Must-Have WordPress Plugins: 26 Essential WordPress Plugins For Bloggers!

In the WordPress plugin repo, there are 55,000+ free WordPress plugins available. But, there are some must-have WordPress plugins which you must need on every business website or personal blogs.

For single use, there are so many WordPress plugins available. Which one you should pick for your business WordPress website or personal blog?

Wait a minute,

Well, we did the research for you! In this post, we are going to show you the must-have WordPress plugins which you need in 2019.

Must-Have WordPress Plugins For Every Website

So, let’s dive to the list. You don’t need all those plugins. We have shared a common list for every website. You can choose the right plugins from the list according to your niche.

Some of the plugins are premium. But, comes with a free trial. You should give a try to them. If you don’t want premium one, we have already added a free alternative to the list!

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast is the best freemium WordPress SEO plugin. We are using the free version of Yoast SEO at this time here. Other competitors are Rank Math and All In One SEO Pack.

The Yoast SEO free version plugin will help you to optimize the page for a target keyword, optimize the page for on-page SEO, generate sitemaps and additional SEO settings.

The free version got some limits. In the free version, we can only optimize the post or page for only one target keyword. In the premium version, that’s high as 5 keywords!

Also, the internal linking suggestion is an awesome feature in the Yoast premium plugin. In the free, you may want to check for links manually. In the pro version, you can get internal links in the sidebar according to your content.

For setting up Yoast SEO in your blog properly, check out our guide on how to configure Yoast SEO in WordPress.

2. WPForms

WPForms is one of the best WordPress form builder plugins. It’s a freemium plugin. Most beginners just need the lite plugin. You can unlock more power and features using the premium version plugin. Our contact page is also made using the WPForms lite plugin.

Another alternative to WPForms lite is Contact Form 7. We will vote for the WPForms plugin. Mainly it’s drag and drops forms builder. Soon, we will upgrade the plugin to premium!

Check how to create a contact form using WPForms lite. If you prefer the Contact form 7 plugin, you may want to check out how to create contact forms using contact form 7.

You can use our WPForms coupon for a 50% discount on the premium plugin!

3. Akismet

So many spammers target the WordPress comment section for spreading spam. It can be linked to any spam websites, unnatural comments, or any threatening. If you are not using Akismet, it is very hard to filter all those comments.

Akismet is a free plugin which will help you to sort out spam and put it in the spam folder. All you need is, connect the plugin with your WordPress.com account and generate an API key.

The plugin has 3 kind plans.

• Free forever.
• Plus – $5 a month.
• Enterprise – $50 a month.

We are using the free plan on our blog. It works well.

4. WP Rocket

Best caching plugin for WordPress? It’s WP Rocket. We are huge fans of WP Rocket caching plugin. AWPGuide is powered by WP Rocket. At this time, they don’t have a free version plugin.

It’s a complete premium plugin. You won’t regret investing in this plugin.

Their cheapest plan will cost $39 for a year. It comes with 1 year of support and updates. Also, you can use the plugin on any one website.

You can use our WP Rocket coupon for a charming discount. As alternatives, we will recommend you WP Fastest Cache and WP Super Cache.

5. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. Normally for adding analytics code, you need to edit your child theme’s header.php. But using MonsterInsights, you can skip the file editing process.

All you need to do is, simply activate the plugin and connect the plugin with your Analytics account. You can see all the stats right in your WordPress admin dashboard. There’s also a free MonsterInsights Lite.

When you change themes, you must add the analytics code inside your new theme’s header file if you added it manually. But if you are using the MonsterInsights plugin, you don’t need to worry about it.

The plugin will automatically add the Google Analytics code inside your header. Properly using this plugin can know your visitor’s behavior and can generate more leads/ sales or traffic.

For a 20% discount in the premium plugin, you may want to check out our MonsterInsights coupon.

6. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is using for lead generation. Means, you can collect your website visitor’s email address by showing pop up forms, content locker, slide-in forms, and floating subscription forms.

Studies have proven that 80% of your website visitors won’t come back! As a small business owner or affiliate marketer, this will affect your business and revenue.

By collecting email addresses of your website visitors, you will be able to send newsletters, coupons and personal emails. The plugin got integrations with almost all email marketing providers like GetResponse, SendinBlue, Constant Contact, and Aweber.

