WordPress Plugin Recommendations Thread

Read the rules before you post.

[lorax]

READ Before you post.

Thread purpose: A place to bring attention to useful plugins.

Rules:

Plugin must exist in the WordPress plugin repository: [wordpress.org...]

Only one announcement per plugin. Please check to see if it already exists here before you post.

If you're the author of the plugin say so - transparency is important

Link only to the plugin page at WordPress. Links to other sites will be deleted.

Post Format:

Title: The name of your plugin
URL: The link to the plugin page at WordPress.org
Description: Brief description of what the plugin is/does. Please indicate who the plugin is used by or visible to (admin, registered users, anyone that visits the site, etc...).
Comments: Your thoughts on why it's a good plugin to know about.

Multiple postings or any posts that are deemed not in keeping with the spirit of this thread as a sharing resource (moderator & admin discretion) will be deleted. Comments on another post will also be deleted. Please keep it to a nice list of the tool, what it does, and why you like it. No bashing please.

[edited by: lorax at 2:38 pm (utc) on Jan 30, 2014]

[lorax]

Title: Breadcrumb NavXT
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description:

This plugin generates locational breadcrumb trails for your WordPress powered blog or website. These breadcrumb trails are highly customizable to suit the needs of just about any website running WordPress.

Comments: This plugin is great for themes that don't offer a breadcrumb trail but want one. It doesn't use shortcode - you do need to modify your theme's function.php file to include this. It does have an admin interface within the WP dashboard that you can use to configure the breadcrumbs with.

[MickeyRoush]

Title: Stop Spammers
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description:

Stop Spammers is an aggressive spam plugin that stops spam registrations, logins and comments using multiple checks.

Comments: This is a great plugin if you have a community site with open registration. You may get some false positives, but there are many options available, so you can always set them accordingly.

[PHWizard]

Title: QB Group Chat Room (XMPP)
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description:

Adds a chat room into your page, post or a sidebar. Visible by all visitors. Uses Facebook authentication for name and photo.

Comments: I'm one of the authors.
Note: Plugin uses XMPP protocol so you may connect to the same chat room from IM software such as Adium. Alternatively use one of our code samples to implement in other platforms including Android and iOS to enable cross-platform chatting for your users.

[edited by: lorax at 1:48 pm (utc) on Feb 5, 2014]

[Planet13]

Title: Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Asks commenters to complete a simple CAPTCHA if they don't have a previously approved comment, or if Akismet thinks their comment is spam.
Comments: It seems to work pretty well at reducing the amount of spam comments one gets.

[Planet13]

Title: Advanced Custom Fields
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Allows you to create customized fields to be added to posts.
Comments: I am NOT affiliated with this any way. Really like it a lot because it allows you to create as many custom fields as you need. There are additional (paid) addons to extend flexibility.

~~~~~~

Title: Genesis Simple Hooks
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: This plugin creates a new Genesis settings page that allows you to insert code (HTML, Shortcodes, and PHP), and attach it to any of the 50+ action hooks throughout the Genesis Theme Framework, from StudioPress.

Comments: If you use the Genesis framework, then you need this plugin. It lets you easily insert any text or code you want (php, or html or and of the wordpress shortcodes) into different areas of your pages without having to edit the templates. Makes using hooks in Genesis framework a piece of cake.

[Planet13]

Just an update:

Way too many spam comments were getting through with Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress, so I have disabled it. Yes, Akismet was still sending those spam comments to the spam folder, but I needed to cut down on any extra traffic and resources for this site, and also I hate wading through 300 spam comments every morning to make sure that there wasn't a legitimate comment that was caught in the spam net.

~~~~

Now I and am trying a new comment captcha plugin to stop spam comments:

Title: Are You a Human?
URL: [wordpress.org...]

Description: The Are You a Human PlayThru plugin replaces obnoxious CAPTCHAs with fun, simple games. Fight spam with fun!

Comment: An image based captcha where you it asks you to complete a small task, such as pin the tail on the donkey, where there might be four pictures of different objects (a hamburger, an airplane, a basketball and a tail) and you have to identify and drag the tail onto a separate image of a donkey.

I haven't tried it on a mobile device yet but the developer says it is mobile friendly.

[MickeyRoush]

Title: WordPress Simple Firewall
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Offers various security and anti-spam measures.
Comments: There are quite a few options with this plugin. I mainly use it for comment & registration spam along with login protection, but it also has many other benefits which can be enable or disabled as you see fit. Please note: I have no affiliation with this plugin, I just believe some of the features are very beneficial.

[Narsto]

Title: Internal Link Building
URL : [wordpress.org...]
Description: This plugin will let you easily link to your old articles, pages or other sites to improve their rankings in search engines and generate more clicks.
Comments : Really good of internal backlinking

[Hoople]

Title: Limit Login Attempts
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Limit rate of login attempts, including by way of cookies, for each IP. Fully customizable.
Comments: Versatile setup that allows you to see short/long term trends. Also shows the ID that was used in the attempt(s).

[edited by: lorax at 3:39 pm (utc) on Oct 3, 2014]

[Planet13]

Title: Genesis Style Trump
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: This plugin removes the Genesis child theme style sheet and reloads it at a later priority, allowing plugin style sheets to load first. By loading the child theme style sheet later, it allows for easier CSS customizations in child theme as the child theme style sheet trumps plugin styles without using the !important declaration.

Comments: This works for the Genesis framework, and it alleviates an issue that had been driving me bonkers. It makes easier to override the CSS that plugin developers use to style their plugins.

[edited by: lorax at 3:19 pm (utc) on Nov 10, 2014]
[edit reason] Fixed URL [/edit]

[TechBuddy]

Title: Contact Form 7
URL: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/]
Description: Can create multiple contact form with ease of customization.
Comments: Awesome plugin to create forms with lot of options to make your form do well.

[MichaelP]

Title: Advanced Custom Fields
URL: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Fully customize WordPress edit screens with powerful fields. Boasting a professional interface and a powerful API.
Comments: Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom fields can turn WordPress into extremely powerful CMS to power basically any kind of site, much more than just a blog. Very easy to use, almost no coding.

[edited by: lorax at 2:23 pm (utc) on Jan 20, 2015]
[edit reason] Fixed formatting [/edit]

[hunt4hardy]

Title: Embed My Instagram Photos
URL: [wordpress.org...]

Description: The EmbedMyPhotos plugin allows you to embed an Instagram photo feed anywhere in your WordPress site. It can take the form of a slideshow or a grid of photos. Dead simple to use, no need for tokens or anything tricky - just enter your Instagram username, and you can immediately preview how your gallery will look.

Comments: I wrote the plugin as I couldn't find anything else quite as clean or easy. There are loads of sizing and frame colour options you can set on the dedicated admin page.

[edited by: lorax at 12:41 pm (utc) on Feb 18, 2015]
[edit reason] fixed url [/edit]

[ethany]

Title: SEO by yoast
url: [wordpress.org...]
Description: Completed solution for SEO of your WP sebsite
Comment: I am a user of this plugin and I feel that plugin is very useful for SEOer