There are over 55,000+ plugin in the official WordPress plugin repository. That’s, like, a lot. Of course, not all of them receive regular updates and use, but the ones we are going to talk about today don’t fit those criteria. No, this post is focused on the most popular WordPress plugins of all time.
Ever wonder which plugins get used the most? Wonder no more – we did the math! Below, you’ll find the data-backed list (i.e. this is not an opinion list).
Based on the actual download numbers from WordPress.org, these are the 10 most popular WordPress plugins of all time from the 55,000+ plugins that are currently available.
1. Yoast SEO Plugin
One of the plugins that gets a lot of love from people is, without a doubt, Yoast SEO. This plugin is used by (almost) everyone who has a blog or site on WordPress. In fact, it can be hard to find websites that DON’T have Yoast SEO installed (well – we know of ~50 million actually! Check out #7).
So, if you’re one of those people who doesn’t use this plugin… well, it helps you improve the overall SEO score of your articles and pages. With it, you can set your main keyword, the meta description, slug, SEO title, the alt attributes of your images, and it also recommends the best practices for good readability. It’s nice because the plugin offers stats and actionable advice on how to improve your work and, when everything is done by the book, you get the green light.
Who can use Yoast SEO? I think it’s for everybody because we all want to rank better in the search engines, don’t we?
2. Jetpack Plugin
Another plugin built by Automattic makes the top of the most popular WordPress plugins. This time, it’s Jetpack, a multipurpose tool that’s good at (almost) everything. It helps you with marketing, design, and security. Among its various features, you can find site analytics, automated social media posting, multiple WordPress themes, spam filtering, downtime monitoring, malware scanning, login security, lazy image loading, CDN, and more.
Jetpack comes in one free and three paid plans, so not all of its features are free of charge. The plugin is suitable for personal blogs, and for both startups and corporate businesses. It fits all the basic needs and all budgets.
3. Akismet Plugin
Not far from Yoast SEO when it comes to the number of downloads is Akismet Anti-Spam. Akismet is a tool developed by Automattic, made to automatically block spam comments. Every day, we are spammed by either promotional links, irrelevant stories, malicious content or simply by mistake. And it’s very hard to filter them all by yourself, especially if you own a business that gets hundreds of comments per day.
The plugin is good not only for automation but also for security purposes since it won’t allow malicious or problematic content to be published on your site.
Akismet also checks all your contact form submissions against their global database of spam, so you’ll be sure only the good and relevant information gets to you. The plugin is mandatory for blog and business owners who receive at least tens of comments daily.
4. WooCommerce
How could e-commerce miss this list of the most popular WordPress plugins? WooCommerce is the plugin that lets you turn your WordPress site into an online shop, so you can sell your products to your clients on the web.
Of course, this plugin was built for commercial purposes, so all its users must be business owners (be it for side projects or for a living).
What’s nice about WooCommerce is that it’s very flexible in terms of customization options. Apart from the built-in settings, lots of developers built a community around it and created extensions, so that selling online can be as smooth as possible. With WooCommerce you can sell both physical and digital goods, add product variations, use affiliate links, and extensive payment methods.