One of the most attractive benefits of using WordPress is the vast ecosystem of plugins you can use to extend the functionality of your WordPress sites.
For the uninitiated, plugins are pieces of modular code that can help you equip your site(s) with everything from maps and charts to SEO solutions and eCommerce tools. Currently, there are nearly 55,000 free WordPress plugins available in the WordPress Plugin Repository. While the vast majority of those plugins are great for adding new features and functions to your site, some of them may require more coding or customization than you’re prepared to undertake.
If that’s the case, there’s also a wide variety of premium, “paid” plugins out there, which do require a fee to use, but which can be extremely helpful for WordPress users who are looking for a turnkey, out-of-the-box solution. For an idea of what some of the more popular paid plugins are, here’s a look at a few of the most widely used among our customers (note: many of these plugins are available at a “freemium” level in the plugin repository).
WPForms
WPForms is a drag-and-drop WordPress form builder that’s both easy-to-use and powerful. WPForms allows you to create great-looking, contact forms, subscription forms, payment forms, and many other types of forms for your WordPress site in minutes, without having to hire a developer. WPForms has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and since its launch in 2016, it’s continued to rise in popularity with bloggers, business owners, designers, and developers.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is an awesome plugin for creating advanced forms for your WordPress site. With an intuitive visual form editor and more than 30 ready-to-use form fields, Gravity Forms makes it easy to build professional contact forms and grow your leads.
Elementor
Elementor is a highly popular page builder for WordPress that lets users create beautiful WordPress websites quickly and easily. Using Elementor, you can achieve professional-grade design, while working in real-time, and on the front end of your site. Elementor includes dozens of useful widgets, a well-designed template library, a unique mobile editing toolset, and a visual revision history feature.
Yoast SEO Premium
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there (it’s also one of the most downloaded free plugins among WP Engine customers). Yoast SEO Premium, the plugin’s paid tier, is no exception. This plugin adds fuel behind the efforts of the free version and amplifies things like keyword optimization and content maintenance. The premium plugin also includes internal linking suggestions, content insights, a redirect manager, and more.
WP Rocket
WP Engine typically disallows caching plugins on our Digital Experience Platform for WordPress (because we already do it for you). However, we’ve worked in tandem with WP Rocket to optimize their caching plugin so it will work on our platform. WP Rocket is a premium plugin that helps with site optimization through things like minification of CSS and JS, lazy loading images, deferring remote JavaScript requests, and more. It’s a great plugin to invest in if you’re looking to improve site speed and page load times across multiple websites.
Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is a flexible drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress that that works on the front end of your WordPress site(s). With Beaver Builder, you can easily build responsive WordPress pages in minutes instead of months. The plugin’s intuitive page builder works in real-time on the front end of your page and offers unparalleled control for your site. While the premium version is chock-full of functionality, Beaver Builder’s “lite” (free) version is also widely used and highly popular.
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