WordPress plugins are great tools for adding and extending functionality to WordPress. In this post, we’ill discuss the 50+ of the best WordPress plugins you should have on your WordPress website. These plugins will add to the features of WordPress websites and make them ‘great’.
Although the kind/ niche of your website mostly determines what plugins you should have on your website, there are some plugins that every WordPress blog needs. For example, security, speed, SEO, contact form, etc.
This post is the collection of such “must-have” plugins for WordPress websites, carefully handpicked by the experts. Before that, let’s start from the beginning and try and answer the questions, what WordPress is and what’s it used for.
Introducing WordPress Plugins
As said earlier, one of the best features of WordPress is its flexibility. A large part of that is thanks to the plugins. Before we get into what the WordPress plugin ranking, let’s first talk about what a plugin is in WordPress.
In the simplest terms, a plugin is a bit of code that can be added to WordPress. They are basically add-ons that will add certain features to your website. With WordPress, you can freely expand the functionality of your site with some of the best website add-ons out there.
If you wanted to know how many plugins are there for WordPress, then there are over 57,000 free ones just it the official Plugins repository at WordPress.org.
Choosing the Best Plugins for Your WordPress Website
As stated above, there are thousands of free plugins for WordPress sites. Plus, you can find more paid plugins at plugin stores like WPEverest and CodeCanyon. But you can’t have all those plugins on one website. Actually, you don’t need them all. You can install only the plugins that you need.
But how to choose the plugins you need? How to select the best plugins from such a vast collection? What types of plugins to use; free or premium? You should answer these questions first.
But they aren’t easy to answer if you’re a beginner. So, we’ll briefly explain how to find out the best plugins and also share our handpicked list of greatest plugins here. Let’s begin.
- List out Important Features: The first thing to do is to create a checklist of features that you’re expecting from the plugin. Decide what features you’ll need, and then pick plugins offering those features from our handpicked list below.
- Check the Reviews and Ratings: A good way to identify the quality of a plugin is by taking a look at what other users think of it. See user reviews and ratings, and pick the plugins that have better reviews.
- Check if the Updates are Regular: You should choose plugins that are updated regularly. Otherwise, they might stop working or even include security flaws. So, you should always stick with recently updated plugins.
- Review the Support Options: Some plugins have an active support forum while others provide a 24/7 live chat support. Make sure the plugins you choose will offer good support.
We don’t know which specific features you need, so we’ve tried to include most of the plugin categories in this article. The plugins below are the best and most popular ones in their respective categories.
Wondering how we chose? We’ve used most of these plugins ourselves and also reviewed user ratings, support options, and updates. Let’s check them out!
Best WordPress Plugins for 2020: Must-Have for a Website
As mentioned above, the list includes top WordPress plugins from several categories. But we’ve put these in order with plugins providing the most essential features at the top. These are the plugins every website will need, no matter its type or niche.
For example, best contact form plugins, security plugins, SEO plugins, and speed optimization plugins will appear first. You’ll find more categories as you scroll down deeper. Now, let’s take a look at them.
1. Best Contact Form Plugins:
Whether you have a business, blog, eCommerce, or even a charity website, you will need to build a form sooner or later. For that, WordPress form builder plugins can be quite useful for you.
i) Everest Forms (FREE)
Everest Forms is a professional WordPress plugin with a drag and drop interface that lets you build beautiful contact forms easily and quickly. The contact form plugin lets you create unlimited WordPress forms and in multiple design layouts with advanced fields like radio buttons, dropdowns, checkboxes, date, and more.
It has a set of general fields along with advanced fields that you can easily drag and drop to create forms. You can check out the Everest Forms demo, and learn how it works. The plugin is available for free, however, it comes with a surprisingly powerful set of features.
Download FREE
ii) Contact Form 7 (FREE)
Contact Form 7 is another great option if you want something to help you build amazing looking forms. If you’re a beginner to WordPress then this plugin can be of great help. It’s super easy to use while also packing a number of useful features.
This fantastic plugin comes with the ability to create unlimited forms, with a ton of different fields. Furthermore, it also supports some useful fields like Captcha, File Submissions, and even Quizzes. It is all tied together by a minimalist and user-friendly interface.
2. Best Spam Protection Plugins:
If you’re a website owner then one of the most common annoyances you’re going to face is spam. Fortunately, there are some great options available when it comes to cool WordPress plugins that help you deal with it.
i) Akismet (Freemium)
Akismet is yet another plugin developed by the people behind WordPress. As a standard WordPress plugin, it comes packaged with the software and is a popular example of WordPress plugin. It is basically an anti-spam plugin that checks all comments and filters out the spammy comments.
