The Best Free Wordpress Plugins You Won't Want to Miss

WordPress is one of the best website creation and blogging tools around.

Make sure you’re using it to its fullest abilities by taking advantage of the best free WordPress plugins.

What is a Plugin and Why Do You Need Them?

WordPress plugins are time-saving software programs designed to help you skip the painstaking coding process.

There are plugins for just about everything you can think of: mailing lists, social icons, image optimizers, data analysis tools, and more!

Just like apps, there are free plugins and paid plugins, some with both options. It all depends on the features you need. In this article, we’re covering 15 of the best free WordPress plugins that you have no reason not to be using.

Read on to find out about these time-saving, feature enhancing, and totally free game-changers.

15 of the Best Free WordPress Plugins

There are tens of thousands of WordPress plugins out there.

Plugins make your life easier and your WordPress website cooler. So, why not use them?

This list includes 15 that are free and commonly needed by WordPress users.

1. Social Icons by AccessPress

Every business needs links to its social media on their website. It’s great for building a following, promoting your brand, and making your site look polished and professional.

Social Icons by AccessPass allows you to not only embed social icons into your site, but also to choose what your icons look like. You can select from their pre-designed sets, or create your own designs!

2. Contact Form 7

Harness the power of your site traffic by using an excellent contact form.

Contact Form 7 allows you to customize the form and manage multiple forms. It offers easy email management with flexible features.

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp allows you to subscribe your WordPress visitors to your Mailchimp lists. Sign up forms are customizable and easy to position anywhere on your site.

Use features like the one-click signup button. This will help you build your mailing list with ease.

4. Coming Soon Page and Maintenance Mode by SeedProd

This plugin comes in handy for any “under construction” portions of your site or when you need to temporarily shut off your site to visitors for maintenance.

It has a Pro option packed with even more features. However, the free option gets you by just fine.

You can also customize the page to your liking and add plenty of descriptive text. It works with any WordPress theme.

5. Google Analytics

To make your site the most successful, you have to get on the data analysis bandwagon.

Google Analytics shows you tons of important data tracking the behavior of visitors to your site. Set up a free Google Analytics account, mark yourself as an admin, and watch the data roll in.

6. Prismatic

Unlike the rest of the plugins on this list, Prismatic is a coding assistant.

If you understand coding, Prismatic is a helpful way to keep you organized. You have the option between two of their pre-built code display programs. Or, you can customize your own.

7. Pretty Link Lite

Pretty Link Lite is an excellent way to shorten your links with the use of your domain name.

Shortened links are super convenient on and off your site. Plus, the use of your domain name earns you valuable brand authority.

8. WP Smush – Image Optimization

57% of consumers abandon a page after just 3 seconds if it’s not loading, so speed is everything. Not only will you lose visitors with a slow loading site, it also negatively affects your SEO.

WP Smush assists you in compressing your images on the fly for mobile optimization and site loading speed.

9. Popups, Welcome Bar, Opt-ins and Lead Generation Plugin by Icegram

Grow your subscriber list, engage and convert your visitors, and more with this great plugin by Icegram.

You can choose from multiple message options, such as popups and headers, to present a lead generating call to action.

10. SumoMe

Definitely one of the best free WordPress plugins, SumoMe allows you to increase the chances of article shares and retained blog visitors.

It makes it easy for visitors to join your email list, share articles, tweet stand out parts of your writing, and share images.

Even better, SumoMe provides you with valuable analytics like heat maps that show you where people are clicking on your website.

11. Keyy Two-Factor Authentication

Two step authentication helps you stay secure with ease. Users log in using their mobile phone with the Keyy app installed.

The app generates a scannable code that replaces the need for hard to remember usernames and passwords. Plus, it’s a lot more secure than using weak credentials that can easily be guessed by hackers.

12. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

Retain readers by presenting them with related content they can easily click on to spend more time on your site.

YARPP allows you to display the relevant content as a thumbnail, list view, or custom template.

It automatically chooses the most related content to display, saving you time yet again.

13. Foo Gallery

Got a ton of images on your WordPress site?

Organize them with Foo Gallery. Foo Gallery allows you to display quick-loading, crisp image thumbnails, albums, and more all in easy to use software.

14. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is like your personal assistant for content and social scheduling. It is an all in one editorial calendar that keeps you organized and strategized.

This is an absolute necessity if you want to release content at specific times, without having to do so yourself in the moment.

Get ahead and keep track of deadlines with this great content scheduler.

15. WooCommerce

One of the best free WordPress plugins for e-commerce businesses, WooCommerce is a simple and powerful sales platform.

WooCommerce can handle every aspect of retail, album and song sales, and anything else you want to sell on your website.

It can handle a variety of payment options, shipping info, inventory tracking and everything else you could ever need.

Conclusion

By now you can see just how beneficial the best free WordPress plugins really are.

Accomplish almost anything you want on your WordPress site with easy to use plugins.

Once you’re happy with your site, amp it up with Attracta’s SEO services. Watch your traffic and business grow with better search engine rankings, strategic content design, web crawling, and more.