52 Best WordPress Plugins to Enhance your Website’s Functionality

52 Best WordPress Plugins to Enhance your Website’s Functionality

58,000+ WordPress plugins to choose from. How do you know which plugins are the best for your WordPress website?

We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of the best WordPress plugins for enhancing your website’s functionality.

Don’t worry if you’re not a tech expert. These plugins are easy to install and use and come with helpful tutorials and support documentation.

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We’ve organized these plugins into the following categories:

  • Content plugins
  • Design and layout plugins
  • Performance plugins
  • SEO plugins
  • Security plugins
  • Social media plugins
  • Utility plugins

Content Plugins

Content writing is a breeze with WordPress, thanks to its user-friendly content editor. But sometimes, you need a little more help to get your content right. That’s where WordPress plugins come in.

Here are some of the best plugins for enhancing your WordPress content:

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#1. TinyMCE Advanced

TinyMCE Advanced is a plugin that gives you more control over the WordPress content editor. It adds features like font size and color options, text alignment, tables, and more.

The plugin also forces WordPress to respect line breaks, giving you easy access to all of its features.

TinyMCE Advanced is a free plugin with over 2 million active installs.

#2. TablePress

TablePress is a plugin that lets you easily create and manage tables in your WordPress content.

The plugin makes adding data from a spreadsheet or CSV file easy, and you can even sort and filter your data with just a few clicks.

You can even add pagination, custom sorting, and more.

TablePress is a free plugin with over 1 million active installs.

#3. Meta Slider

Create slideshows with ease using Meta Slider.

The plugin lets you easily add images and videos to your slideshows, and you can even create custom transitions and animations.

You can create responsive, SEO-friendly presentations with Meta Slider, and the plugin even lets you embed your slideshows in posts and pages.

You can download Meta Slider here.

Design and Layout Plugins

A good website design must strike the perfect balance between form and function.

While the WordPress content editor is great for creating well-designed pages, you might need a little help to get your website looking just right.

Here are some of the best plugins for enhancing your WordPress website’s design and layout:

#4. Elementor

Elementor is a plugin that lets you easily create custom WordPress designs.

The plugin comes with a drag-and-drop interface, making adding and customizing elements like text, images, and videos easy.

You can also use Elementor to create custom post types and taxonomies.

Elementor is a free plugin with over 5 million active installs.

#5. Regenerate Thumbnails

Regenerate Thumbnail lets you resize thumbnails after WordPress generates them.

The plugin is helpful if you’ve changed your WordPress theme and the new theme uses different thumbnail sizes.

Regenerate Thumbnail is a free plugin with over 100,000 active installs.

#6. Widget Logic

Widget Logic is the perfect plugin for customizing and hiding widgets on your WordPress website.

The plugin lets you control which widgets appear on which pages, giving you complete control over your website’s sidebar and footer areas.

Widget Logic has over 100,000 active installs.

#7. FooGallery

FooGallery is a well-maintained WordPress plugin that perfectly blends with Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor.

The plugin allows you to create beautiful photo galleries that can be easily inserted into your posts and pages. 

The plugin also allows you to bulk upload images, create albums, and add tags and captions. 

FooGallery is a free plugin available in the WordPress repository with 200,000+ active installations.

#8. Imsanity

Have you ever tried publishing a page or article only to find out that one of your images is stretched or looks oddly large? It’s a common issue, and Imsanity can help you fix it.

This plugin automatically resizes big images, saving time and preventing awkward-looking pictures.

Imsanity has over 300,000 active installations in the WordPress repository.

#9. NextGEN Gallery

NextGEN Gallery is one of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins, and with good reason.

It offers a complete WordPress gallery management system, allowing you to create, manage, and publish your galleries easily.

The plugin lets you batch upload images, edit thumbnails, and add watermarks.

NextGEN Gallery is a free plugin with over 700,000 active installations.

#10. Restrict Content Pro

Restrict Content Pro is a powerful WordPress plugin that lets you easily create and manage membership sites.

The plugin lets you control who can access your content, allowing you to sell memberships and subscriptions.

Restrict Content Pro is a paid plugin starting at $99 per year.