The plugin provides a status history for each comment so that you can learn which comments were found spammy. You also can view the number of approved comments for each user, see the URLs in the comment body, and remove the suspicious links.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) Antispam Bee (FREE)
Antispam Bee is one of the best free WordPress plugins that helps users deal with spam on their sites. It comes with the ability to block spam comments and trackbacks, put together in a highly lightweight and easy to use package.
With Antispam Bee, you can stop spammers without the need to involve Captchas or send data to third-party services. You’ll be able to validate IP addresses, block users by countries, purge spam from the database periodically, and much more with this plugin. All that while still remaining super easy to use.
3. Best Security Plugins:
Keeping your WordPress website secure is very essential for you as well as your website users. The following plugins can be used to tackle hackers, spams or any type of possible threats for your website.
i) Wordfence Security (Freemium)
To keep your WordPress site secure, there are many security plugins available in WordPress. Among them, Wordfence Security is the one you can rely on. The plugin features Firewall protection, malware scan, blocking, login security, live traffic monitoring, and a lot more.
The plugin lets you monitor all your traffic in real-time including robots, humans, 404 errors, logins, logouts, etc. To enhance login security, it adopts Two Factor Authentication as well. If you were wondering ‘is Wordfence necessary?’ then this should answer your question.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) Sucuri (FREE)
With Sucuri, it will be super easy for you to manage the security of your WordPress site. This all-in-one solution will be able to help you with everything, from auditing to malware scanning. Furthermore, it is backed by an exceptional support team to help you if any problems arise.
Sucuri allows you to analyze the security of your site, monitor the integrity of your files, scan for malware, and more, right from your WordPress Dashboard. On top of all that, some plans even offer advanced DDoS protection for even better security. The high-quality support is also there to guide you in case you need help.
Note: Moreover, there are several other plugins that help to secure WordPress. Check out the list of the best WP security plugins as well as some useful security tips for WordPress.
4. Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Plugins:
When your website starts ranking higher on search engines, more traffic can be drawn towards your website through them. Even for a basic WordPress website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a lot of help. A good WordPress SEO plugin can serve you well for this.
i) Yoast SEO (Freemium)
Yoast SEO is an awesome plugin which guides you all the way to create better content and improve your ranking on search results. It focuses on creating the content which is useful to the users as well as technically SEO friendly. The goal is to help the users, gain trust, and sustain the rankings which they call sustainable SEO. As a result, it is beloved by the best free article websites for WordPress.
Firstly, it makes you choose a focus keyword and use the keyword appropriately in the article you are writing. Furthermore, it helps you properly set up the content for good visibility for search engines. If you manage more than one website, then adding Yoast Premium for multiple sites is a good solution.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) RankMath (FREE)
If you want an SEO tools WordPress plugin for your site then RankMath is definitely for you. Described as the ‘swiss army knife’ of SEO tools, just a few clicks will allow you to have access to some of the best WordPress features to help take your site to the next level.
This simple SEO plugin integrates Google Search Console right into your Dashboard so you can analyze how your site is doing much easier. Information on your keywords, traffic, impressions, etc is right there for you to use. You won’t have to waste time configuring things or learning the interface since the plugin was designed to be highly intuitive.
Note: If you want to check out more alternatives to RankMath and Yoast, check out our collection of best WordPress SEO plugins.
5. Best Google Analytics Plugins:
A WordPress Analytic plugin will help you to track the growth and of your website based on various statistics. You can study a lot about your website with the help of some of the best WordPress plugin for analytics.
i) Site Kit (FREE)
Anyone looking to connect services like Google Analytics onto WordPress is going to be hard-pressed to find a better option than Site Kit. This official plugin from Google allows you to configure everything in just a few clicks so that you’ll be able to check all of your site’s stats right from the dashboard.
A major draw of this website analysis plugin is its convenience. There is no need to mess about with codes since the convenient setup feature will make sure everything’s working right. It is one of the best WordPress plugins for traffic analytics.
ii) MonsterInsights (Free)
Understanding your audience and catering to them is a great way to improve your user traffic. Therefore, it’s an obvious choice to use a Google Analytics plugin for your WordPress website and MonsterInsights is one of the best WP plugins out there for this purpose.
As one of the best WordPress visitor statistics plugins, it can monitor various real-time stats regarding your website. Furthermore, you can track user views from multiple platforms and devices as well as receive various demographic and interest reports.
