You may already know that WordPress is the darling of bloggers, and that it is the most popular Content Management System (CMS). WordPress powers more than 17% of the web and its users produce about 41.7 million new posts and 60.5 million new comments each month. Amazing, huh?
If you are completely new to WordPress, and is serious about blogging, then you would have heard of WordPress Plugins and must be wondering what a ‘Plugin’ is!
A Plugin is nothing but a tool (or an extension) that allows you to enhance your WordPress blog. It makes your blog more functional, useful, and powerful. Be it managing your Comments, Traffic Stats, SEO, Social Sharing, Security – ‘the Plugins’ does it all.
WordPress is an Open Source project. So you can either choose a plugin from among thousands of already existing ones, or you can create your own plugins to suit your specific needs. Almost all the plugins that we need already exists, so you don’t have to think about creating a new one.
Because, there’s actually a WordPress Plugin for almost anything!
The Best WordPress Plugins… Ever. — Categorized with Stats
There are 32,898 Plugins listed in the official WordPress Plugin Directory and it can literally transform your blog into anything you can imagine.
But the problem is… selecting the right plugin is challenging (especially if you’re new to WordPress) because it’s very important to select the right plugin. If you install a wrong plugin then it can impact the performance of the blog, thereby affecting user experience.
So here’s a comprehensive list of WordPress plugins (organized by category) that I have collected over the past several years. I hand-picked all the plugins so you don’t have to. And to make it even more useful I’ve also included the ratings and number of downloads so that you don’t have to visit the plugin page to see how popular it is. 
Recommended: The Definitive Guide To Writing A Perfectly Optimized Blog Post
Writing & Editing
The following WordPress plugins should enhance your writing and editing experience. Like, it makes managing blog posts and adding images and videos much easier.
1. WP Edit
WP Edit adds extensive, additional editing functionality to the default WordPress editor. Begin creating content like pros; without knowing a single bit of HTML or CSS.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 63,340
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP Edit
2. TinyMCE Advanced
Enables the advanced features of TinyMCE, the WordPress WYSIWYG editor. The plugin allows you to add, remove and arrange the buttons that are shown on the WordPress Visual Editor toolbar. And it includes 15 plugins for TinyMCE that are automatically enabled or disabled depending on what buttons are chosen.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 3,815,270
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: TinyMCE Advanced
3. Image Paste
Image Paste allows you to copy and paste images from your desktop to the WordPress editor. So you don’t have to upload to the server first. Just open or select an image, press Ctrl-C (or Cmd-C on Mac), go to your WordPress Editor and press Ctrl-V (or Cmd-V on Mac) and the plugin does it all for you.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 2,865
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Imagepaste
4. Viper’s Video Quicktags
Allows easy and XHTML valid posting of videos from various websites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, and more. So you don’t have to copy-paste HTML codes from websites like YouTube.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 1,376,547
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Viper’s Video Quicktags
5. WP Hide Post
Enables you to control the visibility of items on your blog by making posts/pages hidden on some parts of your blog, while still visible in other part.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 112,124
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: WP Hide Post
6. WP Glossary
Create your own glossary of hot-linked terms, inside your own site. So that you can keep your visitors on your blog, keep their experience consistent and pleasant using your theme. And moreover external glossary sites may not have all the words and terms you need.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 20,636
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: WP Glossary
7. Editorial Calendar
Gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 457,064
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Editorial Calendar
8. Edit Flow
Edit Flow empowers you to collaborate with your editorial team inside WordPress. The plugin features Calendar, Editorial Comments, Editorial Metadata, Notifications, etc.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 86,090
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Edit Flow
WordPress Frontend Publishing
If you want to edit a blog post without entering the WordPress Dashboard then the following plugins are for you.
9. Front-end Editor
Lets you make changes to your content directly from your site. No need to load the admin backend just to correct a typo. You can edit posts, pages, custom post types, comments, widgets and many more elements.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 233,294
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Front-end Editor
10. WP User Frontend
Create, update, delete posts and edit profile directly from the WordPress frontend.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 106,425
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP User Frontend
11. DirectEdit
Edit your website directly in the front-end. With the WYSIWYG inline editor you can modify content just anywhere. Direct edit has an inbuilt image editor. Choose an image, and while you resize or crop it, it will be uploaded to the server automatically. One click and the image is inserted on your page.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 1,400
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: DirectEdit
WordPress Live Blogging Plugins
If you want to cover a live event or need to update the blog in real-time with status updates, then the following plugins are for you.
