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23 Best Free WordPress Plugins for your Website

23 Best Free WordPress Plugins for Your Website

There's a reason why WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) globally. It's because it's incredibly versatile and customisable.

You can create any website with tens of thousands of free WordPress plugins.

We've covered whether you're looking for a plugin to help with SEO, security, or general organisation. So without further ado, let's get started!

The Best free WordPress plugins

Designing & Content creation

1 – Ninja Forms

Make A Contract Form With Ninja Forms Wordpress

Ninja Forms is a powerful plugin that provides various form creation and automation options. With just a few clicks, you can create any form using the intuitive drag-and-drop editor and add advanced features like conditional logic, payment gateways or webhooks.

Publishing your forms to the front end of your website is a breeze, and you can even create multi-page forms easily. Ninja Forms also integrates with all the leading email marketing platforms, making it the perfect tool for collecting leads.

2 – Elementor

Elementor is a front-end drag-and-drop page builder plugin. This means it lets you design complicated-looking pages without knowing a single line of code. With Elementor, you can create beautiful designs for your website in minutes without prior design experience.

Thanks to the massive library of 150 free and 300 pro templates on the Elementor website, you can start designing immediately. The templates can be imported and modified, making it easy to create a unique website.

And if you can't find what you're looking for in the library, you can always create your own template from scratch. Moreover, Elementor's responsive design controls allow you to create a mobile-friendly version of your site without starting from scratch.

Furthermore, Elementor is compatible with all WordPress themes. So even if you use a WordPress theme that doesn't include a page builder, you can still use Elementor to create custom pages and designs.

3 – WooCommerce

Woocommerce Free Wordpress Plugin

Woo Commerce is a powerful, open-source plugin for WordPress that allows you to create a fully customisable e-commerce website. With WooCommerce, you can sell anything, from physical products to digital downloads to services.

You can set up product pages, customise your checkout process, manage shipping and taxes, and more.

WooCommerce also integrates with various payment processors, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square. WooCommerce is fully responsive so that customers can shop on your site from any device.

4 – TablePress

TablePress is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to add tables to your website. With a simple Shortcode, you can embed tables into any post, page, or text widget. 

The plugin makes editing, adding, and deleting table rows easy. Make the changes in TablePress, which will be reflected on your site.

You can also create tables from scratch or import data from existing HTML tables. In addition, TablePress allows you to sort, filter, and search your data and paginate long tables over multiple pages. Whether you need to display a product catalogue, a price list, or a large data set, TablePress is an excellent solution.

5 – Envira Gallery

Best Free Wordpress Gallery Plugin

Envira Gallery is the best free WordPress gallery plugin on the market. It allows you to create beautiful and responsive galleries with just a few clicks. Plus, it's fully compatible with all of your favourite WordPress themes.

Envira Gallery is perfect for photographers, bloggers, and small business owners. And because Envira Gallery is responsive, your galleries will look great on any device, whether a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Plus, it is easy to use, even for beginners. Install the plugin and start creating beautiful galleries in minutes.

With Envira Gallery, you can easily add images from your computer or WordPress media library and arrange them into stylish galleries.

Envira Gallery also provides numerous customisation options to create a gallery that perfectly suits your needs. The built-in lightbox feature lets visitors view your photos in full-screen mode.

You can also use Envira Gallery to create albums and collections of images grouped together. Albums are a great way to showcase a series of photos or videos, and you can share them with others via email or social media.

6 – Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 is a simple yet powerful WordPress plugin. The slider automatically updates your content changes, so it's always up to date.

With a few clicks, you can add text, images, and videos to your slider and then use the intuitive drag-and-drop builder to position them exactly where you want them.

You can also customise the look and feel of your slider with various skins and templates. You can insert custom content, text and links using the Slide Editor tool on the General Settings page in WordPress.

It's designed to be very flexible while requiring minimal customisation and setup from the user. The plugin also includes a library of professionally designed slider templates that you can use immediately or as a starting point for your designs.

You can also create your custom slider templates with built-in design tools. Smart Slider has everything you need to create slideshows for your website.

Search Engine Optimisation

7 – Yoast SEO

How To Edit Your Title Tag In Yoast Seo

Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress SEO plugin with over 5 million active installs. Joost de Valk created it and helps you optimise your website for search engines.

Yoast SEO provides users a wide range of options, including setting the focus keyword, adding meta titles and descriptions, and creating XML sitemaps.

8 – Redirection

The Redirection plugin is a convenient tool for managing 301 redirects and tracking 404 errors on your website. It makes it easy to set up redirects from one page to another or from one URL to another.

This can be especially helpful if you are relocating pages on your site or changing the addresses of your files. The plugin also tracks any 404 errors, so you can quickly locate and fix any broken links on your site.

