Almost half of the web is WordPress. It powers around 43 percent of all websites and over 60 percent of websites with known Content Management Systems (CMS). Reports show that a whopping 65,140,466 websites use WordPress, further underlining the prowess of the most popular CMS.
Thus, we can say that WordPress is the first choice for building websites globally. Whether you are running your online business or even a simple blog website, WordPress is a viable choice. It has a huge ecosystem that is powered by numerous themes, plugins, contributors, and so on.
Plugins form an integral part of this ecosystem and enable businesses to get started with WordPress and make the most of it. So, continue reading and discover a holistic list of the best plugins for WordPress that can help you establish an online brand and give a boost to your business.
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In this blog
- Elementor
- WooCommerce
- Yoast
- OptinMonster
- Site Kit by Google
- Contact Form 7
- MemberPress
- WP Rocket
- Smush
- WordFence
- WP AutoTerms
- WPML
- Mailchimp
- Uncanny Automator
- AppMySite
What is a WordPress plugin?
Evryone who owns a WordPress website crosses paths with WordPress plugins in some way or the other. But what are plugins on WordPress?
Essentially, WordPress plugins are apps or software that, when installed, add new features and functionalities to your WordPress website. It is somewhat like installing mobile apps on your smartphone.
In fact, plugins play a critical role in expanding the functionalities of your WordPress website. These small pieces of plug-and-play software transform your vanilla website into a fully functional one.
Whether you want to build an e-commerce website, protect your website from phishing attacks, or even convert your WordPress website into an app, there’s a plugin for everything (well, almost everything).
Currently, there are over 59,000 free plugins in the WordPress plugin directory and over 5,200 paid plugins on CodeCanyon, the plugin marketplace. These numbers just give a glimpse of how large the WordPress ecosystem is.
However, the availability of endless options can also be overwhelming and hold you back. If you are having trouble deciding which ones to go for, we are here to help. Go through our list of the best WordPress plugins that can transform your online business.
Related: Top WordPress LMS plugins for your eLearning website
Top 15 must-have WordPress plugins for your website
From building website pages to ensuring website security, performance, and more, there are many WordPress plugins to help you get started online. Go through the wholesome list of top plugins for your WordPress website and unlock unlimited functionalities:
Elementor
Elementor is a popular page builder plugin for WordPress that enables users to create aesthetic and professional websites with drag-and-drop tools. It comes with AI-powered features that further enhance and simplify the user experience.
You can use Elementor to build and customize captivating web pages without writing any code. The live-preview feature makes it easy to track the project, view changes in real-time, and make updates on the go.
The platform offers numerous widgets, blocks, and templates that make your job easier and empower you to create feature-rich landing pages for your website. If you want complete control over the layout, you can also build everything from scratch.
From intuitive design editor to native AI tools, Elementor ensures the complete package for WordPress owners. You can use it to create responsive and dynamic websites with a premium look and feel that work well across devices and environments.
Pricing: Elementor offers a wide range of pricing, and its essential package starts at USD 4.92 per month.
Alternatives: Some of the top alternatives to Elementor include names like Divi and Beaver Builder.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce needs no introduction. It is the best and most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress with more than 7 million active installations. It is used by 21.1 percent of all WordPress websites and the number runs in millions.
No matter what you want to sell, WooCommerce can be your go-to solution. Be it retail products, products with multiple variations, online products, or even subscriptions, WooCommerce can handle it all.
It is a wholesome eCommerce tool that can be used to create, manage, and run eCommerce businesses from scratch. Build customized storefronts with stunning themes that suit your brand, optimize cart experiences, customize product pages, and more.
You can also use third-party plugins to make your online WooCommerce store even more powerful. From payments to shipping, tax calculation, subscription management, and more, you can do it all with WooCommerce.
Pricing: WooCommerce is a free-to-use open-source plugin.
Alternatives: Shopify, BigCommerce, and Easy Digital Downloads are some reliable WooCommerce alternatives.
