WordPress is a CMS powerhouse with over 70,000 plugins! Whether you need added functionality, better user experience, or tools to boost performance, there’s a plugin for everything.
With such a vast library, finding the right ones can be challenging—especially for beginners. To make it easy, we’ve curated a list of 10 must-have plugins for WordPress with our years of experience in the WordPress industry.
Whether you’re looking to boost loading speed, enhance security, add engaging features, or simplify your workflow, these plugins provide all the essential tools you need. No matter the type or niche of your site.
Let’s get started!
Must-Have Plugins for WordPress: At a Glance
WordPress Plugin | Active Installations | Best for | Price Starts from | Best Alternatives | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gutenberg | 300,000+ | Basics of web design | Free | Elementor, SiteOrigin | |
RioVizual | 1000+ | Gutenberg table blocks plugin | Free | Table Block by Tableberg, Flexible Table Block | |
RioForm | – | Drag and Drop Form Builder for WordPress | Free | SureForms, Form Block | |
Site Kit by Google | 4+ million | Analytics and performance measurement | Free | MonsterInsights, GA Google Analytics | |
Rank Math SEO | 3+ million | Best SEO plugin for on-site SEO | $6.99 per month | Yoast SEO, All-in-One SEO | |
Akismet | 6+ million | Anti-spam protection to block spam comments | $9.95 per month | CleanTalk, Antispam Bee | |
Jetpack | 4+ million | WP Security, Backup, Speed optimization | $19.95 per month | Wordfence Security, WPvivid | |
LiteSpeed Cache | 6+ million | All-in-one site acceleration plugin | Free | W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache | |
Smush | 1+ million | Best image optimization plugin | $3 per month | Imagify, EWWW Image Optimizer | |
UpdraftPlus | 3+ million | WordPress backup and Migration | $70 per year | All-in-One WP Migration and Backup,Duplicator |
Gutenberg – Website Builder and Editor Plugin
Gutenberg is the future of WordPress! It is the default block editor for WordPress block editor, designed to simplify content creation with a modular approach. It uses blocks to let users easily add, customize, and arrange elements like text, images, and galleries.
This flexibility allows users to create rich media layouts without the need for shortcodes or custom coding. Introduced in WordPress 5.0, Gutenberg now supports full site editing including header, footer, and navigation menu design, directly within the editor.
With seamless integration into WordPress themes and plugins, Gutenberg makes it easy to create responsive, visually appealing content. Additionally, the plugin offers experimental features for users who want to explore the latest in block editing.
Key Features of Gutenberg
- Content is broken into separate blocks, providing flexible design options.
- Adjust block settings like font, color, and alignment for precise design control.
- Easily rearrange blocks with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
- Save and reuse frequently used blocks for consistency and efficiency.
- Pre-built block patterns to speed up layout creation.
What We Liked Most about Gutenberg
- No more shortcode dependency.
- Compatible with most of the WordPress themes and plugins for enhanced functionality.
- Optimized for better performance, ensuring faster loading speeds.
- Full Site Editing capabilities.
Cons of Gutenberg
- It’s hard to design highly complex layouts or custom designs.
- Compared to dedicated page builders, Gutenberg may have fewer advanced features.
Pricing
Gutenberg is a free WordPress plugin.
Why Choose Gutenberg
Gutenberg is a powerful block editor for WordPress that offers simplicity, flexibility, and seamless integration with WordPress core. It enables users to create visually appealing, responsive content easily, with a block-based approach for greater customization beyond the Classic Editor.
RioVizual – Gutenberg Table Blocks Plugin
RioVizual is another WordPress plugin you must have to fulfill your table creation needs for your WordPress site. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and dozens of built-in table management options let you create and design highly functional, customizable, and responsive tables within the block editor.
The plugin currently offers three custom blocks, table builders, pros and cons, and pricing table blocks with which you can create almost any kind of table including pros and cons, comparison tables, and more.