12. Liveblog by WordPress.com
Quick and simple blogging for following fast-paced events. Post updates right from the front-end of your blog and viewers of your Liveblog get new entries served to them instantly and automatically, without needing to refresh their browser. Your authors can drag-and-drop photos right into the Liveblog area, without needing to navigate to separate browser tabs or windows.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 14,548
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Liveblog
13. 24liveblog
A simple, functional, powerful and free live blogging tool. With a few quick steps, you can create a rich news experience for your readers. It works with virtually any type of website and features real-time statistics, mobile ready, multi-editor support, live comments, etc.
Rating: 5
Downloads: 4,670
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: 24liveblog
WordPress SEO Plugins
The following Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins will make sure that your blog is search engine friendly and it can really boost your rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs).
14. WordPress SEO
WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast is the only SEO plugin that you’ll ever need. It allows you to optimize almost all the SEO aspects of your blog. And if you have enabled this plugin then you can eliminate several other plugins like – Google XML Sitemaps, Page Links To, Robots Meta, RSS Footer, Breadcrumbs, etc.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 12,102,871
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress SEO
15. All In One SEO Pack
All in One SEO Pack is another WordPress SEO plugin to automatically optimize your WordPress blog for Search Engines such as Google, Bing, etc. If you don’t want all the advanced features offered by the WordPress SEO plugin then this is a better choice.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 19,651,547
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: All In One SEO Pack
16. Google XML Sitemaps
Generates a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the search engine crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 14,623,632
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Google XML Sitemaps
17. SEO Friendly Images
SEO Friendly Images automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images improving traffic from search engines.
Rating: 4
Downloads: 1,265,554
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: SEO Friendly Images
18. EWWW Image Optimizer
Automatically and losslessly optimize your images as you upload them to your blog. It can also optimize the images that you have already uploaded in the past.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 378,992
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: EWWW Image Optimizer
19. Scribe
Scribe by Copyblogger makes it easy to conduct in-depth research that helps writers and content producers, to quickly identify content marketing opportunities for search and social media traffic and leads.
Rating: 2.9
Downloads: 81,583
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Scribe
20. Broken Link Checker
Check your posts, comments and other content for broken links and missing images, and notify you if any are found.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 2,598,369
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Broken Link Checker
21. Ultimate Nofollow
Adds a checkbox in the insert link popup box for including rel=”nofollow” in links as you create them. You can also nofollow individual blogroll links or all blogroll links.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 32,198
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Ultimate Nofollow
Multi-purpose WordPress Plugins
The following plugins are multi-purpose plugins that comes with a lot of inbuilt functions and it allows you to eliminate several other plugins.
22. Jetpack by WordPress.com
Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that supercharges your self-hosted WordPress site with the awesome cloud power of WordPress.com.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 11,697,563
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Jetpack
Recommended: 25 Reasons Why You Should Install Jetpack By WordPress.com Plugin
23. WooDojo
Enhance your WordPress website with the WooThemes features that you need. Delivering top quality features & backed by a team that’s done it before. Say hello to WooDojo. The plugin features Tabs Widget, Shortlinks, Custom Code, Login Branding, and Social Widgets.
Learn More :: WooDojo
WordPress Performance Plugins
The following plugins will improve the user experience of your WordPress blog by improving the server performance and page loading time.
24. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your site by increasing server performance, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.
Rating: 4.5
Downloads: 3,746,784
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: W3 Total Cache
25. WP Super Cache
Generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a HTML file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts. 99% of your visitors will be served static html files. Those users who don’t see the static files will still benefit because they will see different cached files that aren’t quite as efficient, but still better than uncached.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 6,070,747
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP Super Cache
26. AssetsMinify
Use Compass, SASS, LESS and CoffeeScript (NEW) to develop your themes and minify your stylesheets and JavaScript simply by installing AssetsMinify.
Rating: 4.9
Downloads: 7,089
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: AssetsMinify
27. WP Smush.it
Reduce image file sizes and improve performance using the Smush.it API within WordPress by following Yahoo’s best practices for improving web page performance.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 910,341
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP Smush.it
28. WP-DBManager
Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Also supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.
