The WordPress official directory’s 59,000+ free plugins address virtually every feature or function that needs to be incorporated in any type of website. Premium WordPress plugins are also available. CodeCanyon for example, has 5200+ of them.
If you don’t like the idea of having to work your way through so many free or premium plugins to find what you need, don’t give it a second thought.
We tested an array of WordPress plugins. And as we were looking for the best among various types, we came up with what we deem to be the 8 fantastic WordPress plugins for:
- easily building engaging website landing pages.
- managing and displaying large complex data from multiple sources.
- visual storytelling that stands out.
- automating appointment and event bookings.
The following review provides important knowledge about each of these 8 best WordPress plugins for 2024. Most feature a free version.
What do these fantastic WordPress plugins have in common that make them best in their class?
We checked to ensure the following essential properties were satisfied:
- We verified that each plugin met the goal it was designed and built to satisfy.
- We checked out reviews that cited both the PROs and the CONs of each plugin.
- We verified that each plugin was compatible with the latest WordPress and PHP versions. And we selected only those that had been updated within the last two months.
- We evaluated the product development team’s response to problems and questions to ensure a response time of 24 hours or less.
- Each plugin has a trial or a free version you are encouraged to try before looking into a premium version.
Top WordPress plugins for your upcoming website projects
Trying to find the perfect WordPress plugin for anything can take a huge amount of time as there are so many to choose from. That task is best left up to the experts. Because the 8 awesome WordPress plugins listed below are without a doubt the best in their respective service areas there is really no need for you to look further. We’ve presented information regarding their top features, average customer ratings, and what their users have said about them to help make your decisions.
Amelia is the best WordPress plugin for a service-oriented business in need of a website that can automate and streamline its appointment booking operations.
Amelia’s standout feature is its multilingual Notifications system. Favored by more than 70% of Amelia’s users, it keeps them informed about the status of appointments or events and enables them to seamlessly communicate, confirm, or reject appointments and make payments online via SMA, email, and/or WhatsApp messages.
- Other qualities users take note of once they begin working with Amelia are: its intuitive and easily navigable backend and frontend interfaces.
- the stable overall design that is free from unwanted surprises.
- customization options that make it easy to tailor Amelia to meet the needs of their brand.
- Amelia’s transparent pricing policy.
Amelia places a complete, fully automated booking system at its user’s disposal. A healthcare service can, for example, receive healthcare appointment requests online 24/7 from existing or prospective clients or patients. Appointment changes or cancellations can be made online and payments can be made online as wekk. Amelia’s users can manage multiple locations from a single dashboard.
Client average rating: 4.8/5 on Captera.
Key customer insight: “I’ve been using the plugin for a while now and haven’t had any problems. It fits my needs perfectly with continuous updates and when I needed support, they resolved my queries quickly.
100% recommendable.”
Instant support is accessible in the YouTube videos, user support manual, and a Discord Group.
You are invited to Preview Amelia
The wpDataTables WordPress plugin is ideal for businesses and individuals who need to create tables and charts.
wpDataTables’ top feature is a relatively new one. It provides a Multiple Database Connections capability that invests in each table the capability to establish independent connections to MS SQL, MySQL, or PostgreSQL databases.
Users quickly take note of the following wpDataTables qualities:
- a UI that makes it ever so easy for users that may lack a technical background to create tables.
- complex data structures are easily managed thanks to a balanced blending of robust data management features.
- the ability to effortlessly create tables from a variety of diverse origins and in a variety of formats.
wpDataTables can be used to easily create responsive statistics tables on WordPress. There are countless other uses including creating tables for specific user types such as:
- fixed headers and columns and advanced filtering for those tasked with working with large tables.
- charts engines for visual representation of financial, scientific, and marketing data.
- the Transform Value function that can be applied to customize employee data processing and display.
Client average rating: 4.83/5
Key customer insight: “I was looking for a plugin like this for a while. All the others I tried didn’t match the feature set I was looking for. So far, it’s been great! The team behind it is also great, helping out with an issue I had, that wasn’t really the fault of the plugin.”