Download FREE
6. Best WordPress Cache Plugins:
The performance of your website is no less important than its content. An easy way to improve it is using caching. With these cache plugins, your site will perform much better.
i) W3 Total Cache (Freemium)
Caching is one of the best and easiest ways to improve website performance. In this regard, the W3 Total Cache plugin is one of the most used WordPress plugins to enable caching for your site.
It features page cache, database caching, object caching, browser caching, and a lot more. Besides, it lets you integrate CDN services to reduce page load time. Besides, it has options to minify and HTTP compression of the HTML, JS, and CSS files so that you can save bandwidth up to 80%.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) WP Super Cache (FREE)
Using WP Super Cache, you’re going to be able to improve the performance of your WordPress site in no time at all. If you don’t believe us, you can test it on tools like Pingdom and Gtmetrix and see for yourself. There are a ton of features and settings to work with and you’ll be able to find something that is perfect for your site.
From caching, compression, to cache rebuild, WP Super Cache has everything you could ask for. This cache plugin also integrates Content Delivery Network (CDN), to ensure even better performance. After all, WP Super Cache is one of the most popular caching plugins for a reason.
Note: Sometimes, WP Total Cache or WP Super Cache conflict with other plugins. In such a case, try other alternative plugins. Check out our collection of the best WP caching plugins.
7. Best Speed Optimization and Performance Plugins:
A fast loading and powerful website is something that every user looks forward to on a website. So, you need to make sure that your website loads as fast as possible with advanced WordPress optimization. The following are the best WordPress plugins for site speed.
i) WP-Optimize (FREE)
WP-Optimize is a must-have WordPress plugin for cleaning up database and optimizing your site. It automatically removes unnecessary data from WordPress without manual queries. The plugin always keeps your database optimized for the best performance.
There may be a lot of useless data in your website which weighs down your site while you may not be even aware of it. With this free WordPress database plugin installed, it removes all the spammy and un-approved comments, trash posts, and comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks, etc and keep your database clean.
Download FREE
ii) WP Rocket (Premium)
One of the best WordPress performance plugins, WP Rocket can help improve the performance of your site almost instantly with its host of amazing features. Clean, minimal, and easy to use, you can instantly start using WP Rocket without having to wade through a complex configuration process.
It even comes with additional features like LazyLoad, caching, Cloudflare integration, etc which can all help improve your site speed. It is one of the best WordPress plugins for developers as well, since it features a clean code with a ton of hooks.
8. Best Image Optimization Plugins:
A common reason for websites to suffer from lags and slowdowns is due to its images. However, there’s no need to be afraid, since these image optimization plugins are here to deal with this problem.
i) Smush (Freemium)
Images are the great assets for your post/ page which easily grab the users’ attention. Unfortunately, they also take up a lot of storage space and slow down your website. With Smush, you can compress your images and solve this issue!
Yes, you can compress and optimize the images without reducing the quality of the images using the Smush plugin. It optimizes all of your image files in JPEG, GIF and PNG formats using advanced compression techniques and saves lots of storage space. When it comes to improving site speed, Smush is an invaluable tool.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) a3 Lazy Load (FREE)
a3 Lazy Load is a simple plugin that does its job effectively without unnecessary bells and whistles. It was designed in order to optimize the images of your site and improve site speed. With this plugin, you can add a ton of images to a page/post without worrying about slowing it down.
Not only does a3 Lazy Load help out with images, but it also works for video embeds. Furthermore, the plugin is fully responsive and even comes with support for AMP. This really is one of the best WordPress plugins for news sites, photography sites, etc which use a ton of images.
9. Best WordPress Backup Plugins:
Sometimes, you might need to back up your WordPress website if you want to create major changes on it for its betterment. So, it’s always good to know that great WordPress backup plugins are also available for it.
i) VaultPress (Freemium)
VaultPress is a security-oriented WordPress plugin built to create real-time automated backups for your website. The Jetpack powered theme easily syncs up every content, post, comment and media file on your website seamless and furthermore provides protection from many web issues and attacks.
VaultPress allows you to create optimized backups regularly and restore your website in a matter of seconds with just a single click. With multiple subscriptions, you can also monitor, backup and manage multiple websites through a single dashboard.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) UpdraftPlus (FREE)
UpdraftPlus is a popular option when it comes to site backup and restoration, and for good reason. It’s fast, powerful, and simple to use since it was created with WordPress beginners in mind. With over 3 million active users, UpdraftPlus has a lot to offer.
With just a few clicks, you will be able to backup, clone, or restore your site with zero hassle. You can schedule automatic backups to make things easy or you can just do it on-demand. Restoring backups is also going to be super convenient and can be done straight from the Dashboard.
