by The Computing Australia Group | If you have used or at least heard of WordPress, chances are that you know what WordPress plugins are. Simply put, WordPress plugins are software that contains a set of functions used to enhance the performance, functioning and usability of a WordPress site. WordPress itself only provides the barebones necessary to create a website. Plugins are of the utmost necessity to expand the functionality of your site.
While there are free plugins available for almost everything, sometimes it becomes necessary to take the paid route to get the best out of your website. Below, we list 20 such plugins that are essential for your business website –
Recovering lost data can be an expensive and time-consuming process, with no real guarantee of the completeness or accuracy of the data recovered. It is very critical to backup your WordPress site regularly to protect your data from hardware failure, malware attacks, data theft, etc. UpdraftPlus is a reliable backup plugin that offers seamless data protection for your WordPress site. It provides features such as
Features of Backup Buddy:
Features of Backup Buddy:
- Schedule automatic regular back-ups
- Automatic scheduled backups
- Support for cloud storage
- Simple restoration and migration of data
- Quick malware scans
Price – Subscription plans – Starting from A$104 per year for 2 sites, A$140 per year for 10 sites, A$215 per year for 35 sites, A$290 per year for unlimited sites.
It is a powerful plugin and creates multiple layers to protect your website from malware attacks and hackers. It combines the features of a Web Application Firewall, Intrusion Detection System and Content Delivery Network.
In addition to remote malware scanning and security notifications, Sucuri provides:
- Security activity logs
- Blacklist monitoring and removal
- File-integrity monitoring
- Cloud-based reverse-proxy website firewall to filter traffic
- Price – A$295 per year for Basic, A$442 per year for Pro, A$735 per year for Business. Custom plans are also available.
Speed is crucial for any site. You will need a caching plug-in to speed up your site. WP Rocket is one of the most user-friendly caching plugins with most of the options being taken care of on activation itself.
In addition to the caching function, it features:
In addition to the caching function, it features:
- Minify HTML
- Sitemap Preloading
- Multilingual Compatibility
- eCommerce Friendly
- Google Fonts Optimization
- Lazy Load
- Mobile Caching
- Defer JS loading
- Integration with CDNs, and quite a few more
- Price – A$87 for Single, A$175 for Plus (3 sites) and A$440 for Infinite (unlimited sites). License renewals are required if you want updates. Renewals are currently at 30% off.
No list of Paid WordPress Plugins is complete without Yoast. SEO is essential for SERPs and driving traffic. Yoast is one of the best SEO plugins.
The key features include:
- Allows you to choose a focus keyword for your content
- Built-in content analysis recommends steps for SEO improvement
- Meta keywords and description management
- Managing duplicate content
- Canonical links
- No-index for pages that you don’t want to be indexed
- Hide archives and tags
- XML sitemaps
- Search Console Integration
- Easy editing of Robots and .htaccess files
- Protecting your RSS feed from content scrapers and more
- Price – There is a free version, but you’ll need the premium version (A$145) if you need to make use of the full features.
This is just the lead generation plug-in you need for opt-in forms and to build and grow your email list.
The basic features include:
The basic features include:
- Pre-designed templates
- Detailed stats and reports
- Boosts conversions with SmartLinks & Smart Exit
- Targeting and testing features
- The various types of opt-ins featured include:
- ThriveBox (PopUp Lightbox)
- Sticky Ribbon
- In-Line forms
- 2-Step Opt-In forms
- Slide-in
- Opt-In Widget
- Screen Filler Overlay
- Content Lock
- Yes/No & Multiple-Choice Forms
- Price – There are two pricing options, A$219 per quarter or A$440 per year.
Real-time interaction with website visitors is a great method of user engagement and lead generation. Live-Chat is one of the best chat plugins available for WordPress.
Features:
Features:
- The chat window shows instantly what the visitor is typing, allowing you to prepare quick response and assistance
- The customizable chat box is always visible and accessible with a single click
- Embedded share button
- Allows you to start a conversation with a customer first
- Built-in analytics and reports
- Connect to Google Analytics for impact analysis
- Price – There is a free trial for 14 days. Plans start at A$16 per month for Starter, A$60per seat/month for Team, A$89 per seat/month for Business. All prices are billed annually.
A responsive image and video gallery is important for a business website. Envira Gallery is an awesome plugin that lets you set up a gallery in minutes. The most noticeable things are the ease of use and speed. It’s very easy to create a gallery and insert in a page, post, or a widget. And unlike other gallery plugins, it does not slow down your site speed.
Other features include:
Other features include:
- Drag and drop gallery builder
- Pop-ups and slideshows
- Pre-built templates
- Watermarking
- Social sharing
- Download enabled
- Great mobile responsiveness
- Price – A$58 for Basic, A$102 for Plus, A$145 for Pro (most popular plan) and A$514 for the Lifetime plan. Renewals need to be done annually except for the Lifetime plan which is a one-time fee only.
