30 Best Free WordPress Plugins That Will Supercharge Your Website

By James Flarakos | April 24, 2023

Find a list of the 30 best free WordPress plugins you can use to optimise, secure or edit your website with with a list of features and best usages.

If you’re looking to optimize and enhance your WordPress website, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we have compiled a list of the 30 best free WordPress plugins that cater to various aspects of website management, from SEO to security. We’ve also included descriptions, best use cases, features, and download links for each plugin. This way you can make an informative choice to what plugin you should use when building or editing your website.

All of these plugins are free or use a free version so thy can also be found in the WordPress repository if searched by name.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress, with over 5 million active installations. It offers a comprehensive set of tools to help improve your website’s search engine ranking and on-page optimization.

Best used for: Search engine optimization (SEO)

Features:

Keyword optimization
Readability analysis
Technical SEO improvements
XML sitemaps
Breadcrumbs control
Content analysis
Social media integration

Download Link: Yoast SEO

2. Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet is an essential plugin that checks your website’s comments and contact form submissions against a global database to prevent spam.

Best used for: Spam protection

Features:

Automatically filters spam comments
Status history for each comment
Discard feature to save disk space
Moderate and review comments

Download Link: Akismet Anti-Spam

3. Jetpack

Jetpack is a powerful plugin that offers various features, including security, performance optimization, and traffic growth tools.

Best used for: Site management and optimization

Features:

Site stats and analytics
Downtime monitoring
Brute force attack protection
Lazy loading images
Content delivery network (CDN)
Social sharing

Download Link: Jetpack

4. Elementor Page Builder

Elementor is a powerful and user-friendly drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress, allowing you to create stunning and responsive web pages without any coding knowledge.

Best used for: Page design and layout

Features:

Drag-and-drop page builder
Responsive design
Over 300 pre-designed templates
Widgets for various elements
Inline text editing
Undo and redo history
Custom CSS

Download Link: Elementor Page Builder

5. Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is an all-in-one security plugin that helps protect your WordPress website from hacks, malware, and other security threats.

Best used for: Security and firewall protection

Features:

Firewall protection
Malware scanning
Real-time threat defence
Login security
Security incident recovery tools
Two-factor authentication
Country blocking

Download Link: Wordfence Security

6. WP Super Cache

Description: WP Super Cache is a fast and reliable caching plugin that generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress site, significantly reducing page load times and improving site performance.

Best used for: Page caching and performance optimization

Features:

Static HTML file generation
Page compression and dynamic caching
Cache preloading
Content delivery network (CDN) support
Browser caching

Download Link: WP Super Cache

7. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a popular and versatile plugin that allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms on your WordPress website with ease.

Best used for: Contact forms and user inquiries

Features:

Create and manage multiple contact forms
Customize form fields
AJAX form submission
CAPTCHA support
Akismet spam filtering
File attachment support

Download Link: Contact Form 7

8. Smush Image Optimization

Smush is an award-winning image optimization plugin that compresses, resizes, and optimizes your images, improving your website’s loading speed and performance.

Best used for: Image optimization and compression

Features:

Lossless image compression
Bulk image optimization
Lazy loading
Image resizing
WebP conversion
CDN support

Download Link: Smush Image Optimization

9. UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

Description: UpdraftPlus is a reliable and easy-to-use backup plugin that allows you to schedule and manage backups of your WordPress website, ensuring the safety of your data.

Best used for: Site backups and data protection

Features:

Complete website backup
Scheduled backups
Incremental backups
Backup to cloud storage
Backup encryption
Site duplication and migration

Download Link: UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

10. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is a comprehensive caching plugin that enhances your website’s performance by leveraging features like CDN integration, minification, and browser caching.

Best used for: Website performance optimization

Features:

Page caching
Minification of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Database caching
Object caching
Browser caching
Content delivery network (CDN) integration
Mobile device support

Download Link: W3 Total Cache

11. Really Simple SSL

Description: Really Simple SSL is a user-friendly plugin that helps you quickly and easily enable SSL on your WordPress website for a secure browsing experience.