The plugin also provides 50+ pre-designed templates readily available to use for quick table creation. The best part is that RioVizual is SEO-friendly, performance-optimized, and provides structured data support to improve search visibility.
Key Features of RioVizual
- Includes a table builder block, pricing table, and pros & cons block.
- Create tables with as many columns and rows as needed.
- Display a pros and cons table with icons, schema, and mobile-friendly vertical boxes.
- Features pricing plan toggles, ribbons, badges, and a featured column.
- Drag-and-drop table builder with efficient right-click editing.
- Flexible element management with options for adding, deleting, copying, cutting, pasting, duplicating, and moving via right-click.
What We Liked Most about RioVizual
- 52 Predesigned table templates as of now.
- Operates smoothly within the native WordPress editor.
- Super fast, lightweight, SEO-optimized, and extremely easy to use.
Cons of RioVizual
- Only available for Gutenberg.
Pricing
RioVizual is a completely free WordPress plugin.
Why Choose RioVizual
RioVizual stands out as a top choice for anyone looking to create customizable and responsive tables within the Gutenberg block editor. Its combination of user-friendly design, versatility, extensive templates, and SEO optimization makes it an ideal solution for enhancing your WordPress site’s content presentation effectively and efficiently.
RioForms – WordPress Contact Form Plugin
If you want to establish easy communication with your visitors then Contact forms are a must. Since WordPress lacks built-in forms, plugins like RioForms provide a simple solution. Built for the Gutenberg block editor, it offers a seamless drag-and-drop interface that makes creating and customizing forms effortless, even without coding skills.
With 14 customizable fields, seamless Gutenberg integration, and shortcode support for other editors, it’s perfect for creating contact forms, surveys, and more. Also, features like post-submit actions, built-in validation, and full design customization make RioForms a fast, user-friendly solution for all experience levels which eventually enhances communication and builds trust with your audience.
Key Features of RioForms
- Offers 14 different form fields, including text inputs, email fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and more.
- Users can choose actions upon form submission, such as sending an email notification or redirecting users to a specific page.
- Built-in validation options help ensure data accuracy before submission.
- Create and style unlimited forms to match your site.
What We Liked Most about RioForms
- The drag-and-drop functionality simplifies the process of building complex forms.
- Optimized for fast site performance.
- Works with WordPress editors using shortcodes for easy embedding.
Cons of RioForms
- Since it is a new product, lots of exclusive features are in progress.
Pricing
RioForms is a completely free WordPress plugin.
Why Choose RioForms
RioForms provides a wide range of features to create customizable forms for various needs, from simple contact forms to complex submissions. With its focus on speed and performance, RioForms ensures a smooth user experience while providing powerful tools to manage and analyze form submissions effectively.
Site Kit by Google – Google Analytics and Google Search Console Plugin
Site Kit by Google is an official WordPress plugin that integrates your website with various Google marketing services and provides valuable insights about your site’s performance and user engagement.
It provides easy access to tools like Google Analytics for tracking user interactions, Google Search Console for improving search rankings, AdSense for monetization, PageSpeed Insights for optimizing performance, and Tag Manager for managing tags directly from the WordPress dashboard.
Also, the setup process is pretty straightforward, requiring just a few clicks to connect various services and verify site ownership. Additionally, Site Kit offers detailed permissions management for better control over Google product access.
Key Features of Site Kit
- Connect Analytics, AdSense, PageSpeed, and Search Console directly to WordPress.
- Access site-wide and page-specific performance insights through a centralized dashboard in your admin panel.
- Optimize site performance, engagement, and revenue with actionable insights.
- Share performance data with team members according to their roles.
- AdSense integration for ad revenue tracking.
What We Liked Most about Site Kit
- Aggregates data from multiple Google services in one place, simplifying the analysis process.
- Being an official Google product, the plugin is available at no cost.
- Provides stats for both the entire website and individual pages.
- Setting up the Site Kit is pretty easy and requires minimal configuration.
