The WordPress directory has 50k+ free plugins that were developed so you can extend a WordPress website with functions and features far beyond your imagination.
Additional thousands of WordPress plugins are available from various marketplaces.
No matter how much you might have a need for a specialized plugin or two, would you really want to spend a full workday on reseraching? Probably not.
So, what, if anything, can you do? We have an answer to that.
We tested tens of WordPress plugins and selected the 8 best WordPress free and premium plugins for a range of both popular and lesser used functions.
These plugins focus on important functionalities that you won’t typically find in a WordPress theme. They address web designer/developer needs for:
- problem-free building of landing pages that catch the eye.
- management and displaying of financial, commercial, scientific, statistical, and other data, as well as of substantial amounts of data.
- visual storytelling that enhance UX.
- automating and streamlining appointments bookings.
These 8 best WordPress plugins for 2024 are available in trial, free, or premium.
What key qualities do these top WordPress plugins have?
Support – We reviewed product development teams’ responses to problems and questions and recommended only those products whose teams have a history of answering support issues within 24 hours.
Reviews by users. We extensively read product reviews and testimonials that specified both ‘Have’ and ‘Have nots’ of these plugins.
Features – We scrutinized each plugin to ensure its advertised features would meet the goal the plugin was designed and built to satisfy.
Free version – All 8 have free versions with a large number of features.
Compatibility – We made certain each plugin was fully compatible with the latest WordPress and PHP versions, and has been updated within the past two months.
8 Best WordPress Plugins for 2024
These 8 WordPress plugins are excellent in their areas. And we have made your job easier by doing time-consuming work for you.
Below, you will read about each plugin’s key features, how their customer evaluated them, and we will give you links to test them out or find out more info for yourself.
1. Amelia™ WordPress Plugin — Appointment Booking WP Plugin
Amelia is the best WordPress plugin for a service-oriented business looking for an automated booking system.
More than 70% of Amelia’s users agree that Amelia’s standout feature is its powerful multilingual Notifications system that enables users to seamlessly manage their appointment and event bookings via SMS, email, and/or WhatsApp messages.
Product qualities users realize once they begin using Amelia:
- effortless navigation and ultramodern backend and frontend interface attributes.
- the ability to tailor Amelia to meet their specific needs.
- a user-friendly design that is free from unwelcome surprises together with the value inherent in transparent functionality and pricing.
A service-oriented business like the one shown in the barbershop template can take advantage of Amelia’s new and improved booking form, organize an appointment flow that best suits their business model, and receive appointment requests online 24/7.
Product rating: 4.8/5 on Captera.
Customer Insight:
Pros: “Amelia is one of my favorite plugins because: 1. Easy to install and use. 2. Reliable and professional quality. 3. Full of great features – better than any others I have used. 4. Great layout, versatile and works seamlessly with clients 5. It is always updated and improved. 6. Support help and communication is fast, friendly, and excellent. 7. Not just a flash in the pan. It has been around for a long time.”
Cons: “Nothing I can think of or have had to be concerned with.”
Instant Support: Documentation, Videos on YouTube and a Discord Group.
Find out more here
2. wpDataTables: The Best WordPress Table & Chart Plugin
wpDataTables is the best WordPress plugin for organizations or individuals tasked with creating tables and charts from complex and/or massive amounts of data.
wpDataTables’ key feature is its Multiple Database Connections capability. This groundbreaking feature is a data management breakthrough that allows a table to set up independent connections to MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL databases and become a versatile data hub in the process.
Product qualities users quickly become aware of:
- a user interface that does not require technical ability to effortlessly create tables or charts.
- wpDataTable’s blend of powerful features that handle complex data structures with finesse.
- effortlessly show informative tables by seamlessly incorporating data and information sourced from diverse origins.
wpDataTables is excellent for statistics data tables that are responsive. Other uses include:
- fixed headers and columns that ensure that key columns and headers remain visible while scrolling and make data analysis more straightforward.
- Shortcode for single cells: helpful for useful adding multimedia, links, or other dynamic elements to a table.
- The ability to populate tables with data from various APIs.
