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Best free WordPress plugins to optimize your site in 2025

Reading Time: 21 minutes

As you may already know, there are thousands of free plugins available for WordPress. These allow you to add functionality to your site with the click of a button, rather than needing to hire a developer to custom code something that meets your needs. 

And while the sheer number of plugins poses a great opportunity, it can also feel overwhelming. Where do you even start?

We’ve created a list of the best free plugins for WordPress websites, including tools that boost everything from security and performance to marketing and design.

We’ll also discuss what to look for in a plugin and answer some common questions. Let’s dive right in!

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What to look for in a WordPress plugin

Not all plugins are created equal. Whether you’re building your first website or your tenth, there’s a bit of work you should put in before making a decision.

The first step is to look at ratings and comments from real users. If you’re searching in the WordPress.org plugin library, you can find ratings and reviews on the right-hand side of a plugin page, as shown in the image below:

plugin ratings

Here, you can also view the plugin’s support forum. This will give you an idea of common issues and the developer’s response time.

For instance, here’s an image that shows the support forum for the Omnisend plugin:

support forum for Omnisend plugin

Then, make sure that the plugin is compatible with the most recent version of WordPress. Ideally, it should have been updated within the last six months. Once again, you’ll find the information on the plugin page, as shown below:

plugin compatibility

Another thing to consider is the number of downloads. If a plugin has a large user base, then it’s likely reliable and high-quality. Some of the best WordPress plugins have thousands of active installations. Note, however, that if it’s a very niche plugin that provides a very specific functionality, the number of installations may be lower.

Many free plugins also have premium versions, so you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock more features. In the description on the plugin page, a freemium plugin will typically outline the differences between the free and paid versions. Pay attention to this so you can fully grasp exactly what the download includes.

The best free WordPress plugins to optimize your site

The free plugins below include the rating, number of downloads, and key features of the tool. They’re also organized into six main categories: marketing, security, performance, website functionality and design, ecommerce, and advanced functionality.

Let’s start with marketing:

Free WordPress marketing plugins

Whether you have a professional blog or online store, you’ll need to market your content effectively to grow your following or client base. Here are the best free marketing tools for reaching your audience and keeping them engaged:

Omnisend

Best free wordpress plugins: Omnisend WP plugin

If you run a business site or online store, a marketing automation plugin can boost your conversions while saving you a lot of time. With Omnisend, you can create automated email and SMS campaigns, and personalize content based on customer demographics, behavior, and more.

Omnisend integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, letting you display push notifications, product suggestions, back-in-stock alerts, and other messages that drive sales and engagement. The free plan has all the features you need to launch effective email campaigns.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 60,000

Features

  • More than 250 professional email templates
  • A visual builder that helps you create automated workflows
  • The ability to show product recommendations and other personalized messages based on customer data, like previous purchases
  • Integration with Facebook ads, Google ads, Zapier, and other platforms
  • Pre-built ecommerce workflows for cart abandonment, order confirmations, and more
  • Unlimited audience segmentation, enabling you to create campaigns that target specific customers

Yoast SEO

Best free wordpress plugins: yoastSEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website show up on search engines (like Google) when people type in keywords related to what you have to offer. Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins and is designed to help site owners implement SEO best practices. 

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 10 million

Key features

  • Readability scores and suggestions to make your content easier to read
  • An SEO score for each page or post, with actionable feedback 
  • Structured data, XML sitemaps, and cornerstone content — all designed to help search engines better index and understand your content

WPForms 

Best free wordpress plugins: WPforms

WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to create advanced forms for multiple purposes — generating leads, collecting payments, and accepting registrations. It comes with more than 2,000 pre-built form templates to get you started.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than six million

Key features

  • Custom login and user registration forms
  • Multi-page contact forms
  • A variety of custom fields, which include star ratings and file uploads
  • A survey form builder and reporting tools
  • Support for PayPal, Stripe, Square Payments, and Authorize.Net

Smash Balloon

Best free wordpress plugins: smash balloon

Smash Balloon connects your website to your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts so that you can display your social feeds on any page. This is an excellent way to showcase social proof, highlight user-generated content, and encourage visitors to follow your accounts.

There are a variety of plugins available based on the social network that you want to use.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • The ability to display multiple social media feeds on your site
  • A drag-and-drop customizer for your feeds
  • A dedicated block for adding social feeds using the block editor
  • The option to show or hide certain posts

AddToAny Share Buttons

Best free wordpress plugins: addtoany share buttons

When someone visits your site and likes a piece of content, they can use share buttons to post about that content on their social media accounts. This is a great way to drive new traffic to your website and increase social engagement. 

