WordPress Plugins

Owned by
Clint Tuttle
Last updated: Apr 15, 2024 by
Helen Zhang
10 min read


  • WooCommerce - plug to easily build E-commerce sites.  Includes Inventory Mgmt as well.  Past example: http://shop.gpa-centex.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
  • WP Business Intelligence Lite: This is a really awesome plugin for those having to make charts or graphs for a WordPress site. It’s really great for those using the WordPress database, so if you are entering and storing all of the data for your project inside the WordPress database, this is definitely one of the easier and intuitive plug-ins to use without sacrificing functionality.  All you do is query the WordPress database the same way you would normally and it practically does the rest for you. There is also a great FAQs section on the creator’s web page in case you need more help: http://www.wpbusinessintelligence.com/support/wp-business-intelligence-faq/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
  • SiteOrigin - page-builder widgets bundle

  • Plug-In Tip: If you are looking to edit the PHP in your Wordpress site, DO NOT edit directly on the Customize >> Editor option. You’ll get warnings when you try. Sometimes these changes are necessary, but instead of putting them in functions.php (where they will be deleted when your site is updated), you should create your own plugin. It’s easy (<10 mins). Info on why not to use functions.php and how to create your own plugin are here: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/why-you-shouldnt-use-functions-php/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

  • S2Member Framework: A plugin for professional WordPress membership management, integrating seamlessly with WordPress User Roles & Capabilities. If your project involves creating any kind of membership site, this is a great plugin. This plugin allows content restriction based on member roles; you can protect pages/posts and even specific content on pages/posts. Note: If your client requires more than four membership levels, import/export tools, and the ability to have one-step registration checkout, consider purchasing s2Member Pro which integrates with PayPal Pro, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and ClickBank. The pro version also offers unlimited membership levels. For a lifetime license for $89.00, the pro version includes everything a client will need to create a robust and beefy membership site.

  • Appointments: A powerful, flexible appointment booking plugin that allows you to accept, set, and manage bookings on your website. This plugin is ideal for businesses and individuals who schedule times with clients; this can include consultants, web designers, spa, hair salons, photographers, etc.
  • The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe: This plugin makes managing events from your website extremely easy and efficient. If you need to display an event calendar anywhere on your site, this is the go-to plugin.

  • Updraft Plus – WordPress plugin to backup and restore site; https://updraftplus.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

    • Backs up to multiple cloud storage options (DropBox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace, FTP, email, OpenStack Swift, and more.)
    • Restores as well as backs up
    • Allows you to set up automatic back-up schedules
    • Pricing: Free. Premium available ($70-245) for upgraded features, support, and storage
    • Compatible with all versions of WordPress from 3.2 onwards
  • For WordPress websites, this plugin can use any XML or CSV file, import images, and can easily import data to plugin and theme fields or anywhere else you need it. WP All Import is efficient for large imports – it works by splitting large import files into smaller chunks – making it possible to import files with hundreds of megabytes of data and hundreds of thousands of records, even on shared hosting.
  • WP Broken Link Status Checker Plugin: Wordpress plugin that scans all the links and images on your website and checks for links that are broken and return their HTTP status.
  • Drupal 7 - Click here for details on the technology stack, how to install Drupal, and how to add a field
  • TC Team Members - helps display staff pictures and biographies on the website. It allows for the display to have a picture with the person's name. To view the description, you click on the picture and a pop-out box appears. It was helpful to reduce clutter on the website. 

  • Elementor - 

    • really easy drag & drop builder for all pages 

    • no coding required 

    • has multiple customizable widgets to create any content you need: buttons, headlines, etc. 

    • easy to customize typography and design 

    • the paid version has even more functionality 

  • Add From Server Adding images to your WordPress media library can be time-consuming and tedious work. Using this plugin, you can add images directly from your site’s directory. All you need to do is upload a zip folder using FTP, then add them to the media library through the plugin.  

