WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, arguably because of its ability to become virtually any kind of website users want it to be.
This flexibility is made possible by thousands of third-party plugins that add the features needed to turn ideas into functioning businesses and platforms.
The WordPress plugin community is what really brings the platform to life and enables publishers and developers to build websites that enhance the experience for site visitors and publishers.
Based on my own experience and from others in the WordPress community, the following is a list of high-quality plugins that provide essential functionality for building a successful website.
All the WordPress plugins evaluated and selected are created by trustworthy developers according to the following criteria:
- Offer the features required for a successful website.
- Have proven to be trustworthy and useful.
- Are secure and not prone to vulnerabilities.
Essential WordPress Plugins
There are nine categories of plugins on the list:
WordPress SEO Plugins
SEO plugins handle critical tasks that every WordPress site needs to rank well in search engines.
They automate essentials like generating sitemaps, adding meta descriptions and title tags, and inserting schema.org structured data.
They also provide a way to manually add article excerpts and centralize on-page optimization by managing internal linking, rank tracking, redirects, and integrating with Google Search Console for performance insights.
These are the five most widely used and trusted SEO plugins, listed by number of installations:
- Yoast SEO (10+ million installations).
- All-in-One SEO (3+ million installations).
- SEOPress (300,000+ installations).
- The SEO Framework (200,000+ installations).
- SEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO (100,000+ installations).
Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO is a go-to plugin for handling the basics of on-page optimization.
It has a measurably imperceptible impact on site performance and a long track record of providing fast updates in response to changes at Google.
It also deserves special mention for its trustworthiness in terms of security.
Security Plugins
WordPress site security is sometimes overlooked in favor of focusing on sales or SEO, but all it takes is one security incident to understand the severe impact a vulnerability can have on sales and search performance.
Top 3 WordPress Security Plugins
Wordfence Security
Wordfence is one of the most widely used WordPress security plugins, trusted by over 5 million users.
The free version protects websites against external threats by locking down commonly exploited areas and running a malware scan that checks for intrusions.
It also blocks malicious files from executing in sensitive folders, sends alerts when plugins and themes need updating, and provides an option to enforce strong passwords.
Its standout feature is a built-in firewall that automatically detects and blocks suspicious activity and user agents. These blocks are temporary and automatically lifted after a preset time to prevent database bloat.
Wordfence also allows users to define custom firewall rules, offering precise control against malicious bots (learn how to use Wordfence’s custom rules).
It is authorized by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Program as a CVE Numbering Authority, which means it contributes vulnerability discoveries to the official CVE® database and underscores its credibility in the security space.
For most users, the free version offers strong baseline protection that makes Wordfence an essential plugin. The Premium version adds real-time threat signatures to protect against newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Sucuri Security
Sucuri, which is currently owned by GoDaddy, is a security auditing, malware scanning, and website hardening solution that complements other security plugins.
It doesn’t duplicate the features in Wordfence, so the two can be used together as a layered security strategy.
Sucuri includes a file integrity scanner that alerts users to changed files, secures the website against intrusions, and provides security notices, such as when someone logs in.
The paid version includes a firewall that actively blocks threats, but even the free version adds meaningful protection.
When combined with Wordfence, Sucuri offers a highly effective and essential level of WordPress security.
Patchstack
Patchstack helps secure WordPress sites by detecting vulnerabilities in themes and plugins.
It provides email notifications and real-time alerts, including a dashboard for monitoring up to 10 websites in the free version and up to 50 in the premium solution.
Caching And Performance Plugins
WordPress plugins and themes can contribute to unnecessary code bloat and render-blocking scripts, which negatively impact website performance.
Caching and web performance plugins address these issues by applying the latest speed and optimization techniques, helping sites load faster and perform more efficiently.
Recommended Caching Plugins
Performance Lab Plugin
This is the official WordPress performance plugin developed by the WordPress Performance Team, composed of WordPress core contributors.
It offers advanced performance optimizations that take advantage of the latest technologies and browser capabilities, some of which may be included in future versions of WordPress.
