WordPress Plugins
These are plugins I use or have used on my sites and/or client sites.
Jump to a specific category:
Core Plugins
Plugins For Specific Applications
Plugins That Repair and Optimize
Security Plugins
More plugins make your blog slower. Keep them to a minimum. If a plugin isn’t doing something really important for your site – get rid of it.
Plugins or themes you are not using create an additional security risk for your site. If you are not using it don’t only turn it off, delete the files as well. There is evidence that plugins are the most likely way your WordPress website will be compromised.
This list was last updated in March, 2020.
You can also view plugins I have bookmarked at WordPress.org.
Search the WordPress.org plugin directory here.
The descriptive information is from the plugin author, not from me.
[ My comments about a plugin will be formatted like this. ]
Core Plugins:
These are plugins I use on most all sites. They do useful things that most websites will need.
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet Web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/
BackWPup
The backup plugin BackWPup Free can be used to save your complete installation including /wp-content/ and push them to an external Backup Service, like Dropbox, S3, FTP and many more, see list below. With a single backup .zip file you are able to easily restore an installation.
[ I’ve tested a number of plugins that will perform backups and so far this one is the best. You can back up only the database or your entire site or anything in between. Run backups manually or scheduled. Email them to yourself, send ’em to Dropbox or other options. So far it’s been solid where others have failed. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/backwpup/
Broken Link Checker
This plugin will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.
[ Runs automatically and provides an easy interface to fix or delete or edit broken links. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/
Display PHP Version
Displays the current PHP version in the “At a Glance” admin dashboard widget.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/display-php-version/
Google Analyticator
Google Analyticator makes it super easy to view Google Analytics within your WordPress dashboard. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analyticator/
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
The ExactMetrics Google Analytics for WordPress plugin helps you properly setup all the powerful Google Analytics tracking features without writing any code or hiring a developer.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp/
Jetpack
Security, performance, and site management: the best way to WordPress is with Jetpack.
[ Jetpack has a slew of modules that do all sorts of things. WordPress stats for your site, publishing to Facebook Twitter, Linkedin and Google+, contact forms, additional options for displaying photos, and more. Another one I wouldn’t want to be without. It’s on all my sites. You need a free WordPress.com account but you can use the same account for multiple sites. ]
[ To register at WordPress.com so you can activate Jetpack use this link: https://wordpress.com/start/account/user ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/
UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus simplifies backups and restoration. It is the world’s highest ranking and most popular scheduled backup plugin, with over two million currently-active installs. Backup your files and database backups into the cloud and restore with a single click!
Backup into the cloud directly to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 (or compatible), UpdraftVault, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, DreamObjects, Openstack Swift, and email. The paid version also backs up to Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Backblaze B2, SFTP, SCP, and WebDAV.
[ I am currently testing this backup plugin. So far it’s working very well and may become a standard for me. If you use it to restore be sure to read this first: What should I understand before undertaking a restoration? ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/
WordPress Editorial Calendar
Did you remember to write a post for next Tuesday? What about the Tuesday after that? WordPress doesn’t make it easy to see when your posts are scheduled. The editorial calendar gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/
WP Missed Schedule
The Original Plugin for WordPress WP Missed Schedule fix scheduled failed future posts only, that have this bug, and republish correctly fixed 10 items each session, every 15 minutes, without wasting resources. The others will be solved on next sessions, until no longer exist. Work with virtual or real cron job on WP from 2.1+ to 4.9+ and 5.0-alpha single or multisite install.
The configuration is automatic (does not require any settings to work) and plugin nologo! – Build 2017-12-31 – This plugin is no longer available on WordPress.org plugins repository for explicit author request, but only on GitHub. Miss link is for verify if exist this issue. Cron link requires WP Crontrol activated and WP 2.7+ or later.
Please note that: the core of the plugin always works even if it is installed in the mu-plugins directory, but is recommended to not install it in this way, if is not absolutely necessary, because needs to perform the functions of activation, deactivation, installation, uninstallation, to work at 100% of its functionality.
[ You don’t need this unless you have the problem where WordPress fails to publish your scheduled posts. ]
https://slangji.wordpress.com/plugins/wp-missed-schedule/
Yoast SEO
Since 2008 Yoast SEO has helped millions of websites worldwide to rank higher in search engines. This WordPress SEO plugin helps you with your search engine optimization. Are you not entirely convinced? Yoast SEO is the favorite WordPress SEO plugin of millions of users worldwide!
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.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
Plugins For Specific Applications:
Advanced WPLink
This Plugin adds several enhancements to the WP-Link Modal inside the TinyMCE and gives you the possibility to disable the wp inline link tool.