Cons of Site Kit
- Users must rely on Google’s ecosystem
- Limited analytics data compared to Google Analytics.
Pricing
Site Kit is a completely free WordPress plugin.
Why Choose Site Kit by Google
Site Kit by Google is a must have plugin for every WordPress site to manage and monitor the website performance using Google’s powerful tools. With a simple, centralized platform it ensures accurate data and easy integration for both beginners and experienced users alike to optimize your site and online presence.
Rank Math – WordPress SEO Plugin
Creating a website and publishing content isn’t enough for SEO success. That’s where Rank Math comes in. As the best WordPress SEO plugin, it offers a robust free feature set with an affordable upgrade option for multiple sites.
Rank Math excels with its on-page SEO editor and SEO analysis tool for optimizing meta titles, descriptions, social sharing, and schema. It also offers local SEO, image SEO, internal link suggestions, and basic WooCommerce SEO for fast website performance.
It integrates smoothly with popular page builders like Elementor and Divi, as well as Gutenberg and Classic editors. With real-time insights and built-in tools for keyword tracking, and redirections, Rank Math is perfect for both beginners and experts looking to improve search rankings.
Key Features of Rank Math
- Intuitive SEO Setup Wizard simplifies the optimization process.
- Enables content optimization for multiple keywords with helpful guidance.
- Features integrated advanced SEO analytics to track key metrics.
- Easily create and apply custom schemas or multiple schemas to posts in just a few steps.
- Automatically creates XML sitemaps to improve website crawling and indexing.
- Includes an AI content tool for quick and efficient content generation.
- Offers a powerful schema generator with over 20 pre-defined types to enhance search visibility.
- Helps local businesses optimize their online presence with relevant metadata.
What We Liked Most about Rank Math
- Provides an SEO score, improvement tips, and snippet previews.
- Integrates with Google Search Console for search performance insights.
- Shows how your content appears in search results.
- Offers free features often paid for in other SEO tools.
- Optimize product pages for better e-commerce visibility.
Cons of Rank Math
- Limited keyword tracking in the free plan.
- Rank scores may fluctuate with minor content edits.
- Content AI optimization requires credits.
Pricing
Pro: $6.99 per month.
Business: $20.99 per month.
Agency: $49.99 per month.
Why Choose Rank Math SEO
Rank Math is a must-have WordPress plugin for SEO that simplifies your SEO needs with its powerful features and reduces the need for multiple plugins. Its intuitive interface makes it a great choice for beginners and advanced users aiming to enhance their site’s visibility and performance.
Akismet – Spam Protection Plugin
Websites are constantly targeted by bots that attempt to flood them with spam through comments and form submissions. By using an anti-spam plugin like Akismet, you can minimize these security risks. With over 6 million downloads, Akismet has established itself as a trusted solution in the WordPress community.
Akismet is a powerful spam protection plugin for WordPress, developed by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com. It is designed to filter out spam comments, trackbacks, and contact form submissions that ensure your websites remain free from unwanted and potentially harmful content.
One of its key features is the ability to automatically check all comments against a global database of spam. Additionally, Akismet displays URLs within comments to help identify misleading links and offers a discard feature that permanently blocks the worst spam.
Key Features of Akismet
- Automatically removes spam comments and form submissions.
- Real-time analysis blocks suspected spam before it reaches your site.
- Customize the sensitivity of spam filtering and manage which comments to approve or block.
- Offers a detailed history of detected spam activity.
- Enables users to adjust spam detection rules for better control.
What We Liked Most about Akismet
- Akismet offers a 99.99% accuracy rate in detecting spam.
- It integrates smoothly with WordPress, Jetpack, and other popular tools.
- Automating spam detection saves time by eliminating the need for manual comment review.
- Trusted by millions of websites, Akismet is a reliable solution in the WordPress community.
Cons of Akismet
- Can flag even legitimate comments as spam.
- While it offers a free tier for personal blogs, commercial users need to pay for premium plans.
