15 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Every Website User [2025]

WordPress is the #1 CMS in the world, used by millions of websites.

One big reason most people use WordPress is its extensive collection of plugins. From SEO to security to deals and page builders, you’ll find so many options.

But you can’t install every plugin that comes your way, right?

After all, page speed is a key ranking factor, and your plugin usage significantly determines your page loading times.

That’s why we’ve a curated list of 15 of the must have plugins for WordPress in 2025.

These plugins are not only essential for WP users but also save time and money! So, let’s jump into the details.

Table of Contents

15 Essential Plugins for WordPress Users [2025 List]
FAQs
Final thoughts

15 Essential Plugins for WordPress Users [2025 List]

1. WP Forms (for Contact Forms)

Are you looking for an easy way to build forms on your WordPress site?

Then look no further than WPForms. It is an essential WordPress plugin that can be used as a drag-and-drop form builder. No coding needed as you can just drag, drop, and be done.

It helps you create contact, feedback, subscription, payment forms (with Stripe, Square & PayPal), and more. It also comes with built-in spam protection and mobile-ready templates to get started quickly.

Features of WP Forms:

Access to 2000+ pre-built form templates that you can use to create forms in minutes
All the contact forms are 100% responsive and mobile-friendly
The ability to integrate your contact forms with an email marketing service
Accept payments, donations, subscriptions, and more with Stripe (FREE), PayPal, and Square.
Get email alerts the moment someone submits a form
Customize fields, labels, and buttons anyway you want
Includes hCaptcha, Google reCAPTCHA & Cloudflare Turnstile for spam protection

2. Akismet (for Spam Protection)

Akismet is one of the must have WP plugins if you want to fight against spam comments on your website. It is also the most downloaded WordPress plugin with 6+ million active installations.

Akismet has a global spam database that checks your comments and form entries to stop fake or spam content from showing up on your site. In fact, Akismet has removed over 500 billion pieces of spam from the Internet!

Key Features of This Plugin:

Has an accuracy of 99.99% in blocking spam comments
Easily integrates with plugins like Jetpack, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Formidable Forms, and more
Automatically checks comments and filters out spam
Shows full comment history, including actions by moderators
Displays all URLs in comments to spot hidden links
It lets you see how many approved comments a user has

3. Rank Math SEO (for Optimized SEO Content)

Rank Math is called the Swiss Army knife of WordPress SEO for a reason: it offers almost EVERYTHING you need in one simple tool.

From offering smart on-page optimization suggestions to LSI keywords, it makes SEO easy, even for beginners. It is one of our most recommended WordPress plugins.

The primary reason most people use Rank Math for content optimization is that it works out of the box and offers a clean user interface. It also has a free version, which is enough for most beginners.

What does This Plugin offer?

Rank Math is compatible with almost all the major WordPress themes and page builders.
Easily import all your settings from popular SEO plugins such as Yoast, AIO plugin, etc.
Adds ALT tags for missing images
Optimize your posts for unlimited focus keywords per post
Google Schema Markup aka Rich Snippets Integrated
Offers LSI keyword suggestions on the go
Offers a solid keyword tracking feature so you can easily monitor your website’s rankings in Google

4. WP Rocket (for Caching & Speed)

The Google PageSpeed score is one of the key metrics for improving your site rankings and user experience. Anything above 90 is considered often good.

But how can you improve your WordPress site’s PageSpeed score and make it faster? WP Rocket is the answer. This is one of the few WP plugins we’ve been using on our sites for more than 5 years.

The best part? WP Rocket works right after you activate it, taking care of 80% of web performance best practices on its own.

You can check out our WP Rocket coupon code to find more details on saving money on this plugin.

Highlights of This Plugin:

Offers all the essential features including page caching, browser caching, and GZIP compression.
The ability to delay JavaScript execution, remove unused CSS and minification
Page caching starts instantly for faster page load times
Cache is preloaded automatically after updates
Browser caching saves images, JS, and CSS locally
GZIP compression reduces file size for quicker loading
Auto-optimizes heavy images for better performance
Loads only what’s visible with lazy rendering (also known as “Lazy Loading”)
Works smoothly with popular themes, plugins, and hosts

5. Deals and Coupons Lite (for Adding Coupons & Deals)

Searching for a free WP plugin to boost clicks and conversions? Deals and Coupons Lite is the right choice for affiliate marketers and bloggers.