10. Best Redirection Plugins:
Redirection can solve a lot of issues for your WordPress website. May it be broken links, registration spams, or any type of page errors, just a simple redirect can benefit you a lot. The top WordPress plugins made specifically for this as shown below.
i) Redirection (FREE)
There are times when you have to change the permalinks of your posts/ pages but you forget to redirect them. In such cases, Redirection is the right plugin to pick. It allows you to create and manage redirections in a straightforward manner, without the hassle of messing about with codes.
This fantastic plugin helps you to manage all the 301 redirections and keep track of 404 errors. It automatically adds a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes whereas you can also add 301, 302, and 307 redirections manually for a post. You can redirect all the URLs and also have full logs for all redirected URLs.
Download FREE
ii) Safe Redirects Manager (FREE)
If you want a redirection plugin that focuses on the core feature instead of unnecessary bloat then Safe Redirect Manager is for you. It’s extremely lightweight, effective, and simple to use. There’s not much else you can ask from a plugin of its kind.
There’s no need to mess around with complex settings with this plugin. Everything is streamlined and simple to use. Despite that, the plugin is highly effective and will work well even on huge websites with massive traffic. While it seems simple, it really is one of the best WordPress blog tools.
Note: We have also listed some of the best WordPress redirect plugins. Do make sure to check them out as well.
11. Best User Registration Plugins:
A WordPress user registration allows you to create a registration form for your users to login, signup, payments or more. Various services that you provide on your website might need user registration for which a plugin can be used to make it user.
i) User Registration (Freemium)
User registration is an integral feature necessary for many types of sites. However, the default registration feature for WordPress can be clunky. Thankfully, there is a carefully crafted simple, and user-friendly plugin at your disposal: User Registration.
This essential plugin comes up with plenty of amazing features so that you can make your WordPress site look professional with beautiful front-end user registration forms. With its premium add-ons, it can even double as one of the best WordPress plugins for payment.
Download FREE View Premium Add-ons
ii) Ultimate Member (Premium)
User registration from the front-end is going to be a piece of cake with the Ultimate Member plugin. With its beautiful looking user pages and simple functionality, you can have a vibrant community of your own in no time at all.
With features like user profiles, member directories, user registration/login, user role editing, content restriction, there isn’t a lot more you can ask for. Although the plugin itself is extremely lightweight, it has been designed to be extendable. As a result, you have a lot of extensions to choose from if you want additional features from this plugin.
Note: Want to learn more about WordPress user registration? Here is a complete tutorial for WP beginners on how to create WordPress user registration forms.
12. Best Emails and Newsletter Plugin:
Emails and Newsletters are great resources for marketing your products and website that even the best WordPress sites use. To help you out, these are the best website plugins of their kind.
i) MailChimp for WordPress (Freemium)
MailChimp is one of the most downloaded WordPress plugins when it comes to email marketing services. To integrate MailChimp for a WordPress site, there is a really convenient plugin MailChimp for WordPress. It is a free plugin that allows you to manage subscribers, send and check emails, and even track results in the bulk.
The plugin lets you create beautiful opt-in forms to add more subscribers to your email list. Besides, you can easily integrate the plugin with any other form on your sites like contact form, comment, or checkout form. It supports all the major form plugins like Contact Form 7, WooCommerce, etc.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) Newsletter (FREE)
Newsletter is exactly what it says on the tin. It is a simple but highly effective plugin that will allow you to create and manage newsletters. You can have an unlimited number of subscribers and send unlimited emails with this plugin. When it comes to email marketing tools, this plugin is one of the best options out there.
The drag-and-drop composer is also going to help you create beautiful and engaging emails without hassle. It also has email tracking so you’ll have a better idea of how your newsletters are doing. Everything has been designed to follow the anti-spam laws so there’s no need to worry in that regard as well.
Note: If you want to view more, we have two articles on best WordPress email marketing plugins and FREE best WordPress newsletter plugins. If you need a specific feature, check them out as well.
13. Best Lead Generation Plugins:
Marketing your website is a challenge in itself, and you’ll need every advantage you can get. You can take your WordPress business to the top with these plugins.
i) OptinMonster (Freemium)
Generating leads and conversions for your site is pretty important and you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a better option than OptinMonster. This is popular for a reason and comes with a lot of tools that will help you out. From growing email lists to reducing cart abandonments, OptinMonster has it covered.