Pricing
Personal: Free
Pro: $9.95 per year
Business: $49.95 per year
Enterprise: Custom
Why Choose Akismet
Akismet is a reliable and efficient spam detection solution for WordPress users. Its advanced filtering capabilities make it a go-to- solution for maintaining a clean and professional comment section. Its proven track record provides peace of mind that the site is protected by a trusted solution.
Jetpack – WordPress Backup and Security Plugin
Jetpack is another powerful WordPress plugin by Automattic that combines backup, security, and performance optimization features in a single installation. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive offerings, Jetpack is another much-needed WordPress plugin for users looking to improve their site’s security and performance.
It offers real-time backups and automated malware scanning, ensuring that your site remains secure and recoverable in case of issues. While its easy one-click restore feature lets users quickly revert their site to a previous state if needed.
Jetpack also enhances site performance through its Site Accelerator, which optimizes images and serves static files from a global network of servers for faster loading times. Additionally, it includes tools for user engagement, such as social media sharing, related posts, and subscription forms.
Key Features of Jetpack
- Monitors and identifies vulnerabilities and threats on your site.
- Automatically scans and removes malware to keep your site secure.
- Protects your login page from Brute Force Attacks by blocking suspicious activity.
- Send instant notifications if your site experiences downtime.
- Improves site speed and performance through features like image optimization and caching.
- Tracks and logs changes made to your site, aiding in troubleshooting and collaboration.
What We Liked Most about Jetpack
- Provides multiple layers of security to protect your site.
- Offers automatic backups and easy restoration options.
- Allows site restoration even when completely offline.
- Uses Akismet technology to effectively filter spam comments and form submissions.
Cons of Jetpack
- Some features require a premium plan, which can be expensive for smaller sites.
- Can slow down websites, especially on lower-tier plans.
Pricing
Security: $19.95 per month billed yearly.
Complete: $49.95 per month billed yearly.
Why Choose Jetpack
Jetpack provides a comprehensive security solution for WordPress sites, combining security, performance optimization, and backup features in one package. Its ease of use and multi-layer protection make it a solid choice for users looking to secure their sites from threats and improve overall performance.
LiteSpeed Cache – Speed Optimization Plugin
LiteSpeed Cache is an all-in-one acceleration solution for WordPress and a must-have free WordPress plugin designed to enhance website performance through advanced caching and optimization features. With features like automatic page caching, private cache for logged-in users, image optimization, lazy loading, and JavaScript file localization, it’s a favorite among four million+ users.
LiteSpeed Cache is particularly effective when used with LiteSpeed web servers, but many of its optimization features, such as image optimization, CSS/JS minification, and CDN integration, can also be utilized on other server types like Apache and NGINX.
The plugin also supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 protocols, enhancing site speed further. With a user-friendly interface, it allows users to manage settings easily and monitor performance metrics directly from the WordPress dashboard.
Key Features of LiteSpeed Cache
- LiteSpeed Cache provides advanced server-level caching to boost site speed.
- Automatically optimizes and serves images for faster loading.
- Enhances page speed with CSS/JS optimization, database optimization, and Lazy Load.
- Seamlessly integrates with Cloudflare or custom CDNs for global performance.
- Includes SEO tools like schema markup and metadata control.
- Reduces page size by compressing and combining CSS/JavaScript files.
What We Liked Most about LiteSpeed Cache
- Speeds up website loading times significantly.
- Optimizes performance with separate desktop and mobile caches.
- Removes unnecessary database entries for better performance.
- Includes built-in security features such as HSTS, 404 monitoring, and brute-force protection.
Cons of LiteSpeed Cache
- Resource-intensive, requiring high server resources, especially for larger websites.
- Some advanced features may require manual adjustments for optimal performance.
Pricing
It is a free and open-source plugin.