Yoast
Yoast or Yoast SEO is a must-have WordPress plugin for all businesses. In fact, it is considered the best WordPress SEO plugin by many and has over 10 million active installations. The number alone underlines its merits and caliber.
It is not a secret that every website requires search engine optimization to gain and grow search visibility and Yoast helps them with that. It helps WordPress owners create meaningful and SEO-optimized content with ease.
In fact, Yoast offers many features and benefits. For instance, it analyzes the content and reports how SEO-friendly your web pages are. It also checks your content’s readability to ensure it remains visitor-friendly.
Additionally, it helps optimize the meta-information of your web pages like page title, meta description, and so on. The premium version unlocks multiple other features that bolster your overall SEO optimization strategies.
Pricing: Yoast offers both free and premium versions. The premium version is priced at USD 99 per year.
Alternatives: Rank Math and All-in-one-SEO are some well-known Yoast SEO alternatives.
OptinMonster
Every business always wishes to constantly grow its customer base and stay on the lookout for converting visitors into customers. OptinMonster helps you achieve that goal for your WordPress website without much hassle.
More than a million websites are currently using this plugin worldwide and benefit from it. It is a great solution for bloggers, business websites, and e-commerce websites alike and helps them create popups & opt-in forms.
Whether you wish to create a pop-up or an email newsletter sign-up prompt, this is the plugin that can help you. Thus, you can use it to get more email newsletter subscribers, leads, sales, and more.
The plugin is optimized for web and server performance and makes it easy to create and launch campaigns. Create and launch all kinds of pop-ups and place or embed them on the desired sections of your website.
Pricing: OptinMonster offers several plans on its platform. The starting package is priced at USD 59.60 per year.
Alternatives: Thrive Leads and Convert Pro are some reliable OptinMonster alternatives.
Site Kit by Google
The key secret to running a powerful and successful website is tracking its insights, monitoring the overall performance, collecting actionable data and metrics, and analyzing them to make data-backed decisions for improvements and changes.
This is exactly what Site Kit by Google helps you with. It is a wholesome plugin for WordPress users who want to collect insights about how people find and use their site. It gives access to outstanding Google products like Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, and more.
The kit makes it easy to use these products and generate and manage easy-to-understand reports for your website. The best thing is that you can ensure quick setup for multiple tools without having to edit the source code of your site and manage them all under one dashboard.
From page and SEO insights to visitor milestones, site earnings, and tags, everything can be managed and monitored with ease with the Site Kit plugin. It takes a few steps to set up and you can start tracking your website’s health and important insights instantly.
Pricing: The Site Kit plugin is open-source and essentially free.
Alternatives: MonsterInsights and Jetpack can be considered as the alternative to Site Kit by Google.
Contact Form 7
Contact forms have become an indispensable part of new-age websites. Such forms play an integral role in expanding website functionalities, optimizing customer touchpoints, and even enhancing business-customer relationships.
Contact Form 7, as the name suggests, is a popular free and open-source WordPress contact form plugin that empowers you to create and manage multiple contact forms of all types. It offers several features like CAPTCHA, Akismet integration, and more.
From basic contact forms to complex ones with multiple fields, you can create them all with the versatile plugin. Additionally, you can also customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup, and more.
You can also set up form validation to ensure that you receive data in the desired format. Moreover, the plugin can be integrated with other tools such as payment gateways, email marketing platforms, CRM systems, and more, to unlock added functionalities.
Pricing: Contact Form 7 plugin is open-source and essentially free.
Alternatives: WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Ninja Forms are some alternatives to Contact Form 7.
MemberPress
Not every online website sells physical goods. Some also sell membership subscriptions and digital products. MemberPress is a holistic membership plugin for WordPress that lets you do that and more.
It is a versatile plugin that can be implemented for many use cases. You can create membership sites and online communities, sell and manage subscriptions, restrict and manage content accessibility, and more.
