Top 9 WordPress Plugins for Developers: Intermediate-Level

Query Monitor

For developers, designing and maintaining a WordPress website can be a challenging task. The need for performing tasks such as debugging of database queries, tracking PHP errors, monitoring hooks and actions, or being aware of which scripts and stylesheets are being enqueued is often paramount.

This is where the Query Monitor plugin comes into play. It’s essentially a developer’s tool panel for WordPress, designed to provide a comprehensive overview of what’s happening behind the scenes of your WordPress website.

Features and Benefits

• Debugging Tools: Query Monitor provides a suite of debugging tools for database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, block editor blocks, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, HTTP API calls, and more, enabling developers to quickly identify and rectify issues.
• Advanced Features: Includes debugging of Ajax calls, REST API calls, user capability checks, and full support for block themes and full site editing, offering comprehensive insights beyond basic debugging.
• Aggregate Information: Presents aggregate database queries grouped by plugins, themes, or functions, making it easier to identify poorly performing elements.
• Template Information: Displays the template filename, the complete template hierarchy, and names of all template parts that were loaded or not loaded, aiding in template management.
• PHP Errors: Shows PHP errors with their responsible component and call stack, along with a visible warning in the admin toolbar, facilitating quick error resolution.
• Blocks and Properties: Displays blocks and associated properties within post content and full site editing (FSE), helping in block management and editing.
• Enqueued Scripts and Stylesheets: Provides information on enqueued scripts and stylesheets, including dependencies and alerts for broken dependencies, ensuring proper loading of assets.
• HTTP API Requests: Shows HTTP API requests, their response codes, responsible components, and time taken, with alerts for failed or erroneous requests, aiding in troubleshooting API issues.
• User Capability Checks: Displays user capability checks with results and any parameters passed, enhancing understanding of user permissions.
• Environment Information: Provides detailed information about PHP, the database, WordPress, and the web server, offering insights into the environment configuration.

Pricing Structure

Query Monitor is a free WordPress plugin for developers. For further information, you can visit the Query Monitor website.

Autoptimize

Autoptimize is a must-have WordPress plugin for developers aiming to increase their website’s performance. This plugin takes the complexity out of site optimization by aggregating, minifying, and caching scripts and styles, deferring scripts to the footer, and minifying HTML. The result is a significant improvement in your site’s performance, even when already on HTTP/2.

Features and Benefits

• Aggregates, Minifies, and Caches Scripts and Styles: Reduces the number of HTTP requests and file sizes, leading to faster page load times.
• CSS Injection: Injects CSS in the page head by default, can inline critical CSS and defer the aggregated full CSS, enhancing perceived load time.
• Image Optimization and Lazy-Load: Optimizes and lazy-loads images, supporting WebP and AVIF formats, reducing initial load time.
• Google Fonts Optimization: Optimizes Google Fonts for a smoother and faster loading experience.
• Removes WordPress Core Emoji Cruft: Eliminates unnecessary emoji code to further boost site performance.
• Extensive API: Provides a comprehensive API for developers to customize the plugin to specific site needs.
• Autoptimize Pro, the premium version, includes additional features like image optimization, CDN, page caching, automatic critical CSS rules, and extra “booster” options for even faster site performance.

Pricing Structure

Autoptimize is free to install and use. For advanced features and premium support, users can upgrade to Autoptimize Pro starting from $79/ year.

Wordfence Security

One of the most popular WordPress plugins for developers is Wordfence Security. It offers a comprehensive suite of security features such as an endpoint firewall, malware scanner, robust login security features, live traffic views, and more.

As a developer, this plugin is an absolute necessity to ensure that your website is safe from any potential threats or attacks.

Features and Benefits

• Firewall: The plugin identifies and blocks malicious traffic, with the premium version offering real-time firewall rule and malware signature updates and a real-time IP block list to block requests from the most malicious IPs.
• Security Scanner: The malware scanner checks core files, themes, and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects, and code injections. The premium version provides real-time malware signature updates and checks for known security vulnerabilities, alerting you to any issues.
• Login Security: The plugin includes two-factor authentication (2FA) using any TOTP-based authenticator app or service and a Login Page CAPTCHA to prevent bots from logging in.
• Wordfence Central: Manage the security for multiple sites from one place, efficiently assessing the security status of all your websites and viewing detailed security findings. This feature is free for unlimited sites.
• Security Tools: Monitor visits and hack attempts in real-time with Live Traffic. The plugin also allows blocking attackers by IP or creating advanced rules based on IP Range, Hostname, User Agent, and Referrer.

Pricing Structure

Wordfence offers both free and premium versions of the plugin. The premium version starts at $199 per year for one site. The price decreases as you add more sites, making it a cost-effective solution for developers managing multiple websites.

MalCare WordPress Security Plugin

No matter how secure your WordPress website might seem, there’s always a risk of it being compromised. And this risk goes beyond just losing data – it can also affect your reputation, customer trust, and ultimately, your bottom line. This is where the MalCare Security Plugin comes in.

Designed to keep your WordPress website safe and secure, MalCare offers a comprehensive security solution that allows website owners to focus on their business growth without worrying about website security.

Created after analyzing over 240,000 websites for more than 2.5 years, MalCare is equipped to detect and remove the most complex malware that often goes unnoticed by other popular WordPress security plugins.

