As robust as WordPress is, sometimes the base features aren't enough. Thankfully, WordPress's extremely active community has produced an extensive library of plugins to easily extend WordPress's functionality. As seasoned web developers, we've come to rely more heavily on some of these plugins than others. Below are some of our favorites.
Gravity Forms
Activations: 1+ million
Pricing: Premium ($59.00-259.50 per year)
Why We Love It: Easy to use Drag And Drop form builder. Allows for complex calculation forms and common form builds such as contact us and employment applications. Allow conditional workflows such as asking a question based on the answer to another question.
Yoast SEO
Activations: 5+ million
Pricing: Free or Premium ($89 per year)
Why We Love It: There's a reason Yoast is one of the most popular SEO-management plugins. The plugin offers tools to optimize keywords and phrases, linking structures, and redirects, along with automated suggestions for improvements.
Elementor
Activations: 3+ million
Pricing: Premium ($49-199 per year)
Why We Love It: When a quick turnaround is necessary, Elementor makes it simple to create attractive designs with a drag-and-drop interface. Compared to other page builders it is streamlined and doesn’t contain a lot of bloat which can slow website speeds.
WooCommerce
Activations: 5+ million
Pricing: Free with associated fees
Why We Love It: E-commerce can be tricky, and since money is involved, it's crucial to get it right. Luckily, WooCommerce is intuitive and cost-effective for our small to medium e-commerce clients, reducing the hassle associated with online sales.
WP Rocket
Activations: 1+ million
Pricing: 49-249/year
Why We Love It: Visitors leave slow websites. WP Rocket is a must for optimizing cache management and therefore loading speed. It also supports content delivery networks.
Optinmonster
Activations: 900,000+
Pricing: Premium ($9-49 per month)
Why We Love It: Optinmonster takes care of lead generation for you, simplifying one of the most tedious elements of marketing.
Short Pixel
Activations: 1+ million
Pricing: Free- 60/month
Why We Love It: Short Pixel is another must-have to optimize loading speed. Specifically, it allows image compression with or without quality loss (your choice) to improve user experience. It also includes multiple options such as converting images that don’t require transparency to a .jpg format and the option to convert images to a webp format. Short Pixel can automatically run and optimize new uploaded images without manual intervention.
Redirection
Activations: 1+ million
Pricing: Free
Why We Love It: Redirect management keeps navigation tidy and usable, even when users encounter missing pages. Redirection helps manage any number of redirects, so it's suitable for websites of all sizes and complexities.
Envira Gallery
Activations: 1+ million
Pricing: Premium ($29-299, one-time license with recurring annual fee for updates)
Why We Love It: Envira Gallery is our top choice for creating sleek, responsive image galleries, sure to add visual interest to any page. The flexibility provides you with many ways to display your gallery.
Jetpack
Activations: 5+ million
Pricing: Free or Premium ($39-299 per year)
Why We Love It: Jetpack does everything you need to protect your website, offering advanced security, performance, and site management features.
At Neon Rain, we know exactly what plugins will work best for your WordPress site, and we know when it's better to implement custom code. To discuss your options, give us a call at 303-957-3092.