Table of Contents

The Story Behind This Toolkit 2

Why Having a Toolkit Is Important? 3
Web Hosting 4
Security & Performance 6
Essential Functionalities 7
SEO & Marketing 8
Themes & Styling 11
Monetization 13
eCommerce 14
Membership 15
Translation 16
Additional Resources 17
Copyright and Disclosure 18

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 The Story Behind This Toolkit
When I rst started using WordPress in 2006, I wanted to know which
exact plugins and tools “experts” were using on their websites. So I
went looking for them.

But, at the time, no such resource existed. I struggled my way through

and learnt from every single mistake that I made.

Then, in 2009, I decided enough was enough and created

WPBeginner, which became the largest free WordPress resource site
for beginners.

Today, I want to share my toolkit with you - a collection of WordPress-

related products and resources that I use on our websites and
projects.

I hope you will nd it useful in building / improving your WordPress

site.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

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Why Having a Toolkit Is Important?

When growing a business, time is money.

Leveraging the right set of tools will help you save time and get ahead.

On the other hand, using the wrong set of tools can cost you a lot of
money and hassle in the long run.

That’s why I always recommend choosing the best tool for the job.

Note: Not all plugins / services that I use are free.

I pay for them because they make me more ef cient. Instead of

looking at them as costs, I look at them as investments.

A toolbox stuffed with necessary tools is crucial for the success of your
website.

Related: Find our complete toolkit on WPBeginner:

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit for Pros

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Web Hosting

Although it is often overlooked, web hosting is one of the key

components of every successful website. Web hosting is where your
website lives on the internet. Similar to a house, each website has
different needs.

Knowing what you need will help you make the right decision and
save time / money.

Where I host WPBeginner:

SiteGround — The WPBeginner website is hosted

on a SiteGround Enterprise server, and I have been
using SiteGround since 2015. SiteGround provides
the perfect combination of speed, performance, and
reliability with plans that grow with your business.

Read more about when you need Managed WordPress Hosting and
why WPBeginner switched to SiteGround.

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Alternatives:

Bluehost — One of the oldest web hosts started in

1996. Great for small businesses. I use them for my
smaller websites, and they are of cially
recommended by WordPress.org.

Hostinger — Another great yet affordable web

hosting provider. They have many data centers
across the world. In our speed tests, their servers
turned out to be some of the fastest on the market.

Enterprise WordPress Hosting:

Rocket.net — Known for their high-performance

managed WordPress hosting, their unique cloud-
edge network with integrated CDN ensures that your
website loads incredibly fast.

WordPress.com — A fully hosted platform created by

Automattic and a top choice for small businesses
and online stores. Learn the difference between
WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com.

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 Security & Performance
Making sure that your website is secure and loads fast is important for
your success. Below are my favorite security & performance tools:

Duplicator — Schedule cloud backups for your site.

This is like a time capsule for your website. If
something goes wrong, you can go back in time. You
can get the free plugin here.

Alternative: UpdraftPlus

Cloud are — One of the best CDN services

available with a free CDN that speeds up your
website, along with a suite of powerful security
features. Learn how to set up Cloud are CDN.

WP Rocket — The best caching plugin for

WordPress. Caching is a must-have for every
website because it reduces server load and
signi cantly speeds up your website.

More Reading:
The Ultimate Guide to Boost WordPress Speed & Performance

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 Essential Functionalities
Want to add basic functionalities to your WordPress website? Take a
look at some of the best WordPress plugins I use on all my websites.

WPForms — Drag & drop WordPress form builder.

Easily create contact forms, subscription forms,
payment forms, or any other type of forms without
hiring a developer. Here’s the free version.

WP Mail SMTP — The most popular SMTP and PHP

mailer plugin for WordPress. Ensures emails sent
through your WordPress sites are delivered properly.
Here’s the free version.

WPCode — Add code snippets safely without having

to worry about breaking your site. It signi cantly
reduces the number of plugins installed on your site.
Take a look at the free version.

SearchWP — Make your site’s content more

searchable. It indexes additional content that the
default WordPress search ignores, like custom
elds, ACF elds, product attributes, and more.

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SEO & Marketing
Want to get more traf c and subscribers on your website? Here are
the best WordPress SEO and marketing plugins to help you boost
your website traf c.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) — The best WordPress

SEO plugin. It helps optimize your content by adding
meta titles, descriptions, sitemaps, and more. Get
the free version here.

SEOBoost —An AI-powered content optimization

tool that helps you easily create better-ranking
content. It comes with a range of tools to research,
edit, optimize, and manage your SEO content.

LowFruits — A powerful keyword research tool for

discovering valuable keywords with low competition
that you can actually rank for. It generates keywords
from Google’s autocomplete data.

OptinMonster — Converts abandoning website

visitors into email subscribers. I created this plugin
for WPBeginner, and now it’s being used by some of
the largest websites on the internet.

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 Drip — Powerful tool to send email newsletters. It
makes it easy to segment your audience and set up
automation and work ows. I use it on WPBeginner
and most of my websites.

Alternatives: Constant Contact and Brevo

MonsterInsights — Most popular Google Analytics

plugin for WordPress. See how visitors nd and use
your website so you can keep them coming back.
Get the stats that matter. Here’s the free version.

PushEngage — Easiest way to drive repeat traf c to

your website. It lets you notify your site visitors via
push noti cations and encourage them to return to
your site. I use it on WPBeginner. Free version.

Raf ePress — The best contest and giveaway

plugin for WordPress. With Raf ePress, you can
grow your email list, social media following, and
more. You can get the free version here.

Smash Balloon — The best social media feed

plugins for WordPress. Create and display custom
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube feeds on
your WordPress site.

