WordPress is the most impressive content management system that comes with hundreds and thousands of plugins that offers all sorts of customizations for different kinds of websites (be it an online-shop, content-based website, social communities, etc). With the use of the plugin (s), you can elevate the functionality, quality and accessibility of your website with ease.
Generally, website owners and web developers use those plugins that are popular across the web development market, but if you dig a little deeper, you will find that there are tons of “unknown plugins” that can quickly enhance the functionality of a site, and make your life easier.
So, in this blog post, we will share some of the “less-popular” yet “powerful” plugins that every developer should know.
Let us share the 10 less-popular but very useful WordPress plugins:
1. User Switching
User Switching is a super cool WordPress plugin that enables you to switch between multiple registered users, and offers you a simple way to switch back when you are finished with your work. In simple words, User Switching allows you to switch quickly between users in a secure way, without even entering the username or password over and over again.
To an addition, User Switching plugin also comes with a “Switch Off” icon in your admin panel that allows you to see your website as a logged out user, but retain the ability to quickly switch back in again (by clicking “Switch On” button).
It is a useful plugin, especially used for test environments where you frequently log out and in between multiple accounts, or for administrators who need to switch between different accounts.
2. Theme Check
If you are developing themes for WordPress websites, or submitting them to the Theme Directory, then you have to ensure that you follow the most recent theme guidelines. And, with the help of Theme-Check plugin, you can run your theme through a set of tests, and detects the areas where things may be breaking or missing.
Theme Check is an amazing WordPress plugin that cross-check your theme against the latest theme guidelines and identifies the issues (existing into the theme). In fact, you can easily test your theme with the help of this plugin. It also uses the same standard and practices as WordPress.org does for their theme submissions.
Overall, Theme Check is one of the significant plugins that every developer needs to consider while creating their WordPress themes.
3. W3 Total Cache
Another compelling WordPress plugin is developed to escalate the page load speed for your WordPress website that will boost up your visitor’s experience.
This plugin empowers you to increase the server performance by cutting down the download times. By reducing page load time, you can enhance the performance of your site and also intensify its ranking in search engines.
So what are you waiting for? Optimize the speed and load times of your WordPress website efficiently by using the W3 Total Cache plugin.
4. Usersnap
Usersnap is probably the first screenshot and bug tracking plugin that enables you to integrate a small feedback icon on your website that allow users to send feedback directly from the error page.
With this, you can easily get the browser screenshots or visual bug reports, along with other additional information that will directly be delivered to your dashboard.
It allows the users to take screenshots, highlight important words, and add sticky notes on your web page and all of them will be delivered to the web developer with their comments.
With the help of this plugin, you can create screenshots of the latest browser content. It helps you to have a soothing communication related to the issues with your clients.
5. BackWPup
BackWPup is a powerful, reliable and useful plugin that allows WordPress owners and developers to back up their existing WordPress website easily and efficiently.
With this, you can compress all the database and media files of your site and store the backup in the form of .zip, .tar or in other formats.
In simple terms, BackWPup plugin enables you to store your backup data on the cloud such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Rackspace, and more.
6. All In One WP Security & Firewall
All In One WP Security & Firewall is a user-friendly security plugin for WordPress. It offers latest WordPress security techniques that will help you strengthen the security of your site. This plugin adds some advanced and powerful security features to WP site with an objective to minimize the risk of vulnerabilities or other security threats.
To an addition, All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin also utilizes an exceptional security points grading system to determine how adequately you are protecting your website’s security.
7. Query Monitor
Query Monitor is a powerful debugging plugin for WordPress websites that displays debugging and other necessary performance information on database queries, HTTP requests, redirects and more. It shows all database queries for the current page and enables you to discover slow queries instantly.
Plus, it comes with some advanced debugging features such as automatic AJAX debugging, REST API debugging and more.
8. Debug Bar
The Debug Bar is an awe-inspiring WordPress plugin, designed for web developers. It adds an additional layer of the menu to the WP backend display query, memory usage, and cache.
To an addition, you can also enable PHP warnings and alerts when WP_DEBUG is enabled. In fact, the mySQL queries are tracked and showcased when SAVEQUERIES is enabled.
9. Simple History
It is a great WordPress plugin that shows recent changes made within WordPress directly on your dashboard. With the help of this plugin, you can quickly overview the recent changes made by WordPress when you are designing and developing a website.
Additionally, Simple History also displays information on failed user logins, new posts and pages or widgets information.
10. WordFence
WordFence is an awesome security plugin that offers advanced WordPress security by protecting your site from hackers and other security threats.
Once installed, it begins checking your site (regarding malware infections). In fact, the plugin performs a server-side scan of your source code, and also scans the installed themes and plugins.
Plus, the WordFence plugin also tracks your website’s traffic in real time and protects your site from various security vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
All the “not so popular” plugins mentioned above in this blog post are real gems that can help can add advanced features into your user-friendly and highly interactive website.