17 Best WordPress Plugins for Blogs [Most Are Free]

If you’re here, you’re probably looking for the best WordPress plugins for blogs. Well, you have landed in the right place.

Creating a successful and engaging WordPress blog requires more than simply writing great content. It’s also about optimizing your blog’s speed, improving user experience, and monetizing it!

In this post, we’ll look at the best WordPress blog plugins to consider when getting started, such as page speed, traffic, SEO, and more.

So, let’s dive in!

17 Best WordPress Plugins for Your Blogs

Below are some of the best WordPress blog plugins you should install on your new WordPress blog.

1. SeedProd

SeedProd is the top WordPress drag-and-drop website builder. It helps you easily change the look of your blog and build custom page layouts without writing any code.

You may select from over 300+ professionally designed templates or use their drag-and-drop WordPress website builder to create a unique layout from the start.

Furthermore, it also offers an AI assistant that you can use to generate text from scratch and rewrite existing content like a pro.

Over 1 million websites are using SeedProd to create landing pages. It provides several landing page templates, such as sales pages, coming soon and maintenance mode pages, webinar pages, etc.

Key Features:

• For a quick start, there are 300+ exclusive professionally designed templates.
• It provides pre-built blocks and widgets that you can easily add to your page.
• View a live preview of your page at any time.
• Seamlessly integrates with 3rd party email marketing services like Mailchimp, AWeber, MailerLite, Brevo, etc.
• It prevents spammers and bots from filling in your landing page forms using reCAPTCHA.

Pricing:

A lite version of the plugin is available to download from WordPress.org. However, the premium plans start at $31.60/year for a single site.

Alternatives to SeedProd

Some of the best alternatives are Elementor and Divi.

Get SeedProd

2. All in One SEO

All in One SEO is the most effective and powerful SEO plugin available. It helps you to improve the search engine rankings of your blog quickly.

Plus, right from your WordPress dashboard, you can check your site’s SEO.

It provides on-page SEO tools like keywords, rich snippets, and headline tools to help you optimize your posts and pages. It also handles technical SEO features such as smart sitemaps, robots.txt, and canonical tags.

The best thing about All in One SEO is that it’s user-friendly, so even if you’re new to SEO, you can use it to get your WordPress blog to rank on search engines quickly.

Key Features:

• Analyze your entire website with an SEO audit checklist.
• Automatically create XML sitemaps for you.
• Support for rich snippets schema.
• Tools to improve local SEO.
• Helps improve SEO for WooCommerce.
• Social media integration.

Pricing:

A free version is available on WordPress.org. The Pro version starts from $35.99/year for a single site.

Alternatives to AIOSEO

Some of the best alternatives are Yoast SEO and Rank Math.

Get AIOSEO

3. MonsterInsights

When your blog takes off, it’s a good idea to track where your readers are coming from and how they use your site. A plugin like MonsterInsights allows you to connect your website to Google Analytics without touching a single line of code.

This robust plugin gives you access to all essential metrics and real-time data, which you can view straight from your WordPress dashboard.

Furthermore, you can also track other relevant metrics, such as downloads and clicks. It also gives you access to other add-ons like Forms to track submissions.

Key Features:

• Custom WordPress dashboard reports.
• Real-time stats for blog traffic.
• Audience demographics data.
• SEO headline analyzer.
• Integrated with WooCommerce, WPForms, CookieBot, etc.

Pricing:

You can use MonsterInsights Lite for free. To unlock more advanced analytics features, you can get the Premium version starting at $99.60 per year.

Alternatives to MonsterInsights

Some of the best alternatives are ExactMetrics and Analytify.

Get MonsterInsights

4. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the top WordPress lead generation and conversion optimization plugin. It allows you to create attractive optin forms to turn your blog’s abandoning visitors into subscribers.

Additionally, with their drag-and-drop builder, you can customize any opt-in form or campaign template.

