Thursday, April 9, 2020

Here Are the 10 Most Popular WordPress Plugins of All Time (Based on Data)

There are over 55,000+ plugins in the official WordPress plugin repository. Thats, like, a lot. Of course, not all of them receive regular updates and use, but the ones we are going to talk about today dont fit those criteria. No, this post is focused on  the most popular WordPress plugins of all time.Ever wonder which plugins get used the most? Wonder no more we did the math! Below, youll find the data-backed list (i.e. this is not an opinion list). Yoast SEO Author(s): Team YoastCurrent Version: 12.3Last Updated: October 15, 2019wordpress-seo.12.3.zip 98%Ratings 200,063,756Downloads WP 4.9+Requires One of the plugins that gets a lot of love from people is, without a doubt, Yoast SEO. This plugin is used by (almost) everyone who has a blog or site on WordPress. In fact, it can be hard to find websites that DONT have Yoast SEO installed (well we know of ~50 million actually! Check out #7).So, if youre one of those people who doesnt use this plugin well, it helps you impr ove the overall SEO score of your articles and pages. With it, you can set your main keyword, the meta description, slug, SEO title, the alt attributes of your images, and it also recommends the best practices for good readability. Its nice because the plugin offers stats and actionable advice on how to improve your work and, when everything is done by the book, you get the green light.Who can use Yoast SEO? I think its for everybody because we all want to rank better in the search engines, dont we?2. Akismet Akismet Anti-Spam Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 4.1.2Last Updated: May 14, 2019akismet.4.1.2.zip 94%Ratings 143,374,346Downloads WP 4.0+Requires Not far from Yoast SEO when it comes to the number of downloads is Akismet Anti-Spam. Akismet is a tool developed by Automattic, made to automatically block spam comments. Every day, we are spammed by either promotional links, irrelevant stories, malicious content or simply by mistake. And its very hard to filter them a ll by yourself, especially if you own a business that gets hundreds of comments per day.The plugin is good not only for automation but also for security purposes since it wont allow malicious or problematic content to be published on your site.Akismet also checks all your contact form submissions against their global database of spam, so youll be sure only the good and relevant information gets to you. The plugin is mandatory for blog and business owners who receive at least tens of comments daily.3. Jetpack Jetpack by WordPress.com Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 7.8Last Updated: October 1, 2019jetpack.7.8.zip 78%Ratings 145,415,907Downloads WP 5.1+Requires Another plugin built by Automattic makes the top of the most popular WordPress plugins. This time, its Jetpack, a multipurpose tool thats good at (almost) everything. It helps you with marketing, design, and security. Among its various features, you can find site analytics, automated social media posting, multiple WordPress themes, spam filtering, downtime monitoring, malware scanning, login security, lazy image loading, CDN, and more.Jetpack comes in one free and three paid plans, so not all of its features are free of charge. The plugin is suitable for personal blogs, and for both startups and corporate businesses. It fits all the basic needs and all budgets.4. Contact Form 7 Contact Form 7 Author(s): Takayuki MiyoshiCurrent Version: 5.1.4Last Updated: August 4, 2019contact-form-7.5.1.4.zip 82%Ratings 120,968,634Downloads WP 4.9+Requires The next most popular plugin is Contact Form 7, which creates simple and effective contact forms for your blog. Given that all of us need an easy way to connect with people, its not a surprise to see this plugin so high on the list. The plugin was developed by  Takayuki Miyoshi and can handle multiple contact forms on the same site; it also integrates Akismet spam filtering  and lets you customize the styling and fields that you want to use in t he form. The plugin provides CAPTCHA and Ajax submitting.Again, this is one of the plugins that can be used by absolutely everyone, no matter if youre running a personal blog or youre having a business that you monetize. Why? Because its free, easy to configure, and efficient.5. Wordfence Security Wordfence Security Firewall Malware Scan Author(s): WordfenceCurrent Version: 7.4.0Last Updated: August 22, 2019wordfence.7.4.0.zip 96%Ratings 135,846,747Downloads WP 3.9+Requires As you can see, the most popular WordPress plugins are diverse and come with a wide range of features. Now, Wordfence is a plugin only about security; it was created to keep your site safe. Wordfence puts a firewall on your site to keep it away from malicious traffic. Apart from that, it offers a malware scanner which blocks suspect external attempts and provides a secure login system.Whats nice about this plugin is that it provides alerts every time something weird happens on your site. By weird, I mea n anything that shouldnt happen in terms of security. For instance, when a plugin that you use gets closed or abandoned or when a vulnerability issue takes