With the AddToAny Share Buttons plugin, readers can share your content on Facebook, Mastodon, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 400,000

Key features

  • Customizable share and follow buttons
  • Counters that show the number of shares for each piece of content
  • Share buttons for images
  • Integration with Google Analytics

Site Kit by Google

Best free wordpress plugins: site kit by google

Do you use Google marketing tools like Search Console, Analytics, and AdSense? Site Kit by Google gives you access to these features directly inside your WordPress dashboard. All you have to do is connect your site to your Google accounts. 

WordPress rating: 4/5

Active installations: More than four million

Key features

  • Access to metrics and insights from your WordPress dashboard
  • Granular permissions for the different Google products you use 
  • Analytics for your entire site and individual posts and pages

Pixel Manager for WooCommerce

pixel manager

Running paid ads on social media and through Google is an effective way to drive more traffic to your website, but only if your ads connect with the right people.

Pixel Manager for WooCommerce collects valuable insights about your customers, which you can use to create targeted ads that truly speak to the needs of your audience. This ultimately leads to more conversions and more effective use of your marketing budget.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 50,000

Key features

  • Integrations with Google Analytics, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads
  • The ability to track conversions and other metrics from Google Ads and social media advertising
  • Customizable filters so you have more control over what data you track

PrettyLinks

pretty links

While affiliate marketing is a powerful way to generate sales and word of mouth for your business, tracking links can get very long and messy. PrettyLinks generates short, branded affiliate URLs and helps you monitor their performance so you always know where you stand.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 300,000

Key features

  • The ability to create custom links for affiliate URLs
  • 301, 302, and 307 redirects
  • The ability to track the number of clicks for each link
  • Branded payment links

Free WordPress security plugins

One of the first steps you should take after launching your site (or even before) is setting up security measures. The following security plugins help you do this, protecting your hard work and data while providing ultimate peace of mind:

Jetpack Protect

jetpack protect

Jetpack Protect is a powerful security solution by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com. It scans your website for security vulnerabilities and sends you instant alerts so that you can quickly take care of things before they become problems.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • Brute force protection, which stops unauthorized login attempts
  • A vulnerability scanner that checks your website against a database of more than 30,770 reported issues related to WordPress core, themes, and plugins

UpdraftPlus

updraft plus

A recent backup can be a lifesaver if your website encounters a cyber attack or technical issues. UpdraftPlus creates copies of your website and stores them in the location of your choosing. If something does happen to your website, you’ll be able to easily restore it to the latest version.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than three million

Key features

  • Manual and scheduled backups (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, etc.)
  • Easy site restorations, with the option to restore certain components only, like plugins or themes
  • Remote storage locations, including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3

Akismet 

akismet

Akismet is an anti-spam solution with a free plan for personal sites. It checks your contact form submissions and comments for spam and malicious content. This saves you tons of time because you won’t have to weed through every comment and contact form submission manually. Plus, it protects your site visitors from dangerous links, potential scams, and other threats from spammers. 

Akismet does all of this without requiring visitors to submit a CAPTCHA, solve a riddle, or do anything else. It works in the background with 99.99% accuracy. This streamlines the user experience, leading to more engagement and conversions.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than three million

Key features

  • Automatic spam filtering for contact form submissions and comments
  • Visibility into the number of approved comments for each user
  • The option to automatically delete spam or require approval by an administrator

Wordfence

wordfence

Wordfence offers a suite of features to help protect your site, including a web application firewall, a malware scanner, and login security features. There are a wide variety of options that allow you to have granular control over your security setup, along with a default configuration for beginners. 

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than five million

Key features

  • A malware scanner that checks core files, themes, and plugins
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) and CAPTCHA to secure your login page
  • Brute force protection by limiting login attempts from suspicious IP addresses
  • The ability to repair modified files and restore them to their default version

WPS Hide Login

wps hide login

By default, visitors can access the WordPress login page by adding the suffix /wp-admin or /wp-login.php to a site’s URL. Since it’s always the same, hackers and bots can find the page and gain access to your site more easily.

You can use the WPS Hide Login plugin to create a custom login URL, making it very difficult for hackers to locate this page.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: Over one million

Key features

  • The ability to generate a random login page URL or choose your own 
  • Compatibility with plugins that connect to the login page, including BuddyPress, bbPress, and Jetpack

Limit Login Attempts Reloaded

limit login attempts reloaded

Hackers often use bots to try thousands of username and password combinations to log into your website. You can stop these brute force attacks by limiting the number of login attempts in a given period of time — and Limit Login Attempts Reloaded helps you do just that. 