It comes with the ability to build beautiful lead capture forms for your site. There’s also the WordPress website analyzer so you can check for yourself how you’re doing. Whether it is improving the number of visitors or increasing sales, OptinMonster is sure to come in handy.
ii) Thrive Leads (Premium)
Thrive Leads is not just a lead generation WordPress plugin, it’s a complete toolkit designed to help you convert visitors. It further supports your site with its reporting feature that makes it one of the best WordPress plugins of its type.
As with the previous option, you can use beautiful looking lead generation forms to great effect. There are a ton of variations in this regard so you can find something that works for you. Moreover, you can also use personalization and targeting to keep visitors engaged. As you can see, there’s just a lot to like about this plugin.
14. Best eCommerce Plugins:
There is no shortage of famous websites that use WordPress with eCommerce plugins for their store. So, there’s no reason to not go for a WordPress eCommerce module. Out of them all, the following are the best options for WordPress businesses.
i) WooCommerce (Freemium)
Often said to be the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress, WooCommerce can help you add anything to sell on your website. Basically, it can be used quite effectively and there are a ton of resources to help guide you. As a result, it is among the easiest eCommerce plugins for WordPress.
You can provide your customers with feature-rich eCommerce sit with WooCommerce. It includes free shipping, local pickups, flat rates, and many more useful features. Plus, you can sell anything with it, from physical products to event tickets, software, and service plans.
Download FREE View Premium
ii) Easy Digital Downloads (Freemium)
When it comes to selling digital products using your WordPress site, you’ll find that Easy Digital Downloads is one of the best eCommerce plugins for websites. With its support of audio files, it can even be said to be the best music store plugin for WordPress.
Easy Digital Downloads also goes through a lot of effort to make the process of shopping more engaging and convenient. As one of the top WordPress plugins for eCommerce, there are a ton of features like discount codes, advanced download tracking, customer account page, shopping cart, etc.
Note: You can use a lot of extensions and plugins to extend the functionality of WooCommerce on your website as well. You can view the list of best WooCommerce plugins and extensions if necessary.
15. Best WooCommerce My Account Customize Plugins:
Giving the ‘My Account’ page of your WooCommerce site is a good way to ensure that your online store stands out from the competition. As a result, these are some of the best plugins to spice up the client portal page for WooCommerce.
i) Customize My Account for WooCommerce (Premium)
A refreshingly unique look and feel for the My Account page can do wonders for user engagement. In that case, Customize My Account for WooCommerce Plugin, can be just what you need. This WordPress extension for the WooCommerce can help you add a new dimension to your My Account pages..
You can add a number of tabs and menus in order to make additional information available on the account page. With a number of design options for fonts, backgrounds, margins, spacing, etc, the account pages can look amazing.It even comes with endpoint options so that you can add information such as addresses, payment methods, etc.
ii) YITH WooCommerce Customize My Account Page (Premium)
Of course, YITH WooCommerce Customize My Account Page is another fantastic option as well. It allows you to manage the information that you can show to your customers on My Account page. As a result, the whole process of navigating your site will be much simpler.
You’ll be able to create promotions that are tailored to certain visitors and even show information based on user roles. By controlling what your users see, you can make sure that their experience is much more engaging.
16. Best Membership Plugins:
Creating an community and managing memberships might seem like an intimidating task but with these plugins, it is going to be easy as it can be.
i) MemberPress (Premium)
When it comes to membership plugins for your WordPress website, MemberPress needs no introduction. With it, you can instantly start selling and managing an unlimited number of memberships for your site.
It features integration with bbPress so you can even use it to create a community on your site. Other convenient features include beautiful pricing pages, affiliate programs, coupons, and more. Since this plugin has been designed with beginners in mind so it’s super easy to set up and use.
ii) Restrict Content Pro (Premium)
As you might have guessed from the name, Restrict Content Pro is an easy to use plugin which can help you add exclusive content to your site. This plugin is basically an all-in-one package for creating and managing memberships and comes with a ton of additional features to support it.
Using Restrict Content Pro, you can create an unlimited number of membership subscriptions levels for your site. For each subscription level, you can set prices, signup fees, user roles, and more. As a result, your users can have a ton of options to choose from.
17. Best Social Media Plugins:
Sharing your content on social media can be very beneficial for your website and website content. Nowadays, the website visitors can easily share your content which can really boost your traffic. And, it can be done with just a plugin.
i) Social Icons (FREE)
Undoubtedly, social media marketing is a vital part of content marketing these days. To boost social media marketing for your WordPress site, you can use a plugin like Social Icons. Social Icons is a free WordPress plugin that provides you an easy way to display popular social icons on your website.
It supports over 100 popular social media platforms and allows you to add social media icons to the pages or posts via widgets or shortcodes. There’s also the drag and drops icon sorting which makes your task much easier. All in all, this plugin is super easy to use while also being effective.