Using this plugin, you can promote your best affiliate marketing deals, coupons, and discount codes – all in one place.

This plugin is from WP Coupons, which was initially created by brothers Brian and Brett Jackson. This plugin is now developed and maintained by Anil Agarwal.

Here’s the Demo of the Plugin

Main Benefits of This Plugin:

Offers 7 different archive templates
Ready-made templates for coupon archives and individual coupon pages
Lightweight and fastest coupon plugin for WordPress
Click to copy code feature
Offers a built-in coupon widget you can use to display on your blog’s sidebar
It includes a ‘click to reveal’ feature, just like RetailMeNot
The ability to exclude coupons for the default WordPress search
Multiple shortcodes for different coupon needs
Enable comments on coupons

6. PushEngage (for Push Notifications)

PushEngage is one of the best WordPress plugins for sending targeted push messages.

Did you know that PushEngage is used by a ton of people to send over 15 billion push messages every single month?

Whether you want to send notifications about your new blog posts or product announcements, you can use Push Engage as a notification software.

Core Features Include:

Send personalized messages
Works seamlessly with WordPress & WooCommerce
Android Push Notifications
Access to A/B testing
Goal tracking
Offline notifications

7. WooCommerce (eCommerce Plugin for WordPress)

WooCommerce is one of the most downloaded plugins in WordPress history and is used by over 15 million websites.

Whether you’re selling handmade crafts, offering online fitness classes, or building digital stores for artists, WooCommerce offers all the tools you need for an online store.

Plugin Highlights and Functions:

Access to a ton of beautiful themes to create an online store
All the essential tools to manage payments and 100+ payment gateways – including Stripe, PayPal, and Square.
Product blocks to customize product pages, however you like
Sell anything from digital subscriptions, bookings, or memberships
Access to automated tax calculations and live shipping rates
Built-in integrations for Google Shopping, Facebook ads, and Mailchimp email campaigns
WooCommerce is 100% translated into 24 languages

8. AMP (for Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Whether you know it or not, page experience matters more than ever.

According to Google, their ranking systems are designed to reward websites that deliver a fast and user-friendly experience.

That’s where the AMP plugin comes in.

It helps your site load faster on mobile, reduces bounce rates, and improves Core Web Vitals. This plugin handles a lot of things automatically — from fixing code issues to making your pages AMP-ready, and even offering a reading mode to non-AMP pages.

What can this plugin do for you?

Auto-generates AMP-ready markup
Flags and fixes AMP errors
Easy for developers to build AMP-compatible sites
Supports fast AMP delivery and mobile redirects
Quick setup for anyone to publish AMP pages

9. Broken Link Checker (to Check Broken Links)

Broken links hurt SEO and user experience. In fact, search engines penalize sites with too many dead links or 404 error pages.

That’s why you need a solid plugin like the Broken Link Checker, which helps you quickly find and fix dead links on your site.

It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins, with 17 million downloads and 50,000+ broken links found daily!

Overview of Plugin Features:

Automatically checks all links in posts, pages, comments, and more
See clear reports with search and filter options
Fix or remove broken links with just a click
Scan links from the cloud or your own server
Exclude certain post types, categories, or domains
Crawls everything — pages, images, redirects, you name it
Alerts you when images go missing
Works excellently on multisite setups too

10. Solid Security (for WordPress Security)

Every day, around 30,000 websites are hacked. Here’s where a security plugin helps protect your website’s data, including posts, media, links, etc.

If you’re looking for a powerful security plugin for your WordPress sites’ passwords and security protection, you’ll love the Solid Security plugin. This plugin offers excellent features, including password, two-factor authentication, and Brute Force protection.

This Plugin’s Feature Set Includes:

Choose from 6 security templates based on site type (e.g., blog, eCommerce)
Real-time dashboard tracks threats & activity
Lock down logins with 2FA, reCAPTCHA, password rules & trusted devices
Apply different security levels for clients, admins & users
Block bad bots & brute force attacks
Auto-scan, patch, and log vulnerabilities
Enable SSL, run DB backups, and enable geolocation-based security

11. Table of Contents Plus (to Create Table of Contents)

Want a simple way to automatically add a table of contents (TOC) to long-form of posts or pages? This plugin does just that.