Additionally, you can create tiered memberships and offer access to posts, pages, custom post types, and more, based on the membership level. Setting up affiliate systems, monetization, and payments is also easy with the plugin.
Thus, you can create social community apps, educational platforms with eBooks and courses, subscription-based blog sites, and more with the MemberPress plugin. No matter what your goal is, the platform offers detailed documentation to help you get going.
Pricing: MemberPress comes with multiple pricing options with the basic package currently starting at USD 179.50 per year.
Alternatives: LearnDash and Restrict Content Pro are some popular alternatives to MemberPress.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is one of the most reliable, popular, and powerful WordPress plugins. It is essentially a caching plugin that is used to enhance the overall speed and performance of WordPress websites.
It is easy to set up and offers a seamless interface for users making it a suitable choice for professionals as well as beginners. Its core features include page caching, browser caching, and GZIP compression, which ensure your website is optimized for speed.
Ecommerce optimization, smooth compatibility, and several other advanced capabilities further make it a lucrative option for all types of WordPress website owners. Thus, it helps you optimize your Core Web Vitals such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID).
The plugin triggers optimization as soon as you activate it and takes care of your website’s speed and performance for you. As a result, you can tidy up your database in no time and see instant results in your performance metrics.
Pricing: WP Rocket pricing ranges based on the number of websites. The single website plan starts at USD 59 per year.
Alternatives: W3 Total Cache and Autoptimize are some of the worthy alternatives to WP Rocket.
Smush
Slow loading and heavy images can hinder the performance of a website and cause it to load slowly. This is why it is important to optimize and compress the images to ensure that the user experience is not compromised.
Smush is one of the most popular image optimization plugins for WordPress that does just that. It enables you to optimize, resize, and compress images, implement lazy loading, as well as convert images to WebP format for faster loading web pages.
It lets you adjust images without compromising on the quality, visual appeal, or viewing experience. You can optimize images of various sizes and formats including JPEG, PNG, GIF, and so on, and activate lazy loading for better speed and loading times.
The plugin easily integrates with WordPress and fits into your workflow. Additional features like lossless compression, 123-point global CDN integration, incorrect image size detection, etc., make it a wholesome solution for managing image assets on your site.
Pricing: Smush offers several packages with the basic plan starting at USD 3 per month.
Alternatives: Imagify and ShortPixel are some well-known alternatives to Smush.
WordFence
Ensuring security is a key part of every site manager’s job description. However, there are thousands of malicious bots and hackers who are always on the lookout for any hacking and penetration opportunities.
There have been countless cases where businesses have faced downtime due to malicious attacks. This is where a plugin like WordFence can become a savior. It shields your website from any external attacks and malware.
It is one of the most popular WordPress firewall and security scanners that offer a holistic suite of security features like endpoint firewall, malware scanner, login security, live traffic views, country blocking, configurable alerts, and more.
Additionally, WordFence has dedicated incident response teams that cater to any security incidents for priority customers. All-in-all it is a great plugin to prevent cyber-attacks, avoid downtimes, and ensure overall site security.
Pricing: WordFence offers both free and premium packages. The paid plan starts at USD 119 per year.
Alternatives: Some top alternatives to WordFence are Sucuri and iThemes Security.
WP AutoTerms
Every business needs to follow a set of guidelines and adhere to the laws and regulations that apply to it. This stands true for online websites as well. This is why website pages like the Terms and Conditions page, Privacy Policy page, etc., are now an essential requirement.
However, creating such pages can be tricky. This is where plugins like WP AutoTerms come into the picture. The plugin helps you with a wide range of legal requirements such as the GDPR, CCPA, and more.
You can use the plugin to create a Cookie Notice banner, Privacy Policy page, Terms and Conditions page, or other personalized legal pages for your website, all of which can be mandatory to ensure compliance with regulatory policies.
You can select from a range of pre-defined templates and create pages that address your specific legal requirements. Make sure that these resources are easily accessible to your users, and that they feel safeguarded while browsing your site.