In this first version you are able to:
1. Add custom classes to your links directly inside the TinyMCE WPLink modal box
2. Enable/Disable the Inline Linking from WP 4.5+
3. Add a rel=”nofollow” to your links
4. Add a title-Tag to your links
[ This is one of many plugins developed to restore functions that were removed from WordPress. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-wplink/
bbPress
Are you looking for a timeless, elegant, and streamlined discussion board? bbPress is easy to integrate, easy to use, and is built to scale with your growing community.
bbPress is intentionally simple yet infinitely powerful forum software, built by contributors to WordPress.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress/
bbP Private Groups
An add-on to the bbPress forum plugin – creates private forum groups. This Plugin creates unlimited private forum groups. Forums are then allocated to one or more groups, and users allocated to one or more groups.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbp-private-groups/
Better Search Replace
When moving your WordPress site to a new domain or server, you will likely run into a need to run a search/replace on the database for everything to work correctly. Fortunately, there are several plugins available for this task, however, all have a different approach to a few key features. This plugin consolidates the best features from these plugins, incorporating the following features in one simple plugin:
1. Serialization support for all tables
2. The ability to select specific tables
3. The ability to run a “dry run” to see how many fields will be updated
4. No server requirements aside from a running installation of WordPress
5. WordPress Multisite support
https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search-replace/
Blubrry PowerPress
No. 1 Podcasting plugin for WordPress, with simple & advanced modes, players, subscribe tools, and more!
Developed by podcasters for podcasters; features include Simple and Advanced modes, multiple audio/video player options, subscribe to podcast page embeds and sidebar widgets, podcasting SEO features, and more! Fully supports Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn and Blubrry Podcasting directories, as well as all podcast applications and clients. PowerPress users who use Blubrry Podcast Hosting may also submit their shows to Spotify.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/powerpress/
Classic Editor
Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor.
Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin, and will be fully supported and maintained until at least 2022, or as long as is necessary.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/
Classic Editor Addon
The free Classic Editor Addon plugin is targeted at everyone who is not yet ready for the new editing experience that has been introduced in WordPress 5.0. Install it now on sites and the UX remains the same as you are used to!
The reason we released the “Classic Editor Addon” plugin is because in the beginning the “Classic Editor” plugin did not what it said on the label.
Since version 0.0.4 of the “Classic Editor” plugin, it finally set the default setting to actually using the Classic Editor. It still contains a Settings page though and if the purpose of people is to get the Classic Editor instead of using the new block editor, then we don’t see the need for such a Settings page.
Also, if we look at developers protecting the sites of their clients with the Classic Editor, they certainly don’t want their clients to accidentally turn off the Classic Editor as the new block editor adds a lot of undesirable comments, tags and what not to the content.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor-addon/
Donation Thermometer
‘Donation Thermometer’ uses a simple shortcode to display classic-style tracking thermometers that can blend seamlessly with your website content on any post, page or sidebar.
Individual thermometers are fully customisable, including options to change the fill/text colours, currency, size, and to set multiple raised/target values. Colour schemes and default values are controlled from the settings page, and with custom CSS rules the thermometer can match any theme style. The thermometers are rendered inline as vector-based images (SVG), producing a visually sharp graphic regardless of its size. Since the plugin does not load any remote image files your page-load times will remain fast and save bandwith for users.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/
Duplicator
Duplicator is the most powerful migrator available. It enables you to:
1. Move, migrate or clone a WordPress site between domains or hosts with zero downtime
2. Pull down a live site to localhost for development
3. Transfer a WordPress site from one host to another
4. Manually backup a WordPress site or parts of a site
5. Duplicate a live site to a staging area or vice versa
6. Bundle up an entire WordPress site for easy reuse or distribution
7. Perform a full WordPress migration without struggling with messy import/export sql scripts
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades
WordPress has a built-in feature to install themes and plugins by supplying a zip file. Unfortunately, you cannot upgrade a theme or plugin using the same process. Instead, WordPress will say “destination already exists” when trying to upgrade using a zip file and will fail to upgrade the theme or plugin.
Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades fixes this limitation in WordPress by automatically upgrading the theme or plugin if it already exists.
While upgrading, a backup copy of the old theme or plugin is first created. This allows you to install the old version in case of problems with the new version.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-theme-and-plugin-upgrades/
Feed Statistics
Feed Statistics is a plugin that tracks statistics for your RSS/Atom feeds, including the number of subscribers, which feed readers they’re using, which posts they’re viewing and which links they’re clicking on.
To display your subscriber count, use the Feed Statistics widget.
The plugin also adds a “Feed Statistics” menu to your dashboard. This section has four subsections: Feed Statistics (Options), Feed Readers, Post Views, and Clickthroughs.