place.At a first sight (and in a professionals book), having Wondfence installed on your WordPress site is mandatory if you dont want to face unneeded problems or at least if you want to decrease potential dangers. But of course, there are lots of people in this world who dont think security is something to worry about, so Keeping your site in check would be ideal, but its only up to you how you see things and how you want to deal with issues (prevent them or fight them when its the case).6. WooCommerce WooCommerce Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 3.7.1Last Updated: October 9, 2019woocommerce.3.7.1.zip 92%Ratings 77,312,503Downloads WP 4.9+Requires How could e-commerce miss this list of the most popular WordPress plugins? WooCommerce is the plugin that lets you turn your WordPress site into an online shop, so you can sell your products to your clients on the web.Of course, this plugin was built for commercial purposes, so all its users must be business owners (be it for side projects or for a living).Whats nice about WooCommerce is that its very flexible in terms of customization options. Apart from the built-in settings, lots of developers built a community around it and created extensions, so that selling online can be as smooth as possible. With WooCommerce you can sell both physical and digital goods, add product variations, use affiliate links, and extensive payment methods.7. All in One SEO Pack All in One SEO Pack Author(s): Michael TorbertCurrent Version: 3.2.9Last Updated: September 26, 2019all-in-one-seo-pack.3.2.9.zip 88%Ratings 61,774,317Downloads WP 4.7+Requires SEO is a very popular topic across the web. When it comes to what gets shared in WordPress, we found out that SEO was the second most interesting topic, after plugins. So, if you want to experiment more or need an a lternative to Yoast, you can try All in One SEO Pack, created to help both beginners and advanced users alike (including developers).How does this plugin help you? Apart from the basic SEO instructions for content optimization, the plugin also offers XML sitemap, Google Analytics, and Google AMP support. An awesome feature  of this tool is that it provides SEO integration for e-commerce sites.Who can use All in One SEO Pack? Everyone. If you host a personal blog which you want to grow, own a business of any type, or youre a professional blogger, this plugin should be a valuable addition to your artillery.8. Google Analytics for WordPress Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights Author(s): using Google Analytics? I mean, especially if you have big plans with your website. If you want to grow your personal, hobby blog into something that you can monetize, you cant do it without Google Analytics.So Google Analytics by MonsterInsights is a plugin that make s the connection between your WordPress site and Google Analytics easier. The plugin offers quick and powerful integration if you simply copy and paste the tracking code to your site. After you do this, the plugin just works. A cool feature is that you can monitor the stats without leaving your dashboard because it imports the numbers from Analytics to your WordPress admin area.9. WP Super Cache WP Super Cache Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 1.7.0Last Updated: August 16, 2019wp-super-cache.1.7.0.zip 86%Ratings 30,859,198Downloads WP 3.1+Requires Performance is essential, so its no surprise that #9 is a plugin thats in charge of speeding up your website. How does it work exactly? By generating static HTML files from your WordPress blog to save time. WP Super Cache comes with three types of caching: Expert, Simple (recommended for beginner and intermediate users), and WP-Cache catching.This plugin is also one of those that you must install on your website because it help s you big time, especially if you host a large amount of content (read media files: photos, videos, animations etc). So if you consider your site heavy from this standpoint, then a caching plugin will make it lighter.10. WordPress Importer WordPress Importer Author(s): wordpressdotorgCurrent Version: 0.6.4Last Updated: May 7, 2019wordpress-importer.0.6.4.zip 60%Ratings 28,027,684Downloads WP 3.6+Requires As we finish up this list of the most popular WordPress plugins, lets meet WordPress Importer along the way, which is also part of the most popular WordPress plugins that were ever created. So if you want to import files from a WordPress site, this plugin lets you do it in a few clicks. WordPress Importer allows you to import pretty much anything into your site.This plugin was built for two categories of people: those who own more than one website and import/export content often and those who occasionally (or even once in their lifetime) need this plugin to migrate the conte nt from the current site to a new one.Did the most popular WordPress plugins surprise you?Based on the data from WordPress.org, these are the most popular WordPress plugins in existence. Did any of them surprise you?And wed also love to know which of these plugins youre using, as well as any  alternatives that youd recommend. Here are the 10 most popular #WordPress #plugins of all time - based on #data!