Download FREE
ii) Social Auto Poster (Premium)
If you want to share your content across a wide range of social media sites then Social Auto Poster is for you. All it takes is a few clicks and you will be able to start bringing in new visitors in no time at all. It’s all super easy to use and could be just what your site needs to reach the next level.
The plugin is not just for posts, as it works for pages, custom post types, and even WooCommerce products. It also comes with a scheduling feature so you can ensure that your content is shared during the best possible time. Building a social media presence has never been easier.
Note: If you want to explore some more plugins, check out more social media plugins here.
18. Best Affiliate Plugins:
A good way to monetize a site is by having affiliate campaigns with other websites. Fortunately, WordPress has website plugins that will make the whole thing a breeze.
i) ThirstyAffiliates (Freemium)
Monetizing your WordPress site is not the easiest thing in the world but ThirstyAffiliates can make things easier for you. This plugin makes it super easy to create and manage affiliate links. It has all been streamlined so that even WordPress beginners would be able to use it without any issues.
If you ever need to change an affiliate link, there’s no need to scour through your site in order to change every iteration of it. You can just Other convenient features offered by ThirstyAffiliates includes proper redirects and a global nofollow option for links.
ii) Pretty Links (Freemium)
Pretty Links is a free WordPress plugin that can help you shorten, track and manage the affiliate links for your site. With this lightweight tool, your visitors aren’t going to have to deal with messy or confusing links. Even a small detail like that can help make your site much more engaging.
Another amazing feature that Pretty Links brings to the table is the advanced stat tracking. With data like Number of Clicks per link and Number of Unique Clicks per link, you’ll have a much better idea of how your affiliate campaigns are doing.
19. Best Page Builder Plugins:
Creating beautiful looking pages for your WordPress site doesn’t have to be hard. Even with zero coding and technical knowledge, you can do so with help from these plugins.
i) Elementor (Freemium)
One of the most popular website plugins out there, Elementor has such a large following for a reason. This fantastic Page Builder plugin is going to ensure that it will be super easy to create the best WordPress pages. From normal posts to sections, ranking tables, charts, and more, this WordPress plugin can handle anything.
There’s no need to deal with confusing UI or complex codes either since Elementor was built with convenience in mind. Not only, but the plugin has also been created from the ground up to have a super clean code. As a result, create pixel-perfect designs has never been faster.
ii) Divi (Premium)
If you want a visual editor to help you create beautiful looking pages then look no further than Divi. It has a sleek editor that is super user-friendly to use while still being feature-rich and powerful. It is one of the best WordPress design tools that money can buy.
Divi’s gorgeous WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) combines real-time editing and drag-and-drop interface in order to create a page builder perfect for just about everyone. The plugin advertises itself as a ‘website design system’ rather than just a page builder and it definitely lives up to the boast.
20. Best Restaurant Menu Plugins:
Running a restaurant or any food-related business through your WordPress site has its perks. There are some wonderful website plugins out there that can help you present your food items in a beautiful manner on your site.
i) RestaurantPress (FREE)
This lightweight plugin is perfect for every kind of website that could use a menu, from restaurants and bars, to even hotels and resorts. In just a few clicks, you can create beautiful menus that are completely responsive. Moreover, this plugin has absolutely no bloats so you won’t have to worry about slowdowns.
The simple design has been created to adjust to all screen sizes. As a result, visitors from mobile devices will be able to browse your menu without any issues. When it comes to the design, there are enough options that you’ll be able to find one that suits you the best.
ii) Five Star Restaurant Menu (FREE)
Five Star Restaurant Menu is another fantastic option if you want responsive menus for your food-related site. The user-friendly builder and simple UI will make sure that you have a good experience using this plugin.
For one thing, it has a guided setup that will show you through the process of creating a menu. If that wasn’t enough, you can also allow your visitors to order your menu items through the internet by providing their contact info. You can receive custom notifications that contain all the relevant information.
21. Best Slider Plugins:
If you want to post images on your website, why not do it in a way that’s super engaging and dynamic? Check out these Slider plugins and see how they can breathe life into a website.
i) Slider Revolution (Premium)
Slider Revolution boasts a powerful set of features that will make sure that your images will be engaging for your visitors. You’re going to be building amazing looking sliders in no time at all. There’s absolutely no coding required at all, and everything is done visually.