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: Over two million

Key features

  • The ability to set the number of times someone can attempt to log in
  • A record of all attempted logins
  • The ability to let users know about the number of retries they have left
  • A setting for the amount of time a user has to wait to try logging in again after being locked out

WP 2FA

wp 2fa

With 2FA, users must provide a one-time code sent to their email address or phone number in order to log in — in addition to submitting their username and password. With WP 2FA, you can easily add this extra layer of security to your website. 

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than two million

Key features

  • Codes generated from Google Authenticator, Authy, or any other 2FA app
  • The ability to enforce 2FA on all user accounts

Advanced Google reCAPTCHA

advanced google recaptcha

reCAPTCHA is a security tool that authenticates people who leave comments on your site or try to log in. Forms that use reCAPTCHA typically ask people to tick a box to confirm that they are not a robot. The Advanced Google reCAPTCHA plugin makes it easy to add this to your website and protect forms from spam.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • The ability to add Google reCAPTCHA to WordPress comment and login forms
  • Integrations with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

Free WordPress performance plugins 

The performance of your website plays an important role when it comes to the user experience — site visitors simply don’t want to wait for pages to load. Plus, search engines consider performance when determining website rankings. So, let’s take a look at some WordPress performance plugins that can help you improve your site speed:

Jetpack Boost

jetpack boost

Jetpack Boost offers a variety of features that you can enable through simple toggles, even if you have no performance knowledge or experience. It focuses on improving Core Web Vitals, which are metrics used by Google to determine how a website performs.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 500,000

Key features

  • An image content delivery network (CDN) that automatically resizes your images and serves them in the right web format
  • Page caching, so you can serve saved copies of your pages to reduce load times
  • Options to generate Critical CSS, defer non-essential JavaScript, minify CSS and JavaScript, and more

W3 Total Cache

w3 total cache

Caching stores copies of website files (typically in visitors’ browsers) so that when people return to your site, it loads much faster. W3 Total Cache is one of the leading caching plugins, chock full of powerful features that reduce your load time.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • Caching of posts, pages, CSS, JavaScript, categories, comments, and more
  • Minification of pages and scripts
  • The ability to defer non-essential JavaScript and CSS

Smush

smush

Large image files can slow down your site, but using a plugin like Smush makes a big difference. This image optimization plugin will resize and compress your media files so they load more quickly, thus improving your site’s overall performance. It can also convert images into WebP, which is a lightweight image format compared to JPEG and PNG.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • Bulk image optimization
  • Lazy loading
  • WebP conversions
  • Lossless and lossy compression

WP-Optimize

wp-optimize

WP-Optimize improves WordPress site speed through a variety of techniques, including caching, image compression, code minification, and database cleanup.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • GZIP compression
  • Lossy and lossless compression options for images
  • WebP conversion 
  • Bulk image optimization
  • Database cleanup schedules
  • Minification of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS

WP Super Cache

wp super cache

WP Super Cache is another free caching plugin created by Automattic. It offers three different caching modes based on your experience level — expert, simple, and WP-Cache caching. While this tool is simple and straightforward, it’s also excellent at what it does.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • Three methods of caching, including an option to cache pages for known users
  • CDN support
  • Page compression

EWWW Image Optimizer

ewww image optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer automates image compression on your website. It’s ideal if you plan to upload a lot of photos to your site at once, though you can also bulk optimize existing files in your media library.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • Bulk compression for new and existing images
  • Automatic WebP conversion
  • Lazy loading
  • Free backups of original images, stored for 30 days
  • Image scaling according to page and device size

Free WordPress functionality and design plugins

From translating your website, designing custom pages, and creating beautiful galleries, the following plugins are here to help:

TranslatePress

translatepress

Do you cater to an international audience? If so, you need a translation plugin like TranslatePress. With this tool, you can translate all your website content directly on the front end, using a visual interface.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 300,000

Key features

  • A user-friendly translation interface
  • An integration with Google Translate, so you can set up automatic translations using your Google API key
  • Support for image translations
  • A shortcode that enables you to place language switchers anywhere on your website

Elementor

elementor

Elementor is one of the best free WordPress page builder plugins. It allows you to build pages from scratch, using a drag-and-drop editor. It also comes with pre-made templates for footers, headers, “about” pages, and more. 