#11. WP Page Navi

Not all WordPress themes have a page navigation system, but WP Page Navi can help you add one to any theme.

The plugin inserts a custom pagination system into your posts and pages, allowing visitors to navigate your content easily.

WP Page Navi is a free plugin with over 700,000 active installations.

#12. Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields is a powerful plugin that lets you quickly add custom fields to your WordPress content.

The plugin comes with a drag-and-drop interface, making adding and customizing fields easy.

You can create and position text, email, password fields, videos, images, and file downloads.

Advanced Custom Fields is a free plugin available in the WordPress repository with over 2 million active installations.

#13. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is one of the most popular plugins for creating forms and surveys.

The plugin lets you easily create, manage, and publish your forms.

You can also use Gravity Forms to accept payments, create contact forms, and more.

Gravity Forms is a paid plugin starting at $59 per year.

#14. Auto Excerpt Everywhere

If you want to display excerpts of your posts on your homepage or other places on your website, Auto Excerpt Everywhere can help.

The plugin automatically generates excerpts for your posts, letting you control the length and style of the excerpt.

Auto Excerpt Everywhere is a free plugin available in the WordPress repository with over 3,000 active installations.

#15. Advanced iFrame Pro

Advanced iFrame Pro is a plugin that lets you easily embed iframes on your WordPress website.

The plugin comes with a drag-and-drop interface that makes adding and customizing fields easy.

You can also use the plugin to create responsive iframes, set header and footer templates, and much more.

Advanced iFrame Pro is a paid plugin starting at $20 per year.

#16. Sucuri Security

Sucuri Security is a security plugin that lets you quickly scan, clean, and protect your WordPress website.

You can configure your security settings to avoid common threats.

The plugin has a free and premium version, with the premium version starting at $199.99 per year.

#17. WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is a plugin that lets you clean up your WordPress database.

The plugin can help you remove unused data, optimize your database tables, and more.

WP-Optimize is a free and premium plugin, with the premium version starting at $49 per year.

#18. WP-Page Builder

WP-Page Builder is a plugin that lets you easily create custom pages and posts.

The plugin comes with a simple, drag-and-drop interface that works with both experienced and beginner developers. 

You can also use WP-Page Builder to create landing pages, sales pages, and other types of pages.

WP-Page Builder is available as a free and premium plugin, with the premium version starting at $39 per year.

#19. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is one of the most popular performance plugins for WordPress.

The plugin speeds up your website by caching your pages and eliminating render-blocking resources.

WP Rocket is a paid plugin starting at $49 per year.

#20. Redirection

Redirection is a plugin that lets you manage 301 redirects on your WordPress website.

If your website has many 301, 404, or other types of redirects, this plugin can help you manage them all in one place.

Even better, the plugin automatically detects 301 and 404 errors and can redirect them to the correct page, even after changing your post’s URL.

Redirection is available as a free plugin.

#21. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is a performance plugin that speeds up your WordPress website by caching your pages and reducing page loading times.

The plugin performs its job in several ways. The first one is through mod-rewrite, which rewrites the HTML code of your website to make it load faster.

The second way is by using PHP to cache your pages, which means that instead of loading the entire page each time a visitor requests it, the plugin will load a cached version of the page.

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Lastly, W3 Total Cache also clears old cached files from your server to make room for new ones.

Here are some of the actions this plugin does:

  • Minimizing database accesses
  • Reducing the number of HTTP requests
  • Caching pages and posts
  • Compressing files to reduce their size
  • Applying Cloud Delivery Services (CDN)

You can download the W3 Total Cache plugin here.

#22. Jetpack

Jetpack lets you configure multiple functions on your website. It’s a real Swiss army knife of plugins created by WordPress.com. It includes features like:

  • Security
  • Photo galleries
  • Visitor statistics 
  • Image optimization
  • Post or image carousel

And as if it’s not enough, it also gives tips on improving your blog’s security and performance.

Jetpack is available as a free plugin. You can download it here.

 #23. Outbound Links:

Your site must link to other websites. And when it does, you want those links to open in a new tab. That way, your visitors can continue to browse your site while they’re on the other sites. This plugin will do that for you automatically.

In other words, it forces all external links on your website to open on new pages. That way, your visitors won’t accidentally leave your site.

