7 basic but must have plugins for your WordPress website

One of the most popular things about WordPress is the ability to install plugins. But with so many plugins available, it’s hard to know what to choose.

Here are some of my favourite basic WordPress plugins, that I recommend installing on your website.

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1. Akismet and FV Antispam

I talked about fighting spam with these two plugins before but I thought it was worth another mention.

These two plugins work together perfectly – Akismet and FV Antispam.

Akismet is the most popular spam plugin out there, but unfortunately sometimes it marks real comments as spam.

FV Antispam will automatically trash spambot comments, leaving Akismet to deal with human spam. Using both means you no longer have to scroll through spam searching for genuine comments!

2. Comment Reply Notification

Comment Reply Notification notifies the comment author when they have received a reply from the blog author or another reader of the blog. You can choose the settings and customise the email notification they receive. This is a great alternative to “click here to receive follow up comments” because not everyone wants to receive a notification every time a comment is left, just when their comment has been replied to.

As the Comment Reply Notification plugin hasn’t been updated in a very long time, I no longer recommend it.

2. Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security)

Solid Security is probably the number one must have, giving you numerous ways to secure your site and scan for vulnerabilities.

It may seem daunting but every option is explained and there’s a lot of helpful information within the plugin. I wrote about it in more detail in this post about security tips for WordPress users which I recommend reading.

3. Revision Control

Revision Control is a must if you work with a lot of draft posts. Every time you edit and save a post, it saves it as a copy so if you save your post 10 times before publishing it will have stored 10 copies taking up space.

This plugin allows you to set a limit, choose an older version and automatically over-writes old versions when it hits the max number you’ve set.

Alternative: How to limit post revisions without a plugin

4. WordPress Backup to Dropbox

Backup to Dropbox allows you to choose set times to automatically backup your site. The benefit of your backup files being uploaded to Dropbox is that you can access them at anytime from anywhere. See this post for details on how to manually backup your blog.

Alternative: How to backup your website using Updraft Plus

5. Advanced Custom Fields

A must-have plugin for every website that is well worth paying for. ACF allows you to take your WordPress site to a whole other level, it’s super powerful.

With ACF you can easily create custom fields for your content, including text, images, files, links, checkboxes, radio buttons, date picker, repeater fields, flexible content, and galleries. It also allows you to create custom post types, like a portfolio for example. And allows you to create your own custom blocks for the new WordPress editor!

6. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is another premium plugin worth paying for. It allows you to build ‘drag and drop’ contact forms with a number of different options. My favourite feature is conditional logic, where you can show or hide fields based on user selection. It’s a game changer!

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Gravity Forms

WordPress

Another tool I’ve used for years! Quickly design and build WordPress forms to capture leads, collect payments and more. Has a conditional logic feature, which is great for collecting relevant data.

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7. ThirstyAffiliates

ThirstyAffiliates simplifies the process of managing and adding affiliate links to your website. It makes it super easy to organise, track and insert links into your content. And it saves you a whole lot of time if you ever need to update an affiliate link.

Conclusion

There you have it, my favourite WordPress plugins that every website should install. Next, check out my recommendations for 35 essentials steps after installing WordPress.