The advanced display targeting tools in OptinMonster allow you to customize campaigns for each user, allowing you to see the right message to the right person at the right time.

It’s an excellent choice for bloggers, businesses, and e-commerce sites. OptinMonster is required if you want to generate more money from your website traffic. Overall, it’s an essential plugin for blogs.

For more details, check our complete OptinMonster Review.

Key Features:

• Drag and drop campaign builder.
• Multiple campaign types for actionable marketing.
• Powerful Exit-Intent® technology.
• Seamless integrations with popular services.
• Detailed insights to improve your campaigns.

Pricing:

Optinmonster starts at $59.60/year for a single site.

Alternatives to OptinMonster

Some of the best alternatives are Convert Pro and Thrive Leads.

Get OptinMonster

5. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is one of the top caching plugins for WordPress that improves blog speed and performance, which is essential for a positive user experience and search engine optimization (SEO).

This advanced cache plugin handles the heavy lifting for you, activating 80% of the best performance practices, such as caching or gzip compression, right upon activation.

It also offers features like JS/CSS minification, lazyloading, and database optimization, which will help you get a high PageSpeed Insights score.

For more, read our complete WP Rocket review.

Key Features:

• Page and browser caching.
• Minifies your HTML, Javascript, CSS, and feeds.
• Supports third-party plugins like Jetpack, Yoast, etc.
• WooCommerce compatible.
• Multilingual ready.
• Lazy loading images and content.
• Compatible with CloudFlare.

Pricing:

WP Rocket is a premium WordPress plugin. It starts from $59 per year for a single site.

Alternatives to WP Rocket

Some of the best alternatives are W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

Get WP Rocket

6. Smash Ballon

If you’re a regular blogger, you’re likely active on popular social media platforms. Embedding your feeds on your WordPress site can improve its visual appeal and is a great method to increase your follower count.

Smash Balloon allows you to link several Instagram accounts, combining them into a single feed or splitting them up into different ones. You may also customize each feed and include a Load More button to ensure that the images do not slow down your site. Additionally, you may also integrate your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.

Key Features:

• Integrate social feeds into your website with ease.
• Create a customized feed.
• Automatically filter content by keyword or hashtag.
• Social content integrates nicely with your site’s content.
• Display the number of likes, shares, and comments.

Pricing:

Each plugin starts at $49 a year. Alternatively, you can pay $299 yearly for the All Access Bundle, which includes all six plugins. You may also try out the free versions of Smash Balloon.

Alternatives to Smash Ballon

Some of the best alternatives are Social Snap and Monarch.

Get Smash Ballon

7. Pretty Links

If you want to monetize your blog, a link management plugin like Pretty Links can help you. It helps to keep track of your affiliate links. It also allows you to make them shorter and more consistent with your brand so that the URL displays your own domain name.

Furthermore, the Pretty Links Pro version allows you to choose which keywords should be linked and set a target URL. This way, you won’t lose out on any opportunity to monetize your content.

Key Features:

• Auto-link to specific keywords.
• Easily manage and add affiliate links.
• Shareable links for emails and podcasts.
• Supplies tracking data.
• Shortens your affiliate links.

Pricing:

A free version is available on WordPress.org. The Premium version starts at $99.60/ year for a single site.

Alternatives to Pretty Links

Some best alternatives are ThirstyAffiliates and Easy Affiliate.

Get Pretty Links

8. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is the most beginner-friendly WordPress contact form plugin. It allows you to create a basic contact form to connect with your readers.

As your blog gets popular, people will want to contact you to discuss partnerships, display ads, guest posting, and other exciting opportunities.

Gravity Forms will help you quickly create a customized contact form that will protect you from spammers.

Key Features:

• Easy drag-and-drop form builder.
• Customizable form fields.
• Conditional logic feature to display or hide fields, sections, pages, and more.
• Integrates with popular email marketing services.
• Prevents spam through its anti-spam feature.