The plugin is available for free and can be downloaded here.

#24. CoSchedule:

CoSchedule is a plugin that helps you plan, publish, optimize, and measure your blog posts. It’s an all-in-one solution for content creation.

The plugin includes features like:

  • Drag-and-drop editorial calendar
  • Real-time collaboration 
  • Post scheduling
  • Social media integration 
  • Google Analytics integration

It’s a plugin you don’t want to miss if you have multiple authors on your blog.

The plugin is only available as a paid version, starting at $15 per month (with a 14-day free trial). 

You can learn more and download the plugin here.

Managing Comments on a Page

Comments are a great way to engage with your audience and get feedback on your content.

But they can also be a source of spam, so you need to moderate them.

These plugins will help you manage comments on your WordPress website.

#25. Disqus:

Disqus is one of the most popular plugins for managing comments on a WordPress website.

The plugin allows you to import and export comments from other platforms, like Facebook or Google+.

It also includes features like:

  • Anti-spam filters
  • Profanity filters 
  • Threaded replies
  • Comment voting

The plugin is available for free and can be downloaded here.

#26. GDPR Cookie Consent:

Under the GDPR, you need to get consent from your visitors before you can store or process their personal data.

This plugin will help you create a cookie consent notice that will appear on your website.

The plugin is available for free and can be downloaded here.

#27. Akismet:

Akismet is a plugin that helps you protect your website from spam comments.

The plugin checks all the comments and contact form submissions against a global database of spam, and it will mark the spammy ones as spam.

The plugin is available for free and can be downloaded here.

Social Media Management Plugins

Integrating social media into your website is an excellent strategy to engage with your audience and promote your content.

Such automations can save you a lot of time. They make it easy for you to share your content on social media and get more traffic to your website.

Here are some of the best plugins for social media integration:

#28. Simple Social Icons

Simple Social Icons is a plugin that lets you add social media icons to your website.

You can even customize the icons to match your website’s design.

What’s more? You can display your social media profiles, inducing the reader to click and share your content and possibly even follow you.

If your blog doesn’t have social media icons, this is the plugin for you.

You can download the plugin here.

#29. AddThis

AddThis lets you add social media sharing buttons to your website.

It also allows you to choose layout styles, colours, and shapes for the buttons.

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You can download the plugin for free here.

#30. Social Metrics

How popular is your content on social media? 

Well, Social Metric will help you track that. It’s a free plugin that shows social media stats for your content. It will show you how many times your content has been shared on social media, who has shared it, and more.

This information can help you adjust your social media strategy and create better content. 

You can download the plugin for free here.

#31. TweetDis

Is your audience on Twitter? 

If so, you need to install TweetDis. It’s a plugin that allows you to add Twitter share buttons to your content.

  • The plugin includes features like: 
  • CustomizableTweet button styles 
  • Shortcodes for tweetable quotes 
  • Click-to-tweet boxes 

A box will appear in the middle of your content, asking readers to share the selected text with a single button click. 

Click here to download TweeDis.

Content Locker Plugins

Content locker plugins let you lock some of your content behind a social media share or a signup form. 

It’s an excellent way to grow your social media following or email list. 

People will have to share your content or sign up for your email list to unlock the content. 

Some of the best plugins for content locking are:

#32. OnePress Social Locker 

Drive traffic, build a social following, and increase conversions with the OnePress Social Locker plugin.

It allows you to lock any content on your website, like images, videos, or text, behind a social media share. 

The plugin includes features: 

  • Different locker themes 
  • Different social networks to choose from 
  • Customizable locker options    

You can download the plugin here.

#33. Go Viral

Go Viral is a complete social bundle without coding or design skills.

With Go Viral’s social locker feature, you can lock your content behind a social media share or signup form. 

Not only that. The plugin introduces the auto bump (fake view counter, fake social shares, and fake social reactions). The idea is to make your content look more popular than it really is and to encourage people to share it. 

That could work well if you’re just starting with social media and don’t have many followers yet. 

The plugin includes features: 

  • Fake view counter 
  • Fake social shares 
  • Fake social reactions 
  • Floating share bar
  • Comments voting
  • Whatsapp chat

Click here to download the plugin. 

