Recommended Tools and Services for a better WordPress
There are many tools, services, plugins etc. And while some of them are good, the most aren’t worth your time. The tools listed here have undergone testing and day-to-day usage.
Index (click to jump)
Performance
Of course my favorite topic comes first! And since you are here i’d take a bet that you’re interested in better performing WordPress websites too!
Get your site loading blazing fast with the best plugins available in the industry.
MOST RECOMMENDED
FlyingPress
Setting up a caching plugin that does everything (the only two plugins competing feature-wise are LiteSpeed Cache and Swift) has never been this easy. Comes with optional FlyingCDN Add-On which is BunnyCDN (+extras) under the hood for a very fair price (might be cheaper than BunnyCDN, depending on your needs).
BEST FOR ENTHUSIASTS AND FREE ALTERNATIVE
Swift Performance
If you are an advanced user and like fine-grained control, then Swift is made for you. The free option (+extra option in trade for a mail-optin) already beats WP-Rocket and is a hair away from FlyingPress – but with A LOT more setup work. Not for unexperienced users.
BEST FOR NEWBIES
PhastPress
Includes features like lazy loading, critical CSS generation, JS optimization, and a lot of other stuff. But does not include caching functionality but you definitely should install a caching plugin on top (whichever you like, just let it handle caching and nothing else).
Perfect for unexperienced users!
BEST ADDITION
Perfmatters
Perfmatters gives you plenty of options to remove bloat either added by WP-Core or your plugins. You may for example disable the loading of your form scripts on sites where you have no contact form.
Clean UI, easy to setup, great tutorials, worth every penny.
FREE ALTERNATIVE
Asset Cleanup
Very similar to Perfmatters, but with a UI that is way more complex. Has a few more features, and even more in the pro version, but i think all of those are unnecessary / already covered with a good caching plugin.
If you’re really tight on budget, this is an alternative to Perfmatters. But if money is not the issue, then I’d always prefer Perfmatters over AC.
Images
For front-end delivery, if you got HTML, CSS and JS covered, as well as caching, you have the basics covered. Images and fonts are what is left to optimize, but besides locally hosting and only using max 2 fonts, there is nothing about fonts. So lets talk images!
MOST RECOMMENDED
ShortPixel
My favorite image optimization plugin. Had the best results in a few benchmarks and has a generous free tier and fair pricing.
Also works perfectly with CDNs and support WebP delivery on the fly.
Use my link to get 100 credits per month extra!
WebP conversion and image compression each use one credit, so 50 images would consume 100 credits. This is only needed once, not every time this image is loaded.
Security
The topic with the most false informations and many amateurs just following the marketing of some big companies. Read my security setup guide for more information.
Here we cover what i absolutely want everybody to use.
MOST RECOMMENDED
NinjaFirewall
Absolutely the single best WAF and security plugin out there. Beats anything else in terms of protection offered AND performance. Check out my guide linked above for instructions and config files for setting up your future go-to tool for security.
BEST ADDITION
Two-Factor
You may know 2FA from different services, this plugin bings this feature into your WordPress Website, including support for E-Mail Keys, OTPs and even hardware keys like Yubikey.
EASIEST SERVER LAYER
7G – Ruleset
“7G Firewall” is a ruleset you can implement via htaccess or Nginx conf (see Nginx version). It definitely does not offer the protection that ModSecurity would offer (because 7G is not a firewall!), but it sure is way lighter. Check out the additional ruleset for upload related targets and the additional ruleset for requests of non-existent files.
BEST PRE-SERVER LAYER
Cloudflare
Cloudflare offers an uncountable amount of features even in the free plan. The paid plans offer even more features but for most sites the free plan is sufficient. You can also improve your WordPress Website performance with Cloudflare, absolutely for free.
See my Cloudflare Ruleset Guide.
Hosting
If I got a dollar for everytime I noticed someone paying to much for their hosting, sometimes even bad hosting not even remotely worth the price, I would not offer services anymore.
MOST RECOMMENDED
GridPane
If you know Cloudways, this is basically Cloudways, but better. Much better. Unbelievably better. Great knowledge base, great community, great merch swag. The free tier opens up the doors for low-budget scenarios, giving you more than double the bang for your buck compared to Cloudways. Chat with Patrick is highly recommended!
BEST MANAGED HOSTING
Servebolt
If you are currently with for example Kinsta, then this is the best 1:1 transition you can make. Way better performance, in other words, one of the best worldwide. Unbelievable performance, perfect hands-off experience but at a higher entry-price.
Privacy
Especially in times of GDPR fearmongering (or well, GDPR is a PITA so its not fearmongering IMHO) and other privacy laws, privacy / compliance becomes more and more important.