Pricing:

Gravity Forms starts from $59/year for a single site.

Alternatives to Gravity Forms

Some best alternatives are Ninja Forms and Formidable Forms.

Get Gravity Forms

9. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the most popular backup plugin for WordPress. It is recommended that you create a complete backup before making any major blog changes, such as changing a theme, upgrading a plugin, or updating the WordPress core. You can immediately use UpdraftPlus to restore the backup if something goes wrong.

Things could still go wrong, no matter how diligent you are or how secure your WordPress hosting is. If something like that happens and your site is hacked, you’ll want to be ready.

UpdraftPlus makes it simple to restore your site when you have an issue.

Key Features:

• Manual and automated scheduled backups.
• Use fewer server resources for faster processing.
• Supports backup to cloud services like Amazon S3, DropBox, Google Drive, etc.
• Use fewer server resources for faster processing.
• Creates complete backup logs.

Pricing:

You can get the free version of UpdraftPlus from the WordPress.org site. However, the Premium version starts from $70 per year for two site licenses.

Alternatives to UpdraftPlus

Some of the best alternatives are BlogVault and BackupBuddy.

Get UpdraftPlus

10. RafflePress

Next on your list of the best blog plugins for WordPress is RafflePress.

RafflePress is the top giveaway plugin for WordPress. It allows you to create viral giveaways on your blog to generate traffic, get social media followers, and grow your email list.

Furthermore, RafflePress has a simple drag-and-drop giveaway builder and proven giveaway templates that you can use to design a giveaway that captures visitors’ attention.

Key Features:

• Drag and drop giveaway builder.
• Pre-built giveaway templates.
• Powerful social media integrations.
• Highly optimized giveaway landing page.
• Advanced tracking and retargeting.

Pricing:

You can get the free version of RafflePress from the WordPress.org site. However, the Premium version starts from $31.60/year for a single site.

Alternatives to RafflePress

Some of the best alternatives are Woorise and Simple Giveaways.

Get RafflePress

11. MemberPress

MemberPress is the top WordPress membership plugin. It allows you to limit visitors’ access to select pages, posts, and custom post types. It is quite useful in managing your content.

Additionally, when your blog grows, you may use this plugin to restrict guest contributors’ access.

For more, check out our complete MemberPress Review.

Key Features:

• Powerful user access rules.
• Fully customizable pricing pages.
• Integrates with various payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
• Compatible with popular WordPress plugins.
• Integrates with email marketing services like Mailchimp, Drip, ConvertKit, etc.
• Create customizable coupons.
• Course builder for creating courses.

Pricing:

MemberPress plans start from $179 a year for a single site license.

Alternatives to MemberPress

Some of the best alternatives are LearnDash and Restrict Content Pro.

Get MemberPress

12. Imagify

When creating a blog, you must also include images on the blog page itself. When your blog’s content grows, and you don’t compress the images, it can take a lot of space. Additionally, this may slow down the website’s performance.

You can use the Imagify plugin to help you compress images on your blogs. It is also one of the best image optimization plugins for your blog website. This plugin might help you optimize your blog images while maintaining their quality.

Learn more in our complete Imagify review.

Key Features:

• Lossless compression.
• Lazy loading.
• Bulk image compression.
• Image resizing.
• Convert to WebP format.

Pricing:

You can use Imagify for free up to 200 images/month. To optimize more images, you may need a pro plan, which starts from 5.99/mo for 5,000 images.

Alternatives to Imagify

Some of the best alternatives are Optimole and ShortPixel Image Optimizer.

Get Imagify

13. Sucuri

It is important to maintain your WordPress site secure for both you and your users. For this, you can use a WordPress security plugin like Sucuri. It protects your blog from malware threats, DDoS, and other attacks.

To learn more about strengthening your WordPress website’s security, see our ultimate WordPress security guide.

Key Features:

• Monitor blocklists.
• Scan for malware.
• Powerful blog firewall protection.
• Effective security hardening.
• Post-Hack security add-ons.

