With WordPress offering 59,135* plugins available for free in the WordPress plugin repository, we thought we’d share with you our favorites in order to save you a little bit of time.
We offer these in no real specific order, rather organized by functionality and use case.
Security
For those of you who might not be using managed hosting (or hosting with CWP) we highly recommend and use WordFence. They offer both a free and paid level of service with the free level offering plenty of features and functionality for those starting out.
Lead Generation/Forms
Though there is no free version of this plugin, we trust Gravity Forms and use it on just about every site we build and/or manage. With a plethora of add-ons and amazing documentation and support, it’s 100% worth the investment.
Ecommerce
If you are looking to setup an e-commerce site with both digital and physical products, WooCommerce is the go to. The base plugin in free, as are the basic tools to get up and running. When you need more customizations and functionality the add-ons are top notch as well as affordable.
When we are working with clients that are only serving up digital goods we use Easy Digital Downloads. EDD is a great solution for software, documents, photos and ebooks, is simple to setup and does offer add-ons if needed as well.
Analytics
As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it you can’t improve it, so that’s why we use always use Google Analytics along side Google Analytics plugin by MonsterInsights. This plugin is super simple to integrate with websites and the free version gives some solid info on within the WordPress dashboard.
Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO)
Yoast SEO makes sure your site meets the highest technical SEO standards. It also gives you the tools to optimize your content for SEO and overall readability. There is both a free and paid version, and once again, the free version is feature rich.
Fundraising
After struggling for years to hobble together a multitude of services to accept payments for our non-profit clients, we were ecstatic when GiveWP came onto the scene. Need the basic ability to accept donations, you’re covered. Want to extend the functionality, the add-ons are worth every penny.
User Redirection & User testing
Why do we love LoginWP? Simple.. it’s an easy to use plugin that does exactly what it says it will do! We use it all the time for membership sites, sending site visitors to specific pages based on a variety of variables.
User Switching is another favorite plugin as with membership sites typically having mutiple levels of user, making sure that the right options for each member is crucial. Instead of logging in and out multiple times, we use User Switching to check that everything is as it should be all without logging out or creating extra accounts.
Podcasting
In case you’ve missed it, Podcasts are HOT these days, and you’ll need a way to connect your podcast post to the feed itself. PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry is our go to.
*As of the publishing of this post.