9 – Pretty Links

Pretty Links Free Wordpress Plugin

Pretty Links is a plugin that makes creating short links for your website easy. You can also create redirects, so if you move or change a page's URL, your visitors will be automatically redirected to the new location without updating their bookmarks. Pretty Links is perfect for creating vanity URLs or shortened links for your website.

Plus, it has built-in click tracking to see how popular each link is. Pretty Links is easy to use and can help you improve your website's traffic.

You can also use Pretty Links to track affiliate links and measure the success of your marketing campaigns. Whether you're looking to tidy up your website's URL structure or want to track which links are getting the most clicks, Pretty Links is the perfect solution.

10 – Broken Link Checker plugin

The Broken Link Checker plugin is a must-have for any WordPress website. It scans your website for broken links and notifies you of them so that you can fix them.

This plugin is essential for maintaining a healthy website. You can also use the Broken Link Checker plugin to check external links.

This is a great way to protect your website from penalising by Google. You will see a squiggly red line beneath the pages or local files that the scanner can't find in the text editor. The Broken Link Checker plugin's free version is easy to use. It's a must-have for any WordPress website.

11 – Shared Counts

Best Free Wordpress Plugins Social Media

Any good marketer knows social media is essential for promoting content and driving website traffic. However, keeping track of all the different social networks can be daunting.

That's where Shared Counts comes in. This powerful plugin provides share counts for each post and page and detailed insights into how your content performs on social media.

With this information, you can fine-tune your social media strategy and ensure that as many people see your content as possible. In addition, Shared Counts makes it easy to share your content on the most popular social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest and can help you identify which social networks are referring the most traffic to your site.

Shared Counts is the perfect tool for any marketer looking to get the most out of social media with its impressive features and ease of use.

Whether you're looking to boost your social media engagement or see which of your articles resonate most with your audience, Shared Counts is an essential tool for any content marketer.

12 – MC4WP (Mailchimp for WordPress)

MC4WP is a powerful plugin that seamlessly integrates Mailchimp with WordPress. It allows you to create custom sign-up forms, manage subscriber lists, and send out automated email campaigns. MC4WP makes growing your mailing list easy and keeps your subscribers engaged with your content.

13 – MonsterInsights

Monsterinsights Wordpress Plugin Free

MonsterInsights is a free plugin that gives you insights about website visitors and analytics in one place directly from the WordPress dashboard, whether you're running an e-commerce site or want to see how many hits your blog gets. It's easy to install and offers unlimited data, so you don't have to worry about limited expense caps.

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The app also provides google analytics integration to understand your audience better. The plugin is regularly updated with new features and enhancements, so you can be sure you're getting the most accurate data possible. The plugin gives you detailed reports on your website traffic, including information on organic and direct traffic, top referrals, top pages, and more.

You can also see how long people stay on your site, what devices they use, and what countries they're from. In addition, MonsterInsights lets you track e-commerce conversions and see which products are selling well. With all this information at your fingertips, you can make informed decisions about improving your website and attracting more visitors.

Page Speed, Security, and Maintenance

14 – Jetpack

Jetpack is one of the most popular free WordPress plugins, with over 5 million active installs. WordPress.com creates it and provides WordPress users with many features. These features include site stats, security, backup and unlimited image storage.

While it might be overkill for some users, Jetpack is perfect for those who want all the features and options in one plugin.

15 – Really Simple SSL

Really Simple SSL is an easy-to-use WordPress plugin that activates an SSL certificate on your website with no coding required. The plugin automatically detects your settings and configures your website to operate on HTTPS.

This can be easily activated and configured with Cloudways, as they provide a free SSL certificate with all our hosting packages. With SSL activated, your website will be more secure and have a better ranking on search engine results pages.

16 – Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security Plugin

Wordfence is a comprehensive plugin that protects your website from online threats. It scans for malware and viruses, blocks malicious IP addresses, and even helps you recover your website if hacked.

Wordfence also includes a firewall to protect your site from attacks. It is WordPress's most popular security plugin, with over 4 million active installations.

17 – UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a WordPress backup tool that automatically backs up your website, so you don't have to worry about data loss in an emergency. The plugin monitors changes to the database, and any new files added or removed from the server are backed up.

You can use it for scheduled backups or automatic notifications on each site edit, like plugin activations or theme changes. UpdraftPlus also offers a premium version with additional features.

18 – Autoptimize

Autoptimize Wordpress Plugin

Page speed is one of the most important, as visitors are generally unwilling to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load. Not only do your visitors expect a fast and responsive website, but search engines favour websites that load quickly. Unfortunately, speed optimisation can be complex and time-consuming, especially if you're not a developer.

Autoptimize is a WordPress plugin that gives you the power to improve your website's page speed performance.

With Autoptimize, you can eliminate render-blocking stylesheets, combine multiple CSS files into one, inactivate expensive scripts, manage the display of images on your site, and much more.

