The best WordPress plugins 2021

The open-source software WordPress is among the best content management solutions available worldwide. The CMS lets you create your own blog and build a well-designed website with little to no previous knowledge and low time investments. Part of what makes the former blog software so popular, despite its wide range of feature, is its large pool of available plugins.

The useful WordPress extensions can be installed quickly and add numerous features to the platform: the selection ranges from extensions for search engine optimization and higher security to e-commerce tools and social media plugins.

WordPress extensions are created by a huge community of developers. Whether an extension is offered for download free of charge or at premium is a decision that’s usually made by its respective developer. Often, two versions of a plugin are available, whereby the free version is limited in terms of functions, so that the user can only have the full range of functions when purchasing the full extension. In the following sections, we will show you our top 15 free WordPress plugins.

With the free edition of the extension, it is easy to prepare your WordPress project for Google and automatically assess the readability of your copy. Although you are limited to one basic main keyword in the free edition, you can plan more extensive keyword strategies with Yoast SEO Premium.

The free version of WP Meta SEO supports the integration of pictures. The WordPress extension ensures that images are integrated at the right size, but also provides image SEO features to help your website rank higher in image searches.

The WordPress extension automatically testsall your internal and external links on the website and even in the commentaries and reports broken links. The extension can even detect missing images or redirects. Website operators receive a message via the dashboard or email to replace or deactivate broken links, images, or redirects.

The dashboard features the daily updated spam statistics such as values ​​for the detection rate and the total of blocked comments. Another advantage of Antispam Bee is that it complies with European data protection guidelines in case your website operates in the EU.

For this purpose, the plugin uses the defined headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.). From the settings, a user can also determine the design and positioning of the content or specify the number of headings from which the plugin should create a directory.

Some knowledge of CSS is recommended to adjust the recommendations YARPP makes optically.

Use drag and drop to select images and photos from your WordPress media library and then drag them into the desired MetaSlider template, which you can also reposition in your project. You can then use the plugin to define suitable meta information and links.

Setting up a forum with bbPress is easy to do via a central admin account. In just a few clicks the desired community area is installed and adapted to suit your design.

The navigation and design of your own WooCommerce WordPress web shop is fully customisable – the installation assistant generates a basic navigation pane with four menu items: ‘Shop’, ‘Shopping cart’, ‘Checkout’ and ‘My account’. To meet the needs of large, professional online shops, developer Automattic also offers (paid) premium functions for the WordPress shop plugin. You can find out more about setting up a WordPress shop with WooCommerce in our article ‘Create an online store with WordPress ’.

Use Ultimate Member to create registration, login fields, and customisable user profiles – directly in the frontend. Directories for registered users can also be set up if necessary.

The extension is quick and easy to integration and provides all the functions you need. The contact form can be adjusted to match the design of your website more closely, but a basic knowledge of CSS is required for this.

Once you’ve got your certificate and installed Really Simple SSL, you can activate SSL/TLS in one click. Additional security through HTTP Strict Transport Security is only available with the Pro edition.

If you activate Loginizer in your WordPress project, the plugin automatically blocks all IP addresses for 15 minutes from which more than three incorrect login attempts have been made. In the event of multiple blockings, this period is increased to 24 hours. You can also remove IP addresses from the blacklist manually.

For critical security elements like the admin username or file share(s), the premium plugin provides an overview with an on and off switch. In the extension’s dashboard, you can view a specific security score for your site(s), to monitor the status of your project.

Following the recommendations for the 15 best free WordPress plugins, we’ll now show you the 15 best premium plugins. Because users pay a fee, these plugins usually offer a wider range of functions and provide special customer support from the manufacturer.

WPtouch Pro is among the mobile solutions supported by Google, which is why the website is automatically marked as “mobile-friendly”. Depending on the chosen package, you can use the plugin for 1, 5, 20 or 50 WordPress projects.

WP Rocket also reduces load times by automatically compressing all static files such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS documents. Thanks to the LazyLoad feature, a visitor’s browser only loads all integrated images when they reach the user’s viewport.

The “Business” and “Agency” packages let you activate additional Squirrly features such as advanced analysis, in-depth keyword research or an overview of the top-ranking websites in your sector.

WP Fastest Cache Premium provides a diverse set of features, beyond just caching. The premium WordPress plugin also assists with SEO through merging and minimising of CSS and JavaScript code and conversion of images in WebP.

AIOSEO is available in four package options: Basic (1 site), Plus (3 sites), Pro (10 sites), and Elite (100 sites).

Thanks to the integrated drag-and-drop editor, it’s quick and easy to create appealing forms within a few minutes. Forms can be used to collect user email addresses, for example. Simple A / B testing and detailed statistics allow you to measure and analyse the success of different variants.

Ratings can be customised with the premium plugin, thanks to more than 500 Google Web Fonts, various typography options and three rating schemes (stars, points, and percentages).

Other areas of your WordPress project can also be tracked with MonsterInsights. These include file downloads, contact forms, links, and tags as well as the development of SEO score and focus keyword. The WordPress extension regularly displays clear reports for each tracking category.