Monitoring Performance Metrics Plugins

Your website is only as successful as the traffic it’s getting. 

And it’s not just about the number of visitors. You also need to track how long they stay on your website, what pages they visit, and where they come from. 

This information helps you to improve your website and make it more effective. 

Some of the best plugins for monitoring performance metrics are:

#34. Google Analyticator

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking your website’s performance. 

The plugin brings the most relevant data from Google Analytics right to your WordPress admin dashboard, beautifully presented in easy-to-read graphs and charts. 

You can also view detailed reports for different periods, like the last week, month, or year. 

The plugin tracks the following metrics:

  • Number of visits
  • Bounce rate
  • Average session duration
  • Pages per session

Click here to download the plugin. 

#35. WordPress Most Popular Posts

Do you ever wish there was a WordPress feature that ranks all your posts based on the number of visits?

Well, there is a plugin that adds this functionality to WordPress. It’s called WordPress Most Popular Posts. 

The plugin tracks all the post views on your website and displays them in a beautiful list, with the most popular posts at the top. 

You can use this information to adjust your content strategy and see what type of content is most popular with your audience. 

Click here to download the plugin

#36. Google Analytics for WordPress

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking your website’s performance. 

It’s free and easy to use but with a learning curve. 

However, it can be difficult to add the code to your website if you’re not a developer. 

That’s where the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress comes in. 

It allows you to quickly add Google Analytics to your WordPress website without touching a single line of code. 

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Once the plugin is installed and activated, all you need to do is add your Google Analytics tracking code, and you’re good to go. 

The plugin tracks the following metrics: 

  • Number of visits 
  • Bounce rate 
  • Average session duration 
  • Pages per session 

You can download the plugin here.

#37. LinkPatrol

LinkPatrol is a plugin that gives you complete control over the links on your website. 

The plugin lets you disavow bad links, no follow or sponsored links, and even outgoing links to low-quality websites. 

LinkPatrol also has a handy feature that allows you to bulk edit link attributes like link text, target, and rel attribute. 

That’s a great plugin if you want to clean up your link profile and improve your website’s SEO. 

It’s worth the $50 price tag. 

You can buy the plugin here.

CTAs Optimization, Conversion Tracking & Form Builder Plugins

CTAs, or calls-to-action, are how you get your visitors to take action on your website. 

It could be anything from subscribing to your newsletter to buying your product. 

Ensure your CTA is well-designed and placed in a prominent spot.

Some of the best plugins for optimizing CTAs are:

#38. Bloom

Bloom is an email opt-in plugin from the team at Elegant Themes. 

The plugin allows you to place beautiful opt-in forms on your website and track conversions. 

It comes with over 100 templates that you can customize to match your website’s design. 

Bloom also has many integrations so that you can add your opt-in forms to any email service provider. 

The plugin starts at $89 per year for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

#39. Rock Convert

The Rocket Convert team developed Rock Convert, a CTA optimization plugin. 

The plugin lets you track your CTAs and see which ones perform best. 

You can then A/B test different versions of your CTAs to see what works best for your audience. 

The plugin can create ad bars, pop-ups, slide-ins, and opt-in forms. You also want to integrate it with automation tools and configure UTM parameters and events. 

It also offers PDF downloads for posts and pages. 

You can get the plugin here.

#40. Flare

With Flare, you can publish your posts directly to social media and track how well they perform. 

The plugin has beautiful share buttons that you can customize to match your website’s design. 

Flare also allows you to create “viral loops” that encourage your visitors to share your content. 

For example, you can offer a discount to people who share your post on social media. 

You can download the plugin for free here.

#41. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress. 

It’s free and easy to use, but it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some premium plugins. 

The plugin allows you to create simple contact forms and add them to your website with a shortcode. 

You can also integrate the contact form with third-party services like MailChimp. 

You can download the plugin here.

#42. MailChimp for WordPress

MailChimp for WordPress is a plugin that allows you to add signup forms for your MailChimp lists. 

You can also use the plugin to create beautiful opt-in forms and track conversions.  

It also has a “double opt-in” feature that allows you to confirm that someone wants to be on your list before they’re added.