Advertising is a popular way to monetize your site. Displaying ads manually on your WordPress site can be quite a struggle. It is a very easy to use plugin with a core of basic features and option of add-ons for advanced functionalities. AdSanity allows you to publish self-hosted and network ads.
Other features include:
Other features include:
- Multiple publishing options to create endless or date-based ads
- Statistics of your ad views and click-throughs, with various add-ons like Google Analytics tracking
- Ad Block detection
- Hide ads depending on the visitor demography
- Control how your ads appear with a new metabox on Create Ad screen
- Price – Licenses start at Basic for A$87 per year, Pro for A$264 per year and Extended for A$632 per three years.
Business sites find sliders as an effective way to display important messages and images. Soliloquy is the fastest loading and most easy-to-use slider plugin available in the market. In addition to the core features, the advanced features are offered as add-ons. You just need to activate a feature from the add-on page, keeping the interface clutter-free.
This plug-in features:
This plug-in features:
- Pre-built templates
- Default settings
- Thumbnails and lightbox slider options
- Time interval scheduler for slides
- Import messages from Instagram
- Download protection
- Price – Personal at A$29 for 1 site, Multi for A$73 for 3 sites, Developer at A$144 for 25 sites (most popular), Agency- A$362 for unlimited sites. License renewal required for updates.
It is not enough to just have a great website. Social media is crucial for the visibility and reach of any business. It is no wonder that sites with share buttons get more traffic and user engagement than sites that do not have share options. Social Snap is a relatively new plugin that has become a hit quite fast with its features and button designs.
The main features include:
The main features include:
- Advanced Analytics
- Supports total and individual share counts
- Editing of social media metadata
- Re-sharing old posts
- Visitors can log-in to your site from social networks
- Device targeting
- Social Auto poster to publish new posts automatically on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
- Click to tweet boxes, etc.
- Price – The basic version is free. If you need access to all the add-ons you will need to upgrade to the premium version. Currently, they have a 30% discount on their plans. License starts from A$40 per year for 1 site, A$102 per year for 3 sites, A$307 per year for 15 sites.
The website is incomplete without contact forms. Visitors can easily contact you with contact forms. WPForms is the most user-friendly and popular forms plugins out there.
The main features include:
The main features include:
- Drag and Drop builder to create forms without writing code.
- Responsive across multiple devices
- Pre-built form templates
- View all leads in one place
- Smart captcha and Spam Protection
- Instant form notification
- Easy to Embed Forms
- Price – There is a ‘lite’ version which is free. If you are looking for powerful features to grow your business leads, we recommend the Pro version. Pricing ranges from approximately A$73/year for the Basic version, A$145/year for the Plus version, A$292/year for the Pro version, and A$439/year for the Elite version.
The OptinMonster plugin is used on websites to create and display several types of opt-in forms to capture leads and grow email lists.
Some of its unique features include:
Some of its unique features include:
- Exit-intent technology
- A/B testing
- Page-level targeting
- Built-in analytics
- Price – OptinMonster offers different plans to cater to the needs of various users, starting from a Basic plan (A$88/year) to higher-tier plans with more advanced features, Plus plan (A$175/year), Pro Plan (A$293/year), and Growth Plan (A$588/year)
13. Elementor
Elementor is a powerful drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress, allowing users to easily create and customize their website’s layout and design without any coding knowledge. With its intuitive interface and wide range of pre-designed templates and widgets, Elementor streamlines the website building process and empowers users to bring their creative visions to life. Below are the features that our clients are using:
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface
- Wide range of pre-designed templates and widgets
- Real-time editing and previews
- Mobile-responsive design
- Seamless integration with WordPress themes
- Price – Elementor offers three pricing plans. The Personal plan is A$72 per year for use on 1 site, Plus plan is A$146 per year for use on 3 sites, and Expert plan is A$293 per year for use on 1,000 sites. All plans include one-year support and updates, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and access to all core features.
14. Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is a powerful WordPress plugin that allows users to create custom forms for various purposes, such as contact forms, surveys, and event registrations, without needing any coding knowledge. It offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features, including conditional logic, file uploads, and multi-page forms. Additionally, Gravity Forms is compatible with numerous third-party services such as PayPal, Mailchimp, and Zapier, enhancing its functionality and versatility.
Here are some main features of Gravity Forms in WordPress:
Here are some main features of Gravity Forms in WordPress:
- Drag-and-Drop Form Builder: Easily create and customize forms using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface
- Conditional Logic: Show or hide fields, sections, and pages based on user selections to create dynamic forms.
- Multi-Page Forms: Break longer forms into multiple pages to improve user experience and completion rates.