Pricing: WP AutoTerms offers free and premium pricing. The premium license starts at USD 39 (one-time payment) per website.
Alternatives: WP Legal Pages and Termly are some well-known alternatives to WP AutoTerms.
WPML
WPML stands for WordPress Multilingual plugin. As the name suggests, it is a premium translation plugin that allows you to translate your website’s posts, pages, custom post types, etc., into languages of your choice.
If you are catering to different types of demographics or you want your website’s content to be localized and available to people in a language they understand, it is one of the best plugins for you.
WPML lets you translate your site into 65 pre-configured languages. Moreover, you can add your own custom languages and organize translations under subdomains, subfolders, different domains per language, and more. Users can select a language of their choice via language switchers that can be customized to suit their needs.
WPML is also available for WooCommerce and supports integration with several page builders and tools. You can leverage the plugin to reach international markets, operate in multiple languages and currencies, and more.
Pricing: WPML has different packages for Blogs, CMS, and Agencies. The basic plan starts at USD 39 per year.
Alternatives: Some WordPress translation plugins similar to WPML are TranslatePress and Polylang.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp or MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress is a renowned plugin for email marketing. You can add it to your WordPress website to grow your email list, create stunning and accessible sign-up forms, and more.
It supports integration with a range of platforms and is known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for creating customized forms. You can build and embed forms in posts, pages, or widget areas to build a strong subscriber list and manage it seamlessly.
The plugin is optimized for performance and does not hinder your website’s speed and other vitals. The forms created with Mailchimp remain compatible and look good across all types of devices.
Additionally, the plugin offers real-time analytics and reporting that allows you to monitor the efficacy of your forms and related campaigns. It is a reliable email marketing plugin for WordPress as well as WooCommerce and suits various kinds of businesses.
Pricing: Mailchimp offers several packages, and the pricing starts at USD 99 per year.
Alternatives: WordPress has several other competitive email marketing plugins like Brevo (previously known as Sendinblue) and SendGrid.
Uncanny Automator
Uncanny Automator is one of the best WordPress automation plugins that empowers site owners to build useful automations that connect their WordPress plugins, sites, and apps together, and enables the assets to communicate with each other.
You can use the plugin to automate a wide range of tasks and workflows without complex coding. It allows you to create “recipes” that push triggers and actions for automating processes on your WordPress website.
Thus, you can program it to make something happen when something else (another event) takes place. For example, you can build a recipe to send an email to users when they complete a form submission. Thus, you can trigger marketing campaigns, offer customized discounts, reward milestone completions, and more.
Uncanny Automator can have tons of use cases, and you can implement them accordingly. Over 350 automation triggers and actions are available for numerous plugins and apps as it supports integration with many platforms. It is a user-friendly plugin with thousands of installations and a great choice for those looking for easy automation.
Pricing: Uncanny Automator offers a free plan, and the paid packages start at USD 149 per year.
Alternatives: AutomatorWP and WP Fusion are some suitable alternatives to Uncanny Automator.
AppMySite
Recently, there has been a major shift from desktop to mobile and the trends continue to favor mobile apps. In fact, reports show that the number of mobile users is increasing and they spend 90 percent of their time on mobile apps and just 10 percent of their time on mobile websites.
Thus, building an app for a business has become imperative. However, mobile app development is no longer as complicated, time-taking, and costly as it used to be. Thanks to no-code solutions like AppMySite, the process of creating apps has become easier and more optimized.
AppMySite no-code app builder is a particularly fast, easy, and affordable solution that enables businesses to create all kinds of apps without coding. You can go from website to app or build an app from scratch, the choice is yours.
The platform also offers deep integration with WordPress and a plugin that makes WordPress to app conversion super simple. You can sign up for the platform and complement your WordPress website with an equally powerful app.
Import all your website data to the app with a few clicks and sync your website’s content and settings without any hassle. Offer a multichannel browsing experience to your customers and earn their trust and loyalty.