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 10 million

Key features

  • A template library with pages, blocks, and more
  • More than 40 widgets, including essential elements like headings, carousels, videos, buttons, galleries, and text
  • An AI feature that helps you design pages faster
  • Customization settings for each element, including color and typography options, alignment and box shadows, and more

bbPress

bbpress

bbPress allows you to create a forum on your website, which is a great way to foster a sense of community and increase engagement. It’s simple and easy to set up, making it a great option for many websites.

WordPress rating: 4/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • Customizable form templates
  • Akismet support built-in, to protect your forum against spam
  • Multisite forums that allow members or readers to create content

The Events Calendar

events calendar

With a plugin like The Events Calendar, you can display schedules for classes, workshops, performances, and other activities. This is a great tool for a variety of businesses, including gyms, restaurants, music venues, and non-profit organizations.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 700,000

Key features

  • An event post type with settings for location, date, time, and more
  • Options for calendar view, month view, and list view
  • A widget for displaying upcoming events
  • Google Maps support
  • An event search tool

Jetpack Search

jetpack search

If a visitor can’t find what they’re looking for, they might leave your site and go elsewhere. Jetpack Search is an incredibly powerful tool that enhances the default WordPress search functionality. 

Visitors can see instant, real-time search results and filter them based on everything from category and post type to date published. There’s also fast, accurate spelling correction and search term highlighting, making it even easier for people to find the content they’re looking for.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 5,000

Key features

  • Instant search without needing to reload the page
  • Seamless integration with WooCommerce
  • Search filters based on categories, tags, and other data
  • Support for all languages
  • The ability to prioritize certain content based on your goals
  • Spelling correction and search term highlighting

Sensei LMS

sensei LMS

Offering online courses is a great way to expand an existing business or just start sharing your knowledge and experience with people online. Sensei LMS makes your online courses visible and accessible on your website. You can create beautiful, engaging courses using the WordPress block editor, embed videos, create quizzes, track student performance, deliver feedback, and more.

WordPress rating: 3.5/5

Active installations: More than 10,000

Key features

  • The ability to embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and VideoPress
  • Student progress tracking
  • A variety of quizzes, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, true/false, and more
  • Learning Mode, which removes distractions from the page for students

Envira Gallery

envira gallery

Galleries are useful for nearly any business, particularly for visual industries like graphic design, real estate, and photography. Enhance the default WordPress gallery blocks with a plugin like Envira Gallery. This drag-and-drop tool makes it simple to create new galleries, add photos, and rearrange them in minutes.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • Built-in gallery layouts, with the option to create templates from scratch
  • Albums to help you organize your media
  • Social media and WooCommerce integrations
  • Image proofing

TablePress

tablepress

TablePress allows you to build user-friendly tables to present pricing plans, images, data, and more. You can easily embed tables into any post or page using a shortcode or a block, adding filters, search bars, and sorting capabilities.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 700,000

Key features

  • The ability to import tables from Excel, CSV, HTML, and JSON files or URLs, as well as export them
  • Live sorting, pagination, and search capabilities
  • Support for images, links, and other data

SeedProd

seedprod

SeedProd was originally a landing page builder for “coming soon” and “maintenance mode” pages. However, it has since expanded, allowing you to design headers and footers, WooCommerce product pages, custom login pages, and more. 

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 800,000

Key features

  • Landing page templates for webinars, giveaways, 404 errors, coming soon pages, maintenance mode pages, and more
  • More than 200 pre-designed WordPress themes and layout sections
  • An intuitive drag-and-drop page builder
  • More than 20 built-in color schemes, with the option to create your own palette

Ultimate Member

ultimate member

With Ultimate Member, you can create a membership website and build an online community. Visitors will have the option to sign up to access premium content and other members-only options. 

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 200,000

Key features

  • A drag-and-drop builder for login and registration forms
  • Conditional logic for form fields
  • Content restriction, with settings for roles and permissions 
  • A profile page for members
  • Member directories

Free ecommerce WordPress plugins

WordPress core doesn’t, by default, include ecommerce functionality. So, you’ll need to install a dedicated plugin to sell products, whether they’re physical goods, services, or downloads. 

Let’s look at the best free WordPress plugins for ecommerce sites:

WooCommerce

Best free wordpress plugins: woocommerce for wordpress

WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform from Automattic. You can use it to sell everything from physical items to digital downloads and services. WooCommerce is incredibly flexible and offers everything you need to sell online, including checkout and cart pages, shipping and tax settings, and inventory management tools.