Rating: 4
Downloads: 1,106,109
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP-DBManager
29. WP-Optimize
Simple but effective plugin allows you to extensively clean up your WordPress database and optimize it without doing manual queries. It doesn’t require PhpMyAdmin to clean and optimize your database tables.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 1,198,575
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP-Optimize
Image Galleries & Thumbnails
The following plugins allow you to showcase your images as a photo gallery with add-on features like transitions, slideshows, etc.
30. NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery provides a powerful engine for uploading and managing galleries of images, with the ability to batch upload, import meta data, add/delete/rearrange/sort images, edit thumbnails, group galleries into albums, and more. It also provides two front-end display styles (slideshows and thumbnail galleries), both of which come with a wide array of options for controlling size, style, timing, transitions, controls, lightbox effects, and more.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 10,674,716
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: NextGEN Gallery
31. Lightbox Plus Colorbox
Lightbox Plus Colorbox for WordPress implements Colorbox as a lightbox image overlay tool, and permits users to view larger versions of images without having to leave the current page. It is able to add a lightbox to WordPress gallery images, display simple slideshows, videos, forms and external content in overlays.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 1,118,255
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Lightbox Plus Colorbox
32. Lightbox Gallery
Lightbox Gallery plugin changes the view of galleries to the lightbox.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 727,103
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Lightbox Gallery
33. WP jQuery Lightbox
A drop-in replacement for Lightbox 2 and similar plugins, shedding the bulk of Prototype and Scriptaculous. Improved for mobile devices.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 365,579
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: WP jQuery Lightbox
34. Regenerate Thumbnails
Allows you to regenerate your thumbnails after changing the thumbnail sizes.
Rating: 4.5
Downloads: 1,354,645
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Regenerate Thumbnails
35. Auto Post Thumbnail
Auto post thumbnail is a plugin to generate post thumbnail from first image in post or any custom post type. If the first image doesn’t work it will automatically search for the next one and so on until the post thumbnail is inserted. If the post thumbnail is already present, the plugin will do nothing.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 287,471
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Auto Post Thumbnail
Anti-spam
Want to fight spam? Try the following anti-spam plugins.
36. Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet Web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 22,857,351
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Akismet
Alternative: Antispam Bee
37. Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin
Adds a client side generated checkbox to your comment form asking users to confirm that they are not a spammer. It is a lot less trouble to click a box than it is to enter a captcha, and because the box is generated via client side javascript that bots cannot see, it should stop 99% of all automated spam bots.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 201,668
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin
38. SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam
Adds CAPTCHA anti-spam methods to WordPress forms for comments, registration, lost password, login, or all. In order to post comments or register, users will have to type in the code shown on the image. This prevents spam from automated bots and works with Akismet.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 2,016,011
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam
39. Captcha
It protects your website from spam by means of math logic, easily understood by human beings. You will not have to spend your precious time on annoying attempts to understand hard-to-read words, combinations of letters or pictures that make your eyes pop up. All you need is to do one of the three basic maths actions — add, subtract and multiply.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 2,008,855
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Captcha
Comments
The following plugins enhances the default commenting system of WordPress.
40. Disqus Comment System
Disqus, pronounced “discuss”, is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community.
Rating: 4
Downloads: 1,447,255
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Disqus Comment System
41. CommentLuv
Reward your readers by automatically placing a link to their last blog post at the end of their comment. Encourage a community and discover new posts.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 805,876
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: CommentLuv
42. Disable Comments
Allows administrators to globally disable comments on any post type (posts, pages, attachments, etc.) so that these settings cannot be overridden for individual posts.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 912,286
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Disable Comments
Backup
Backup your blog (especially if your Web Hosting company doesn’t do that automatically) by using the following plugins. You can select one depending upon your requirements.
43. BackWPup
Schedule complete automatic backups of your WordPress installation. The plugin can be used to save your complete installation including /wp-content/ and push them to an external Backup Service, like Dropbox, S3, FTP, etc.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 1,363,484
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: BackWPup
44. WordPress Backup To Dropbox
Keep your valuable WordPress website, its media and database backed up to Dropbox in minutes with this sleek, easy to use plugin. You can set where you want your backup stored within Dropbox and on your server as well as choose what files or directories, if any, you wish to exclude from the backup.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 845,833
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress Backup To Dropbox
45. WP-DB-Backup
Allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 2,047,547
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: WP-DB-Backup
Widgets
The following plugins allows you to enhance Sidebar Widgets so that you can make use of your sidebar space more efficiently.