- Theme builder for creating custom post and archive templates
- Third-Party Integrations: Seamlessly connect with services like PayPal, Mailchimp, and Zapier to extend form functionality.
The Matomo plugin for WordPress allows website owners to seamlessly integrate the Matomo analytics platform into their WordPress sites, providing powerful insights into their website’s performance and visitor behaviour.
- Real-time analytics
- Customizable dashboards
- Support for goal tracking
- 100% Data Ownership
- Price – Matamo offers a 21-day free trial. Their paid plan for Business starts at A$31 per month to A$310 per year. They also offer custom Enterprise pricing.
The Uncanny Automator plugin for WordPress is a powerful tool that enables users to create automatic actions based on triggers, helping to streamline and automate various workflows on their WordPress site.
Some of its key features include:
Some of its key features include:
- Integration with over a dozen popular WordPress plugins and many third-party services
- User-friendly visual builder for creating automation recipes
- Support for complex conditional logic and multiple triggers and actions
- Detailed logs and reporting for tracking automation activity
- Price – This plugin has a Basic plan (1 site) for A$218 per year, Plus plan (10 sites) for A$365 per year and the Elite plan (50 sites) for A$585 per year.
Smash Balloon is a powerful WordPress plugin that allows users to integrate customisable social media feeds into their websites seamlessly. With easy setup and configuration, this plugin lets users display dynamic social media content from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube directly on their WordPress site. The plugin offers a variety of attractive design options and layouts, making it easy to create engaging and interactive social media feeds that resonate with visitors.
Key features of the Smash Balloon plugin include:
Key features of the Smash Balloon plugin include:
- Seamless integration of social media feeds from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
- Customizable display options for creating attractive and engaging social media feeds
- Easy setup and configuration without needing to write any code
- Responsive design, ensuring a consistent and optimised display across devices
The Groundhogg plugin for WordPress is a powerful marketing automation tool designed to streamline and enhance your email marketing and CRM efforts. It allows you to create sophisticated campaigns and automate interactions with your audience, all from within your WordPress dashboard. With its user-friendly interface and robust feature set, Groundhogg makes managing customer relationships and driving engagement more efficient.
Here are the features:
Visual Campaign Builder
Here are the features:
Visual Campaign Builder
- Visual Campaign Builder
- Advanced Segmentation
- Email Builder
- Contact Management
- Price – There’s a free plan suitable for small sites. Here are the paid plans, Basic plan for A$352 per year (1 site), Plus plan for A$405 per year (3 sites), Pro plan for A$881 per year (5 sites), and the Agency plan for A$1,762per year (25 sites),
LearnDash is a powerful WordPress plugin designed to create and manage online courses with ease. It offers features like advanced course building tools, quizzes, and robust reporting to track learner progress. With its flexible integration options and customizable settings, LearnDash is ideal for educators and businesses looking to deliver engaging and interactive eLearning experiences.
Here are four key features of the LearnDash plugin for WordPress:
Here are four key features of the LearnDash plugin for WordPress:
- Course Builder: Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for creating and organizing course content.
- Quizzes and Assessments: Customizable quizzes with various question types and automatic grading.
- Certificates and Badges: Automated awarding of certificates and badges for course completion and achievements.
- Progress Tracking: Visual indicators and detailed reports on learner progress and course performance.
- Price – The LearnDash LMS plugin has the following pricing, for 1 site it’s A$292 per year, 10 sites at A$585per year, and for unlimited sites it’s at A$1,172 per year.
Akismet is a popular plugin for WordPress that helps to prevent spam comments on your website. It uses a sophisticated algorithm to detect and filter out spam, saving you time and energy. With Akismet, you can maintain a clean and trustworthy environment for your site’s visitors and focus on creating great content.
Here are the main features:
Here are the main features:
- Automatic spam filtering
- Comment status history
- Discard feature for blatant spam
- URL scanning to detect links in comments
Price – There’s a Personal plan where you can have it for free. The Pro plan is at A$15.95 per month billed yearly, and the Business plan for A$78.95 per month billed yearly.
So that’s our list of Paid WordPress Plugins. Some of these plugins have a basic free version, but you’ll need a premium version to make full use of the features offered. You may also be interested in our post: 12 Woo Commerce Plugins to make the client experience pop.
Not sure which plugins to choose? Let us help you. With our extensive knowledge of designing and hosting WordPress sites, we can help you design your WordPress site and choose the best plugins for your business site. Contact us today or email us at sales@computingaustralia.group.
Jargon Buster
Malware attacks – BIOS, short for Basic Input/Output System, is the software that runs first when you start your system.Captcha – High Dynamic Range (HDR) refers to the heightened visual dynamic range which offers higher contrast and more clarity.
CDN – A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system of geographically distributed servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.