Why Choose LiteSpeed Cache
LiteSpeed Cache is a powerful WordPress cache plugin designed to enhance website speed and performance. With advanced LiteSpeed server technology, it optimizes page speed and manages high traffic efficiently. Ideal for users seeking a high-performance caching solution, it improves both speed and security.
Smush – Image Optimization Plugin
If you want to optimize your website’s images, using an image optimization plugin is one of the best ways. Smush is such widely regarded as one of the best image optimization plugins for WordPress designed to enhance website performance by compressing and resizing images without sacrificing quality.
Developed by WPMU DEV, Smush allows users to optimize images upon upload, with features that include lossless and lossy compression options, bulk optimization, and the ability to convert images to the WebP format for faster loading times.
With its user-friendly interface, Smush enables easy management of image optimization settings directly from the WordPress dashboard. The plugin also supports lazy loading and automated background optimization which ensures that images are compressed even when the plugin is not actively in use.
Key Features
- Compress images without quality loss to reduce file sizes.
- Optimize multiple images at once to save time.
- Load images only when they are visible and improve initial page load time.
- Automatically optimize images as they are uploaded.
- Automatically creates multiple image sizes for different devices
- Easily integrate with CDNs for faster image delivery.
What We Liked Most
- Compress as many images as needed without limits.
- Maintains image quality for files up to 256MB.
- Pro version supports converting images to the WebP format for enhanced performance.
- Optimize images up to a maximum of 5MB in size.
What could be Better?
- WebP Conversion is available with the Pro version only.
- No option for one-time image credits.
Pricing
Basic: $3 per month (1 site license).
Standard: $5 per month (3 site license).
Freelancer: $10 per month (10 site license).
Agency: $20 per month (Unlimited site license).
Why Choose Smush
Smush is ideal for users looking to enhance site speed and performance through image optimization. Its easy-to-use interface, lossless compression, and additional features like Lazy Load make it a valuable tool for maintaining fast-loading, high-performing WordPress sites.
UpdraftPlus – Backup and Migration Plugin
Backing up your website ensures quick recovery from crashes or cyberattacks. UpdraftPlus makes it easy to perform manual or scheduled backups of WordPress files, databases, plugins, and themes with one-click functionality, even in its free version. The best part is that it lets you save backups to remote storage like Google Drive or Dropbox for added security.
The free version includes automatic backup schedules, while the premium version adds features like incremental backups and more storage options. With its ability to back up non-WordPress files and WP-CLI compatibility, UpdraftPlus is the go-to plugin for safeguarding your website against unexpected events.
Key Features
- Handles up to 100 GB with no size restrictions.
- Allows scheduled backups at intervals like 2, 4, 8, or 12 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Restores backups directly from the WordPress dashboard in a few clicks.
- Enables seamless migration or cloning of WordPress sites to new domains or hosts.
- Supports cloud storage options like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
What We Liked Most
- Fully compatible with WordPress multisite installations.
- Encrypts backups using AES for added security.
- Offers incremental backups to save storage space.
- Premium users can back up only changes since the last backup.
What could be Better?
- Performance can vary on larger websites.
- Limited storage in the free version.
- Advanced features are restricted to premium plans.
Pricing
Personal: $70.00
Business: $95.00
Agency: $145.00
Enterprise: $195.00
Gold: $399.00
Why Choose UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is more than just a backup tool—it simplifies the entire backup and restoration process with one-click functionality, diverse storage options, and support for multisite setups, including multisite installations. The free version meets most needs, while the premium version adds features like incremental backups and advanced migration tools, making it a must have paid plugin for WordPress even with a huge price tag.
Conclusion
This curated list covers all the must-have plugins for WordPress website while starting. We’ve prioritized free and highly-rated plugins from reliable sources to ensure optimal security and compatibility.
While this list provides a strong foundation, remember that the WordPress ecosystem is vast. Explore further and add plugins that align with your specific needs and goals. Always prioritize reliable sources like the official WordPress repository or reputable marketplaces.
If you still need any further assistance, just give us a knock or put your question in the comments below. We are always here for you!
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