Want to extend its functionality? There are hundreds of free and premium WooCommerce extensions available.

Plus, WooCommerce is compatible with the majority of WordPress ecommerce themes.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than eight million

Key features

  • The ability to set up shipping options, tax rates, and discount coupons
  • Support for different product types, including affiliate items, instant downloads, and physical goods
  • A collection of WooCommerce blocks, including Cart, Checkout, Featured Product, Newest Products, and more
  • A WooCommerce dashboard where you can view performance metrics for your store and manage all of your orders
  • A simple setup wizard that walks you through all the steps you should take
  • Support for a number of payment gateways and digital wallets
  • The ability to customize checkout, product, and cart templates using the Site editor

WooPayments

Best free wordpress plugins: woopayments

WooPayments is a payment gateway extension built by WooCommerce. It’s both very powerful and very simple to use, supporting credit and debit cards, Tap to Pay, digital wallets, “buy now, pay later” solutions, and more. You can manage absolutely everything, including orders and refunds, directly from the WooCommerce dashboard. There’s also support for international payments and currencies.

Note that this is a free plugin, though there are traditional transaction fees for payments. These start at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for cards issued by U.S. banks, which is standard for payment gateways.

WordPress rating: 3/5

Active installations: More than 800,000

Key features

  • Access to payment details, refunds, and other transactions directly in the WooCommerce dashboard
  • The ability to accept credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and “buy now, pay later” options
  • Support for 135+ currencies and international payment gateways
  • The ability to accept contactless payments using Tap to Pay

Table Rate Shipping Method for WooCommerce

Best free wordpress plugins: table rate shipping method

This plugin builds on default WooCommerce shipping functionality, bringing more flexibility and options. You can set up unlimited shipping methods and cost calculation rules, enabling advanced shipping calculations based on things like cart total.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • The ability to charge handling fees and insurance costs for large orders
  • Cash on delivery shipping methods
  • Settings to hide a shipping method for certain items
  • The ability to display shipping options for logged-in users only
  • Shipping costs based on cart total and/or weight

Easy Digital Downloads

Best free wordpress plugins: easydigitaldownloads

With Easy Digital Downloads, you can sell a variety of downloadable products, like software, ebooks, design templates, photographs, and more. Once a customer purchases an item, they’ll be able to download it immediately using a secure link. This tool provides all the functionality to create a digital storefront, including payment capabilities. 

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than 50,000

Key features

  • The ability to create an unlimited number of products, including bundles and variations
  • A customizable checkout form 
  • Discount codes with start and expiration dates, product and price limitations, and more
  • Integrations with Stripe and PayPal
  • A customer management system that includes purchase history and key metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV)

Discount Rules for WooCommerce

Best free wordpress plugins: discount rules for woocommerce

Discount Rules for WooCommerce enables you to create advanced offers and discounts for your customers. You can build everything from tiered discounts to product-specific offers, cart-based and volume discounts, and more. 

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 100,000

Key features

  • WooCommerce percentage discounts and storewide sales
  • Bulk discounts (or quantity-based discounts)
  • Sale campaigns for specific periods or holidays, like Black Friday
  • A bulk discount table on product pages, so customers know how much money they’ll save
  • A sale badge that you can display on your shop and product pages

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

Best free wordpress plugins: variation swatches

If you sell products in different colors, sizes, or patterns, Variation Swatches for WooCommerce is a great way to enhance the default product page. It allows you to show product variation items as images, colors, and labels, ultimately improving the user experience for your customers.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 300,000

Key features

  • Color, image, and label swatches for variations
  • Rounded and squared swatches
  • The ability to cross out or blur any variations that are out of stock

Free WordPress plugins for advanced functionality

Want to take things a step further? Check out these WordPress plugins for advanced functionality:

Code Snippets

Best free wordpress plugins: code snippets

Adding code directly to your theme’s files can be risky — it can break your site and, if you’re not using a child theme, will be overwritten when you run updates.

Code Snippets makes it easier and safer to customize your website with code. All you need to do is create your snippet, and the plugin will apply it to your site. You can quickly and easily activate and deactivate snippets, and use Safe Mode if something goes wrong.