The plugin makes things intuitive and offers a fantastic drag-and-drop slide editor. Each slide can have multiple layers with different content for each layer. If that wasn’t enough, the layers have their own timeline so you can create beautiful looking animation for the slide.
ii) Smart Slider 3 (Freemium)
Another popular option for WordPress slider plugins is Smart Slider 3. This versatile plugin can be used to create a wide variety of different sliders. On top of that, special care has been taken to optimize the plugin’s performance. As a result, your sliders are going to be super lightweight.
With this plugin, a special consideration has been made to ensure that your sliders will work with a variety of different devices. On top of being responsive, the sliders will also be touch-friendly for the sake of visitors from mobile and tablet devices. Not only that, it has also been designed to be SEO friendly.
22. Best Multilingual and Translation Plugins:
With WordPress, even the act of translating your website can be easy and convenient. There are a couple of great options available if you’re looking for a multilingual website.
i) WordPress Multilingual Plugin (Paid)
If the idea of translating a website seems like an absolute nightmare to you, then don’t worry. WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML) is a one-stop solution for anyone who wants a multilingual website. It’s the most popular multilingual plugin for WordPress and for a good reason at that.
Your entire website is going to be translated with this WordPress plugin, not just the latest posts and pages. Moreover, WPML comes with 40+ languages, alongside a handy language editor feature. It allows users to add their own language variants.
ii) Polylang (Freemium)
If you’re using Polylang, creating a multilingual site doesn’t have to be super complex. It’s another popular option with it comes to multilingual WordPress plugins. Just a few clicks and you can start translating your website across a ton of different languages.
Since this plugin integrates perfectly with the WordPress Dashboard, you can easily start translating your website without going anywhere. You can translate everything, from posts, pages, media, categories, and tags, to even custom post types, widgets, navigation menus, and URLs.
23. Best CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Plugins
It goes without saying that customization is a big part of WordPress. To help with that, you have a number of plugins that can help add a custom code into your site.
i) CSS Hero (Premium)
When it comes to editing the CSS of your website, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more powerful option than CSS Hero. This fantastic plugin comes with a drag-and-drop interface that was created specifically to make the process of editing CSS much smoother.
You’ll be able to modify everything, from color, fonts, margins, padding, and much more, with just a few clicks. Adding beautiful images and design elements will also be super streamlined with its Unspash integration. With CSS Hero, making WordPress look good is as safe as it gets.
ii) Code Snippets (Free)
Code Snippets is an extremely lightweight plugin that does just what you’d expect it to. You can easily insert snippets of code into your website without the need to edit any of the files. It can all be done through your WordPress Dashboard.
The UI of this WordPress plugin is very simple so that even the beginners can get started without unnecessary confusion. All in all, this plugin is a super clean option for adding code snippets to your site and one of the best free WordPress plugins out there.
24. Best Download Manager Plugins:
Managing a large number of downloads isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world for a website. Fortunately for WordPress site owners, there are Download Manager Plugins to handle all that for you.
i) Advanced File Manager
Like the name suggests, Advanced File Manager is a plugin that makes adding and downloading files super easy for WordPress site owners. With an intuitive interface, as well as file preview feature, users aren’t going to be lost while downloading things.
With this plugin, you can do all sorts of file operations without any need of touching the WordPress FTP or cPanel. All in all, there’s not a lot more you can ask from a plugin of its kind.
ii) WordPress Download Manager
With its easy interface and drag-and-drop module, WordPress Download Manager does its job in a super user-friendly way. Now adding downloads is easy as it can be. With features like password protection, integrated document viewer, multiple domain support, and more, this plugin sure packs a punch.
Not only that, the WordPress Download Manager plugin can also serve as an eCommerce solution. Selling digital items effectively will be a piece of cake for you. On top of that, you have a choice of a ton of add-ons to consider.
25. Best Advertisements Plugins:
If you were looking for way to monetize your website then you can’t go wrong with a WordPress Ad plugin. With them, you can easily place and manage advertisements on your website in just a few steps.
i) Ad Inserter
Ad Inserter is one of the best WordPress plugins and will allow you to place ads from all kinds of sources. From Google AdSense to Amazon Native Shopping Ads, the plugin’s flexibility will is second to none. Making matters even better is its support for Google Ad Manager.
With this, you can place ads just about anywhere on your site. Creating engaging ads will also be a piece of cake with the visual advert editor. Moreover, other advanced features include Adblock detection, timed ad rotation, integration with Google Site Kit, and much more.
ii) Advanced Ads
If you’re on the lookout for a simple ad manager then no need to look further than Advanced Ads. It’s not just lightweight either, and has been optimized for different types of ads, including Google AdSense, Amazon ads, Media.net, etc.