The more expensive “Multilingual CMS” package gives users access to additional translation options to translate widgets or texts from themes, plugins and other WordPress extensions. To coordinate work on multilingual projects, WPML provides a translation management tool.

To adapt the calendar optimally according to your ideas, the code of The Events Calendar is particularly developer friendly. In addition, various display options are available to present your events, for example by the day, week, or month or in a list.

Restrict Content Pro includes interfaces to payment services such as 2Checkout, Stripe and PayPal.

If desired, the extension sends notifications by email, for example if a new membership has been concluded or a membership has been terminated, a transaction has failed or if a user has changed their package. A detailed overview is available via “Reports”, which shows detailed statistics on all active and previous subscriptions and payments.

To use the features of the premium WordPress plugin for commercial sites, you need to subscribe to a monthly plan. The two fee-based packages “Plus” and “Enterprise” (or “Enterprise Plus”) include extended statistics and priority support from the manufacturer. The extension is updated regularly to be able to react promptly to current spam trends.

Additional protection is available in the form of an integrated malware scanner, regular checks of the WordPress core files and vulnerability checks. If necessary, you can use Wordfence Pro to limit the number of login attempts on the server in order to set up basic brute force protection.

iThemes Security Pro provides various features to make the login to your WordPress project as secure as possible for all parties. The plugin ensures that users set strong passwords during registration. The registration itself can be secured via two-factor authentication (mobile app, email, or backup code).

Even in the basic version, WordPress provides plenty of important functions to create new pages, link them and add new content. However, you can get much more out of the content management system with the addition of plugins because they significantly expand its functionality. Extensions for shops, security, search engine optimisation or social media links – WordPress extensions make it possible to expand the open source platform so that it is perfectly tailored to the needs of the respective website owner.

A WordPress plugin is an additional program. It extends the code of the web application, and thereby adds a new function. Strictly speaking, every extension or adaptation of the WordPress code is a plugin. An experienced user with programming skills also has the option of manipulating the code to add more features to the functions.php file of their theme. When downloading WordPress extensions, you should always make sure that the source is trustworthy and secure (such as the WordPress repository or the IONOS app centre).

To speak of the “best WordPress plugins 2021” is, strictly speaking, a bit difficult. As interests and needs vary greatly from one user to the next, in most cases only one or the other of the plugins presented will be relevant. For this reason, we recommend that you search for the most suitable extensions for your needs. The aforementioned official WordPress repository is accessible directly via the content management system. It is, without a doubt, the most important source for WordPress plugins. As with the IONOS App Center, every new extension listed is checked for its functionality and trustworthiness, to ensure that the WordPress plugin is secure.

But there are several other options to source extensions, especially when it comes to premium WordPress plugins which are not listed in the official directory:

• CodeCanyon: When it comes to highly functional, premium extensions, there is no getting around CodeCanyon. The directory boasts over 7,400 WordPress plugins, and sells extensions for other content management systems such as Joomla or Drupal. The results can be filtered by price, category, popularity, or user ratings.
• MOJO Marketplace: The MOJO Marketplace WordPress plugin directory includes around 50 extensions. The web platform, which provides a live demo for every expansion, also provides more than 700 themes and templates for the content management system.
• accessPress: accessPress offers a mix of 100+ free and premium WordPress plugins for download. Detailed information (description, publication date, price, license, time of the last update, etc.), documentation and a live preview of all the extensions can be accessed.
• GitHub: New WordPress extensions are regularly published on GitHub. Searching for them is a little more complicated, since only the entire developer platform can be searched. However, if you choose to make the effort and look in the over 108,000 available repositories with WordPress extensions, you can find plenty of useful plugins.

There is no limit as to the number of extensions you can install for WordPress. The quantity of plugins does not necessarily affect the performance of your website. So, it is quite conceivable that the project will still perform at a fast speed, even when running many extensions. Much more decisive than the number is the quality of the individual WordPress plugin. Under certain circumstances, a single incorrectly programmed extension can significantly worsen performance or cause other problems.

To avoid technical issues, plugins should always be chosen carefully and checked regularly for their necessity. Otherwise, you may quickly lose sight over the number of extensions you’ve installed. The Managed WordPress hosting lets you track your plugins carefully. Such hosting packages provide a fixed selection of high-quality, functional plugins.

Because new plugins are installed directly within WordPress, the expansion of the content management system is simplified enormously. Whether a selected package is downloaded via the integrated search or the import function, the user just needs to follow the instructions of the wizard to add and activate the desired plugin. The overview of all implemented WordPress extensions makes managing them all easier. In addition, the CMS automatically classifies the installed plugins in the folder structures by placing all extensions in the wp-content/plugins folder. Language files and translations for the extensions, however, end up in the wp-content/languages folder.

There are many free WordPress plugins and new ones are added each day. But too many plugins can clutter your backend. In addition, there is a risk of unpredictable “interactions”. The incompatibility of different programs and components can quickly lead to security gaps. You should only install plugins that you use regularly. Many administrative plugins can be uninstalled after single use. With the Plugin Security Scanner, you can check whether installed plugins pose security gaps.