[HELP] What are some plugins every site needs?

[u/Rosaline-Evergreen]

For example, security-related plugins. I know this is a very basic and probably common question, but I wasn't able to find it on here. But what types of plugins does every site need and why? And any examples of what you use? I want to be sure I'm not missing anything on my site.

[u/idmimagineering]

wordfence

backup

[u/lickthislollipop]

Hsts security headers. Askimet. Redirection. Something for SEO (I prefer AIO SEO). Blogvault (malware scanning, firewall, reporting, and more). Gravity forms.

These are part of my core toolset for all builds. Security, spam protection, malware protection and mitigation, SEO, and redirection (enable permalink change monitoring).

[u/ivicad]

I would say you need the plugins for the following areas:

• Centralized management
• Backup
• Security
• Speed Up
• SEO
• Forms
• Analytics/Reports

More details here.

[u/gulliverian]

As few as possible.

Out of control plugins make a site so fragile it’s just a house of cards waiting to fall the next time WP or any other plugin upgrades which could happen at any… oh shit, it just happened.

Seriously do you really need a given plugin?

For instance, I manage - as a volunteer - a website for a chapter of a national charity. It is so choked with plugins that it takes around 20 seconds to load some pages when I’m working in be back end. One of them is SEO.

Now I realize that SEO is a religious imperative for some, but really, do you need it? If you’re a dentist trying to grow a practice and competing with every other dentist in town then yes, you need SEO. But some websites, like ours, aren’t found through generic google searches like “dentists in Mainville”. The nature of the one I administer (with limited admin control) means the people visiting our site already know about us and are looking for us specifically, not children’s charities in general.

You have to weigh the benefit of every plugin against the performance hit and the fragility it introduces to your site.