Product rating: 4.83/5
Customer Insight: “Really great for tables using csv or Excel. Solved a very difficult content issue for me. Thanks so much!”
Instant support options: Excellent documentation and on point YouTube videos.
Use WpDataTables for free.
3. Brizy: Best Website Builder
Brizy is the ideal WordPress website builder for those looking for a White Label solution to market their own brand.
Brizy’s standout feature is its White Label option. You can brand the Brizy builder as your own and encourage clients to create websites using “your” builder.
Product qualities users discover as they use Brizy Builder:
- You will never have a problem editing in place whether you are clicking on a text, an image, or any other kind of content.
- Content is never created in a disjointed sidebar, as is the case in some competing builders.
Tailored features for agencies and resellers in addition to the White Label option, include Billing, Reseller Client Management, Multi-language capabilities, and Marketing integrations.
Brizy Builder is ideal for building creative websites and landing pages in the Brizy Cloud or when used with the Brizy WordPress theme. “Petits” Brizy’s pet website template is ideal for a pet shop in addition to having a wide range of other uses.
Product rating: 4.6/5 on Trust Pilot
Customer Insight: “In many way a very satisfying pagebuilder, with a generous and fantastic free version. Especially the way of working with pictures is really nice. However, sometimes experience that Brizy is a little unstable, some things that in between do not flow as they should. But can warmly recommend it, not least for beginners.”
Support capabilities include the Brizy support manual and YouTube videos.
Click here to check out the Brizy Builder plugin.
4. Slider Revolution
Slider Revolution is the best WordPress plugin for those looking to incorporate a WOW factor into their sliders without any need for coding.
Some say it’s the knockout effects for WordPress that turn them on. With others, Slider Revolution’s top feature is the one that enables them to create sliders visually. Both are right.
Revolution Slider has a host of design options for every category of user:
- Web shop builders will tell you that the WooCommerce sliders are especially useful.
- Businesses and small agencies find the one-page portfolio templates particularly helpful.
- The images and cool scrolling effects in Slider Revolution’s mesmerizing Brewery Website slider template will tempt you to take time out for a cool one. It’s great for a wide variety of uses.
Users quickly take note of the features that allow them to easily upgrade a WordPress website visual in mere minutes.
Product rating: 4.6/5
Customer Insight: “This is a stunning tool. There are great templates that are easily modified to suit you. There’s a learning curve which should come as no surprise once you recognize its potential (and therefore yours.) I don’t know one line of code.”
Support: Slider Revolution’s support manual and YouTube videos provide instant support.
Click for a preview of the Slider Revolution plugin.
5. LayerSlider: #1 WordPress Slider Plugin
LayerSlider is the best WordPress plugin for web designers looking for an uncompromising approach to making amazing web content with gorgeous visual effects.
LayerSlider is not only for building responsive sliders and popups but is also excellent for creating more complex websites. LayerSlider’s top feature is, in fact, a scroll effect in which a hero image magically animates as visitors scroll through the page, as is the case in the Fairy Magical Company example with its scroll scene, scroll transition, and pinned layers.
With respect to templates, the Wood Sculptor website template shows a great example of LayerSlider’s capabilities.
Qualities that only its users will notice include:
- A Project Editor that matches professional desktop applications in terms of performance and usability.
- A complete suite of visual content creation online services without leaving the UI.
- Built-in transitions and effects that can be applied instantly.
Although LayerSlider’s popup and banner-creating capabilities and popular animation features are excellent for marketing purposes, LayerSlider is “tailored” for use on any website niche.
Customer Insight: “Powerful features and a flexible slider for many effects. Makes a very professional looking slider.”
Support: A support manual comes with the package, plus built-in help for almost everything inside the LayerSlider Project Editor.
Click for a preview of the LayerSlider plugin.
6. Essential Grid
Essential Grid is the #1 WordPress gallery plugin for creating galleries guaranteed to capture visitors’ attention.
The grid skin options and 50+ unique grid skins are clearly Essential Grid’s top feature.
Users can easily plug and play these customizable templates to complete projects in no time at all, plus Essential Grid’s visual skin editor enables users to create as many skin variations as they want.
