Favourite WordPress Plugins

[FirstPageResults]

Couldn't remember if we'd have a thread like this one before, but thought it would be useful to find some hidden gems that others may know about.


This is for your favourite plugins (as opposed to most used). Hard to just name the 1, so maybe list your top 3.

I would have to say:

1. Magic Fields
I love this plugin because it's so versatile. The ability to create custom fields and panels with ease is perfect for affiliate sites (like product reviews/comparison).

2. NextGen Gallery
Far from perfect, but from a content management POV it does the job better than any other plugin I know. Also has loads of related plugins for creating gallery widgets (like carousels, slideshows etc).

3. Contact Form 7
Fast and simple contact forms that can be easily customised

 

[findtim]

i'm pretty sure we do.

just off to the BBQ to cook dinner before the footy but i'll come back to this post and add mine.

FUNNILY, i just got a list of the top 100 wp plugins this week and its not bad so i will try to create a link as it was a download !

tim

 

[johno69]

These are a part of my list of Must Use plugins:

1. Wordfence
Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security plugin that includes a firewall, virus scanning, real-time traffic with geolocation and more.

2. Gravity Forms
Absolutely amazing what you can do with this plugin. The best form plugin by a country mile.

3. Email Encoder Bundle
Protect email addresses on your site from spambots and being used for spamming. This plugin encodes all email adresses so spambots cannot read them.

4. Secondary HTML Content
Add additional HTML blocks to any post type. Perfect for layouts with distinct content blocks, such as a sidebar or two column view.

I have quite a few more on my list for specific tasks, but these pretty much get installed on every site.

 

[marketingweb]

2. Gravity Forms
Absolutely amazing what you can do with this plugin. The best form plugin by a country mile.

Great form processor from what i've heard, but at $199 PER YEAR for a developer license, or $39 PER YEAR for one site, I think i'll pass.

I am more than happy to pay for quality software/plugins/whatever. But I don't see how I can use something with an annual fee as a contact form on a small business client site. Like, imagine if you were an end user and saw a charge like "contact form subscription - $50" on a bill!

Sure you can hide it in something else, but I don't like that. And I know the form will keep working, but no updates - which includes security bugs, compatiblity with new WP versions etc - no thanks.

I'm all for the SAAS model for stuff that's full blown software, but not for a contact form plugin!

So - I use contact form 7. More complicated to set up, but suprisingly powerful once you get the hang of it.

 

[johno69]

Great form processor from what i've heard, but at $199 PER YEAR for a developer license, or $39 PER YEAR for one site, I think i'll pass.

You get what you pay for.

If you're a part time developer that might do 3 or 4 sites a year, then yep fair enough.

If you have a team and push through even as few as 20+ sites per year, the developer licence will save you a lot more than $199 in time costs.

We went from Contact Form 7 to cForms II now to Gravity Forms, today I set up some pretty special conditional forms for clients that simply couldn't be done in either of the previous ones we used.

It's about being able to offer a more superior product and still be cost efficient.

It comes down to how you look at it really. Time saved is money in the bank.

 

[findtim]

gravity forms as well http://www.gravityforms.com/
so simple worth the money , i agree with johno69, its "horses for courses" $199 divided by 25 is only $8 a site the time saving is worth it.


NextGen gallery, combine it with jQuery Lightbox http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
a little hard to understand at first but works realy well


BackupBuddy and the whole list of addons they have. http://pluginbuddy.com
another yearly page plugin but worth its weight in gold if you are duplicating sites


WP content slideshow http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-content-slideshow/screenshots/
really easy and good looking slideshow, you should a little CSS though

Akismet, of course http://akismet.com
keeps the crap out of your posts

add widgets to page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-widgets-to-page/
a million uses, i use it to create a nice link page http://www.dubbooptometrist.com.au/about/links/

all in one SEO http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
a big help with SEO and its free, first step before you go pay someone for SEO

widget logic http://freakytrigger.co.uk/wordpress-setup/
gives you a little flexibility on your sidebars

WP-CMS Post Control http://wp-cms.com/our-wordpress-plugins/wp-cms-post-control-plugin/
amongst other things it keeps your database cleaner by reducing the stored revisions of each page.