With the dedicated Gutenberg block for ads, adding advertisements to your posts has never been simpler. With this, you can create, test, and manage an unlimited number of ads. On top of that, it has features like rotation, scheduled ads, targeted ads, etc to help you make the best of your site.
26. Best Copyright Protection Plugins:
If you’re a site owner then its important for you to be able to protect your intellectual property. To help you out, we have listed out the best WordPress plugins to copyright protect your website.
i) WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click
If you want a WordPress plugin that does its job perfectly well then you can’t go wrong with WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click. It’s just one of the easiest ways for WordPress site owners to protect their content.
With it, you can prevent save yourself a lot of trouble by disallowing right clicks, preventing visitors from saving images and disallowing copy and selection. With the paid version, advanced features that allow you to set varying levels of protection for different pages/posts.
ii) Secure Copy Content Protection
Secure Copy Content Protection is a basic and lightweight plugin that will handle a lot of the content protection features for your site. Check this free plugin out and see for yourself.
By disabling right clicks, drag-and-drop, copy shortcut keys, and other website scraping tools, you can ensure that your intellectual property is protected. All it takes is a few seconds of your time to set up this amazing plugin and you’re good to go.
27. Best Classifieds Listing Plugins:
When it comes to showcasing ads and listing on your website, WordPress has you covered as well. These are the best classifieds plugin that will allow you to do just that. Just take a look!
i) WPAdverts
WPAdverts is a simple plugin that can help you create beautiful classifieds listing in just minutes. As it is very lightweight, you can be sure that your classifieds page won’t get bogged down by lags.
This plugin was built with beginners in mind is highly user-friendly as a result. Despite that, the plugin is surprisingly powerful as well and even has premium add-ons to further add to the features.
ii) Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro
Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro is a highly flexible plugin despite being very lightweight. It can accommodate all kinds of classifieds listing with a bunch of different options for how things look in the front end.
Not only that, but you can also even charge users to submit items to your premium listing as an additional source of revenue. It supports payment via bank transfer but also has add-ons for integration with PayPal and Stripe.
28. Other Popular and Useful Plugins:
There are many more popular articles which we think will be very useful for you even though they are not specifically categorized. So, let’s move on to these plugins as well.
i) Jetpack (Freemium)
A powerful plugin from the brilliant team behind WordPress itself, Jetpack is a must-have plugin for every WordPress website. As the name suggests, it offers a pack of awesome features for your website to fly up high and make it a success.
This starter WordPress plugin takes care of your site security, website performance, traffic growth, image optimization, website appearance, and a lot more. It features enhanced distribution which automatically shares your published content to third-party services like search engines and helps to increase your reach and traffic.
Download FREE Premium Plans
ii) All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets (FREE)
Rich Snippets are basically the extra pieces of information like star ratings, images, number of reviews, etc. that provide further information about the post/ page. To add them to your WordPress site, you can use the handy plugin All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets.
As the best schema.org WordPress plugin, it will provide the search engines with precise information to be displayed in the search engine result pages. This helps your site rank better as well as get more click-through rates.
Download FREE
iii) Broken Link Checker (FREE)
Broken pages can leave your visitors with a poor impression of your site. To deal with that, there is a handy plugin that will monitor your website for all the broken links. Just install the free plugin Broken Link Checker and take a nice nap because it will do the job automatically.
The plugin checks all your posts, comments, and other content for broken links and instantly notifies you if any are found. In addition, it reports on the missing images as well so that you fix them quickly. Furthermore, the plugin has options to prevent search engines from following the broken links, display the broken links differently, etc.
Download FREE
iv) Disable Comments (FREE)
As the name suggests, Disable Comments is useful to globally disable comments on your entire site or certain post types. It’s a very simple plugin designed to do one thing effectively. It provides full-fledged features that you need to avoid comment spamming
Considering that all the pages/posts are not likely to accept user comments, the plugin provides an easy solution for disabling comments on post types, pages, and attachments. Once you have this, you won’t have to deal with spam or unnecessary comments again.
Download FREE
Wrapping up
And they were the best WordPress plugins that every website needs in my view. As stated above, these plugins provide the basic features, improve the site SEO, optimize speed, harden security, and help to market your content and products in a better way. You should now have an idea about what plugins to install on WordPress.
If you are already using them, write your feedback in the comment box below. Do make sure to check our plugins collection for more must-have WordPress plugins as well.
If you think we missed any essential WordPress plugin, leave a suggestion in the comment box below.
The post 50+ Best WordPress Plugins 2020 – Essential for Professional Websites (Free + Paid) appeared first on ThemeGrill Blog.