Instant support material includes YouTube videos and a comprehensive support manual.
Try WpDataTables for free.
The wpDataTables WordPress plugin is ideal for businesses and individuals who need to create tables and charts.
Brizy’s standout feature is its White Label option that enables a business to brand the Brizy Builder as its own.
Features that users quickly become aware of after they begin using Brizy Builder:
- Content is never created in a disjointed sidebar, a process that can be disruptive to the design workflow. 90% of the competing builders have this issue.
- Users can edit in place irrespective of the nature of the content they are working with at any given time.
The Empire template could serve as a foundation for any service-oriented business looking to maximize customer conversions. Brizy Builder users can design their websites and landing pages in the Brizy Cloud or use the Brizy WordPress theme.
Client average rating: 4.6/5 on Trust Pilot
Key customer insight:
What do you like best about Brizy “The interface is the easiest on the market by far, you get to know it very quickly. I have been with Brizy since day one and have seen how much work they have put into it to get it to where it is today.”
What do you dislike? “There could be a few more simple updates to make it even better.”
What problems is Brizy solving and how is that helping you? “They have solved the complexity of the software. It is so easy to pick up.”
Support capabilities include the Brizy support manual and YouTube videos.
LayerSlider is the #1 responsive WordPress plugin for web designers looking for an effortless way to make great visuals.
From simple sliders to complex animated scenes, LayerSlider allows you to add breathtaking animations to your website. The top feature may well be one that is the scroll effect found in newer templates in which full-size hero scenes magically animate as visitors scroll through the page, while the Nature Photography demo offers another good example of slider usage.
Qualities that only users will become aware of:
- LayerSlider’s Project Editor is fully competitive with professional desktop applications.
- Everything needed to design and create is right at their fingertips.
- Millions of stock photos and videos plus other online services are available.
LayerSlider is tailored for use on any website, regardless of its content. An example would be marketing, where LayerSlider’s popup and banner creating capabilities and popular animation features excel.
Key customer insight: “A fantastic slider plugin with regular updates to make sure compatibility is never a problem. Keep up the amazing work!”
Support: Included in the package is a support manual and built-in assistance for almost all features within the LayerSlider Project Editor.
Check Out the LayerSlider plugin.
Slider Revolution is the best WordPress plugin for anyone looking to incorporate a touch, or a lot, of WOW into their sliders.
The feature its users like best about Slider Revolution is it gives them the ability to create sliders visually along with the ability to incorporate stunning effects that are guaranteed to turn visitors on.
Users quickly discover how easy it is for them to upgrade a WordPress website’s visuals in mere minutes. They also appreciate Slider Revolution’s helpful patient customer support when they need it.
Revolution Slider has a host of design options for all user categories:
- Businesses find a lot to like with Revolutions Slider’s one-page portfolio templates.
- Web shop builders feel the same about this plugin’s WooCommerce sliders.
- Slider Revolution’s Artificial Intelligence Particle Cluster hero page will be a hit with creative entrepreneurs.
Client average rating: 4.6/5
Key customer insight: “Slider Revolution is an incredible company. They’ve helped me through some issues that really more learning curve than an error. They have great videos and once you get the hang of it – you’ll be designing really cool websites from a template.”
Support: Slider Revolution’s support manual and YouTube videos are great when you require immediate support.
Preview Slider Revolution plugin.
Tablesome is the best WordPress form automation plugin for businesses that want to store submitted form information in tables.
The primary feature of Tablesome is the WordPress Form Automation which enables users to automate the processes that occur after clients submit forms like sending an email, storing the entries in a table etc. One benefit that this feature offers to the table is that, as customers become familiar with Tablesome, they will find out about the tasks it can do as well as the notable decrease in the number of plugins required for carrying out those tasks.
The Workflow Automation feature is especially enjoyed by the form users as it simplifies their work. Table Users feel the same about Google Sheet Integration and Frontend editing.
