WordPress powers 40 percent of the websites online. And WordPress plugins power these WordPress sites. WordPress plugins extend the capabilities of your website. There are thousands to choose from — but that can be overwhelming for site owners.
The Events Calendar + SolidWP, who like Nexcess, are members of the Liquid Web family of brands, recently conducted a survey of over 1400 WordPress users to see which plugins are most used and loved in the community.
Keep reading to learn the most popular WordPress plugins across five categories: commerce, security, page builders, forms, and search engine optimization.
Did you know that there are nearly 60,000 available plugins to choose from?
Top Commerce Plugins
Many WordPress users rely on plugins to make their site function as an online business. In fact, a significant portion of survey respondents utilize commerce-driven plugins. Commerce plugins help with payment processing, the checkout process, and managing paywalls. Here are the top commerce plugins WordPress users love.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress. WooCommerce is a great option for beginners because it’s easy to understand and flexible for customizing. You can easily add WooCommerce to WordPress — it’s simply to install and is free.
Event Tickets
Event Tickets is a free WordPress plugin that simplifies the process of selling and managing tickets for events — whether in person or virtual. Users can plug and play with simple setup or customize their features for a more personalized experience.
MemberPress
MemberPress is a WordPress plugin that’s dedicated to creating and managing membership subscriptions. Complete with robust reporting, integrations for payment gateways, and built-in security, MemberPress can help you build out and manage your membership site.
Top Security Plugins
We live in a world where any website can be vulnerable to security threats. Fortunately, there are plenty of WordPress plugins to help protect your site. These plugins offer functions including brute force protection, file change detection, site and database backups, and more. Here are the top security plugins WordPress users rely on.
Solid Security
Solid Security is a WordPress plugin that offers built-in malware scanning, password protection, file change protection, and database backups.
Akismet
Akismet is a WordPress plugin that protects your site from spam. This plugin is dedicated to stopping spam comments and contact form submissions.
WordFence
WordFence is another security WordPress plugin option that caters to enterprises. This plugin provides you with an endpoint firewall and malware scanner to keep your site safe.
Updraft
Updraft is a WordPress backup plugin. You can manually backup your WordPress site or schedule regular, automated backups with this plugin.
Top Page Builder Plugins
Many WordPress users rely on page builder plugins to customize their website without the need to code. These plugins empower users to control the look of their sites by simply dragging, dropping, or selecting elements. Here are the top page builder plugins from the survey.
Elementor
Elementor is a page builder plugin that comes with built-in widgets, which make it easy to put together your WordPress site.
Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is another page builder plugin option for WordPress users. This is a free plugin that offers visual, drag-and-drop functions to build your WordPress pages.
Divi
Divi is a WordPress theme and page builder plugin. Divi also offers drag and drop functions for building and real-time visual editing.
Form Plugins
Collecting form responses from users was a top priority among survey respondents. Most come with basic settings that let you choose the type of input (i.e. text fields, dropdown menus). Others are more complex. Here are the top plugins to streamline form creation.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is a WordPress plugin that helps you build forms for your website. The plugin comes with built in form fields and conditional logic.
Contact Forms 7
Contact Forms 7 is another form plugin option for your WordPress site. This free plugin allows you to manage multiple contact forms. Customization is available and it also features spam filtering built in.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is another free plugin option for WordPress users. This is a code-free plugin that makes creating forms easy for everyone.
WP Forms
WP Forms is another drag and drop form plugin for WordPress. Choose from their selection of templates to create your form, or customize it to your needs.
SEO Plugins
SEO is important for driving traffic to your website. Utilizing an SEO plugin can help you stay optimized and visible.
Yoast
Yoast is the top SEO plugin for WordPress. This plugin helps users identify fruitful keywords and optimize their content to drive organic traffic from search engines. Survey respondents named Yoast as their go-to plugin for SEO.
Get the Full WordPress Plugins Guide
We’re just scratching the surface of the most popular WordPress plugins.
Learn more about the WordPress plugins survey and see the results in our eBook, The Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins. The guide also offers steps to create your own plugin strategy, complete with a plugin strategy checklist.
Read this eBook to get:
- The most widely-used WordPress plugins in the world.
- Key considerations for selecting plugins for your site.
- Five steps to create your own plugin strategy for a faster, optimized site.
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