Best used for: SSL management and site security

Features:

Automatic SSL detection
Redirects HTTP to HTTPS
Mixed content fixing
Security headers
.htaccess redirect
Certificate expiration check

Download Link: Really Simple SSL

12. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)

GADWP is a powerful plugin that allows you to easily integrate Google Analytics with your WordPress website, providing detailed statistics and insights about your site’s traffic and performance.

Best used for: Site analytics and traffic insights

Features:

Real-time statistics
Traffic source tracking
Page and post performance
Device and browser tracking
Customizable dashboard widget
Google Analytics tracking code integration

Download Link: Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)

13. Redirection

Redirection is a popular plugin that helps you manage 301 redirects, track 404 errors, and improve your website’s overall user experience and SEO.

Best used for: URL redirection and error tracking

Features:

Create and manage 301 redirects
Monitor 404 errors
Import and export redirects
Regular expression support
Conditional redirects
Redirect logs

Download Link: Redirection

14. All in One SEO Pack

All in One SEO Pack is a comprehensive and easy-to-use plugin that helps you optimize your WordPress website for search engines.

Best used for: Search engine optimization (SEO)

Features:

XML sitemap support
Google AMP support
Google Analytics integration
Schema.org markup
Advanced canonical URLs
Meta tag generation
SEO settings import and export

Download Link: All in One SEO Pack

15. Mailchimp for WordPress

Mailchimp for WordPress is an easy-to-use plugin that allows you to integrate your Mailchimp account with your WordPress website, helping you grow your email list and manage your subscribers.

Best used for: Email marketing and subscriber management

Features:

Mailchimp integration
Customizable sign-up forms
AJAX form submission
Form styling options
GDPR compliance features
Integration with other plugins

Download Link: Mailchimp for WordPress

16. Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker is a useful plugin that scans your WordPress site for broken links and images, helping you fix them to improve your site’s user experience and SEO.

Best used for: Link management and website maintenance

Features:

Scans for broken links and images
Email notifications for broken links
Dashboard widget
Filters and search functionality
Prevents search engines from following broken links

Download Link: Broken Link Checker

17. Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons

This plugin allows you to easily add customizable social media share buttons and icons to your WordPress site, encouraging visitors to share your content on various social media platforms.

Best used for: Social sharing and increasing website traffic

Features:

Customizable social share buttons
Over 200 social media platforms supported
Multiple icon design options
Floating or static share buttons
Shortcodes for placement control
Follow and share counts

Download Link: Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons

18. WP-Forms Lite

WPForms Lite is a user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder plugin that allows you to create and manage various types of forms for your WordPress website.

Best used for: Form creation and management

Features:

Drag-and-drop form builder
Pre-built form templates
Responsive design
AJAX form submission
Captcha and spam protection
Email notifications

Download Link: WPForms Lite

19. Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields is a powerful plugin that enables you to create and manage custom fields for your WordPress website, allowing you to easily customize your site’s content and design.

Best used for: Custom field creation and management

Features:

Over 30 field types
Custom field groups
Conditional logic
Export and import fields
Developer-friendly
Integrations with other plugins

Download Link: Advanced Custom Fields

20. Regenerate Thumbnails

Regenerate Thumbnails is a handy plugin that allows you to regenerate your website’s thumbnail images after changing their dimensions, ensuring a consistent and professional appearance.

Best used for: Image resizing and thumbnail management

Features

Thumbnail regeneration
Selective regeneration
Bulk regeneration
Easy to use interface
Supports custom image sizes

Download Link: Regenerate Thumbnails

21. Classic Editor

Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin that restores the previous classic editor and the Edit Post screen, allowing users to continue using the familiar interface for creating and editing content.

Best used for: Editing and content creation

Features:

Restores the classic editor
Supports older themes and plugins
Allows users to switch between Classic and Block editors
Simple and user-friendly interface

Download Link: Classic Editor

22. Shortcodes Ultimate

Shortcodes Ultimate is a comprehensive plugin that provides a wide range of shortcodes for various elements, making it easy to create custom layouts and add unique features to your WordPress site.

Best used for: Content enhancement and layout customization

Features:

Over 50 shortcodes
Custom CSS editor
Shortcode generator
Responsive design
Custom widget
Import and export functionality

Download Link: Shortcodes Ultimate

23. The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is a powerful and easy-to-use plugin that allows you to create and manage events on your WordPress site, featuring a sleek and professional design.