Features and Benefits

• One-Click Malware Removal: This industry-first feature ensures that your website is clean before Google blacklists it or your web host takes it down.
• Intelligent Scanning: MalCare doesn’t slow down your website and accurately identifies complex malware, ensuring thorough protection without performance issues.
• Cloud-Based Firewall: Provides round-the-clock website protection against spam attacks, maintaining security without manual intervention.
• Website Management: Manage your websites from a single dashboard, streamlining security and site management tasks for better efficiency.
• Performance Check: Monitor your website’s loading speed, allowing you to ensure optimal performance and user experience.
• White-Label Solution: Offer enhanced website security to your clients while protecting your brand. Generate beautiful reports for clients without risking your business.
• Geo-blocking: Restrict access to users based on their geographical location, reducing the risk of being hacked by limiting exposure.
• Uptime Monitoring: Keep a steady eye on your WordPress site to ensure you are aware of any website downtime and maintain consistent availability.

Pricing Structure

MalCare offers both free and paid services. The pricing starts from $149/ year.

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin

The UpdraftPlus Backup & Migration Plugin is a trusted tool designed for developers using WordPress. This plugin is highly rated and popular for its scheduled backup and migration features. It is currently installed on more than 3 million websites across the globe, making it a reliable choice for agencies, freelancers, and other WordPress users.

Features and Benefits

• Backups: With UpdraftPlus, you can schedule backups to your preferred storage location and restore your site in just three clicks. This plugin supports backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, DreamObjects, Openstack Swift, and email. Regular backups ensure that your website data is safe and can be quickly restored in case of any mishaps.
• Restoration: UpdraftPlus allows you to restore your WordPress website easily in case of any issues. You can choose which components to restore (e.g., plugins, themes, database, etc.) and complete the restoration process in just a few clicks. This feature is crucial for recovery from potential website issues like hacking, server crashes, or human errors.
• Migration: Migrating your WordPress website to another web host, server, or domain is made easy with UpdraftPlus. It has a built-in search-and-replace engine that identifies old strings and replaces them to reflect the new location. This feature saves you time and reduces the risk of broken links or missing files associated with manual migrations.

Pricing Structure

The plugin is free to use with the premium version starting from $70/ year.

Code Snippets

Code Snippets is an invaluable WordPress plugin for developers, particularly at an intermediate level. This plugin offers a streamlined solution for enhancing your WordPress site by providing an alternative to constant tweaking of your theme’s functions.php file or downloading countless plugins.

Code Snippets offers a snippet, which is essentially a mini-plugin, adding functionality to your site without the clutter.

Features and Benefits

• Seamless Integration: Code Snippets offers an intuitive graphical interface for seamless integration and real-time execution. Managing snippets is as simple as activating and deactivating plugins, without the bloat and overhead.
• Snippet Functionality: A snippet acts like a mini-plugin for your WordPress site, providing added functionality without the clutter and complexity of additional plugins.
• Community-Powered: Each copy of Code Snippets includes full integration with the community-powered Code Snippets Cloud platform, giving you access to hundreds of tweaks and enhancements to boost your WordPress site’s performance.
• Cloud Synchronization: The Pro version of Code Snippets offers complete CSS, JavaScript, Gutenberg, Elementor, and cloud synchronization integrations, simplifying the management of your code snippets across platforms.

Pricing Structure

The plugin is free to use with the premium version starting from $3.90.

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is an essential WordPress plugin for developers seeking to transform their WordPress sites into a comprehensive content management system. This plugin offers developers maximum control over their WordPress edit screens and custom field data, thereby making it possible to create highly customized and functional websites.

Whether you’re an agency, freelancer or just a regular user, ACF provides you with the tools to do more with your data.

Features and Benefits

• Simple & Intuitive: ACF is easy to use with intuitive functionalities, making it a breeze to add and manage custom fields on your WordPress site.
• Powerful Functions: ACF allows you to add fields anywhere on your site, load and display custom field values in theme templates, and register new custom post types and taxonomies directly in the ACF UI.
• Over 30 Field Types: ACF offers more than 30 field types, providing flexibility to create a variety of content types.
• Extensive Documentation: ACF is supported by comprehensive documentation and an active community, ensuring you always have access to the guidance you need.
• Millions of Users: Trusted by millions globally, ACF’s popularity underscores its reliability and effectiveness as a WordPress plugin for developers.

Pricing Structure

ACF is available in both a free and a Pro version. The pro version starts from $49/ year.

MonsterInsights

As a WordPress developer, you understand the significance of understanding your website’s performance, user behavior, and traffic sources. MonsterInsights, a Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress, is a plugin designed to make these insights easily accessible.

With over 3 million active installs, MonsterInsights has become a favorite tool among developers, freelancers, and agencies. It simplifies the process of connecting your WordPress site with Google Analytics, providing you with meaningful data to make informed decisions for your business growth.

Features and Benefits

• Google Analytics Setup: MonsterInsights simplifies Google Analytics setup with a few clicks, enabling advanced features without coding.
• Google Analytics Dashboard: Provides valuable insights directly in your WordPress dashboard, with customized reports filtering out irrelevant data.
• Audience Report: Offers insights into your audience’s demographics, interests, geographic location, and device usage, helping tailor your content and marketing strategies.
• Publishers Report: Shows which pages visitors land on and leave from, and which outbound links are clicked, allowing for optimization to boost conversions.
• Content Report: Highlights which content attracts the most visits, aiding in the creation of content that drives traffic and conversions.
• Ecommerce Report: Displays key stats for online stores, including total revenue, conversion rate, average order value, and top referral sources.
• Forms Report: Provides conversion stats for contact and lead forms, enabling improvements in form effectiveness and business growth.
• Search Console Report: Helps you understand your website’s ranking in Google, optimizing SEO and increasing organic traffic.
• Site Speed Report: Monitors loading times and page speed, essential for enhancing user experience and SEO rankings.
• Campaign Report: Unlocks Google Analytics UTM tracking to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Pricing Structure

MonsterInsights comes in a free lite version and a premium version. The premium version starts from $249.