Top Paid Plugins We Use and Why | Part 1
Picking out paid plugins to use on your website could be tricky...
Hello there! Some time ago my colleague Bisi wrote an article on the Тop 5 Free Plugins to Use and we’re back at it again with some paid ones that are worth their buck.
Picking out the plugins to use on your website could be tricky and you may often end up paying for something that doesn’t perform as well as expected. A few simple things to always check before using or purchasing a plugin are:
- When it was last updated – seriously, if you’re going to spend money on something, make sure it’s regularly updated and tested with your WP version (which should be the newest version in the best case).
- Reviews – I cannot stress enough how important reviews are and how often we have decided against a plugin, solely based on the negative feedback. There are internet trolls that are always unhappy, of course, but it’s pretty easy to distinguish the meaningful feedback.
- Compatibility with themes – some of the plugins have a list on their websites, where they put all WP themes that are known to be compatible with. If you don’t find yours on the list – you can always contact their support and ask and also search different forums (WordPress-ers love forums) for possible problems.
Now that I’ve guided you through the essentials when buying a plugin, let’s talk about the actual plugins.
© WPML
WPML is a paid plugin that allows you to have multiple languages on your website.
We like working with it, because it’s almost always compatible with the theme and builder we’re using and because of the huge variety of languages to choose from. If you have any technical background and follow the documentation carefully, you shouldn’t have any trouble with it. If you’re scared of breaking your website – we’re always here to help you set it up 😉
They have a ticket support system, as well as a live chat you can connect through and have someone look at your problem right away.
It also has a feature for Multilingual SEO, so your titles, links and meta descriptions can be translated into multiple languages.
For more information, check out this Comparison between WPML and other free and paid multilingual plugins for WordPress.
Cost: $79/year (1 year of free updates & support for up to 3 website)
A more detailed pricing can be found here: WPML Pricing.
* We have a subscription for unlimited websites, so drop us a line if you’re interested in using it on your website and we can set it up for you at a reasonable price.
Sidenote: We recently tested the Arabic language for one of our projects – Sterling Stamp. It was very new to us and we were very excited, but it performed as good as always. Aaand just for the curious ones – what it did was to flip all columns, i.e. column Left has a text, column Right has a picture – well now it’s a picture on col Left and the text in col Right because of the RTL reading. The exciting thing was that it was done automatically and we had to make very few changes to make it perfect.
In our free plugins article, we suggested WP Fastest Cache as one of the good free caching plugins to use.
WP Rocket is currently recognized as the most powerful caching plugin by WordPress experts and chances are pretty good you’ve already heard of it.
One of the perks is the Simplicity of the plugin. No complicated settings, no going through a gazillion different tabs to choose a billion settings on each. No, it’s a simple dashboard, you go through a few tabs and set everything nice and easy. It’s pretty understandable, but again – it’s best to have some technical background & read the detailed documentation on how to get started, set it up, compatibility issues, etc. And remember, if you’re not sure about something, it’s always best to contact a professional (such as ourselves) to help you get started.
For best results, you can connect to your Cloudflare account and also use the Asset Cleaner: Page Speed Booster plugin.
But be careful though – it’s a powerful caching plugin and any incorrect settings may result in breaking your website. If you notice something breaking, I suggest you do this:
- Disable the plugin
- Go through their documentation and search for documented incompatibility issues with your theme or one of your plugins. If there are known issues – they usually put a suggestion how to fix it too
- If you don’t find any information, carefully go through their documentation and setup advice and if you still can’t figure it out, contact their support.
One of the perks of WP Rocket I personally recognise is the Facebook group WP Rocket Users, which is a great place to look for answers and to ask for advice.
Cost: $49/year (1 year of support & updates for 1 website)
A more detailed pricing can be found here: WP Rocket Pricing & Purchase.
* We have a subscription for unlimited websites, so drop us a line if you’re interested in using it on your website and we can set it up for you at a reasonable price.
This plugin is especially useful for bloggers and businesses that want to feature their FB events and/or news on their website. Sadly, there are no free alternatives that do the job well, especially with displaying events.
You can display multiple FB feeds and it’s super simple to use with shortcodes.
The absolutely best thing about Smash Balloon is hands down their support. They respond fast, they work clean and they are always up to the job to help you customize your feed, even if it requires writing custom code just for your needs. We are very impressed with them and very thankful for helping us. Smash Balloon Support, if you’re reading this – you totally rock!💖
They have a lot of demos showing different ways to display your feeds and if you have something particular in mind, but don’t see it – you can once again contact their support and they will be super helpful and answer all your questions.
Cost: $49/year (1 year of updates & support for 1 website)
A more detailed pricing can be found here: Custom Facebook Feed Pro Pricing.
Super Forms is a WordPress full-stack form builder plugin that has a drag & drop interface and is pretty easy to use.
We’ve been using it for over 2 years now on our website and also different clients, for example – donkin.eu.
It’s very simple to use, but you can still build very complex forms with it, style them and display custom messages. It’s easily customizable with custom CSS and is also translatable and fully responsive. It works based on a Column/Grid system, which means you can create forms that have a few pages, such as our Request Form.
It’s true there are a lot of free alternatives, but if you need to have a more complicated form on your website, we suggest to take a look at Super Forms.
Check out the documentation and features here.
Cost: $39/lifetime + 6 months support
In our free plugins article, we suggested Cookie Notice as a good free alternative.
WordPress GDPR is a paid plugin that is an all-in-one fully compliant GDPR plugin. With it you’ll be getting a Privacy Center where you can display all of your policies.
Upon visiting the website, the user will be greeted with a popup stating that your website uses cookies. The users can then control their Privacy Settings and choose which cookies they allow.
You can’t start using the website before agreeing to the Cookie Policy, which is great, because it prompts you to take an interest and read more about why we’re collecting your data and what sort of data we’re collecting.
If you’re interested in a better GDPR plugin, we suggest you take a look at WordPress GDPR.
Cost: $19/lifetime + 6 months support
That’s it for today, folks! 🙂 I hope this article will help you in finding the right plugin you need and also help you understand what plot holes to look for. Stay tuned for Part 2 – coming next week 😉
Recent posts
Recent posts
You may also like
More articles in technology
Who wrote this article
Learn more about the author
Mirela Vaseva
Website Creator & Head of QA
/ IT, Software Engineering graduate 💻
/ good music, horror films, detective novels and delectable food 👌
/ YouTube videos junkie 🎥
/ animals, nature, water lover 🐱
Comments
Would you like to share something?
No comment yet, add your voice below!