Use our OptinMonster coupon for 20% discount. A free alternative is Hello Bar. You need to also check out the plugin Bloom by Elegant Themes. It’s also one of the best lead generation plugin for WordPress. A free email optin plugin is Hellow Bar.

7. BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is the WordPress backup plugin that we use here at AWPGuide. It’s a premium WordPress plugin created by iThemes. I am pretty sure that you won’t get regret by investing in this plugin. This plugin will generate a complete website backup and will send it to a remote destination.

As a remote destination, you can choose Amazon S3, Google Drive, DropBox or any FTP client. The backup schedule is another impressive option. You can schedule backup for a specific time interval and it will run automatically.

We highly recommend you keep the backup off-site. At this time, they will help you to create a

• Database Backup.
• Complete Backup.
• Themes Backup.
• Plugins Backup.
• Media Backup.

Also, you will be able to exclude specific database tables, files, and folders from the backup file. A single website license will cost only $80 a year. It’s a great choice! As a free WordPress backup plugin, we recommend you UpdraftPlus.

8. Sucuri Security

If you care about your website security, you must consider Sucuri. Sucuri is the WordPress security service that we using here. Typically, It is a premium WordPress security solution. Their plans will be like:

• Basic – $199.99/ year.
• Pro – $299.99/ year.
• Business – $499.99/ year.

Normally, for fixing a hacked website, experts will charge around $450/ hour! By spending $199.99 a year, you can secure your entire website. So, which option is better? Check out Sucuri.

Sucuri also got a free version plugin and it’s easy to set up. Check out our guide on how to configure free Sucuri security plugin in WordPress.

9. Social Warfare

Social Warfare is a freemium WordPress plugin. You must consider adding social sharing buttons to your website for increasing traffic by social shares. If someone like your content, they will probably share it with their social media like Facebook or Twitter.

In that case, you will get some more social traffic from there. Social Warfare is an optimized WordPress social sharing plugin. It will not affect your website speed and performance.

if you are a beginner, you just need the Social Warfare Lite. For setting up the free plugin in your WordPress blog, check out our guide on how to configure Social Warfare in WordPress.

10. Polylang

Recently, we have launched our blog in the Hindi version, Spanish version, Russian version and many more. All we use is this plugin called Polylang.

Polylang is one of the best plugins for making multilingual websites. The configuration is pretty simple and the plugin is absolutely free!

By translating your blog, you will be able to generate more traffic from specific countries. really we love this plugin.

11. Envira Gallery

This plugin will be helpful for photography websites and related websites. We highly recommend the premium version of the plugin.

A single site license will cost you $29 a year. Very cheaper.

12. All In One Schema Rich Snippets

We are using All In One Schema Rich Snippets plugin for adding product review schema in our blog. The plugin got so many other schemas like Recipe, Service, Job Posting etc which need every WordPress blog.

You must try this plugin if you are running a food blog, a product review website or a fashion blog.

13. OIOpublisher

OIOpublisher is the best ad management plugin for WordPress. It’s a premium WordPress plugin. The plugin will cost only $47 for a single license.

This plugin will work with every self-hosted WordPress installations, every theme and compatible up to the latest version of WordPress. You should try this once.

If you are looking for a free one, you should consider using a simple one called Insert Post Ads.

14. ThirstyAffiliates

Must-need WordPress plugin for every affiliate marketers. ThirstyAffiliates. Normally, affiliate links are kind of ugly. They will look like www.affiliate.com/product?ref=username.

It’s not user-friendly and easy to remember.

By using the ThirstyAffiliates plugin, you will be able to cloak it.

It will become something like www.example.com/go/product. Simple and easy to remember.

The free version plugin is enough for small blogs and beginners. For cloaking links, check out our post how to clock affiliate links in WordPress. If your affiliate links are showing 404 error, you might want to save the permalinks again.

15. Table of Contents Plus

Have you seen a table of contents box inside our every single posts and page?

We are using the Table of Contents Plus plugin in our blog. It’s a free table of contents plugin with additional plugin settings. I am pretty sure that It will help your blog’s overall SEO and will show those contents in search results.