- Essential grid created galleries load with a rocket-fast speed and are responsive to display the content on all devices in the most perfect way.
- It’s also possible to do search engine optimization of an Essential Grid gallery using deep linking and pagination to achieve a higher ranking on Google.
Team, blog, portfolio, and You/Tube Vimeo channel stream grids are popular among target client categories. The Portfolio Grid example features a image-based portfolio grid layout with pinned text layer and hover effects.
The developers of the wildly popular Slider Revolution plugin, which also appears on this list of best plugins, created Essential Grid as well.
Product rating: 4.7/5 on Trust Pilot
Customer Insight: “It’s rare in today’s world to find support that is competent and responsive, but Theme Punch’s Essential Grid support is AMAZING!!! My issue was resolved on the first contact, and within an hour of submitting a ticket.”
Support: Look to the support manual and YouTube videos for instant support.
Preview Essential Grid.
7. Web Stories – WordPress plugin
Web Stories helps users create powerful narratives and fast-loading full-screen experiences.
The top feature of this WordPress storytelling editor is how smoothly it blends a selection of story creation capabilities into a WYSIWYG creation tool. WebStories also provides an impressive selection of templates. Bike Shop is simple, straightforward, and also one of the most popular eCommerce themed templates.
Other popular features include even more beautiful page templates to help get story creation activities underway together with:
- a visually rich and intuitive dashboard that makes it easy to navigate through the entire story creation process.
- drag-and-drop capabilities designed to make composing beautiful stories as easy as possible.
- access to the WordPress media library through the plugin’s dashboard.
Product qualities that Web Stories’ users discover when they begin using the plugin include:
- fast loading times that keep visitors engaged and entertained.
- sharing and linking stories on the open web.
- tracking and measuring stories for monetization.
Product rating: 4.1/5
Customer Insight: “On our website, we personally love the web story platform! It’s SO beautiful and customizable, we can create different posts that fit our media outlet, and our public likes it a lot. It isn’t that easy to make in the beginning, but once you get it, you can produce a lot!
Instant support option: Solid documentation.
View the Web Stories plugin.
8. Tablesome
Tablesome is the best WordPress form automation plugin for those who need to efficiently transfer information from submitted forms into tables.
Tablesome’s top feature is easily its WordPress Automation feature which enables users to automate certain data management processes when people have submitted forms such as:
- storing the form entries in a table.
- saving the form entries to Google Sheet.
- sending the form entries in an email.
Tablesome’s users appreciate what Workflow Automation does to make their work easier. As they become familiar with Tablesome they gain a better understanding of the tasks it can do, and also become aware of the significant reduction in the number plugins needed to carry out those tasks.
Tablesome can also be used to support building of or improving data-centric websites thanks to its integrations with MailChimp, Google Sheets, Slack, HubSpot CRM, OpenAI/ChatGPT, and WordPress.
Product rating: 4.7/5
Customer Insight: “I was searching for a simple responsive table plugin that allowed Excel file imports in the free version, and after testing all the so-called popular table plugins, I realized that none of them offered excel imports in the free version or if they did, they were not responsive. Then I found Tablesome, and it worked perfectly! Within minutes I had the table setup from the existing excel sheet. Thank you to the authors of Tablesome, and I highly recommend it to everyone!”
Support: YouTube videos and Tablesome’s user manual are best for instant support.
Preview Tablesome.
*****
Which plugins or plugins you might use in 2024?
It’s understandable you would not need every one of them, but having one or two could add significant value to your projects. With so many free and premium WordPress plugins to select from in the 4 areas that we covere, we saved you a great amount of time.
Each of these best WordPress plugins is:
- super-fast, solid, and has excellent UX.
- free of restrictions or limitations within its area.
- a huge time saver thanks to its prebuilt demos that make creating web projects efficient and enjoyable.
- designed for looking excellent on both desktop and mobile.
And customer support for each of these plugins is on point, responsive and pro.
Check out these free and premium wordpress plugins, take them for a spin and go premium if you need the extra features.