Best used for: Event management and promotion

Features:

Event creation and management
Calendar view
List and day view
Event search
Responsive design
Widget and shortcode support
Customizable templates

Download Link: The Events Calendar

24. TablePress

TablePress is a user-friendly plugin that allows you to create and manage tables on your WordPress site without any coding knowledge, making it easy to present data in a structured format.

Best used for: Data presentation and table creation

Features:

Create and manage tables
Import and export tables
Customizable table design
Sorting, pagination, and filtering
No coding required
Short-codes for easy insertion

Download Link: TablePress

25. Custom Post Type UI

Custom Post Type UI is a powerful plugin that allows you to create and manage custom post types and taxonomies for your WordPress website, offering greater flexibility in organizing and presenting your content.

Best used for: Custom post type and taxonomy creation

Features:

Create and manage custom post types
Create and manage custom taxonomies
Import and export functionality
Developer-friendly
Built-in help documentation

Download Link: Custom Post Type UI

26. Duplicate Post

Duplicate Post is a useful plugin that allows you to easily duplicate or clone any post, page, or custom post type on your WordPress site, making it simple to create similar content without starting from scratch.

Best used for: Content creation and management

Features:

Duplicate or clone posts, pages, and custom post types
Customize duplicated content settings
Bulk duplicate actions
User role restrictions
Compatible with other plugins

Download Link: Duplicate Post

27. Autoptimize

Auto ptimize is a powerful plugin that optimizes your WordPress site’s performance by compressing, aggregating, and caching scripts, styles, and HTML.

Best used for: Site performance optimization

Features:

Minification of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Concatenation of scripts and styles
Image optimization and WebP support
CDN integration
Browser caching
Extensible with hooks and filters

Download Link: Autoptimize

28. User Role Editor

User Role Editor is a versatile plugin that allows you to easily edit the capabilities and permissions of user roles on your WordPress site, providing better control over user access.

Best used for: User role management and access control

Features:

Edit user roles and capabilities
Create new user roles
Assign multiple roles to users
Block access to admin functionality
Copy roles from one site to another
Developer-friendly

Download Link: User Role Editor

29. Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Widget Area Manager

Custom Sidebars is a powerful plugin that allows you to create and manage custom sidebars and widget areas for your WordPress site, offering more flexibility in content presentation and layout design.

Best used for: Sidebar and widget management

Features:

Create and manage custom sidebars
Unlimited custom widget areas
Drag-and-drop interface
Display widget areas on specific pages or posts
Import and export sidebars
Compatible with most themes

Download Link: Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Widget Area Manager

30. WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is an all-in-one plugin that helps improve your WordPress site’s performance by cleaning up your database, compressing images, and caching pages.

Best used for: Site optimization and database clean-up

Features:

Database optimization and clean-up
Image compression
Page caching
Minification of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
CDN support
Scheduled optimizations

Download Link: WP-Optimize

Conclusion

Using our list of the best 30 free WordPress plugins you can not only optimise your site, but also secure it, create better content, manage users and much more! And if you are paying too much for your WordPress hosting, get started for only £1 per month!

Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs thumbnail

12 Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs

By James Flarakos | February 7, 2022

Here you will find a complete list of the best WordPress plugins for blogs that will make your life much easier, keep you secure, compliant to the data rules and other plugins you will inevitably need in the future.

Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs That You Need

Here we have a variety of the best WordPress plugins for blogs which will give you a variety of features that will greatly improve, secure or just help you and your blog in general.

We have a wide list of plugins, which you can look for one by one or simply use all together to cover all basis. Unlike other website builders like Wix, WordPress gives you huge control over what you can edit and features you can add with plugins.

These plugins will be suggested from our personal use and not just a top ten list copied from another site so all have been tried and tested. Most of the time being used for many of our own blogs for the great features they give you.

What Are Plugins And Why Would They Help My Blog?

In case you havent used plugins before and your not sure what we mean. Plugins are simply a feature you can add to your WordPress blog which will give you more functions. For instance a form plugin may give you the features of creating forms, collection submissions ect. Where as a security plugin may keep you safe from brute force attacks or limit login attempts.