Pricing: AppMySite offers free plans that do not cost anything. Moreover, the paid plans are highly affordable and sustainable for businesses of all kinds.
Alternatives: AppMySite is one of its kind. While there are several other players in the industry, none offer a plugin as powerful as AppMySite.
Conclusion
That is a wrap! The role of the various plugins covered here is to grow the overall functionality of a website and increase the caliber of your business. Go on to make your pick and integrate the right plugins to enhance your website.
While you are at it, do not forget to find a good web host to ensure that your website is optimized for speed and performance. We recommend WP Engine which is a leading hosting platform catering to WordPress websites alone. This degree of specialization is a key factor in making it one of the best-managed WordPress hosts in the world.
WP Engine doesn’t just offer speed. It makes website management simple by automating essential tasks like updates and backups. Users can also rest easy about their website security with WP Engine as it institutes several security measures such as 2FA, data encryption, and advanced user permission.
Also, do not forget to create an app for your website and attract mobile-friendly customers who prefer apps. Try out AppMySite for free and develop an app of your choice without any coding. For more such informative content, stay tuned to the AppMySite blog space and grow your knowledge.
Frequently asked questions
Which are the best WordPress plugins for businesses?
The choice of the best WordPress plugins for your business depends upon your customized needs. However, here are some commonly used WordPress plugins by businesses for various goals and functionalities:
- Best WordPress Page Builder Plugins: Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder
- Best WordPress Mobile App Builder Plugin: AppMySite Free Mobile App Builder
- Best WordPress Security Plugins: WordFence, Jetpack, Sucuri Security
- Best WordPress Caching Plugins: WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache
- Best SEO Plugins for WordPress: Yoast, Rank Math, All in One SEO
- Best WordPress Membership Plugins: MemberPress, LearnDash, Restrict Content Pro
- Best WordPress Backup Plugins: UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, Jetpack Backups
- Best WordPress Form Plugins: Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms,
- Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugins: Smush, Lazy Load, ShortPixel
- Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins: WooCommerce, Shopify, Big Commerce
- Best WordPress Payment Plugins: Stripe Payments, PayPal Payments, WP Simple Pay
- Best WordPress Search Plugins: SearchWP, Relevanssi, Ajax Search
- Best WordPress Live Chat Plugins: LiveChat, Zendesk Chat, Tidio
- Best WordPress CRM Plugins: HubSpot CRM, WP-CRM System, Groundhogg
- Best WordPress Plugins for Social Media: Social Snap, Smash Balloon, Revive Old Posts
- Best WordPress Email Marketing Plugins: MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Brevo
- Best WordPress Plugins for Redirection: Redirection, 301 Redirects, Safe Redirect Manager
- Best WordPress Anti-Spam Plugins: Akismet, Titan Anti-Spam and Security, Antispam Bee
The options listed above are some of the most renowned WordPress plugins in the given category. Pick the ones that matter for your website and enhance your WordPress functionalities.
Why do I need a WordPress plugin?
Every WordPress website owner needs plugins to extend their website’s features and functionalities, optimize its performance, grow its reach, and ensure a smooth browsing experience for visitors. Here are the core uses and benefits of using plugins on your WordPress website:
- Implement new features and functionalities
- Optimize website speed and performance
- Boost SEO activities and search visibility
- Enhance user experience and navigation
- Secure the website against potential threats
- Scale website growth, engagement, and traffic
- Collect and analyze website performance insights
As evident, using WordPress plugins can help you save time and resources and integrate desired features in no time. Curate your own list of desired additions and implement them on your website.
Which is the best free WordPress plugin?
The WordPress ecosystem consists of many free plugins that can be used to achieve all kinds of goals. For example, WooCommerce enables you to create eCommerce sites, AppMySite enables you to create mobile apps without coding, Jetpack lets you secure your website, Yoast helps with SEO optimization, and so on. Most of these plugins offer essential features for free and let you upgrade for advanced functionalities. You can check out the WordPress plugin directory and find the free plugins that align with your goals.