46. PHP Code Widget
The normal Text widget allows you to insert arbitrary Text and/or HTML code. This allows that too, but also parses any PHP code in the text widget and executes it.
Rating: 4.5
Downloads: 410,407
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: PHP Code Widget
47. Q2W3 Fixed Widget (Sticky Widget)
Fixes positioning of the selected widgets, when the page is scrolled down.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 76,906
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Q2W3 Fixed Widget (Sticky Widget)
48. Meks Smart Author Widget
Allows you to display author/user info inside WordPress widget. “Auto detection” feature can optionally show author of current post on single post templates or on specific author archive.
Rating: 5
Downloads: 3,304
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Meks Smart Author Widget
49. Fancier Author Box
Connect with your audience on all levels and make sure people always read your author’s bio and engage you on social networks.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 110,577
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Fancier Author Box
50. Widget Logic
Widget Logic lets you control on which pages widgets appear using WordPress conditional tags.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 820,641
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Widget Logic
Related Posts
Retain your traffic and increase page views (and revenue too) by automatically showing related articles on each blog post.
51. WordPress Related Posts
Quickly increase your readers’ engagement with your posts by adding Related Posts in the footer of your content. Automatically added Related Posts can increase your internal traffic up to 10%. Just install and activate.
Rating: 4
Downloads: 1,191,747
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress Related Posts
Alternative: Contextual Related Posts
52. Outbrain
Outbrain automatically places your best content at the footer of your article to guide readers towards other posts they may be interseted in. You have the option of text or thumbnails and can also obtain reader feedback with the use of our rating system. Our reporting system allows you to see what articles are getting the highest click throughs and track your most popular posts.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 21,922
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: Outbrain
53. upPrev
Display cool, animated flyout or fade box with related content (just like New York Times). When a reader scrolls to the bottom of a single post, page or custom post type, a button animates in the page’s bottom right or left corner, allowing the reader to select the previous or random available post or posts.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 85,313
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: upPrev
54. nrelate Related Content
nrelate analyzes your website content and displays other related posts (supports thumbnails) from your website. This ultimately leads to higher page-views for your site, and a better user experience for your visitors.
Rating: 3.6
Downloads: 498,550
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: nrelate Related Content
55. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
Displays pages, posts, and custom post types related to the current entry, introducing your readers to other relevant content on your site.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 3,044,076
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
Popular Posts
WordPress doesn’t count the pageviews of your blog posts so you can use the following plugins to show off the most popular posts to your readers.
56. WordPress Popular Posts
WordPress Popular Posts is a highly customizable widget that displays the most popular posts on your blog.
Rating: 4
Downloads:
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress Popular Posts
57. Popular Widget
Display the most commented or most viewed posts in a tabbed widget, filter the post by date range or by category. It also includes a tags tab.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 70,978
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Popular Widget
58. Top 10
Top 10 will count the number of page views on your single posts on a daily as well as overall basis. You can then display the page view count on individual posts and pages as well as display a list of most popular posts based on pageviews. And of course it comes with a sidebar widget to display the popular posts.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 166,732
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Top 10
59. Most And Least Read Posts Widget
Provide two widgets, showing lists of the most and least read posts.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 30,806
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Most And Least Read Posts Widget
Social Icons
Show links to your social media profiles on your blog.
60. Simple Social Icons
Simple Social Icons is an easy to use, customizable way to display icons that link visitors to your various social profiles. With it, you can easily choose which profiles to link to, customize the color and size of your icons, as well as align them to the left, center, or right, all from the widget form.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 291,544
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Simple Social Icons
61. Social Stickers
A simple plugin that shows the various social networks you use in the form of “stickers” (see screenshots). It is also fully themable and you can make your own theme in a minute.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 77,763
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Social Stickers
Floating Social Share Buttons
Add a floating social bar to the sidebar as it improves social sharing.
62. Digg Digg by Buffer
Add a floating bar with share buttons to your blog. Display all popular social sharing buttons with count, such as Twitter, Buffer, Facebook Share, Facebook Like, Digg, LinkedIn, Google +1, Reddit, dZone, TweetMeme, Topsy, Yahoo Buzz, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Sphinn, Designbump, WebBlend, BlogEngage, Serpd, Pinterest, Pocket and Tumblr.
