https://roots.io/favorite-wordpress-plugins-and-utilities/
I asked Brandon Nifong, Mike Spainhower, Craig, Evan Mattson, Nathan Knowler, and Matt Mirus for their recommendations on WordPress plugins and any relevant Composer packages they use on their sites. Here’s what our list of most frequently used WordPress plugins looks like!
Free WordPress plugins
- Better Search Replace for performing a search/replace on the database
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/better-search-replace - Breadcrumb NavXT for breadcrumb trails
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/breadcrumb-navxt - Disable Comments for globally disabling comments on any post type
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/disable-comments - Duplicate Post for cloning posts from any post type
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/duplicate-post - Easy WP SMTP for configuring WordPress to send emails through any SMTP server
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/easy-wp-smtp - HTML Forms for straightforward and flexible forms in WordPress
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/html-forms - Imsanity for automatically resizing large image uploads
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/imsanity - Intervention for cleaning up and customizing the wp-admin
$ composer require soberwp/intervention - Post Type Switcher for reassigning any post to a new post type
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/post-type-switcher - Query Monitor for WordPress dev tools
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/query-monitor - Restricted Site Access for enforcing user logins or whitelisting IPs for access
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/restricted-site-access - Safe Redirect Manager for managing redirects
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/safe-redirect-manager - Safe SVG for allowing SVG uploads
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/safe-svg - Simple Page Ordering for re-ordering any type of page or post with drag and drop
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/simple-page-ordering - Stream for logging activity on your WordPress install
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/stream - The SEO Framework for fast SEO with automated titles and descriptions
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/autodescription - WPBruiser for preventing spam comments and brute force attacks
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/goodbye-captcha - WP Stage Switcher for switching between different environments from the admin bar (by Roots)
$ composer require roots/wp-stage-switcher - WP Term Order for re-ordering any term with drag and drop
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/wp-term-order - WP User Avatars for allowing users to upload & select their own avatars
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/wp-user-avatars - WP User Profiles for a different way to edit users
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/wp-user-profiles - WP-Optimize for automatically cleaning your WordPress database
$ composer require wpackagist-plugin/wp-optimize
Paid WordPress plugins
- Admin Columns Pro for managing admin columns
- Advanced Custom Fields Pro for managing fields and options
- FacetWP for advanced filtering
- Migrate DB Pro for database migrations
- Soil for cleaner WordPress markup (by Roots)
Utilities/Composer packages
- ACF Builder for creating ACF fields (also see log1x/acf-builder-cheatsheet)
$ composer require stoutlogic/acf-builder - ACF Fluent for querying and presenting ACF fields (also see log1x/acf-fluent-helpers)
$ composer require samrap/acf-fluent - Cortex for implementing a routing system in WordPress (also read Life of a Front-end WordPress Request by the author)
$ composer require brain/cortex - Extended CPTs for quickly creating WordPress custom post types and taxonomies
$ composer require johnbillion/extended-cpts - WP Cache Remember for working with the WordPress object cache and transients
$ composer require stevegrunwell/wp-cache-remember - WP Plugin Activation Manifest for controlling the activation state of individual plugins based on environment
$ composer require primetime/wp-plugin-activation-manifest