It will take a few days for the subscriber count to become accurate, so you may want to wait a day or two between installing/activating the plugin and publicly displaying your subscriber count.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/
Fuse Social Floating Sidebar
This plugin allows you to add social media floating sidebar icons which can be connected with your social media profiles.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/fuse-social-floating-sidebar/
NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery has been the industry’s standard WordPress gallery plugin since 2007 and continues to receive over 1.5 million new downloads per year. It’s easy for simple photo galleries, but powerful enough for the most demanding photographers, visual artists, and imaging professionals.
On the back end, NextGEN offers a complete WordPress gallery management system with the ability to batch upload photos, import meta data, add/delete/rearrange/sort photos, edit thumbnails, group galleries into albums, and more.
On the front end, the free version of NextGEN provides three main gallery styles (slideshow, thumbnail, and imagebrowser galleries) and two album styles (compact and extended), all of which come with a wide array of options for controlling size, style, timing, transitions, controls, lightbox effects, and more. Learn more about NextGEN WordPress Gallery Plugin features.
[ NextGEN is one of the most popular WordPress galleries. There are a slew of plugins that will work with NextGEN. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
Related Post
Related Post plugin is one of the most powerful plugin to display related post under post content on single post or page or custom post types, its also support to display related post under excerpt on archive pages. you can conditionally choose to display related content under excerpt or content by archive pages like tag, category, date, author, search page and custom taxonomy pages.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/related-post/
Revive Old Posts – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Plugin
ROP is a must-have WordPress plugin created to help website administrators boost their website traffic, grow their social media followers and keep their existing followers engaged by automatically sharing posts and content from their WP site to their social media networks.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tweet-old-post/
RSS Retriever
This plugin fetches an RSS feed, or multiple feeds, and displays them in an unordered list using shortcode.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-rss-retriever/
Search & Replace
With Search & Replace you can search for everything and replace this with everything but before you do this you can easily create a simple database backup and restore it.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/search-and-replace/
Server IP & Memory Usage Display
This plugin displays the memory limit, current memory usage, WordPress Memory Limit, IP address and PHP version in the admin footer.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/server-ip-memory-usage/
Show IDs
Show IDs by 99 Robots is super light-weight and does not need any configuration or separate options page. Simply activate the plugin and IDs will be displayed on all admin pages.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpsite-show-ids/
Simple Feed Stats
Simple Feed Stats (SFS) tracks your feeds automatically using a variety of methods, and provides a wealth of tools and options for further configuration and management. Also displays your subscriber count via template tag or shortcode. Fully configurable. Visit the “Simple Feed Stats” settings page for stats, tools, and more info.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-feed-stats/#description
Title and Nofollow For Links
The plugin restores the Title field (that was removed from WordPress 4.2) in the insert link popup box and adds a new Add rel=”nofollow” to link checkbox to it.
Gutengerg Note: At the moment it’s not possible to add the functionality to Gutenberg, it’s a different system from the classic editor and it does not have a hook/filter which allows adding custom settings. As soon as it becomes possible to add the functionality to Gutenberg we will update the plugin.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/title-and-nofollow-for-links/
Velvet Blues Update URLs
If you move your WordPress website to a new domain name, you will find that internal links to pages and references to images are not updated. Instead, these links and references will point to your old domain name. This plugin fixes that problem by helping you change old urls and links in your website.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls/
Visual Form Builder
Visual Form Builder is a plugin that allows you to build and manage all kinds of forms for your website in a single place. Building a fully functional contact form takes only a few minutes and you don’t have to write one bit of PHP, CSS, or HTML!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/visual-form-builder/
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache (W3TC) improves the SEO and user experience of your site by increasing website performance and reducing load times by leveraging features like content delivery network (CDN) integration and the latest best practices.
W3TC is the only web host agnostic Web Performance Optimization (WPO) framework for WordPress trusted by millions of publishers, web developers, and web hosts worldwide for more than a decade. It is the total performance solution for optimizing your WordPress Website.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/
Weaver Show Posts
This plugin provides a very flexible way to show posts anywhere on a site using a shortcode. It works with any theme. Weaver Show Posts is by far the most flexible with an easy to use interface to select which posts to show.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/show-posts/
Weaver Show Sliders
This isn’t the typical plugin to create Sliders: Slide Shows, Carousels, Sliders with Posts. This is a Slider with options! It supports beautiful, responsive image sliders and slide shows. And that’s not all – it also can display any regular post in a slider or slide show. You can even use Weaver Show Sliders as a Slide Show replacement for the standard WordPress gallery shortcode.
But, best of all, Weaver Show Sliders has been designed to give you options! You have more control of what content is displayed in your sliders and slide shows, as well as how that content is displayed.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/show-sliders/
Weaver Xtreme Theme Support
This is the main theme support for the Weaver X Theme. This plugin provides a collection of useful shortcodes and widgets designed to complement the Weaver X theme. These shortcodes have been selected and developed based on requests and feedback from thousands of users of the Weaver X, Weaver II, and Aspen themes.