  • Google Search This plugin allows you to create a custom google search function for your site. You can also customize what results you want to display to your users.  
  • Custom Image Sizes This plugin allows you to customize the sizes of the images you upload to the media library. Some theme builders don’t allow you to customize image sizes, so this plugin is pretty helpful for displaying images on your WordPress site.  
  • WP Staging – DB & File Duplicator & Migration This duplicator plugin allows you to create an exact copy of your entire website for staging or development purposes in seconds. For more information: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-staging/
  • Upstream: Upstream is a great plugin to achieve file management and progress indication. While the free version already provides many functions such as create transactions, tasks, milestones and make the transaction and file only visible to specific clients. The paid version allows you to copy a project and show all the tasks and milestones in a progress bar and in the calendar. Also, you can customize the name of the fields. By the way, their customer support is super helpful that help us fix many bugs. 
  • Loco Translate: Loco Translate is a plugin that can both translate and edit the preset field’s titles. By using this plugin, WordPress users can translate the source text in other languages or other words. 
  • Google Drive Embedder: Google Drive embedded is a plugin that connects WordPress with your Google Drive account. It allows the users to upload the files in the Google Drive into WordPress directly by embedding view or download link into the text box section.
  • Google Apps Login: Google Apps Login is a plugin that enables Wordpress users to log in to the website with Google Account. It is also the prerequisite of other Google App plugin. Therefore, if the developers want to embed other Google appslike Google Drive, they need to first install this plugin.
  • Members: Member is a WordPress plugin that helps with the role of permission management. It connects with WordPress and can grant or deny the permissions of different user roles in both the website and installed plugins.
  • Advanced Ads: an easy-to-use plugin for ads function. The free version supports Image Ads, Ad Groups, Rich Content Ad, and AdSense Ads. If the admins want to display more ads categories, more ad categories are supported by purchasing add-ons. 
  • Everest Form: drag-and-drop form builder to easily create simple to complex forms for any purpose. We used it for the Contact Us form to gather user feedback and questions. It will send notification emails to admins when it receives forms.
  • WpDiscuz: Wordpress post comments and discussion plugin, which allows your visitors to discuss, vote for comments and share. The advantage of it is that it allows all the reviews and ratings to be in the form of the Wordpress comments, so it is very easy to view and manage.
  • WP All Import: a powerful tool for importing XML and CSV files to Wordpress. It can create Posts and Pages with content from any XML or CSV file. It is also able to import pictures by purchasing WP All Import Pro.

  • Amelia: a Wordpress plugin for managing calendars. We use the plugin to allow users to schedule meetings with the team. Amelia can sync with Google Calendar, so our team can seamlessly update their users with their “busy” time slots. That way, the team can go about scheduling their own calendars through Google without ever worrying about interacting with Wordpress to update users on the fly. More information can be found on a subpage.

    https://wpamelia.com/

  • WP Forms: a drag and drop WordPress form builder plugin. We use the plugin to build an interactive form for users, where they can enter design specifications for certain renovation jobs. https://wpforms.com/

  • MembershipWorks: Our client wanted a WordPress plugin that could store membership information and process payments within their website. We found that MembershipWorks handles both of these features intuitively, and has dedicated customer support to troubleshoot installation and maintenance issues. This software also can handle event management, donations, shopping carts, forms, and blocking off member-only content on a website among other features. MembershipWorks can also be used as a plugin for Squarespace, Weebly, and HTML5 websites.

  • WP Shopify: A powerful and free plugin that fixes the woes of integrating shopify and wordpress. This plugin syncs to your shopify account and automatically creates and updates both the store itself and a unique details page for the specific item. Very well documented, but it is critical to follow setup instructions exactly. Adding and updating items is all done on the shopify page, and syncing to wordpress only requires a single button press. Also manages shopping cart on WordPress site. https://wpshop.io/

  • WP Mail SMTP: Allows for SMTP mail use on WordPress contact forms. SMTP is the preferred email protocol that WordPress does not support out of the box. Using this plugin (and a required 3rd party emailer that can be obtained for free) helps ensure that forms on your website correctly get emailed to the system administrator/assigned email account. This plugin requires that you be able to edit DNS registries Follow these instructions for setup: https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-sendinblue-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/

  • Hotel Booking Suite: Allows for hotel and other types of rental bookings within WordPress. Includes functionality to sync calendar with other platforms such as AirBNB to prevent double bookings. Website: https://motopress.com/products/hotel-booking/ Documentation: https://motopress.com/files/motopress-hotel-booking-plugin-documentation.pdf

  • Ninja Forms: 
    • Easy form builder that comes with prebuilt but customizable form templates 
    • Form submissions can be stored directly on WP and can also be sent to owner’s email inbox 
    • Has a free version and can upgrade to premium version 
    • Paid version includes more form templates, more export and integration options 
  • Aurora Heatmap: Aurora Heatmap is a free WordPress plugin (premium version available) that allows website admins to visualize where users are spending the most amount of time on the website and what they are attracted to. There is no coding necessary, you just install the plugin, activate it, and data will instantly begin to be captured.
  • Dokan Pro:
    • Why Dokan Pro: Offers robust multi-vendor marketplace features, like vendor management, commission setting, and individual vendor stores.
    • Installation and Activation: Purchase, download, and activate Dokan Pro from the WordPress dashboard.
    • Setting Up: Configure general settings, commission rates, withdrawal options, and vendor capabilities.
    • Dokan Pro Documentation: Offers detailed guides, FAQs, and video tutorials for setting up and configuring a Multivendor Marketplace using Dokan Multivendor on WordPress. https://dokan.co/wordpress/dokan-documentation/
  • Stripe Connect:
    • Why Stripe Connect: It's a comprehensive payment solution ideal for handling complex payment flows in a multi-vendor environment.
    • Integration with WooCommerce: Install the Stripe for WooCommerce plugin. In WooCommerce settings under the 'Payments' tab, configure Stripe Connect, ensuring it aligns with Dokan Pro's settings for seamless operation.
    • Stripe Connect Documentation: Detailed guide on using Stripe Connect for routing payments in business models like marketplaces. https://dokan.co/docs/wordpress/modules/how-to-install-and-configure-dokan-stripe-connect/
  • Email Address Encoder:

    • Email Address Encoder is a free WordPress plugin that searches your whole website for unprotected public emails and automatically encodes them for you. This prevents bots from scouring your website for emails to harvest and send spam emails to. The front end experience stays the same. When a user clicks on an email on the site, the email will either be copied to clipboard or an email window will open up with the “To:” field automatically populated with the email address.

    • There is no coding involved with this plugin. You simply install and activate the plugin. The plugin also comes with a free page scanner software (that can also be found here: https://encoder.till.im/scanner?utm_source=wp-plugin&utm_medium=readme). This software will scan a page and tell you if an unprotected email was found as well as show you the code that a bot sees while scouring the website. Lastly, you can enable automatic notifications if the software ever finds unprotected emails on your website.
  • WP Accessibility Tools & Missing Alt Text Finder
    • WP Accessibility Tools & Missing Alt Text Finder is a free WordPress plugin that has a lot of features for anyone trying to improve a website's compliance with ADA section 508.

    • Missing Alternative Text Finder: You can easily add any alternative text to all of the pictures on your website.

    • Contrast Ratio Checker: The contrast ratio checker allows you to make sure everything hits the minimum contrast ratio requirements for ADA Accessibility.

    • Accessibility Audit: You can activate the auditing function and run multiple accessibility tests on your website and even get suggestions on how to fix them. The accessibility tests include checking for heading tags, meaningful link text, and alternative text.

    • WCAG 2.1 Compliance Checklist: There is an interactive WCAG 2.1 Section 508 checklist that helps you better understand your website's accessibility issues.

  • Website Speed Reporting Tools
    • Uptrends Speed Reporting Software -https://www.uptrends.com/tools/website-speed-test
    • Gmetrix Speed Reporting Software -https://gtmetrix.com/
    • Google PageSpeed Insights -https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

    • Each of these speed reporting tools have the same feature but give different results so it is smart to use more than one reporting tool when testing your website’s speed. For all of these, you simply paste your website’s page URL and the software will report things like average page load speed and what is slowing your website down. All of them also give you ways to improve your site’s speed based on your site’s speed score.

  • Yoast
    • Installing Yoast SEO helps optimize the indexing of web pages on the site for search engines and robots that “crawl” the web. This SEO also optimizes robots.txt and generates the sitemap for the website, both critical components for web crawlers. 
    • With Yoast SEO you can get more visitors from Google and Bing, attract more visitors from social media, increase your readers’ engagement 
    • Yoast SEO is primarily used on WordPress 
    • You can choose between Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast SEO free 
    • Premium is much more developed; however, if your client is on a budget and is okay with basic functionality, the free option is better than no SEO management tool 
    • View the link below to look at added functionality in Yoast SEO Premium (more keyword optimization, internal linking suggestions, content insights, redirect manager, 1-year free access to 24/7 support, ad-free) 
    • Link to download: https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/  
  • FileBird Document Library (Lite)/FileBird Lite: FileBird Lite is a free WordPress plugin (premium version available) that allows you to create and publish a document gallery. It comes with 2 layout styles and allows you to use multiple document categories. In order to utilize the plugin, you must download and activate both FileBird Document Library (Lite) and FileBird Lite. 
      1. Install and activate both plugins 
      2. Go into the “media” tab in wordpress and create a new folder and add the files you want in the document library to that folder 
      3. Go into the page you want to add the document library to and add the block called “FileBird Document Library) 
      4. Press the three vertical dots and go into “Show more settings” 
      5. You will see the document library settings. From there, select the folder with the files you want in your document library. 
      6. You can change the layout and sorting of the library as well
  • Quick and Easy FAQs  
    • https://wordpress.org/plugins/quick-and-easy-faqs/ 
    • This plugin is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to easily create an FAQ page. You can customize the style of the questions (list, accordion, toggle). The FAQs can be grouped, filtered, and sorted. It can be used with Gutenberg Blocks or shortcode. 
    • Steps: 
      1. Install and activate plugin 
      2. Go into “FAQs” tab on wordpress dashboard  
      3. Add your questions 
      4. You can also create groups for your FAQs by clicking on “Groups” in the FAQs tab 
      5. Use shortcode in documentation to change the format style of the questions 




 


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