The plugin is free but only works with the MailChimp email service provider. 

You can download the plugin here.

#43. Q2W3 Fixed Widget (Sticky Widget)

Q2W3 is a free plugin that allows you to make any widget “sticky” as the user scrolls down the page. 

That’s a great way to keep your opt-in forms or social media buttons visible as people read your content. 

You can download the plugin here.

#44. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is one of the most popular lead generation plugins for WordPress. 

It allows you to create beautiful opt-in forms and strategically place them on your website. 

You can also use the plugin to create pop-ups, floating bars, and full-screen overlays. 

The plugin has many integrations to add your opt-in forms to any email service provider. 

It also has a “smart exit-intent” feature that allows you to display a pop-up as someone is about to leave your website. 

The plugin starts at $9 per month for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

#45. WPForms

Building WordPress forms doesn’t have to be complicated. 

WPForms is a plugin that allows you to create forms and add them to your website with a shortcode. 

You can also use the plugin to create surveys, polls, and quizzes. 

The plugin comes with various integrations. 

It also has a “smart conditional logic” feature that allows you to show or hide fields based on how someone answers a question. 

The plugin starts at $79 per year for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

#46. Thrive Leads

Thrive Leads is a plugin that allows you to create beautiful opt-in forms and place them in strategic places on your website. 

You can also use the plugin to create pop-ups, floating bars, and full-screen overlays. 

In addition, you can A/B test your forms to see which ones convert the best. 

The plugin starts at $97 per year for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

#47. Form Craft

Form Craft is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to create beautiful forms and add them to your website with a shortcode. 

You can also use the plugin to create surveys, polls, and quizzes. 

Be sure to test your forms before you add them to your website. 

The plugin starts at $39 per year for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

#48. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is one of the most advanced WordPress plugins available. 

It allows you to create forms and add them to your website with a shortcode. 

You can also use the plugin to create surveys, polls, and quizzes. 

It integrates with virtually any service you can think of.

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Gravity Forms also has a “conditional logic” feature that allows you to show or hide fields based on how someone answers a question. 

The plugin starts at $59 per year for one website. 

You can buy the plugin here.

SEO Adjustments 

The better your SEO, the higher your website will rank in the search results. 

And the higher your website ranks, the more traffic you’ll get. 

And what better way to get started with SEO than by enlisting the help of an SEO plugin?

#49. WordPress SEO by Yoast

Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress. 

It allows you to control what appears in the search results for your website. 

It also allows you to add “meta tags” to your website, which helps improve your click-through rate from the search results. 

The plugin is free but has a premium version that starts at $69 per year for one website. 

The plugin can check your articles for SEO strengths and weaknesses and give you a list of things to improve. 

You can download the plugin here.

#50. Schema Markup

Schema markup is a code you can add to your website to help search engines understand your content better. 

It allows you to control what appears in the search results for your website. 

It can create markups in Rich snippets for Google and other search engines, allowing them to display:

  • Reviews
  • People
  • Authors
  • Music
  • Videos
  • Events
  • Revenue
  • Voice Search

You can download the plugin here.

#51. WP Social SEO Booster

SEO isn’t restricted to websites and blogs. 

You can also optimize your social media profiles for better search engine visibility. 

WP Social SEO Booster is a WordPress plugin that allows you to do just that. 

You can download the plugin here for free.

#52. BJ Lazy Load

Installing many plugins on your website can slow down your website’s loading speed. 

BJ Lazy Load is a plugin that helps optimize your website’s loading speed by “lazy loading” plugins and images. 

It tells some of the plugins and images on your website not to load until they’re needed. 

That can help improve your website’s loading speed, which is important for SEO. 

The plugin is free and available here.

About the Author

Tom Koh

Tom is the CEO and Principal Consultant of MediaOne, a leading digital marketing agency. He has consulted for MNCs like Canon, Maybank, Capitaland, SingTel, ST Engineering, WWF, Cambridge University, as well as Government organisations like Enterprise Singapore, Ministry of Law, National Galleries, NTUC, e2i, SingHealth. His articles are published and referenced in CNA, Straits Times, MoneyFM, Financial Times, Yahoo! Finance, Hubspot, Zendesk, CIO Advisor.

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