WordPress rating: 4.5/5

Active installations: More than one million

Key features

  • Support for unlimited snippets
  • Shortcodes and blocks for embedding code
  • Code validation and error handling
  • The ability to import and export code

Query Monitor

Best free wordpress plugins: query monitor

Query Monitor is a plugin that enables developers to troubleshoot PHP errors, hooks and actions, database queries, blocks, and more. It has a user-friendly interface that breaks down issues by plugins, themes, functions, and more.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than 200,000

Key features

  • The ability to debug Ajax and REST API calls
  • Functionality to identify poor-performing plugins, themes, and functions
  • Views of enqueued scripts and stylesheets for each page
  • User capability checks
  • PHP errors that you can view from the admin toolbar

WordPress Importer

Best free wordpress plugins: wordpress importer

If you’re migrating a website or moving content from one site to another, the WordPress Importer will be your best friend. By making a few simple selections, you can import posts, pages, comments, categories, and more.

WordPress rating: 3/5

Active installations: More than three million

Key features

  • The ability to import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, authors, and other data
  • Filters that enable/block certain features, like importing attachments and mapping existing users

WPCode

Best free wordpress plugins: wpcode

WPCode is another free WordPress plugin that inserts custom code into your website. Without needing to edit the theme’s functions.php file, you can add code to your header, footer, and other areas of your site. For example, this is a great way to safely add social media pixels and tracking codes.

WordPress rating: 5/5

Active installations: More than two million

Key features

  • Storage for all your custom code snippets in a cloud library
  • The ability to re-use snippets across multiple websites
  • Ready-made PHP code snippets for several purposes, like disabling comments and allowing SVG file uploads

FAQs

We’ve covered the best free WordPress plugins to help you get started. Still have questions? Let’s answer them:

What is the best free plugin for WordPress?

This will depend on the type of functionality you need. For example, WooCommerce is the best free plugin for online stores.

If you want to automate your marketing, Omnisend is the best choice. It helps you collect more subscribers and then market them with advanced email and SMS campaigns that reach the right people at the right time. It allows you to make the most of every site visitor and protects your precious time.

Looking to improve SEO? Yoast is the best option for WordPress search engine optimization, with an abundance of features to help you grow.

What is the best free form plugin for WordPress?

WPForms is a popular form plugin that includes many features in the free version. You can use it to create advanced contact forms, registration and payment forms, surveys, and more.

How do you get a premium WordPress plugin for free?

Not every premium WordPress plugin has a free version. If you come across a paid plugin that you like, go to the WordPress plugin directory and look for it there.
Plugin directory

If you don’t find it in the directory, then there’s likely no free version available.

Never download free, pirated copies of a premium plugin. Not only do they hurt the developer community, they’re often full of malware or backdoors that can compromise your site security.

Can a free plugin be installed on WordPress by uploading it?

Yes, there are two main ways to install a free plugin in WordPress. The quickest way is to navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin and use the search bar to look for the plugin, as shown in the image below:
Add new plugin
When you find your plugin, just click on Install Now, followed by Activate.

Alternatively, you can download the plugin file from WordPress.org. Find the plugin you want to install on the WordPress Plugin Directory and look for the Download button.

This is located right next to the plugin name, as shown below:
Omnisend WP
The plugin will download to your computer as a ZIP file. Now, go back to Plugins > Add New Plugin and click on the Upload Plugin button that you see in the image below:
upload plugin
Then, select the Choose File button and locate the plugin ZIP file you’ve just downloaded:
upload zip
Once you select the file, you’ll be able to click on the Install Now button. Just wait for the uploading process to complete, and then click on Activate Plugin.
activate plugin

Power your WordPress site with free plugins

One of the biggest benefits of WordPress is that users get access to thousands of powerful free plugins. You can use these tools to add functionality to your site and create virtually anything you can imagine.

But remember, before downloading a plugin, take the time to make sure that it’s regularly updated and has positive reviews. 

Some of the best free WordPress plugins include WooCommerce (for setting up online stores), Jetpack (for boosting performance and security), Elementor (for designing custom pages), and Yoast SEO (for improving your site’s visibility on search engines). 

Meanwhile, Omnisend is the most powerful solution for business owners who want to automate their SMS and email marketing campaigns. You can send product recommendations, items-in-cart reminders, back-in-stock notifications, and other messages to help increase your sales. Plus, it has engaging methods to attract new marketing subscribers so your marketing improves each and every day.

Get started with Omnisend today & drive sales on autopilot to your WordPress site with pre-built automation workflows
Richard White
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Richard is a Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend. An avid writer, he's said to have been born holding a pencil. Fascinated by all things handmade, if he's not reading or writing he can often be found practicing leathercraft.