16. Soliloquy

Soliloquy is one of the best slider plugins for WordPress. We recommend you choose the premium version plugin. The features are,

• Drag and Drop Page Builder.
• Featured Content.
• Slider Themes.
• LightBox.
• Featured Content.
• WooCommerce Slider.
• Carousel.
• Custom CSS and much more.

Plans start at $19 a year, which is very cheap. If you own a single blog, you just need the single website plan.

17. ShortPixel

ShortPixel is an image compression plugin. We are using the plugin here at AWPGuide for compressing our images. We have got around 67% compression for our images.

The plugin is free for 100 images. But the premium plans are worth it. If you are looking for free alternatives, you need to check out TinyPNG and WP Smush.

By compressing your images, you can speed up the website by serving images faster to visitors, save disk space and bandwidth. Every WordPress blog needs an image compression plugin mainly if you are adding too many images to it.

18. Subscribers

Subscribers plugin is using for sending push notifications to your subscribers. Neil and his team created this product with only one goal: help website owners to get more traffic to their blog.

The tool is free for a lifetime! You can send unlimited push notifications to your subscribers.

19. WP Coupons

Have you seen our deals section? A lot of users asked how we made it and what plugin we have used there. The answer is WP Coupons. Typically, they don’t have a free version plugin available this time. The plugin is created by fine folks from Kinsta.

We can say it’s one of the best WordPress coupon plugins. Or, it’s the best one in the market. A single website license will only cost $34 a year.

You can use our WP Coupons discount code for a charming discount on the purchase.

20. CSS Hero

CSS Hero is using for styling your WordPress website without touching any code! They don’t have a free version plugin available. It’s a complete premium plugin but worth it.

For our users, CSS Hero offering a charming discount. You can get a maximum discount on the purchase!

It’s for a limited time. You must get CSS Hero ASAP. If you are a pure beginner or don’t get your hands dirty with codes, you should try this plugin. You will love it.

The plugin is compatible with almost every theme. If you don’t need a plugin for handling your CSS, you can add additional CSS to your blog.

21. TablePress

TablePress WordPress plugin is using for simple tables in WordPress. Normally, we need HTML knowledge for creating tables and CSS for styling them. With this plugin, you can create a table without any knowledge in coding.

For more about creating tables. you need to check out how to create tables in WordPress.

22. Compact Archives

Have you seen our archives page? It’s designed with the Compact Archives plugin.

It’s totally a free plugin. You can show your archives by month, date or year. You should try it.

23. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is using for creating an online store. You can sell physical/ digital products through this WordPress plugin. Also, you can sell service in person through this plugin. WooCommerce is the plugin that most folks use for creating an e-commerce plugin.

If you are planning to sell just digital files, you need to check out Easy Digital Downloads.

24. Title and Nofollow For Links

Most of us are adding external links to our blog. By using the default WordPress link inserter, we can’t add nofollow to specific links. No matter external or internal.

By using this Title and Nofollow For Links plugin, you will be able to mark the link as nofollow and can add a title tag. We are using this plugin here on our blog. It’s free and always will be.

25. MemberPress

MemberPress is a premium WordPress plugin for creating membership websites. You can sell digital downloads, accept credit cards securely using this plugin.

A single site license will cost $129 for one year.

The investment is worth.

26. Perfmatters

A lightweight WordPress plugin for speeding up your WordPress blog and for hardening the security. The size of this plugin is only 110KB. That’s why I mentioned this is a lightweight plugin.

The plugin is not a free one. It’s a premium one. It costs

• Personal – $19.95.
• Business – $49.95.
• Unlimited – $99.95.

It’s made by the Woorkup guys. The same company who built WP Coupons.

These are the must-have WordPress plugins which you need to consider while creating a blog in 2019.

Do You Need All These Plugins?

No. Absolutely you don’t need these all plugins.

As an example,

If you don’t want a slider, you don’t need the Soliloquy. If you don’t want to design your archive page, you can avoid Compact Archives. So, choose the plugins which you really need.

Did we miss any plugin? Please let us know in the comments. Or, you can use the contact form.

We hope you enjoyed the post and found the must-have WordPress plugins which you need in 2019. If you did, please consider sharing our post with your friends and fellow bloggers. For more related posts, you may want to check out our blog section.