In general, Tablesome excels when used to support building or editing data-centric websites. Available integrations and Workflows include HubSpot CRM, Google Sheets, MailChimp, Slack, OpenAI/ChatGPT, and of course WordPress.
Client average rating: 4.7/5
Key customer insight: “I have large tables with hundreds of columns and rows in my site and the Tablesome plugin helps me create tables with thousands of entries quickly. Also, I like the responsiveness of this table plugin. My tables look great on all devices.”
Support: YouTube videos and Tablesome’s user manual are best for instant support.
Essential Grid is the #1 WordPress gallery plugin for establishing a groundwork for designing award winning galleries.
Grid skin options are the key to Essential Grid’s success. Consequently, it’s not surprising that its 50+ unique grid skins are its top feature. It doesn’t take any time at all for Essential Grid’s users to recognize the time and effort these grid skins save them, along with the quality of the support they receive.
Essential Grid’s team, blog, and portfolio grids, along with You/Tube Vimeo channel stream grids are popular within various client categories. The Rod Langway portfolio grid for WordPress with its clean, light portfolio grid with lightbox functionality and social media sharing links can be used give a website an engaging gallery. Essential Grid is an excellent choice for any website project that requires a sortable/filterable/searchable grid listing of items.
It’s worth noting that Essential Grid was created by the developers of the immensely popular Slider Revolution plugin. Slider Revolution also appears on this list of best plugins.
Client average rating: 4.7/5 on Trust Pilot
Key customer insight: “No hesitation in recommending Essential Grid. It’s easy to use and converts visits into sales. They are always updating and there is a wealth of templates to choose from. Thank you ThemePunch!”
Support: Instant support is available in the support manual and YouTube videos.
Web Stories helps its users create visual narratives calculated to immerse readers in powerful, quick-loading, and full-screen experiences.
The top feature of this WordPress storytelling editor is its success in fusing a selection of story creation capabilities into a WYSIWYG creation tool. WebStories offers a delightful selection of templates to its users. The Beck and Galo Modern American Cuisine template is one of the simplest and most straightforward and would be a great for helping to create a website for a café or a bistro.
Other popular features include:
- a visually rich and intuitive dashboard that promotes easy navigation throughout the story creation process.
- access to user media assets from Web Stories’ dashboard while creating a story.
- page templates like the above example to help users get their story creation activities underway and drag-and-drop capabilities that the process as easy as possible.
Product qualities that Web Stories’ users discover when they begin using the plugin include the ability to:
- offer readers fast loading times to keep them engaged.
- share stories on the open web.
- track and measure stories for monetization.
Client average rating: 4.1/5
Key customer insight: ”This plugin is great for writing short posts. Also, the writings can be beautifully designed It has very good support.”
Support: The detailed support manual is a major help.
View the Web Stories plugin.
Which WordPress plugin(s) could you have a need for in 2024?
You likely won’t need them all, but having one or two in your design toolbox could prove to be a game changer. Given the tens of thousands of WordPress plugins that are
available, we are more than pleased to be able to offer a much smaller number for your inspection, knowing that they are the best in that:
- they are user-friendly and offer an intuitive and flexible user experience.
- they do not place unnecessary limits on what you can achieve in their areas of functionality.
- they are fast, stable, and support responsive editing.
- those that feature pre-built templates make creating a faster and more enjoyable.
- their customer support is there when you need it.
Start with this compilation of the best WordPress plugin for 2024 to help you in your search. Each plugin has something special to offer.
We have gone from 59,000+ potential WordPress plugin possibilities to 8. They happen to be the absolute best as each is designed to satisfy one or more user types or niches. We also identified the top feature of each one along with other key features that might be important to you.
You can test out the free versions of each of these plugins, preview them all, and if necessary, upgrade to the premium ones. Assuming you discover one or more that satisfactorily addresses a pressing need you won’t be disappointed with your selection in 2024 or beyond.