The best part? It even builds a full-site sitemap too.

Here’s how it works: Simply activate the plugin from the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress – that’s it! TOC shows up automatically on pages with 4+ headings.

Here’s an example of what it looks like;

Built-in Features:

Customize position, style, and heading limits
Skip H5/H6, disable CSS, adjust offset
Use shortcodes to exclude or hide the TOC per page

12. TablePress (for Creating Tables)

Want to build tables on your WordPress site – big or small, without coding? Then, you’ll love the TablePress plugin.

Also, it’s extremely easy to use. To add a table, drop in a TablePress block, use the Elementor widget, or paste a Shortcode, and that’s it!

Here’s an example table created using this plugin;

Plugin Capabilities Include:

Create & manage modern tables
Add live search, sorting, and pagination
Use any data — even images, links & formulas
Import/export from Excel, CSV, HTML & more
Embed tables anywhere with blocks, widgets, or shortcodes

13. WP Optimize (for Image Optimization)

Searching for a simple plugin to improve your website speed and image optimization? Try WP Optimize, which over 1 million WordPress website owners trust.

It’s an all-in-one plugin for page cache, image compression, minification, and database cleaning to boost your site’s overall page speed and performance.

Here are some of the significant benefits of the WP Optimize plugin;

Boosts Speed with Caching: It creates a quick-loading HTML version of your site, which you can turn on with one click.
Compresses Images Fast: It shrinks heavy images in a few clicks with your choice of lossy or lossless settings.
Cleans Up the Database: Removes useless data to speed up your site and free up server space.
Minifies for Extra Speed: The plugin also trims code (HTML, CSS, JS) to make pages load even faster.

14. Elementor Page Builder Plugin (to Build Any Page)

Elementor is one of my favorite WordPress plugins. It helps you easily create beautiful websites even if you don’t know how to code.

The best part is that you can build and customize every part of your website. You can drag and drop elements like images, buttons, and text boxes, which makes pages look more appealing. You can also preview changes live and save lots of time.

Using the Elementor plugin, you can create anything from product pages, about us, contact forms, 404 pages, etc. Also, it gives you access to many ready-made page templates, popups, blocks, and more.

You can also check out the Elementor promo code to save more on this plugin.

Key Features of this Plugin:

Build custom headers & footers anywhere
Edit them visually — no code needed
Add sticky effects for smooth scrolling
Integrate with PayPal/Stripe
Build unlimited landing pages
Style anything with custom CSS
Add third-party tools or PHP with custom code
Upload or sync custom fonts
Create custom post types for unique content needs

15. Manage WP Worker (to Manage Multiple WordPress Sites)

Are you managing multiple WordPress sites? Logging into each of your websites can be a time-consuming task, right?

Here’s where Manage WP Worker comes in handy. It puts all your site data in one dashboard so that you can check everything at a glance.

Here are some of the significant features of this plugin;

One-Click Bulk Actions: Update all your sites, clean spam, and run security checks with one click.
Cloud Backups: It offers free monthly backups with 1-click restore, off-site storage, and more.
Safe Auto Updates: Perform auto-backups before updates, auto-rollback if something breaks, and run updates at low-traffic hours, like 3 a.m.

FAQs

Here are some commonly asked questions on the essential plugins for WordPress.

What are the top 5 essential plugins for WordPress?

The top plugins for most WordPress sites are Akismet, Rank Math SEO, WP Rocket, AMP, and Solid Security.

What type of plugins should I install on my WordPress site?

Security, SEO, backup, caching, and page builder plugins are must-haves for ANY WordPress site.

Is a page builder plugin like Elementor necessary?

Yes, it helps create beautiful pages easily without any coding skills. It also has a free version.

Do I need a security plugin for my WordPress site?

Absolutely. A security plugin like Solid Security protects your site from malware, brute force, and hacking attempts.

What does a caching plugin do?

A caching plugin like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache speeds up your website by storing copies of pages for faster loading times.

How many plugins can I use on my WordPress site?

There’s no set limit, but it’s best to use only the essential plugins. Too many can make your site slow. Pick lightweight and well-coded plugins. Try to keep the total number under 15.