I don't know how many times I've said this but let me repeat it just to be clear - WordPress is truly awesome! Building websites with WordPress is one of the many joys that I get from being a freelance web designer.
With WordPress, you can create a website for almost any purpose. Being open-source software, WordPress is a developer's playground.
Even if you're not a developer or a non-techy, WordPress is still awesome in so many ways. Whether you're starting a blog, personal brand website, e-commerce website, there's no better platform to use, in my opinion.
What I love most about WordPress is the ability to add functionality to any website using plugins. As you know, there are thousands of them available from the WordPress repository, and most of them are completely free.
Now, as much as I love using free plugins, I use premium plugins on my blog most of the time. Though I like to have a balance of both.
I've always recommended using premium plugins wherever possible, for the simple fact that paid plugins come with frequent updates.
The developers of these plugins pay special attention to the quality of the code and security and ensure their plugins are always compatible with WordPress's latest version.
Well, that depends on the desired outcome of your blog or website (Your goal).
And with that being said, below, I will share with you a list of premium quality plugins which I'm currently using myself on my blog and many other project websites.
You won't need to use all of these plugins on your site. The best way to decide whether a plugin is suitable for your site or otherwise is to think about how it will help you meet your website goals.
OK, let's dive in.
Thrive Leads is one of the best, if not the best, drag-and-drop opt-in form builder and list building plugin for WordPress.
With Thrive Leads, you get access to a vast library of ready-made template forms that you can customize even further using the built-in opt-in form editor.
Using this plugin for my own websites has saved me a ton of time and money in my quest to grow my email lists.
Once your forms are up and running, you can use the built-in marketing tools to do simple A/B split testing.
Some other notable features in Thrive Leads include -
Thrive Leads is very affordable, but perhaps the most important Thrive Leads element is that it's simple and intuitive to use.
I have been using Thrive Leads in my business since it was launched back in 2015, and I would highly recommend it to anyone serious about growing an email list.
Recommended reading: Thrive Leads Review: Build Your Email List Faster
Recommended reading: How To Build An Email List (Complete Beginners Guide)
Thrive Architect, also known as Thrive Visual Editor, is a powerful front-end drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress.
This is the very plugin that I used to create and customize all of the landing pages on Magnet4Blogging. (At the time of updating this post, I no longer use Thrive Architect. However, it's still a very powerful plugin.)
Many similar page builder plugins have emerged out of the woodwork since TCB and Thrive Architect was released. Still, none of them really offer the flexibility, features, and options as Thrive Architect.
Thrive Architect today comes with a suite of design options and powerful elements. Whatever your landing page goal, whether you're trying to create a video page, podcast page, custom contact page, or a homepage, you can achieve it all with Thrive Architect.
Recommended reading: read my full review of Thrive Architect here.
You can check out my detailed video tutorial here over on my YouTube channel to learn how to use Thrive Architect.
Pretty Links Pro is my favorite URL shortening and affiliate link cloaking plugin for WordPress.
Before this plugin, I was using another premium plugin called Better Links Pro, which sadly is no longer available. If you've been in the WordPress community for a while, you may remember it.
Pretty Links Pro comes with a host of redirection options for your affiliate links, not to mention a host of conversion tracking and metrics tools.
If you're looking for a clean and lightweight affiliate links plugin to power up your WordPress blog, I recommend checking this one out.
Recommended reading: 10 Tips For Using Amazon Premium Links In Your Blog Posts
I don't think I need to introduce this plugin to you. Chances are you're probably one of the twelve million website owners that are using it.
While the free version is widely popular, the premium version of this plugin comes with a host of additional features and options to power-up your SEO.
These features include the ability to optimize for more than 1 focus keyword or keyphrase. You can, in fact, optimize up to 5 focus keywords with Yoast Premium.
There's also a built-in redirection feature to help you manage your 404's and all of what you'd expect to find in the free plugin, and more.
Update: I no longer use Yoast SEO Premium on my blog. I replaced it with RankMath in March of 2020. Yoast continues to be the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress.
For the last two years, CoSchedule has been an absolute workhorse of a tool in my business. CoSchedule is a stand-alone marketing calendar for bloggers and marketers. There's also a dedicated plugin that allows you to link your WordPress blog.
The result is that you have a full-blown, content scheduling calendar right in your WP dashboard.
Everything from my post creation and scheduling, social media campaigns, email marketing newsletters to my to-do lists are visible via my WP dashboard.
If you're tired of bouncing from site to site, from platform to platform, or navigating multiple tabs and just want to be in one place with your marketing, check out CoSchedule!
Recommended reading: Why I Use CoSchedule In My Business and You Should Too!
Social Snap boasts a suite of both attractive and functional social sharing buttons for WordPress.
There is a free version of this plugin. However, the pro version provides many additional features including -
Other notable features include button customization, display, and placement options, click-to-tweet, in-page or post social integration, and Twitter counts!
Recommended reading: Social Snap Social Sharing Plugin Review
BlogVault is a must-have, complete backup, restore security plugin for WordPress websites.
There is nothing more critical than ensuring you're backing up your WordPress website correctly.
Yes, I know that there are plenty of free backup plugins available out there, but most of them are pretty useless, so don't even waste your time.
The point of a backup solution is to recover your website and get it back up running quickly if it was ever hacked into.
BlogVault, not only backs up your entire WordPress website off-site, but you can also make use of the website staging, website migration, security options, and more.
You can learn more about BlogVault and check out my detailed review and tutorial post here.
When it comes to creating and selling online courses, no other plugin does it better than LearnDash LMS.
I've been using LearnDash for the past six months building out my up and coming blogging courses, and this plugin has been a huge time saver, not to mention a joy to use.
The features are plentiful and include -
Building an online course has to be one of the best ways to grow a profitable online business. You can check out my detailed review of LearnDash LMS here.
Creating professional-looking forms for your WordPress website can be a bit of a finicky thing to do, especially if you're not techy about it.
Thankfully, there are a few plugins available out there that can solve the problem of creating simple contact forms, like Contact Form 7 and WPForms.
Gravity Forms is a complete premium web forms package for WordPress.
The features include -
I am currently using Gravity Forms for Magnet4Blogging's contact page; you can check it out here.
Recommended reading: Gravity Forms vs. WP Forms vs. Contact Form 7
Last but certainly not least is WordFence, one of the most complete and professional premium WordPress security plugins/services available.
Anyone that uses WordPress for their business should take security very seriously. Perhaps not so much if your blog is brand new, but as it becomes more popular, there will be folks out there looking at every opportunity to exploit your hard work.
Everything in WordPress is vulnerable, from themes, plugins, files, scripts, etc.
WordFence Premium is one plugin I use and recommend to anyone serious about keeping their business website safe and secure.
Features include -
Well, there you have it. A list of the 10 awesome premium quality plugins to rock your WordPress site in 2021 and beyond.
Of course, there are so many more awesome premium plugins I've not mentioned above in more detail. So to add extra value to this list, here are another 5 premium plugins to feast your eyes on!
OK, that's it for this post, enjoy exploring all fo the plugins above.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Please note that this post contains affiliate links to relevant products and services that I use in my business, therefore recommend. This means if you click on one of these links and make a purchase of any of the tools mentioned above, I will be paid a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your continued support.