All have different features and there are usually many different plugins for each type of problem. So for this reason it makes sense to check out the the best WordPress plugins for blogs from people who use them daily and have experience in what works and what doesnt.

If your looking for some inspiration for your blog check out our article on the top blogs of 2022 to get the creative juices flowing!

Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs

12. CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent & Compliance Notice

This is a must have for any WordPress blog or any website in general. Data is important these days and needs to be handled correctly. Now ill be the first to admit I’m not an expert data analyst and have no idea what to do with peoples data apart from the general subscriptions and mailing lists. And this is where this brilliant little plugin comes into play.

CookieYes GDPR Cookie is literally plug and play, you install it and activate it and your ready to go. Settings are easily changeable but in general the defaults work great for most blogs. Visitors will get the choice now and its also CCPA ready for the new types of restrictions.

The plugin is lightweight and after installation, pop it on auto update and thats the last time you will need to worry about peoples data and whether your collecting it properly.

11. Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons

If you have a blog and want to increase interactional and social sharing, this plugin is another must have. There are many social share plugins for WordPress, how ever I find this to be one of the easiest to set up and use. Making this one of the Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs

Once installed it gives you an easy step by step list of what social icons you want to add, how to connect them and other settings for each social option. You get the choice for the visitor to chare the article, or join your social page and like it. And most other interaction options are available with this plugin for free.

This makes social sharing of your blog post super easy as any visitor is now able to share it with as little as a few clicks. No more looking for the URL to copy and paste. Not only does this increase interaction on your blog as people are pressing buttons but also it increases the off page SEO as your blog has now been shared on another social page.

10. WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click

Are you fed up of others copying your hard word and content from your page? There is nothing worse than writing a few thousand word post to try and rank it to 1 in google and then you find someone has copied and pasted the written content or images to their own post.

This amazing plugin has made it on the best WordPress plugins for blogs list due to the simply fact of no more right clicks. This plugins works great for a number of reasons. Firstly its a pretty much plug and play with a few alterations to suit you. Apart from that it also completely stops the ability to hover over words and copy them. The letters on your blog simply can not be highlighted, so short of screen shooting your wording and re writing the whole thing, this will stop most people from taking the content.

Images are also a pet peeve of mine when you take some great pictures and someone uses them and gives you some nasty link that you cant even click back from their website. With this plugin you will no longer be able to right click the image to save it, or copy it. Normal screen copying ways have been disabled, just be aware that most pc’s also have another screen capture method and unfortunately this still does work. How ever you wont get the links back from someone copying your picture or sharing the URL for it. They will simply have a copied screen shot of yours with less quality.

9. Rate my Post – WP Rating System

Want more ways for visitors to interact with your blog post? This plugins is fantastic for getting traffic on your blog to like and rate your post! This free plugin will add a rating to post types of your choice or all of them. Set up is easy and can be adjusted to your preference and it does what it says on the tin.

You can choose stars or trophies and it not only helps with SEO due to the interaction on your page but also is great for other visitors to see other top rated posts and encourage them to also interact.

Another cool feature is the social share after you vote. It will thank you with a message for voting and then encourage you to share this vote by showing some easy social share buttons that visitors can click.

8. Askimet Anti Spam

This plugins is so good it also comes as default on your WordPress. However most fail to install it and configure it properly. This will lead to much more spam on your website and more work for you to filter through the comments to trash the bad ones.

You can sign up for free (for the free plan) and it will start to protect you from the spam comments straight away. Not only this but it also integrates well with most other plugins as it is so well known and used. So it is a must have plugin for any blog once it is enabled and configured.

Spam comments are never ending and can waste a lot of your time and even space on your WordPress blog. So install this free plugin today to stop all the bot spam from your website or other forms.

7. All In One SEO Plugin

I cant stress how essential this plugin is. This plugin will help your blogs SEO in many ways, from your content writing to your image data and much much more. Think of it like a SEO guide that works with you and will literally show you were you need to improve. It is free and also has a free version, but I have used the free version for every single blog I have and it works really well!

Another alternative is Yoast SEO, so its up to your preference to which one of the two you use. How ever I just found that AIOSEO was just much easier to follow personally. But in general they have the same features just laid out in different ways.