MOST RECOMMENDED
Borlabs Cookie
Cookie Plugin made in Germany, the country with the strictest privacy laws. Not only is this plugin able to make your cookie usage compliant, it is also performance friendly and looks beautiful on the frontend. Great support and fair pricing, highly recommended!
BEST ALTERNATIVE
Real Cookie Banner
Another tool made in Germany. Has a free version which will be sufficient for most sites. The pro version has even more features than Borlabs Cookie, but is not as performance friendly and definitely heavier.
BEST FOR U.S. AND AGENCIES
Termageddon
Termageddon is a service that offers policies, like data privacy policies and similar. They have an approach to also teach you about the things you need (to do) and even better, the things you don’t.
I highly recommend giving them a chat if you’re unsure, i had a call with Hans before and it was a real pleasure.
Use code PRESSIMIZE for a 10% discount!
Builders
Strongly related to performance – if you build a site lean from the ground up you definitely have less hassle optimizing a site to get great loading speeds.
And let me tell you, there is up to 400% difference in page size for exactly the same page depending on your choice in building-software.
MOST RECOMMENDED
Bricks Builder
Actually Bricks is a theme that comes with its own builder. So you do not need nor can you use a theme with Bricks. If you didn’t catch the hype around Bricks, under which rock have you been living? But let me tell you, all the hype is completely legit and you’ll know why once you tried it.
BEST ALTERNATIVE
Breakdance Builder
Is also actually usable as a theme, but has an option to use a theme with it. The new child of soflyy, hits a sweet spot between Elementor and Oxygen – just like Bricks! But in some different ways. Just as impressive as BricksBuilder and those are definitely my 2 new favourites.
Gutenberg
If you want to stick to Gutenberg for whatever reason (don’t get me wrong, i like Gutenberg for some projects, like this site) then there are some brutally powerful addons to enhance your experience and output.
All of the listed tools are performance friendly and I#ll likely test Cwicly in the near future.
MOST RECOMMENDED
GenerateBlocks
Offers only 4 blocks, which sounds miniscule. But the approach is to build elements out yourself to reduce bloat and increase control over the elements. And let me tell you, this has a huge fan community. Stable, performance oriented, the GenerateWay.
BEST ALTERNATIVE
GreenShift
The new kid on the block. Ive tested and used Greenshift and it is a blast. Strong focus on animations while keepnig performance in check. Has some cool unique features like CSS Grid (!!!) which you can check out on their page. Confusing pricing for their addons, but you’ll get it in a few minutes.
OTHER GREAT ALTERNATIVE
Spectra
Formerly called ultimate addons for Gutenberg. Yes, it is by Brainstorm Force, the guys behind the Astra Theme. But it is a great block library and has the best flexbox support on this whole list. Also not much bloat.
Check out their page.
BEST ADDON
Kadence Blocks
Actually a whole set of tools, similar to the ones above. But I only use it for very certain blocks, so I consider it an addon. Kadence also offers great other products in their Product Suite.
Also does not impact performance heavily.
Themes
Similar to builders, the choice of your theme has a huge impact on performance and features. All the themes listed are performance friendly. And they can cover ANY use case, no need for “specialized” themes for Photographers, Agencies, Magazines or anything else – those themes are worse than those listed here 100%.
MOST RECOMMENDED
GeneratePress
All time classic. Has been a developer favourite for years now, for plenty good reasons. Great documentation, great features, rock solid updates and the best in terms of performance. The absolute state of the art IMHO. The free version is somewhat limited though.
BEST (FREE) ALTERNATIVE
Blocksy
My 2nd favourite theme, even though it is kind of the underdog here. The free version is uber generous. The pro version extends this even further. Starter sites seem very polished, but this is true for the UI of this theme in general.
BEST ALLROUND SUITE
Kadence
If you want everything from one vendor then I’d highly recommend the Kadence Suite. IMHO has the best e-Commerce features with the suite. If you limit yourself to free tools, I’d choose Blocksy over Kadence.
Forms
There are many trashy form plugins out there. The list of recommendable form plugins is REALLY small. Be sure to read the description.
MOST RECOMMENDED
FluentForms
Free version is sufficient for contact forms that are feature-rich and beautiful. The pro version adds a lot of features and especially integrations. UI is easy to understand and use. Tightly integratable with the other Fluent Plugins.
BEST ALTERNATIVE
WS Form
I’d only consider this alternative if you need integrations that FluentForms does not offer (because the UI is harder to use and it is not as performance friendly). Then, this is the #1 choice. See the video review or the extensive written review of James at Isotropic!
Social
Some sites are bloated with social lpugins and thats a shame. There is absolutely no need to bring in bloat fur those features. Check this out.
MOST RECOMMENDED
WP Social Ninja
Could be called Fluent Social because its by the Fluent Plugins team. Bundles the features of many plugins in one, like social reviews, feeds and chat. And on top of that it is performance friendly.