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 TrustPulse — A popular social proof plugin that
shows real-time actions visitors are taking on your
website, such as purchases, newsletter signups,
blog comments, and more.

UserFeedback — Easy survey tool that gives you

more insights into what users want. Create surveys
like feedback/experience, NPS, product usage
survey, etc. Get the free version here.

Keyword Generator Tool — Our FREE tool enables

you to create 300+ SEO keyword ideas in one click.
This way, nding keywords is no longer tedious or
time-consuming.

SEO Analyzer — Our FREE SEO tool lets you

quickly perform an SEO audit, nd critical errors, and
generate a report to x them. No signup or
installation is needed to use it.

Suggested Reading:
- Why Building Your Email List is So Important
- Why You Should Never Use WordPress to Send Newsletter Emails
- How to Increase Your Blog Traf c – The Easy Way
- Get access to more free tools from WPBeginner.

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Themes & Styling
The look and feel of your website are crucial for delivering a great user
experience. Here are my favorite theme shops and design plugins.

I highly recommend that you read this guide on selecting a WordPress

theme before you make any decision.

SeedProd — Create custom WordPress themes and

page layouts without a developer. Also design
landing pages and get access to 350+ built-in
themes. Here’s the free version.

Thrive Architect — Premium page builder that comes

with 350+ pre-designed layouts for home pages,
sales pages, and more. You can connect it with the
Thrive Optimize plugin to split-test your pages.

Divi — A popular multipurpose theme and page

builder plugin. It comes with a drag-and-drop builder
and ready-made layouts that let you customize every
part of your WordPress site.

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 Envira Gallery — Easily create WordPress photo
and video galleries, organize them in albums, sort
them by tags, add social media integrations,
eCommerce, and more. Get the free version.

Alternatives: NextGen Gallery (plugin), Photocrati (theme)

SoliloquyWP — The fastest WordPress slider plugin.

Easily create image and video sliders in WordPress.
Features include dynamic content sliders, carousels,
lightbox, and more. Download for free!

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 Monetization
At the end of the day, your goal is to make money with your website.
Below are the tools I recommend:

ThirstyAf liates — Easy solution to manage your

af liate links. It also automatically replaces keywords
on your website with af liate links. I use it on
WPBeginner and my other websites.

Advanced Ads — WordPress banner ads made

simple. Easily rotate banner ads, set ad expiration
dates, see stats, and more. Over 150,000 sites use
Advanced Ads to optimize their ads.

WP Charitable — A user-friendly WordPress

donation plugin that lets you create unlimited
fundraising campaigns with options like setting a
xed donation amount. Get the free version.

Suggested Reading:

• Best WordPress Ad Management Plugins and Solutions

• Proven Ways to Make Money Online Blogging with WordPress

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eCommerce
One of the best ways to monetize a website is by adding an online
store. Below are the best WordPress eCommerce solutions.

WooCommerce — The most popular WordPress

eCommerce plugin. Easily add an online store on
your WordPress website. Best for selling products
where shipping is involved.

Easy Digital Downloads — Makes it easy to sell

digital products with WordPress. Great for selling
eBooks or online software. We use it to sell our
WordPress plugins. Get the free version.

WP Simple Pay — Allows you to accept one-time or

recurring payments via Stripe without setting up a
shopping cart. Great for setting up a payment form in
WordPress. Free version is available here.

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Membership
Another way to monetize your WordPress site is by creating a
membership website and offering premium content to paying
subscribers. Below are the best WordPress membership plugins.

MemberPress — Easy to set up membership plugin

that allows you to add content access control,
content dripping, and more. It also integrates with
the most popular marketing and payment solutions.

Thrive Apprentice — Best WordPress membership

site and course builder. Its drag-and-drop course
builder makes it easy to create modules, chapters,
and lessons to keep your courses well organized.

MemberMouse — Enterprise-level membership

plugin for selling products with members-only
pricing. Create member-only content with access
controls and manage members with CRM tools.

BuddyBoss — All-in-one online community platform

for WordPress that lets you create social groups,
discussion boards, an activity feed, and more.

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Translation
If your business has an international presence, then you may want to
localize your content for certain geographical regions. Here are the
best plugins to add and manage translations in WordPress.

TranslatePress — The best all-in-one WordPress

multilingual plugin. It allows you to translate your
website content using a front-end customizer with
support for over 200 languages.

WPML — Short for WordPress Multilingual, it allows

you to create content in different languages. It’s
powerful enough for corporate sites while simple
enough for small blogs.

Additional Info:
Best WordPress Translation Plugins for Multilingual Websites

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Additional Resources
Thank you for reading my toolkit. I hope you found it to be helpful.

If you did, then please consider following WPBeginner on:

- Facebook Group — Get free WordPress assistance from experts.

- Facebook Page — Like us on Facebook.
- X (Twitter) — Follow us on X (Twitter).
- YouTube — Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

We share tons of awesome video tutorials on YouTube, so de nitely

check them out.

You may also like the following sections on WPBeginner:

- WordPress Glossary — WordPress terms explained in plain English.

- WPBeginner Deals — Exclusive discounts on the best blogging tools
and services for WPBeginner users.

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Copyright and Disclosure

© Copyright 2016-2024 WPBeginner LLC. All Rights Reserved.

May be shared with copyright and credit left intact.

Disclosure:
Some of the links in this document are af liate links. This means if you
click and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no
additional cost to you. In most cases, you will actually get a better deal
because you’re a WPBeginner user.

Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I personally

use and believe will add value to my readers, not because of the small
commission.

Syed Balkhi has ownership in the following products: OptinMonster,

WPForms, MonsterInsights, and several others.

WordPress is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation.

WPBeginner is a registered trademark of WPBeginner LLC.

This eBook and its authors are not af liated with nor sponsored by the
WordPress Foundation.

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