Rating: 3.5
Downloads: 872,428
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Digg Digg
Alternatives: Flare, Slick Social Share Buttons, Floating Social Bar, Sharebar, Scrolling Social Sharebar, Floating Social Buttons
Social Sharing Buttons
The following plugins enable advanced social sharing features (with stats).
63. Share Buttons by AddToAny
Help people share, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, Reddit, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and well over 100 more sharing and social bookmarking sites.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 3,198,668
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Share Buttons
Alternatives: Sociable, Share Buttons by AddThis, Shareaholic, Simple Share Buttons Adder, Really Simple Facebook Twitter Share Buttons
64. Share Button Mashshare
Shows the total share counts of Facebook and Twitter at a glance (inspired by Mashable.com). It puts some beautiful and clean designed Share Buttons on top and end of your posts, to get the best possible social share feedback from your user.
Rating: 4.9
Downloads: 31,351
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Share Button Mashshare
65. Pinterest Pin It Button For Images
Add a “Pin It” button over your images, so users can add it to Pinterest easily.
Rating: 3.2
Downloads: 81,515
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Pinterest Pin It Button For Images
66. Click To Tweet by CoSchedule
Allows you to easily create tweetable content for your readers. Use pullquotes and custom messages inside the body of your blog post to highlight your content for the reader and make it simple for them to share on Twitter.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 14,686
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Click To Tweet
67. OnePress Social Locker
Social Locker is a set of social buttons and a locker in one bottle. It allows you to lock a part of content on a web page until a user clicks one of the social buttons (Facebook Like, Tweet Button, Google +1) and help you to get more likes/tweets/+1s, traffic and customers.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 76,111
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: OnePress Social Locker
Web Analytics
If you don’t want to manually track traffic to your blog then the following plugins are for you.
68. Google Analytics for WordPress
Track your WordPress site easily and with lots of metadata: views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and page views.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 5,942,752
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Google Analytics for WordPress
69. Google Analyticator
Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 3,229,092
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Google Analyticator
70.Google Analytics Dashboard
Gives you the ability to view your Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard. You can also allow other users to see the same dashboard information when they are logged in or embed parts of the data into posts or as part of your theme.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 499,369
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Google Analytics Dashboard
71. Social Metrics
Social Metrics is a Social Media Analytics tool you can use to track your WordPress blog performance on popular social networking websites and services. You can access Social Metrics from WordPress Admin bar itself.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 56,193
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Social Metrics
72. WP Social Stats
WP Social Stats is a Social Analytics plugin that tracks the performance of your blog or website posts at Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Stumbleupon.
Rating: 4.3
Downloads: 7,932
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP Social Stats
RSS
Do more with your RSS Feeds.
73. FD Feedburner Plugin
Redirects the main feed, and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com. All existing feeds simply become Feedburner feeds seamlessly and transparently for all users. Just tell the plugin what your Feedburner feed URL is and you’re done.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 478,606
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: FD Feedburner Plugin
74. PuSHPress
Add PubSubHubbub support to your WordPress site, with a built in hub. It includes the hub features of PuSH, built right in. And it means that the updates will be sent directly from WordPress to your PuSH subscribers.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 89,516
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: PuSHPress
Alternative: PubSubHubbub
75. FeedStats
Simple statistic tool for RSS feeds.
Rating: 4
Downloads: 60,496
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: FeedStats
Forms
Use any of the following plugins to add a contact form to your WordPress blog.
76. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 19,295,934
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Contact Form 7
77. Ninja Forms
Allows you to easily and quickly design complex forms through a drag and drop interface and absolutely no code. But for you developers it has a ton of hooks and filters so you can do absolutely anything with this powerful form building framework.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 469,949
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Ninja Forms
78. Formidable Forms
With Formidable, it is easy to create forms within a simple drag-and-drop interface. You can construct custom forms or generate them from a template. Shortcodes can be used as well as spam catching services.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 514,906
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Formidable Forms
79. Fast Secure Contact Form
Easily create and add forms to WordPress. Fields are easy to add, remove, and re-order. The contact form will let the user send emails to a site’s admin, and also send a meeting request to talk over phone or video.
Rating: 4.5
Downloads: 4,890,100
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Fast Secure Contact Form
WordPress Security Plugins
Secure your WordPress blog by using any of the following plugins.
80. iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)
iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. iThemes Security works to fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. With one-click activation for most features, as well as advanced features for experienced users, iThemes Security can help protect any WordPress site.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 2,848,910
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: iThemes Security
81. Wordfence Security
Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security and performance plugin that makes your site up to 50 times faster and more secure.
