Why Choose Carefully?
You can find a lot of recommendations for WordPress or WooCommerce plugins on the web, but not all of them are really useful and necessary. I’ve created a list of plugins that I believe every Wordpress/WooCommerce site should have.
This list is the result of years of experience and testing various plugins. It includes only those that work reliably on any hosting environment and with any theme or builder. You can confidently use these in 2024.
While I’m not a fan of installing plugins for every feature (and often prefer snippets), some plugins are ready-to-use solutions that save time and effort. Below are only those plugins that are time-tested and easy to configure on any setup, theme, builder, etc. I’ve categorized the plugins for convenience.
Best SEO plugins for WordPress/WooCommerce
All in One SEO, Rank Math SEO, Yoast SEO — basic SEO plugins with many features, including schema markup. All these plugins perform similar tasks and the choice between them depends on personal preference. There is no need to buy the premium version as the free ones cover all the basics.
Best Plugins for Wordpress Optimization
Perfmatters is a unique optimization plugin with unparalleled functionality. Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster plugin has similar features, but its interface is more complex and it lacks some of the useful features that Perfmatters offers.
WebP Express (Imagify, EWWW Image Optimizer, Smush Image Optimization, ShortPixel Image Optimizer, and others) is for image optimization. I often use EWWW Image Optimizer or WebP Express. All of these plugins do a great job and significantly reduce the size of images without losing quality.
WP Rocket (or any caching plugin such as FlyingPress, LiteSpeed Cache, etc) – if you use Perfmatters for JS and CSS optimization, the caching plugin choice is less critical. WP Rocket is less likely to cause conflicts on cart and system pages.
Best Newsletter/Marketing Plugins
Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce – reminds shoppers about unfinished purchases, boosting conversion rates. It also helps in tracking user activity and detecting bots or hackers.
Tidio Chat (ChatBot, Help Scout, etc.) – a live chat for seamless customer communication.
Mailchimp for WooCommerce (Klaviyo, Omnisend, Brevo, MailPoet, HubSpot, etc.) – feature-rich mailing list services. All of them provide similar functionality, the cost of paid subscriptions is approximately the same.
Wishlist for WooCommerce – allows users to save items to a wish list, helping you understand their preferences.
Back In Stock Notifier for WooCommerce – sends emails when out-of-stock items are available again. A great way not to lose potential customers.
Best Plugins for Contact Forms
Contact Form 7 (WPForms, Gravity Forms, etc) – I prefer Contact Form 7 as I have been using it for over 6 years. The only disadvantage is loading scripts on all pages, but this can be easily fixed by disabling them on unused pages with Perfmatters.
Best Basic Plugins for WordPress/WooCommerce
Aelia Currency Switcher for WooCommerce – A solid currency switching solution with excellent documentation and support.
Post SMTP – solves email delivery problems by using SMTP, ensuring emails don’t end up in spam. Includes logging of sent emails.
Code Snippets – an excellent plugin to manage custom code, making it easy to add analytics scripts, pixels, styles, etc., without editing theme files.
Best Security, Spam Protection and Backup Plugins
Wordfence Security – one of the most popular security plugins. Just remember to disable “live traffic” to boost performance.
CleanTalk – the best spam protection solution that doesn’t affect site speed.
UpdraftPlus – a solid backup solution. However, if your hosting offers daily backups, it’s better to use that.
Plugins That Slow Down Your Site and Their Alternatives
Jetpack – replace with Google Analytics for stats and Wordfence + CleanTalk for security.
Akismet (AntiSpam Bee) – it often lets spam through, use CleanTalk instead.
Broken Link Checker – use Google Search Console instead.
iThemes Security – replace with Wordfence as it slows down the site.
Autoptimize – Outdated optimization plugin.
Revolution Slider – Very popular slider plugin, but often causes site slowdowns due to lots of JavaScript and CSS. You can use lighter alternatives such as Smart Slider 3 or MetaSlider instead.
WordPress Popular Posts – A plugin to display popular posts on the site, which often causes additional load on the database due to frequent data updates. Use cached widgets or static blocks instead.
Disable Comments – can be managed via snippets or Perfmatters.
NextGEN Gallery – a heavy gallery plugin; use FooGallery or Modula if you need a lighter option.
Google Analytics for WordPress (GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress, Google for WooCommerce, Facebook for WooCommerce and others) – insert codes via Code Snippets.
Conclusion
Plugins are powerful tools that can greatly improve your WordPress and WooCommerce site. However, each installed plugin increases server load and can affect page speed. It’s important to use only those plugins that are truly necessary and regularly audit your site to remove unused ones.
Good site optimization balances functionality and performance. Minimize the number of plugins and rely on code snippets where possible. Best of luck!
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