The combined Autoptimize with WordPress caching plugin can speed up your pages by 50%. Optimising your website's loading times and improving its overall performance, Autoptimize can help you attract more visitors and boost your search engine rankings.

Moreover, Autoptimize regularly updates new features and improvements, ensuring your site runs at peak performance.

19 – Smush Image Compression and Optimisation

Smush is a WordPress image optimisation plugin that automatically optimises your images as you upload them to your website. It uses lossless compression algorithms to reduce the file size of your images without compromising on quality.

This means your images will load faster and take up less space on your server, improving performance and SEO. Smush also has a handy bulk optimisation feature that lets you optimise all your images simultaneously.

20 – Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet Free Wordpress Plugins

Akismet is a spam protection service for websites running WordPress content management software. It is also available for comment systems powered by Disqus or Facebook commenting plugins.

The purpose of Akismet is to provide automatic and immediate protection against undesired content such as spam, offensive comments and abusive language. Akismet can identify spam comments using a CAPTCHA test. 

The service is free for personal blogs, but commercial websites must pay a subscription. Akismet is one of WordPress's most popular spam protection plugins, and it comes pre-installed on WordPress.com websites.

It filters out 99.98% of all spam comments, an impressive statistic. The plugin runs in the background, and you don't need to take any action to use it – it just works.

Advanced Plugins

21 – Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is a free plugin that lets you add custom fields to your WordPress website. This gives you unprecedented flexibility in how you manage and display your content. Once you install Advanced Custom Fields, you can create custom fields for any post type on your WordPress site.

This includes posts, pages, media, and even custom post types. You can choose from various fields, including text, number, email, etc. You can also select whether the field is required or optional and set a default value for the field. 

Once you've created a custom field, you can add it to any post or page on your site. Edit the post or page and see the new field in the WordPress editor.

You can then enter the desired value for the field. ACF also includes field settings for controlling how the field is displayed on your website. With ACF, the possibilities are endless. ACF gives you complete control over displaying your content, making creating unique and engaging websites easy.

22 – Code Snippets

Wordpress Code Snippets Plugin

Code snippets are a fantastic plugin that allows you to insert code blocks into your file quickly. You can select from various languages, including C#, F#, Visual Basic, and JavaScript.

The snippets are also categorised by a task to find the right one for the job. For example, there is a snippet for creating a new class, another for adding a method, and one for working with arrays.

To insert a code snippet:

  1. Type the name of the language followed by a left curly brace. The editor will then show you a list of available snippets.
  2. Select the one you want to use, and Code Snippets will insert it into your file. You can create your own if you don't see the snippet you need.
  3. Just select the language and then type the name of the snippet.

The editor will show you a list of available fields. Enter the information for each field, and then save it. Code snippets are a great way to speed up your development process. You can quickly insert code blocks into your files with just a few keystrokes with code snippets.

23 – Head, Footer and Post Injections

Head, footer and post injections are a great way to show your site ads without altering your pages' content. With this plugin, you cleanly insert Content advertising at the top or bottom of each page, even between posts. Sometimes called “highly-targeted” advertising for WordPress blogs, these plugins help generate extra revenue without sacrificing the user experience.

This means that you can keep your site's design and layout intact while still having the opportunity to make money from advertising. They can be used on any website, from simple blogs to complex e-commerce platforms. Head, footer and post injections are relatively unobtrusive and can be an excellent way to monetise your website without irritating visitors.

However, ensuring that your ads are relevant to your audience and not overly intrusive is essential. Otherwise, you risk driving away potential customers instead of generating revenue.

Bonus: Baluu

Baluu Class Booking Software

Baluu.co.uk provides more than just WordPress plugins. This is the right option if you want to accept online bookings for your business. The website builder allows you to create any website, including e-commerce stores, experience websites and booking websites for groups. If you already have a website, you can embed Baluu's tools on it.

Baluu lets you create your dream website without any coding knowledge. You can sell anything, from event tickets to scheduling appointmentsbooking classes and experiences, to products and gift cards. You can book tickets across multiple locations and customize your bookings.

The basic plan of Baluu is free (limited to 50 bookings per month), but if you exceed that limit, you'll need to upgrade to a more advanced plan – which starts at just $17 a month.

Closing Thoughts

WordPress plugins are a great way to add functionality to your website without coding yourself. There are free WordPress plugins, from SEO to social media to security.

While some plugins are free, you must purchase others. If you're unsure which ones you need, you can ask a developer or consult a WordPress expert.

In general, remember that more plugins don't necessarily mean better results. Sometimes, less is more. So take some time to evaluate your needs and choose the best free WordPress plugins to help you achieve your goals.

Photo of author

Stuart Crawford

Stuart Crawford is an award-winning creative director and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience building memorable and influential brands. As Creative Director at Inkbot Design, a leading branding agency, Stuart oversees all creative projects and ensures each client receives a customised brand strategy and visual identity.

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