Its modular design enables users to activate only the performance features most relevant to their websites.
The purpose of the plugin is to allow users to provide feedback on how the performance improvements work with their websites.
While there is a small possibility of unexpected issues, the plugin is generally stable and safe to use.
Some of the latest performance improvements offered are:
- Embed Optimizer: Optimizes video and social media embeddings by adding lazy loading, pre-connecting links, and reserving space for the embeds to reduce layout shifting.
- Enhanced Responsive Images (experimental): This plugin learns which images are below the fold and then automatically adds lazy-load to those images to improve page speed downloads. It improves the accuracy of the assigned “sizes” attribute and implements the new sizes=”auto” browser spec for lazy-loaded images.
- Image Placeholders: Identifies the main color of an image and uses that as a temporary background placeholder until the image fully downloads.
- Image Prioritizer: This feature improves Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) performance by prioritizing image and video loading and other optimizations.
- Modern Image Formats: Converts uploaded images to modern formats like WebP and AVIF. Previous images can be converted by regenerating images using a plugin like Regenerate Thumbnails.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket addresses core performance challenges that affect most WordPress websites, offering everything a site needs to improve speed and load times, plus compatibility with other plugins and themes.
Virtually every recommended optimization, from lazy loading to delaying JavaScript, is included.
The attention to detail is top-notch. For example, one of the most recent updates was to preload fonts that show above the fold.
The solutions provided by WP Rocket reduce the need to hand-code performance optimizations, resulting in lower development and maintenance costs.
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache (W3TC) improves website speed by offering extensive caching options, including database objects, and minification of JavaScript and CSS resources.
It also handles deferring non-critical resources and converting images to the WebP format, helping websites meet modern performance standards.
WordPress Backup Plugins
Backing up and archiving a WordPress site is critical to protecting it from catastrophic failure due to a server issue or site hacking.
Backups are also invaluable when unintended changes are made and need to be reverted.
Using a dedicated backup plugin is the most reliable way to ensure regular, complete backups are available when needed. The importance of website backups cannot be overstated.
Recommended Backup Plugins
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup
The UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup plugin is trusted by over 3 million users.
It provides a reliable, easy-to-use solution for creating full backups and restoring a site to a previous version when needed.
In addition to website recovery, UpdraftPlus supports site migration between servers, making it a practical tool for both maintenance and server changes.
Backing up and restoring a WordPress site with this plugin is straightforward, even in urgent situations like accidental file deletion.
BlogVault
BlogVault offers real-time incremental backups that include free off-site storage and a 90-day archive.
The plugin backs up the WordPress database, themes, plugins, settings, and images, covering all critical components of a WordPress site.
The official WordPress repository page for the plugin states that BlogVault is the official site migration plugin for Cloudways, Flywheel, Liquid Web, Pantheon, and WP Engine, further reinforcing its reliability.
BlogVault also provides a free staging environment. The paid Pro version offers automation features, one-click recovery and migration, plus priority customer support starting at $149. Higher tiers offer built-in malware scans.
The free version provides many of the backup and storage functionalities that most websites need, and its staging capabilities are a strong bonus, allowing users to safely test changes before deploying them to a live site.
Jetpack VaultPress Backup
Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a component of the Jetpack plugin bundle that starts at $9.95/month. It’s by Automattic, founded by Matt Mullenweg, who is the co-founder of WordPress.
VaultPress Backup provides daily and real-time backups of WordPress and WooCommerce stores, including all customer and order data, making it especially well-suited for websites where uptime and data integrity are crucial.
It creates multiple redundant encrypted backups to ensure recovery is always possible.
Because VaultPress Backup is developed by Automattic, it’s coded to the highest standards and tested for compatibility with all major plugins and themes.
While a theme’s built-in contact form provides basic contact functions, third-party plugins are necessary for sites that rely on lead generation, marketing campaigns, or advanced features like multi-step forms.
The following contact form plugins offer greater flexibility and control to meet those needs.
WPForms (WPForms Lite)
WPForms is a visual contact form builder that can be adapted for accepting feedback, serving as subscription forms, and forms for accepting payments, integrating with Authorize.Net, PayPal, Stripe, and Square Payments.