Rating: 4.9
Downloads: 2,614,129
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Wordfence Security
WordPress Login & Authentication Plugins
WordPress allows unlimited login attempts and that invites brute force attacks. So it’s a good idea to secure your blog by using an authentication plugin apart from using a secure password.
82. Google Authenticator
Gives you two-factor authentication using the Google Authenticator app for Android/iPhone/Blackberry.
Rating:
Downloads:
Last Updated:
Learn More :: Google Authenticator
Alternatives: Duo Two-Factor Authentication, Authy Two Factor Authentication
83. OpenID
Allows users to login to their local WordPress account using an OpenID, as well as enabling commenters to leave authenticated comments with OpenID.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 173,941
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: OpenID
84. Clockwork SMS
Controls access to your WordPress administration panel by sending a code to your mobile phone when you try and login.
Rating: 5 (New)
Downloads: 644
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Clockwork SMS
85. Login LockDown
Records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 363,733
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Login LockDown
86. Login Security Solution
A simple way to lock down login security for multi-site and regular WordPress installations. Security against brute force attacks by tracking IP, name, password (requiring very strong passwords) and also features idle timeout and maintenance mode lockdown.
Rating: 4.7
Downloads: 116,275
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Login Security Solution
87. Rename WP-Login.php
Change wp-login.php to anything you want, and it can prevent a lot of brute force attacks. It simply intercepts page requests and doesn’t literally rename or change files in core, nor does it add rewrite rules. Deactivating this plugin brings your site back exactly to the state it was before.
Rating: 5
Downloads: 59,017
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Rename WP-Login.php
88. Limit Login Attempts
Limit the number of login attempts possible both through normal login as well as using auth cookies. Limit Login Attempts blocks an Internet address from making further attempts after a specified limit on retries is reached, making a brute-force attack difficult or impossible.
Rating: 4.8
Downloads: 626,123
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: Limit Login Attempts
Mobile
Make your WordPress blog mobile friendly.
89. WPtouch Mobile Plugin
WPtouch is a mobile plugin for WordPress that automatically enables a simple and elegant mobile theme for mobile visitors of your WordPress website. The theme also includes the ability for visitors to switch between the theme on your mobile WordPress website and your website’s regular theme.
Rating: 3.8
Downloads: 5,832,640
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WPtouch Mobile Plugin
Monetization
The following plugins allows you to manage advertising on your blog in an efficient way.
90. AdRotate
Add and manage the ads from the dashboard and show a random banner, or multiple, on your site. Easy management from the dashboard allows you to quickly oversee, add and edit banner code or renew/delete and add new ads. Preview banners when editing them and with GeoLocation you can tie adverts to certain areas of the world.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 814,372
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: AdRotate
91. Advertising Manager
Allows you to manage and rotate your Google AdSense and other ads on your WordPress blog. It automatically recognises many ad networks including Google AdSense and other popular networks. Target your ads to different authors, categories, tags, and pages and view statistics on your ad performance.
Rating: 3.6
Downloads: 336,566
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Advertising Manager
92. Ad Injection
Injects any kind of advert or other content (e.g. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, ClickBank, etc) into the existing content of your WordPress posts and pages. You can control the number of adverts based on the post length, and it can restrict who sees adverts by post age, visitor referrer and IP address.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 268,200
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: Ad Injection
93. Google Publisher Plugin
It’s the official WordPress plugin by Google that enables you to easily use Google’s products — including Webmaster Tools — with your WordPress site. You can place AdSense ads using a simple point-and-click UI. Google automatically determines potential placements for AdSense ads, suggests an initial ad layout, and gives you control over the placement of ads on your site.
Rating: 3.6
Downloads: 81,095
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Google Publisher Plugin
Alternative: Easy AdSense
E-commerce
Want to sell stuff on your blog? Then the following plugins can convert your WordPress blog into an E-commerce website.
94. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a powerful, extendable eCommerce plugin that helps you sell anything. Transform your WordPress website into a thoroughbred eCommerce store. Delivering enterprise-level quality and features, backed by a name you can trust.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 4,095,088
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WooCommerce
95. WP eCommerce
WP eCommerce is a free, powerful plugin that empowers you to sell anything online, quickly and easily. With hundreds of available hooks, developers can make WP eCommerce do anything you can imagine
Rating: 2.8
Downloads: 2,861,868
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WP eCommerce
Newsletters
Take your blog to the next level by starting a Newsletter.
