WordPress 2.8 is out now. It is my favourite blogging platform and my blog runs on it. It has more than 13 million users in total and the self-hosted WordPress.org has been downloaded more than 5 million times. See a guide on how to install WordPress.
WordPress plugins are a big part of the community. Over the years I have used many of the best WordPress plugins. WordPress plugins help you make a better blog and get more reader interaction. There are in total 4,245 plugins and these have been downloaded 22,152,788 times.
Best WordPress plugins
This post is a tribute to the top 18 most downloaded WordPress plugins ever (Akismet is not included as it comes with the default installation). Each of these 18 has been downloaded a minimum of 200,000 times.
- All in One SEO Pack – Automatically optimizes your blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization) – Downloads 1,603,368
- Google XML Sitemaps – Create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your blog – Downloads 954,459
- NextGEN Gallery – A full integrated Image Gallery WordPress plugin with a Flash slideshow option – Downloads 715,819
- WP.com Stats – You can have simple, concise stats with no additional load on your server by plugging into WP.com’s stat system – Downloads 712,71
- WP Super Cache – A very fast caching engine that produces static html files – Downloads 492,637
- Contact Form 7 – Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible – Downloads 393,916
- Automatic upgrade – Allows a user to automatically upgrade the installation to the latest one – Downloads 288,600
- Sociable – Automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites to your posts, pages and RSS feed - Downloads 284,117
- Viper’s Video Quicktags – Allows easy and XHTML valid posting of videos from various websites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, and more – Downloads 254,807
- Simple Tags – The successor of Simple Tagging Plugin and is THE perfect tool to perfectly manage your WP tags – Downloads 254,353
- WP-DB-Backup – On-demand backup of your database – Downloads 250,795
- Google Analytics – Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics – Downloads 239,837
- Google Analyticator – Same as the one above, enables Google Analytics tracking - Downloads 229,970
- Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button – Helps readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and over 100 more – Downloads 226,056
- WP-Polls – Adds an AJAX poll system to your blog. You can also easily add a poll into your blog post / page – Downloads 222,196
- Sidebar Widgets – Adds “Sidebar Widgets” panel under Presentation menu – Downloads 221,024
- podPress – A dream WordPress plugin for podcasters – Downloads 207,491
- WP-PageNavi – Adds a more advanced paging navigation your blog – Downloads 204,005
Wisdom of the crowds?
“Automatic upgrade” and “Sidebar Widgets” are the classics which are no longer needed as they are a part of software now.
From the top 18 WordPress plugins I currently only use Google XML Sitemaps, WP Super Cache and Contact Form 7 on my blog. All in one SEO Pack and Google Analytics are also very important but my Thesis theme has these functions built-in.
What do you think about the wisdom of the crowds in case of WordPress plugins? Are these the best plugins? Do you still use any of them?
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{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
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Thanks for the info! I actually use at least 12 of those on my blog.
I would put Riffly up there in the top ten.
Riffly lets your visitors leave audio or video comments about your posts.
All in one SEO is really nice. It helps so much do to all that boring SEO staff on the blog.
Nice Post.
I like the way top downloaded plugins have been put here.
On my blogs that don’t use Thesis, I use the All in One Seo plugin. I also couldn’t live without YARPP (Yet Another Related Post Plugin), probably my favorite plugin of all. I use a lot of the ones you mentioned, actually.
I use the plugin Smart Links on a few of my blogs, but I don’t really know if it’s a good idea to or not. I’ve been researching, trying to find out if seo experts like this plugin or not but I can’t find any information. I love that it points readers to related topics, but if it’s bad for seo, it’ll have to go!
Thank you so much for all of your hard work! I just found your site and I have learned so much. I appreciate this so much.
Thanks again,
Michele
thanks, i’m going to test it now, thanks
Thanks for this great list. To be frank, I have moved over my blog to Wordpress from Blogger a little ago, so I am really in search of great plug-ins.
Your list has helped me very much, I got some really good ones here.
Do you think WP-Poll is better than Polldaddy plug-in. I was using the latter but I have installed WP-Poll too.
Really good list..thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Thanks for the info! I actually use at least 10 of those on my blog.
nothing much can do if shit happen to ur site.
do not take trivial, wp-db-backup is what u need to concern most.
just expect the unexpected.
btw, great list. thumbs up!
Help!
I have Thesis 1.6 and have been trying to add ‘Killer Recent Entries’ widget. But it will not save. So when you navigate away it does not remain.
Any body had that probelm? Any body got a solution?
Thanks
Hi, Did you ever get a solution for this. We are having the same problem. it just would not save…
thaks
Marg
No – tried a few different places with no success – if I get anywhere I will post it here
Also tried other plugins but oculd not get one that does exactly what I want from this one.
Let me know if you get a solution.
wow. great plugins you got there in your article. thanks. i almost have all plugins in my blog.
That is cool plugins. I will try use that one.
I really love wordpress.
I have been used that plugins for a months. I enjoy using all in one seo pack.
Contact form 7 is awesome, thanks for the tipe
sick sick fucking post…
thank you mate, you have saved and made me money.
where’s the paypal “donate” button @?
cheers
ben joven
Great list, although i think the wp stats is a little off sometimes, one i think you are missing is the share it plugin which is amazing.
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