The plugin offers over 2,000 templates to make it easy to create a form and offers easy customizability, exceeding the functions and adaptability of default contact forms typically found in themes.
There are different paid version levels, each providing increasingly sophisticated features and capabilities, but the free version is a reliable option for websites that need more than just basic contact functionality.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is an advanced contact form plugin that offers conditional logic that can hide fields or pages depending on user answers, and can be configured for payments, product sales, and donations, all done with the highest levels of security.
Form configuration is done within a drag-and-drop visual editor and includes dozens of add-ons that can be used to make it integrate with a customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, or anti-spam solution, or add an autocomplete to increase conversions.
These capabilities make Gravity Forms particularly well-suited for websites that require flexible, advanced forms to handle complex data collection, transactions, and lead generation.
Gravity Forms is a professional-level plugin that can do virtually anything related to capturing user-provided data.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is an easy-to-use contact form builder, but with increasingly complex functionalities that can be added according to need.
What makes Ninja Forms stand out is its modular system, which allows users to purchase add-ons to extend its capabilities. Paid add-ons include features like multi-step forms and conditional logic for advanced workflows.
The free version includes options that are premium features in many other form plugins.
For example, it is Akismet- and Google ReCaptcha-friendly, and can accommodate uploads, accept payments via PayPal and other gateways, and integrate with MailChimp, Constant Contact, multiple CRMs, and more.
It’s a practical choice for websites that need a reliable form solution right away, with the flexibility to expand as requirements grow.
Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is an advanced custom form builder that is easy to configure, with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder interface that makes it easy to create a custom form.
It’s engineered for fast performance and is WCAG/A11Y compliant, making it suitable for sites that need accessible, high-performance forms.
The Pro version enables forms to be adapted for payments, calculations, surveys, quizzes, and dozens of integrations with CRMs and email marketing platforms, making it a strong choice for websites that need flexible, feature-rich form capabilities.
Image Optimization Plugins
Image optimization plugins address one of the most common performance issues by compressing images and converting them to more efficient formats for faster loading.
This helps reduce page load times, improve user experience, and increase conversions.
EWWW Image Optimizer
EWWW Image Optimizer uses a server’s image optimization apps to optimize images, converting them to the appropriate format for each one.
The plugin is compatible with major plugins and handles optimization automatically.
The premium version offers higher compression rates and uses their servers to reduce the user’s server load. It’s a reliable tool trusted by over one million users.
Smush Smush Image Optimization
Smush is a free, no-limits image optimizer plugin that doesn’t run on a user’s server, which avoids slowing down the website.
The free version includes a wide range of features, and the premium version adds background optimization and conversion to advanced image formats like WebP and AVIF.
Image optimization is automatic, with support for resizing, lazy loading, incorrect image size detection, and no monthly limits other than a maximum image size of 5 MB, making it a strong choice for improving site performance with minimal effort.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer
In addition to optimizing images (including WebP) and PDFs, ShortPixel can automatically add alt-text and block AI bots from downloading images, features that support both accessibility and content protection.
The plugin can also convert images to modern formats like WebP and AVIF, which significantly reduce image file sizes for faster page loads.
Since the free version uses ShortPixel’s servers for compression, it helps maintain site speed by reducing the load on your own hosting environment.
Spam Protection
Akismet Anti-Spam: Spam Protection
Akismet is an easy-to-use anti-spam solution that automatically filters spam comments and allows site owners to review and restore them if necessary.
It’s easy to implement for protecting comment sections and contact forms that integrate with it. It’s a useful plugin for any site that has comments enabled or accepts form submissions.
Akismet is developed by Automattic, founded by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress.
Advanced Google reCAPTCHA
Advanced Google reCAPTCHA adds Google’s reCAPTCHA to contact forms, registration forms, and password resets, and integrates with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BuddyPress.
By blocking brute-force login attempts and preventing spam registrations, it mounts an effective defense against two of the most common threats faced by WordPress sites, making it a practical security solution for websites that accept user input.
