My WP Plugin List

ByJeff Baygents Updated on
wp plugin list

After decades as an IT Manager, developer, & consultant, here is my Best WP Plugin List I’ve ever successfully experienced. And, I’ve used hundreds. This is a part of my Recommended WordPress Plugins & “WordPress Plugins” categories.

Also, I don’t have any affiliate links on this massive WordPress Plugins directory like most other posts promote. That means I don’t get a kickback if you click a link and get the item. Most of these have both a pro and free version so, I show links to free, paid subscriptions, and lifetime versions (when available).

Introduction to My Best WordPress Plugins List

I only show the best WordPress Plugins List of ones that I had relatively good or great success with. I’m not influenced to promote any of these items. All links are simple and direct to the source.

Finally, I won’t bash the ones I didn’t like; I just don’t show them (and there are several, some very popular).

WP Plugin Search

Start with the default WP Plugin Search page from WordPress.org to perform your own WordPress plugin search. You can find all types by category, word, or phrase. Most fall into several overlapping categories. So, you might see some in more than one category. For example, one might improve site speed and appear under both “Performance Plugins” and “Database Optimization Plugins”.

What WP Plugins Do I Currently Use?

If you want to see the ones I currently use, check out my post “Rebuild Website Guide“. I keep that article current because I use it to remind me the order of installing fully compatible plugins on a new or rebuilt site. Finally, I’ve been in IT Management for decades so, I’ve experienced literally hundreds of these items. To filter them down, I only mention the relatively good or great ones I’ve used since 2022 up through today.

WP Performance Plugins

I’ve tried the other extremely popular performance and caching plugins. These first two are the best overall. Both are known and recognized by professionals. However, keep reading because I list some others that were fairly good also and are more “commonly” known.

Also, if I’m looking for a new host provider, I’ll check to see if they satisfy my website technical requirements like CPU, memory, and caching like Redis or others. And, I’ll look at their general website hosting requirements like backups, root access, and to ensure it allows a full WordPress app install. Read more in my post “Website Requirements“.

Redis Object Cache Plugin

  • redis Object Cache plugin free version or Object Cache Pro: subscription only (expensive)
    • Applicable if your hosting server has redis caching enabled, which is typically free in all hosting that offers redis (most do). Also, installing the basic one will add an additional “MU” plugin automatically.

Note: “memcached” is the other popular object caching if your server has that enabled. However, most experts recommend to use “redis” type of object caching for most scenarios. I did try memcached on a few different scenarios and always found “redis” to be the best choice for retaining real good site performance metrics.

LiteSpeed Cache Plugin

wp plugin list includes litespeed cache plugin
Litespeed cache plugin
  • LiteSpeed Cache plugin via WP (free)
  • Usable with or without using LiteSpeed Server.
  • For still getting great speed and not on a LiteSpeed Server (like me), get your site linked to QUIC.cloud. Optionally, then use their world renowned fastest CDN that’s very inexpensive with a usage-based setup.
  • LiteSpeed Cache Domain Key Connect to QUIC.cloud

FlyingPress Plugin

This is a high caching performance; only if not using LiteSpeed plugin and certain other caching addons or functions.

Other Commonly Known Performance Plugins I’ve Used

WP Theme Plugins

wp plugin list includes wp theme plugins
WP Theme plugins add extensions and blocks

There are a ton of WP Themes out there and I’ve tried quite a few of them. While I currently use Kadence Theme, I’ve also shown the others I’ve used in the very recent past. All of the others tend to have their own theme related plugins that work best. Most involve an extension of the theme and more for adding custom advanced blocks or functions for it.

Kadence Theme Plugins

Other Commonly Known Themes Plugins I’ve Used Before

Regarding themes, here’s another WordPress Plugins List.

WordPress Form Builder Plugins

wp plugin list includes wordpress form builder plugins
WP plugin list includes WordPress Form Builder plugins

There are many WordPress Form Builder plugins today. They all vary in features and functions. One of the most popular happens to be one that I like a lot.

WP Plugins for Backup

wp plugin list includes wp plugins for backup
WP plugin list includes WP plugins for Backup

WP Backup plugins are everywhere and they all vary in their functions and limitations. I’ve used a whole lot of them. Backups also can involve being able to save and restore very specific parts of the website like users, comments, taxonomies, and so on. So, WP Backups will also involve imports and exports of settings.

Zippy Backup Plugin (free)

WPvivid Backup, Migration, Staging

Backups are an important part of a WP Security Check.