Pricing:

There is a limited free version and paid plans start at $199.99 for a single site.

Alternatives to Sucuri

Some of the best alternatives are WordFence and Cloudflare.

Get Sucuri

14. Akismet

Blogs are an easy target for spammers, so you should protect your website using a tool like Akismet. This plugin looks through all of your comments and removes any that appear to be spam.

Additionally, It also checks every contact form submission and protects your website from publishing malicious content. You can use its discard feature to block repeated spam messages, saving you a lot of storage space.

Key Features:

• Automatically filter spam comments.
• View the status history for each comment to see where the spam was found.
• Displaying URLs in the comment body to identify misleading links.
• Discard features that block the worst spam to save the storage.

Pricing:

You can get the free version of Akismet from the WordPress.org site. For more advanced features, you can upgrade to its premium version, starting from $10 per month.

Alternatives to Akismet

Some of the best alternatives are AntiSpam Bee and WP Cerber.

Get Akismet

15. Revive Old Posts

Social media is the best way to drive traffic to your blog. However, it can take a lot of your time to manually re-share your content on all of your channels.

Revive Old Posts handles these jobs for you by automatically sharing your new posts on Facebook and Twitter. It also re-posts articles from your archive to increase their reach. Additionally, you may schedule your posts, use hashtags, and track clicks.

Key Features:

• Post to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
• Automatically generate hashtags for post shares.
• Exclude specific posts from sharing on social media.
• Compatible with URL shorteners.

Pricing:

You can get the free version of Revive Old Posts from the WordPress.org site. For more advanced features, you can upgrade to its premium version, starting from $88.5 per year.

Alternatives to Revive Old Posts

Some of the best alternatives are CoSchedule and Blog2Social.

Get Revive Old Posts

16. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an excellent plugin for making money online by selling things via your WordPress blog. This plugin allows you to build a highly configurable eCommerce store.

It offers free and paid extensions to improve the functionality of your blog.

Key Features:

• Allows you to sell physical products to digital downloads and even subscriptions.
• Built-in payment processing.
• Built-in analytics and reporting tools.
• Works seamlessly with all WordPress themes.
• Advanced shopping cart system.
• Powerful customer management system.

Pricing:

Free.

Alternatives to WooCommerce

Some of the best alternatives are Easy Digital Downloads and Shopify.

Get WooCommerce

17. Jetpack

It is undoubtedly one of the best WordPress plugins for blogs if you want to manage your blog website easily. Jetpack, developed by Automattic, also provides various kinds of site statistics. It allows you to track the number of visitors or readers to your blog and prepare strategies to grow it even further.

This plugin is also useful for spam filtering, malware detection, and brute force attack protection. As a result, it protects your website from unauthorized attacks. Your blogs will also be in good hands.

Key Features:

• Real-time backups and restore.
• Keeps a record of every change made on your site.
• Offers advanced site stats and analytics.
• Provides comprehensive security features.
• Improve site performance by enabling image and static file CDN.
• Allows automatic sharing of blog posts to social media.

Pricing:

A free version is available on WordPress.org. The pro complete package costs $24.95 for the first year, then $49.95/per year.

Alternatives to Jetpack

Some of the best alternatives for backup and security are UpdraftPlus and Wordfence.

Get Jetpack

Start Using These Best WordPress Plugins for Blogs Today!

We hope this article helps you find the top WordPress plugins for blogs. With these plugins in your arsenal, you can take your blog to the next level.

Many of the plugins on this list have free versions. If you’re a WordPress user on a tight budget, you may still use free WordPress plugins to improve your blog. As your blog grows, consider upgrading to the pro version.

For more, check out these other helpful resources:

• Ultimate Guide to WordPress SEO
• 23 Proven Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic for Free
• How to Make Money Blogging

Lastly, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on the latest WordPress and blogging-related articles.