While these shortcodes are optimized for the Weaver X theme, they will also work with full functionality for most WordPress themes, and can be used if you switch themes.
Includes complete documentation help file. Instructions for using the shortcodes and widgets are in the help file. Use it for non-Weaver Xtreme themes.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/weaverx-theme-support/
WP Clone
WP Clone is still the easiest, fastest, cheapest and most secure way to backup, migrate or clone a WordPress site to another domain or hosting server.
You can also use it to backup, migrate or clone your site to/from local server hosting, to create backup of your site for development or testing purposes, and to install pre-configured backups of WordPress.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-clone-by-wp-academy/
WP Edit
Welcome to WP Edit. Finally, take control of the default WordPress editor and unlock the power of additional editor tools. Arrange buttons into toolbars the way you want; to ease your workflow. WP Edit adds dozens of additional custom options to the WordPress editor.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-edit/
WP Snow Effect
Add nice looking animation effect of falling snow to your WordPress site and enjoy winter and Christmas.
Simulate snow storm by adjusting the snow falling speed.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-snow-effect/
WP Updates Notifier
Monitors your WordPress installation for core, plugin and theme updates and emails you when they are available. This plugin is ideal if you don’t login to your WordPress admin regularly or you support a client’s website.
[ If you are using WordFence you don’t need this as WordFence can send you update alerts. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-updates-notifier/
WP User Avatar
WordPress currently only allows you to use custom avatars that are uploaded through Gravatar. WP User Avatar enables you to use any photo uploaded into your Media Library as an avatar. This means you use the same uploader and library as your posts. No extra folders or image editing functions are necessary.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-user-avatar/
WPC Smart Search
Save a lot of time when to work in WordPress backend by powerful AJAX search and other useful tools.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-admin-smart-search/
YOURLS Link Creator
Creates a YOURLS generated shortlink on demand or when saving posts.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/yourls-link-creator/
Yourls Link Creator Bulk Generate
Bulk generate Yourls URLS when using the Yourls Link Creator plugin.
Did you set up a Yourls install and integrate it in with your WordPress site? Its great that all new posts get autogenerated short URLs, but what about old posts? Run this bulk generator to create Yourls Short URLs for all of your existing posts.
This plugin requires Yourls Link Creator by Norcross and an installation of the Yourls URL shortener. Please install, activate, and configure these before using.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/yourls-link-creator-bulk-generate/
Plugins That Repair and Optimize:
WP-Optimize
WP-Optimize is a revolutionary, all-in-one plugin that cleans your database, compresses your images and caches your site. Our cache feature is built around the world’s fastest caching engine. This simple, popular and highly effective tool has everything you need to keep your website fast and thoroughly optimized!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/
WP-DBManager
Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-dbmanager/
Security Plugins:
Additional Security Notes:
- Your login name should not be the same as your display name.
- Use a strong password.
- Go into your main directory and delete the files wp-config-sample.php, readme.html and license.txt
- Delete install.php in the wp-admin folder. Each time up upgrade WordPress it will create a new one. Either delete it each time or replace install.php with a blank file named install.php.
Wordfence Security
Wordfence includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that were built from the ground up to protect WordPress. Our Threat Defense Feed arms Wordfence with the newest firewall rules, malware signatures and malicious IP addresses it needs to keep your website safe. Rounded out by 2FA and a suite of additional features, Wordfence is the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available.
[ Wordfence is currently my security plugin of choice, especially for client sites. It’s easy to set up and once configured runs unattended. ]
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/
[ A word of warning about security plugins. Do not install all these plugins on one site thinking that more security plugins make you more secure. Some of these plugins may conflict with each other and cause problems. ]
AntiVirus
AntiVirus for WordPress is a easy-to-use, safe tool to harden your WordPress site against exploits, malware and spam injections. You can configure AntiVirus to perform an automated daily scan of your theme files and database tables. If the plugin happens to detect any suspicious code injections, it will send out a notification to a previously configured e-mail address.
In case your WordPress site has been hacked, AntiVirus will help you to become aware of the problem very quickly in order for you to take immediate action.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/antivirus/
BulletProof Security
WordPress Security Protection: Malware scanner, Firewall, Login Security, DB Backup, Anti-Spam & much more. View Security feature highlights below. View BulletProof Security feature details under the FAQ help section below. Secure your WordPress website even further by adding additional BulletProof Security Bonus Custom Code. See BulletProof Security Bonus Custom Code under the FAQ help section below. Effective, Reliable & Easy to use WordPress Security Plugin.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulletproof-security/
iThemes Security
iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked each day. WordPress sites can be an easy target for attacks because of plugin vulnerabilities, weak passwords and obsolete software.
Most WordPress admins don’t know they’re vulnerable, but iThemes Security works to lock down WordPress, fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. With advanced features for experienced users, our WordPress security plugin can help harden WordPress.