This plugin will give you a score out of 100 as you create each post or page, along with this it will also guide you through what you need to do to achieve a 100% score. From keywords, meta data images and much more this is a must have plugin for any blog to increase your blogs SEO.

Another brilliant use for this plugin is being able to sort out what your pages and posts display like on the search engines. You can change each title and description so it appears well with all the correct keywords when someone has searched it on a search engine.

6. Forminator

There are many form plugins such as WP Forms, Contact Form 7 and others. How ever I do find that Forminator has all the best features and all for free. Many other plugins will give you great features but then limit you with stuff like checking your submissions. They will send you the email letting you know but when you try to check all submissions, it will inform you that you need the pro version. Which lets be honest is super annoying.

Forminator is one of the best WordPress plugins for blogs as it gives you lots of options, including quizzes, polls, and having the ability to check all your past submissions from the form easily. Its also includes payment methods like stripe and PayPal so you can also add payment methods within in form.

Designing the forms is easy with a drag and drop method for each type you want to add in. From numbers, emails, locations and easy drop down menus this is one of the best form plugins there currently is out there in my opinion, and definitely deserves a place on this list of Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs.

5. Redirection

This plugin may not always be needed. But when it is, it does the job brilliantly. This will redirect any page on your website to another page or link. This would be good for lost pages that still get visitors and redirect them back to current pages. Its also fantastic for redirecting people from there choices or links to the page or post you want them to land on.

This is also very good for expired domains which have old pages that got many visits prior the the old website going down. You can simply set up a redirect from that URL straight back to a new page on your blog with out getting the 404 or 301 error.

It also gives you a choice of page to redirect any 404 errors. Meaning that you can catch all the visitors that might have just found them self’s an old or non existing page and putting them straight back onto your blog.

4. WP Cerber Security

For security, like many other plugins you have a big choice of who to go with. Which makes the choice even harder when your just looking for a good security plugin. I suggest WP Cerber for your WordPress blog security needs.

This is due to the coverage of this plugin being wide and also very efficient. Manage login attempts, rate limiting, brute force attacks, different login URL slugs and more. It also can hide php scripts, xml rpc can also be disabled to stop requests been made to access your files and again much more.

Not only that but by connecting your wp cerber plugin to you google re captcha and setting one up, you can get bot detection on all forms and comments to make sure your getting less spam. It also has an anti malware scanner and just general good security like alerts for any changes made with out your consent from your website.

3. WP Fastest Cache

This plugin will help delete of cache and any cache, minified css or js files. It will do so first by deleting cache for a post your creating once posted, saving space on your WordPress blog but also give you the choice to delete cache, minified css or js at any point form your entire blog or simple page by page.

This is perfect for developers that need to see their changes immediately rather than waiting for the cache to naturally get deleted. This is used on a majority of my sites and any websites or blogs we develop for others for its ease of use and because it does exactly what it says, and it does it well.

2. Hide Featured Image On All Single Page/Post

Have you found that your featured images are always getting the way of your blog? It can be very annoying when your featured image shows on top of your post or page especially if you have other images for this page.

This plugin will sort your problem out immediately by allowing you to either show or not show the featured image on top of the single page or post. Again a plugin that says what it does and does it well. Whilst making your page or post you will get an option on the right hand side asking fi you want the image displayed or not. Check or un check this and its sorted your problem.

Another use for this is with themes that want to show your featured image as part of the homepage display. I have personally found this works really well to also remove the picture from these areas too and just make your posts and pages look better in general.

1. User Role Editor

And last on the list, an extremely important plugin if you have different editors, authors and others that sig into your blog. With this amazing plugin you can give roles to others with specific abilities enabled or disabled.

How ever the reason for this plugin being so good is first of all as its free but second due to how many options it gives you. Its much more than enable post writing or not. Each section has multiple parts you can edit to make sure that each user gets the exact permissions you want them too.

From access to the dashboard to simply not allowing or allowing links to be made. This is the role management plugin you should be using for any blog.

Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to read my article and I really hope this has given you some great ideas and knowledge about the plugins you can use to really improve and make you WordPress blog the best.

If you have any great plugins you want to suggest, simply leave a comment on this article to let others know about great free plugins you can use for your blog.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.