The advanced Google reCAPTCHA is published by WebFactory, core contributors to WordPress and creators of many popular plugins.
WordPress Search Engine Plugins
WordPress, by design, offers only basic search functionality.
Ecommerce stores, content-heavy sites, and sites with knowledge bases and documentation rely on advanced search engine plugins to help users quickly find products and information.
These plugins improve user experience by handling misspellings and using stemming to deliver broader, more relevant results.
The following plugins are highly recommended for WordPress websites where search plays a key role.
Recommended Search Engine Plugins
Relevanssi
Relevanssi is a free WordPress search plugin that brings advanced capabilities often found only in paid tools.
It improves on the default WordPress search by offering sorting by relevance (instead of date), partial word matching, and support for advanced operators like “and,” “or,” and exact phrase searches using quotation marks.
These features make it easier for visitors to find the right content, especially on content-heavy sites or stores.
Relevanssi can display excerpts that show the search term in context and highlight those terms when users click through. It also integrates with WPML and Polylang, making it useful for multilingual sites.
One thing to be aware of is that Relevanssi increases database usage. The developers recommend checking the current size of the wp_posts table and estimating triple that amount for storage needs.
The Pro version adds features like the “Did you mean?” suggestion tool, support for indexing PDFs, taxonomy filtering, and weighted results.
A standout feature in the Pro version is stemming, which matches results to the meaning or topic of the query, not just the literal keyword. This improves result relevance and can reduce the size of the search index.
Ajax Search Lite
This plugin replaces the default WordPress search box with a more capable search tool that works across posts, pages, and custom post types like events, portfolio items, and WooCommerce products.
It can search in titles, descriptions, article excerpts, and custom fields, improving how users find content on the site.
It also offers useful options like excluding specific categories or posts from search results and can integrate with Google Analytics to track search behavior.
The plugin is multilingual-friendly and compatible with Polylang, QtranslateX, and WPML, making it a good fit for global audiences.
The paid Pro version expands support to popular page builders, additional content types like PDFs and Events Calendar, and includes advanced WooCommerce search functionality.
SearchWP
This paid search plugin is a widely trusted option among developers and publishers who need more advanced search capabilities than WordPress provides by default.
Its algorithm can prioritize frequently clicked results, apply custom weighting, include an include/exclude feature, and index content from custom fields, PDFs, media files, and custom post types. These features make it suitable for content-rich or complex sites that rely on internal search.
Ecommerce features include support for product attributes and taxonomy searches, with compatibility for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BigCommerce plugins.
Pricing at the time of writing is on sale for $99 per year.
WordPress Website Staging
Website staging is a feature offered by several WordPress plugins that allows users to create an exact copy of a site for safe testing.
They’re valuable for previewing changes before updating the WordPress core, plugins, or themes.
Staging plugins also help with debugging, trying out new templates, and customizing the site without affecting the live version.
Recommended Staging Plugins
WP Staging
The free version of the plugin enables users to clone their website to a subfolder of the website, including the database.
The clone can be used for staging a website, as well as for backup and migration.
The pro version of the plugin enables users to back up the website to third-party cloud providers and offers advanced site migration capabilities.
The free version of the plugin advertises that it’s so lightweight that it can even be used on a low-powered shared hosting environment. The paid version of the plugin is on sale at the time of writing and starts at $103/year.
WP Stagecoach
WP Stagecoach is a paid premium solution that offers an easy way to stage a website safely on the WP Stagecoach servers and then push it to the live production server when it’s ready.
I’ve used WP Stagecoach and found it to be simple and convenient.
Pricing starts at $149/year.
Must-Have Plugins For WordPress
While plugin needs can vary, certain plugins have proven useful across most types of WordPress sites.
The WordPress ecosystem offers thousands of plugins that extend website functionality.
The plugins on this page are trustworthy, widely used, and essential for increasing search visibility, increasing sales, improving the user experience, and supporting what makes WordPress the most popular CMS in the world.
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Featured Image: Biscotto Design/Shutterstock