WP-Cycle http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cycle/
VERY simple slider/fader

Image Widget http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/image-widget/
makes adding a promotional image to a sidebar easier, great for affilaite ads

Google Maps embed http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-maps-embed/
obvious

exclude pages from navigation http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/
does what it says, i use it for pages i only want to have linked from an article/page and not show on the nav menu

 

[seolyka2]

I would also like to share these wordpress plugins (not yet mentioned above):

Share Bar - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sharebar/
TweetMeme button - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetmeme/
Pinterest - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/screenshots/
and other social media buttons such as Facebook Like or Share, Google Plus etc.

 

[findtim]

i'm doing a lot of site right now so as i find the cool plugins i'll post extras.

gravity forms mailchimp plugin
http://www.gravityforms.com/add-ons/mailchimp/
and i'll stop there with gravity forms they have a fair few and more are coming.

social media, http://www.studiopress.com/plugins/social-profiles-widget
also allows you to pick the size, VERY simple.

tim

 

[Ash]

I just tried wordfence plugin and it immediately told me:

* WordPress core file modified: wp-content/index.php

Would be great if it gives you more details. All I could find was the 'silence is golden' line, but I'm lead to believe that is part of wordpress index.php in wp-content.

 

[johno69]

Share Bar - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sharebar/
.

You can add Twitter retweet G+ & Pintrest to sharebar, no need for the others you mentioned then. Check their forums for instructions.

Would be great if it gives you more details.

It does, Wordpress removed the ending php tag from the index file in recent versions.

You can click "View file differences" or something along those lines..

Then tell it to keep it or change it.

 

[johno69]

gravity forms mailchimp plugin
http://www.gravityforms.com/add-ons/mailchimp/
and i'll stop there with gravity forms they have a fair few and more are coming.

Yes the ability to integration mailchimp with other forms throughout the site is a great help.

 

[findtim]

"You can click "View file differences" or something along those lines"
i use "winmerge" for more complex code but theres many out there

tim

 

[johno69]

Winmerge is not a Wordpress plugin though Tim

Wordfence can tell you what files you have that do not 100% match the core files that Wordpress currently have in their up to date download.

Then you can visibly see any changes and decide if you want to ignore them, or restore them to core.

Handy in case you modified a file yourself, and handy if you didn't.

But yes Winmerge is great for local checking of files for sure, I would struggle without it.

 

[findtim]

"Winmerge is not a Wordpress plugin though Tim"

AHH yes, ooops,

tim

 

[johno69]

Another handy one for those who don't like touching phpmyadmin..

Username Changer - a simple plugin which allows administrators to change usernames of users on their sites.

Good if you still have admin set as your username. Best to change it.

 

[Oz.]

2. Gravity Forms
Absolutely amazing what you can do with this plugin. The best form plugin by a country mile.

+1

Digg Digg - Another social plugin.

Google Analyticator - Good Google Analytics plugin.

 

[Ash]

It does, Wordpress removed the ending php tag from the index file in recent versions.

You can click "View file differences" or something along those lines..

Then tell it to keep it or change it.

Thanks Johno69, I see it now.

 

[chris]

Nice thread and a great list, picked up a few new ones and covered most of my favs.

Here are a few performance related plugins I've been looking at:

WP Super Cache - Serve static HTML, improves load times

WP Minify - Compress JavaScript and CSS

WP Optimize - Clean up database and comments

P3 Plugin Performance Profiler - See where your performance bottlenecks are (at least within WordPress)

Plugin Organizer - Change plugin load order and disable plugin per post type or URL

Cheers,
Chris

 

[whiterabit]

Great topic and some good plugins to check out:

I like
(premium)
Pagelines Themes
Wishlist Member
Datafeed Plugin
(free)
Wp Table Reloaded
Simple Ads Manager

I've also started to play around with a wordpress management tool called managewp. its early days yet but it lets you connect and manage all of your wordpress admins and update them from one console. I have the 10 pack at the moment and I've found it much easier to update 10 plugins at the click of one button then the other way around.

And while we're on the subject, can anyone recommend a good 'co-registration path' plugin for WP?

 

[Offtap]

+1 managewp - it has saved me a stack of time plus all sites, plugins, themes etc are always up to date. No more logging in to 50+ websites whenever a wordpress update come out