Starting up with WordPress is simple however it could be frustrating as to which plugins to install for basic needs like Security, Caching, Optimisations, etc.
Here we have curated a list of recommended wordpress plugins to install:
All In One WP Security
It’s a security plugin, which protects your site from brute force attacks, malware, etc.
One of the best thing of this plugin is that it offers features in it’s free version that is typically only available in the paid version of other security plugins.
For example, it provides Two Factor Authentication and also use of CAPTCHAs on login and comment form, this helps in stopping brute force attack.
LiteSpeed Cache
This is one stop plugin for Caching, Optimisation, CDN, Image Compression, etc.
If you are using LiteSpeed Web Server then you can use almost all the features without spending any money.
The Caching feature is only available for either LiteSpeed Web Server or QUIC cloud user.
For someone who is on Nginx or Apache server, they would either have to switch to QUIC cloud service (DNS change would be required for CDN and page caching, charges may apply) or use other plugin just for caching.
If you are on Nginx or Apache, just enable page optimisation, image optimisation (free quota on QUIC cloud) features and for page caching use another plugin.
WP Super Cache
One of the best plugin to enable page caching, it’s very simple, you can just enable the caching and forget about it.
You can use this with LiteSpeed Cache plugin if you are not using it’s cache feature.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup
UpdraftPlus backs up your blog (database, plugins, contents) and uploads it in the location you want.
It supports almost all storage services, i.e. AWS S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
You can schedule the frequency for the backup and it will run accordingly.
FluentSMTP
FluentSMTP enables you to integrate SMTP or API based email sending products such as Mailgun, Amazon SES, Brevo, etc.
This is completely free and open source plugin.
Rank Math SEO
Use this plugin to enable advance SEO features on your WordPress blog. Both free and paid version of this plugin is better than it’s counterpart in terms of features.
It provides features such as sitemap generation, suggestions to make your post seo enabled, integration with google search console, set focus keyword for each post, etc.
Widget Options
Supercharge Widgets on WordPress with this plugin. Customise visibility of the widget based on current page, user login state, etc.
WPCode
This plugin is enables you to add code snippet in your wordpress without editing any internal files. You can also customise the conditions for the code executions.
This is very helpful in adding code to header (google analytics script) or footer, showing ads or newsletter subscription box in between the blog post itself.
WordPress Popular Posts
As name suggests, this plugin would show the popular posts in your blog based on views.
Cookie Notice
Being GDPR / CCPA compliant is very important. You can use this plugin to show disclosure about your use of cookies.
The free version provides very basic message type, you can upgrade it to premium version to show more options to your user.
Easy Table of Contents
Table of Content is a must have thing. It aids user in navigating your article and it also helps in SEO.
This plugin provides auto table of content to your posts and pages. This also comes with widget.
YARPP – Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Most of the themes comes with their own related post suggestion system, most of them won’t give you enough control. YARPP gives advance controls on various levels.
You can control the number of post to show, tweak algorithm, use as even widget, etc.