96. MailPoet Newsletters
Create newsletters, post notifications and autoresponders. Drop your posts, images, social icons in your newsletter. Change fonts and colors on the fly. Manage all your subscribers. A new and simple newsletter solution for WordPress.
Rating: 4.9
Downloads: 2,246,130
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: MailPoet Newsletters
97. Newsletter Sign-Up
Adds various sign-up methods to your WordPress website, like sign-up checkboxes in your comment form and a sign-up form to show in posts, pages or widget areas. It works with almost all third-party email marketing services including MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, iContact, etc. With the right configuration settings, you can make this plugin work with any newsletter service around.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 191,756
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Newsletter Sign-Up
Build Email List
Email Marketing is more important than ever. Try the following plugins as it helps you build an email list.
98. WordPress PopUp (by WPMU)
Allows you to display a fancy popup to visitors, a *very* effective way of advertising a mailing list, special offer or running a plain old ad.
Rating: 4.6
Downloads: 191,546
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: WordPress PopUp
99. Dreamgrow Scroll Triggered Box
Dreamgrow Scroll Triggered Box will boost your conversion rates by displaying a pop-up box with customizable content. Newsletter sign-up, Facebook like button, social bookmarking or something else you want to draw attention to after people have engaged with your website.
Rating: 4.4
Downloads: 29,714
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Dreamgrow Scroll Triggered Box
100. Scroll Box by SumoMe
Each day, potential readers visit your website. They find a link to your blog somewhere, read one of your posts, and then disappear into some distant corner of the internet. With the Scroll Box plugin, you can convert these one-time visitors into lifelong readers and newsletter subscribers.
Rating: NEW
Downloads: 220
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: Scroll Box
101. What Would Seth Godin Do
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors. New visitors will appreciate some context and background information about your site. This is your chance to offer them a special welcome and invite them to become permanent subscribers. You can also specify a message for return visitors.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 174,393
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: What Would Seth Godin Do
102. SumoMe
SumoMe provides the tools you need to grow your blog by engaging your readers. The features of this plugin will make it easy for your readers share your articles and engage in your community. Highlighter makes it easy to tweet about your article by selecting popular parts of your writing (like Kindle and Medium); ImageSharer makes it stupid simple to share your images (with a link to your post) on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter; while the List Builder tool in this plugin will let you create a fancy lightbox popover to build email subscriptions (for MailChimp, GetResponse, Aweber, or others).
Rating: 4
Downloads:
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: SumoMe
103. WP Hello Bar
Hello Bars show the right message at the right time to your website visitors.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 9,902
Last Updated: 2012
Learn More :: WP Hello Bar
104. ManyContacts Bar
A free contact form sits on top of your website to grab visitors’ attention. They make it easy for you to offer a giveaway — such as an ebook, coupon code, a test, a course – without creating extra landing pages.
Rating: 3.7
Downloads: 3,539
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: ManyContacts Bar
105. WordPress Calls To Action
Create Calls to Action for your WordPress site. It gives site owners the ability to monitor and track conversion rates, run A/B or multivariate split tests on calls to action, customize your own CTA templates, and most importantly increase lead flow.
Rating: 4.1
Downloads: 69,362
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress Calls To Action
106. WordPress Landing Pages
Create landing pages for your WordPress site. Monitor and improve conversion rates, run A/B split tests, customize your own templates and more.
Rating: 3.9
Downloads: 222,811
Last Updated: 2014
Learn More :: WordPress Landing Pages
107. Comment Redirect
Redirect commenters who just made their first comment to a page of your choice. Allows you to ask them to subscribe, like you on Facebook, etc.
Rating: 4.2
Downloads: 38,087
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Comment Redirect
URL Management & Redirects
The following plugins allows you to manage redirects and outbound links on your blog.
108. Simple URLs
Simple URLs is a complete URL management system that allows you create, manage, and track outbound links from your site by using custom post types and 301 redirects.
Rating: 4.6
TextDownloads: 41,248
Last Updated: 2013
Learn More :: Simple URLs
109. Simple 301 Redirects
Provides an easy method of redirecting requests to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web. It’s especially handy when you migrate a site to WordPress and can’t preserve your URL structure. By setting up 301 redirects from your old pages to your new pages, any incom