no technical knowledge required.
Upload your site to a different location with a drag and drop in to WordPress. There is an option to apply an unlimited number of find and replace operations on your database during the export process. The plugin will also fix any serialisation problems that occur during the find/replace operation.
11. The Events Calendar
With this WordPress Plugin, you can easily create and manage an events calendar on your WordPress site. This plugin has professional tools that are capable of managing all types of events — virtual as well as in-person. It’s also extensible, easy to use, and completely customizable.
