WordPress plugins enhance the functionality and performance of your website. From improved site security to content optimization tools, the best plugins save you time and improve your site.
In this post, I’ve rounded up some of the most trusted and powerful free WordPress plugins. Each one has been selected for its features, reliability, and ability to solve real problems for WordPress builders. Let’s dive in!
1. Twentig
Why we like it: It takes the guesswork out of customizing block themes.
If building a WordPress website from scratch seems overwhelming, Twentig has you covered. This plugin provides starter sites with enhanced default blocks and pre-built block patterns! Start with a default theme, choose the template you want, then customize it to fit your brand. The design is responsive, so it looks good on any device, and there’s no coding required.
The templates in Twentig are truly full-site. They even set up the pages and navigation for you! For a full walkthrough of the plugin, check out this 5-minute video from Jamie WP.
2. Duplicator
Why we like it: Simplifies site backups, migration, and cloning.
Duplicator is a comprehensive backup and migration plugin for WordPress. Its features include scheduled backups, one-click site restorations, and simple, drag-and-drop migrations. Not only does Duplicator simplify complex tasks such as database exports, FTP file transfers, and configuration updates, it also supports site cloning for testing or staging.
Duplicator can launch on an empty site without WordPress and supports multisite network backups.
3. Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE)
Why we like it: Streamlines site management by adding small enhancements to WordPress.
Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) streamlines WordPress site management by improving admin workflows and replacing multiple plugins. Its extensive list of settings enables you to organize the admin interface, customize menus, enable SVG upload, customize listing pages, duplicate posts, hide unnecessary elements, and much more—all with a simple toggle.
With ASE, you can even add tracking codes into your website’s header or footer. It’s about as multipurpose as you can get! For a full exploration of the plugin, check out this video walkthrough from Jakson.
4. Yoast Duplicate Post
Why we like it: Allows you to update posts without disturbing the original.
For us writers and marketers, the Rewrite and Republish feature in Yoast Duplicate Post is an absolute necessity! It allows you to create a duplicate draft of a post and edit it without affecting the original post. When you’re done editing, the original post updates with the changes, and the draft is deleted.
This removes the need to copy/paste post content or redirect your old post to the new one when rewriting old content. You can even schedule your changes to republish at a later date and time.
5. Simple Page Ordering
Why we like it: Reorganize your site’s pages and posts quickly and easily.
Simple Page Ordering allows users to easily organize and reorder pages, posts, and custom post types within the WordPress admin panel. This plugin’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to manage the display order of your content in the admin area—even for complex or hierarchical structures.
Having the ability to reorder posts and page using drag and drop is particularly helpful for large content sites!
6. Bulk Page Generator
Why we like it: Enables you to create SEO-optimized pages in bulk from a spreadsheet.
Bulk Page Generator enables you to create hundreds or thousands of SEO-optimized pages instantly. You create a page template, upload a spreadsheet with your content and insert dynamic placeholders for where you want your content to go. This makes it easy to produce customized landing pages for every city, service, or product you offer to boost local conversions and organic traffic.
If you’re wanting to experiment with programmatic SEO, this is the plugin for you. You can test drive Bulk Page Generator with their live, interactive demo.
7. Wordfence
Why we like it: Sleep well knowing your site is being kept secure on multiple fronts.
Wordfence is an all-in-one security plugin for WordPress, providing a firewall, a malware scanner, and login security. This plugin will alert you to vulnerabilities on your site and is updated regularly, so you’re protected against new threats. You can even block specific IP addresses, users, or entire countries from accessing your site.
Additionally, you can manage the security of multiple sites in one place with Wordfence Central, Wordfence’s free site management platform.
8. Gravity Forms Widget for Elementor
Why we like it: Brings the functionality of Gravity Forms to Elementor users.
Elementor is one of the most popular page builders for WordPress, and Gravity Forms is a trusted choice for creating powerful, flexible forms. But there’s a catch—they don’t natively integrate. Enter: Gravity Forms Widget for Elementor.
This powerful plugin enables you to configure your Gravity Forms forms directly inside Elementor’s visual editor. No shortcodes required! Embed forms, configure settings, adjust themes, and modify styles without leaving the Elementor interface.
9. Yoast SEO
Why we like it: Helps you apply SEO best practices to improve search engine rankings.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) sometimes feels like a moving target. But the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin can steer you in the right direction. The free version includes a generous set of features like providing internal linking suggestions, SEO analysis, editable meta data, schema markup, readability scores, and much more.
10. Code Snippets
Why we like it: Makes it easy to add custom code to your site.
Code Snippets enables you to add custom functionality to your site using code without changing your theme’s functions.php file. You can add PHP, JS or CSS snippets. Snippets are stored in the WordPress database, so you won’t lose them if you switch themes or upgrade WordPress. This promotes consistency and uniformity across projects and saves time!
For multisite networks, you can choose how you want to run Snippets—across the entire network or just on the main site, and then selectively enable them on individual subsites.
11. LiteSpeed Cache
Why we like it: Improves your site’s load time and speed.
The LiteSpeed Cache WordPress plugin caches site content and resources to speed up your site and reduce load times. A quicker site improves the user experience, reduces bounce rate, increases engagement and helps your SEO. With additional features like image compression and browser caching LiteSpeed Cache ensures your site is well-optimized and performant.
While the Litespeed Cache WordPress plugin is free and open source, a Litespeed server is required for the cache features, which may require a fee.
Save time with these free plugins
Whether you’re building a simple blog for a client or managing a complex WordPress multisite, the right plugins can dramatically improve your workflow, site performance, and security—without adding to your budget.
Start exploring these plugins today to see which ones fit your workflow best, and don’t be afraid to experiment! The WordPress ecosystem is rich with solutions thast can save you time.
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