Import WP Pro: Does Imports & Exports

Images Plugins for WordPress

wp plugin list includes images plugins for wordpress
WP plugin list includes Images plugins for WordPress

These WordPress Images plugins involve a list of very popular functions by site developers. WP Images involve compression, resizing, optimizing, displaying, conversion, renaming, alt text assigning or other image attributes, and even media replacement.

Image Compression Plugins

Image Replace Plugins

Image Display Plugins

Image Resizing Plugins

Image Attributes Plugins

Code Snippets Plugins

Code snippets are a popular phrase because every now and then, you might want (or need) to add a tweak or fix to something. Also, it’s much nicer if you can centralize as much custom site code as possible. You can sometimes replace other plugins with just a snippet of code for lower overhead.

Post Grid Layout Plugins

These grid layout plugins are perfect for presenting your posts in various patterns and designs. Content Views plugin gives you a whole lot more. It also gives you some customization of your displaying your taxonomies of categories, tags, archives, and search page. Also, includes tons of features including lazy load, image display formatting, auto alignment, and numerous settings too many to show.

WP SEO Plugins

wp plugin list includes wp seo plugins
WP SEO plugins

On this WP SEO Plugins list, choose only one. Generally, more than 1 SEO plugin will cause problems on your site with SERP and can become a technical issue as well. However, that’s mainly because it’s very difficult to locate all the conflicting functions between 2 or more SEO addons. Although, those issues might not be discovered right away, use caution if mixing them.

So, see my choices for top SEO plugins for WordPress.

WP Security Plugins

wp plugin list includes wp security plugins
WP plugin list includes WP Security plugins

WP Security Plugins involve a lot of aspects. You have your hosting server security and your website backend and frontend security. Also, some security addons include firewall protections your hosting server might not have enabled because it’s an added monthly expense. Sometimes you might just want one or two extra security measures applied to handle issues you’ve discovered, like admin login attempts.

Read my post on “Complete Guide to Security of WordPress Sites” and performing a “WP Security Check“.

Popular Security Plugins

Force SSL

Captcha Plugins

Admin & Site Enhancements Plugin

Login Temporary Without Password

Food Recipes Plugins

wp plugin list includes food recipes plugins
WP plugin list includes Food Recipes plugins

For those who have a food recipe site, WP Recipe Maker is known around the world for its popularity. It has the best known collection of functions and features for you to use on your food site. There are 4 plan levels to choose. Other recipe plugins have you pay for each addon separately and involves installing another addon. I tried the other popular ones in 2022 and 2023 but ended up solidly with WP Recipe Maker Elite Plan.

Accessibility Plugins

Analysis Plugins for WordPress

analysis plugins for wordpress list like independent analytics pro
Analysis plugins for WordPress list like Independent Analytics Pro
  • Independent Analytics free version or Independent Analytics Pro version)
    • Lightweight, easy Analytics Dashboard
    • Good & Lightweight replacement of Google Analytics
    • Real-time data & hourly
    • Privacy friendly & GDPR compliant
    • See sources of traffic by sites, search engines, and device OS
    • Geographic data by country or city
    • Campaigns creation & WooCommerce friendly
    • Establish automated emailed reports

Maintenance Plugins

WordPress Maintenance plugins list involves a lot of things you need to do or want to do for keeping your site working well. You might want to clear the cache on a single post but you need its post ID number. Or, you might want to add in some automatic URL redirections from a slug you changed. Cleaning up your database, media library, or site files is included on the WP Maintenance list also.

WP Reset

Show Page or Posts IDs

WP Redirection Plugins

WP Database Optimization Plugins

wp plugin list includes wp database optimization plugins
WP plugin list includes WP Database Optimization plugins

Media and Files Cleaner Plugins

Multipurpose Plugins

Some are multipurpose in the WordPress Plugins List.

Monetization Plugins

After your site starts to generate some good traffic, the thought of having monetization plugins comes to mind. I tried several of them and stayed with a very popular advertising plugin for a good while. But it impacted my site performance by about 5-10%. Eventually, I heard of this extremely lightweight advertising plugin and haven’t looked back. So, check out “Ad Inserter” as shown here. It has a ton of settings available and a way to export out all settings and code.

WordPress Advertising Plugins

Conclusion of WP Plugin List

Now you’ve seen my Best WP Plugin List that I use or have used successfully. These are all WP plugins out of hundreds that I’ve experienced over the most recent years. As a decades-long IT Manager, Developer, and Consultant, I’ve left out the ones that were too heavy, buggy, or not very good. So, be sure and share this page with others. I’ll update it periodically with new discoveries and any posts I write to expand on particular plugins.

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