What are your must-have WordPress plugins other than Elementor and Yoast?

Review
1

I’ve recently started learning WordPress, and I know Elementor and Yoast SEO are commonly recommended. What other plugins do you think are essential for a website?

2

Elementor isn’t necessarily a must-have plugin.

3

Vanya said:
Elementor isn’t necessarily a must-have plugin.

Completely agree. I switched to Kadence and couldn’t be happier. The new template editor and features like dynamic fields and hooked elements make it easy to build everything without relying on too many extra plugins.

4

@Wynne
Kadence and Getwid work great together. Once you understand blocks, designing gets much easier. Just think of it as Containers, Columns, and Content.

5

@Wynne
Totally agree! I’ve used Elementor, GeneratePress, and Kadence. Kadence has the best balance of user-friendliness and speed, and the free version works well for most people.

6

Must-have plugins: security, backups, SEO, and caching.

If you were to replace Wordfence for things like 2FA or brute force protection, what would you use? Also, I feel Pods.io is better for custom content types compared to ACF. Anyone else?

7

@Jai
ACF has better support for integration with other plugins, themes, and frameworks.

8

For me, ACF is all I need.

9

There are no universal ‘must-have’ plugins. What’s great for one site might be bloat for another. Keep things minimal and get rid of plugins you don’t need.

10

Elementor and Yoast are not must-haves. The plugins I always install are Shortcodes Ultimate and Foo Gallery.

11

Shay said:
Elementor and Yoast are not must-haves. The plugins I always install are Shortcodes Ultimate and Foo Gallery.

Yoast is bloated compared to better options like SEO Framework.

12

@Shai
I learned that the hard way. SEO Framework is definitely better.

13

@Shai
I’d recommend RankMath over Yoast. The free version has way more features.

14

Shay said:
Elementor and Yoast are not must-haves. The plugins I always install are Shortcodes Ultimate and Foo Gallery.

I couldn’t find Foo Gallery. Can you share a link?

15

Nico said:

Shay said:
Elementor and Yoast are not must-haves. The plugins I always install are Shortcodes Ultimate and Foo Gallery.

I couldn’t find Foo Gallery. Can you share a link?

Sure! Here’s the link: Best WordPress Gallery Plugin | WordPress Photography Plugin | FooPlugins

16

Wordfence is my go-to for security.

17

Some great plugins: GDPR Cookie Consent, Advanced Custom Fields, Astra, SVG Support, and Contact Form 7.

18

I’d say Elementor is a must-not. It bloats your site with unnecessary code. If you’re not a developer, try to keep it simple.

19

Bliss said:
I’d say Elementor is a must-not. It bloats your site with unnecessary code. If you’re not a developer, try to keep it simple.

I don’t want bloat, and I’m not a developer. Any page builder alternatives?

20

@Zan
Go for a Gutenberg-compatible theme that suits your content. Official WP themes are great for this. If you must use Elementor and know how to use it properly, go ahead, but I wouldn’t recommend it.