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There’s an old saying that “WordPress plugins are what makes the world go round.” Okay, so maybe that’s not an actual saying, but it’s still true in our hearts. 

In this roundup, we’ve gathered the top ten most frequently installed plugins from 2023. (FYI, our WordPress.com marketplace offers 50,000+ plugins on the Creator plan and above.) Take a look and see how many you have on your site, get inspiration for plugins to try out, or simply satisfy your curiosity.

Though we’ve randomized the order, you can rest assured each one is well-loved for a reason.

Try the Creator plan to install any of the other plugins listed below and take your site to the next level.

A final note before jumping in: These plugins represent a curated selection of the most popular plugins based on installs by WordPress.com users over the course of 2023. While WordPress.com maintains partnerships with vendors, these placements are not paid, nor should they be taken to mean that other plugins aren’t also great. Without further adieu, enjoy!

Table of Contents

1. Yoast SEO
2. WooCommerce
3. Contact Form 7
4. Google Site Kit
5. Elementor
6. All in One SEO Pack
7. WPForms
8. WP Headers and Footers
9. Astra Pro
10. Jetpack Boost
11. Plugins that come built-in to WordPress.com
12. How many of these plugins have you tried?

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Yoast SEO

Yoast has been helping WordPress site owners drive more traffic from search engines since 2010. While WordPress.com sites are set up for SEO success out of the box, Yoast enables more control over key SEO considerations on your site, while remaining so simple that anyone can use it. That balance between power and ease of use is just one reason why our users frequently choose this plugin. 

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WooCommerce

If you ask us, there’s no better way to build an online store than with WooCommerce. It turns out a lot of our users agree. WooCommerce offers everything you need to quickly launch an online store and keep it growing for years. That’s why it’s the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution—and one that works great with WordPress.com hosting.

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Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a simple but flexible form builder plugin. It makes it easy to build, customize, and manage contact forms so readers and potential customers can reach you.

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Google Site Kit

Google services can enhance several aspects of running a successful WordPress website. Site Kit by Google bundles several integrations together—Google Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, and Speed—into one plugin. It’s a practical and elegant solution for site owners that want to measure and optimize performance without installing multiple plugins. 

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Elementor

Elementor is a popular website builder that simplifies page creation with a drag-and-drop interface. This plugin is versatile and user-friendly, offering an array of customizable widgets and pre-designed templates. For beginners, it can be a good way to jump into website design with zero coding knowledge necessary. 

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All in One SEO Pack

SEO is as important as ever for driving website traffic. It can also be mysterious (at least until you learn how it works), especially for newcomers. And hey, not everyone has the time—which is why this plugin promises to deliver improved results and new SEO opportunities in just 10 minutes.

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WPForms

We have another great form builder in WPForms. Build all kinds of different forms—contact forms, payment forms, custom forms, and even surveys and polls—with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

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WP Headers and Footers

Need to insert Google or Facebook tracking codes, customize some CSS, or add inline Javascript in your site’s headers or footers but you don’t want to touch your theme files? This is exactly where WP Headers and Footers comes in. 

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Astra Pro

Astra isn’t just one of the most popular themes in the WordPress ecosystem, it’s also easily extensible with Astra Pro, which allows you to add premium features like pre-built templates (including options that work with WooCommerce). 

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Jetpack Boost

Have you heard about Core Web Vitals? They’re a set of metrics that Google uses to assess “real world user experience for loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.” In plain English, that means your website needs to load fast and offer users a great experience. Jetpack Boost does just that by analyzing and boosting you site’s speed and performance.

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Plugins that come built-in to WordPress.com

Every WordPress.com website comes bundled with several pre-installed plugins that ensure customers have an excellent experience building, designing, and maintaining their online real estate. These include:

• Jetpack. Protects your site with top-tier security, anti-spam, auto-backup, and more.
• Akismet. Defends your site from spammers.
• Gutenberg. WordPress’s built-in site editor that offers a flexible and modern editing experience.
• Crowdsignal. Makes it simple to create polls and surveys.

How many of these plugins have you tried?

Hopefully, you’ve found a new plugin or two to try. Were there any entries that you found surprising? Are there any particular plugins that you discovered that you think deserve a shout out too? Sound off in the comments!

As 2023 came to a close, WordPress bid farewell with the much-anticipated annual State of the Word and the 6.5 roadmap, among other exciting updates.

Read on to learn more about the community’s end-of-year celebrations and catch a sneak peek of what’s in store for the year ahead.

Highlights from State of the Word

On December 11, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg delivered his annual State of the Word keynote in Madrid, Spain, marking the first international edition of the event. Nearly 200 WordPress enthusiasts and tech industry leaders gathered in person to hear what’s next for WordPress—with a large audience joining online or from one of the 47 watch parties held across 18 countries.

The keynote highlighted last year’s milestones and showcased compelling demos, providing a glimpse into the upcoming developments for the Site Editor, Collaboration phase, and Admin redesign. Matt also introduced 2024’s focus on Data Liberation, aiming to unlock digital barriers and frictionless migrations into WordPress for a more open web.

The event concluded with a Q&A session and this follow-up post.

Roadmap to WordPress 6.5

WordPress 6.5 is scheduled for release on March 26, 2024. This major release is set to introduce a new Font Library for easy global font management, support for Appearance Tools in Classic Themes, Data Views for templates and patterns, and more robust revisions across the editing experience, among other highlights.

6.5 will also include new APIs like Interactivity, Custom Fields, and Block Binding that expand block capabilities and underpin features like Synced Pattern Overrides.

Learn more about the features planned for WordPress 6.5 in this roadmap post.

Don’t wait for the next release to optimize your creative workflows with these powerful Site Editor tools.

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Two new versions of Gutenberg shipped in December:

• Gutenberg 17.2 introduced improvements to the site editing experience, including the ability to drag and drop blocks to the top and bottom of documents and sticky table headers. The update also enhanced the Interactivity API docs and addressed numerous bug fixes.
• Gutenberg 17.3 featured a summary of changes in the global styles revision history, an updated preferences panel, and a new social icon for the Gravatar service, along with the ongoing development of Phase 3 features.

https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/

Team updates

• Openverse introduced new features to filter sensitive content, aiming for a more accessible and safer browsing experience. This update marks the beginning of a significant initiative to enhance content safety tools.
• Matrix contributors announced the decision to pause the Making WordPress Slack migration to Matrix and the factors contributing to it.
• The redesign of the Developer Resources section went live last month.
• Are you searching for events in your local community? Explore the recently launched WordPress.org Events page—your new central hub for discovering upcoming events or applying to organize one.
• In 2023, WordPress significantly improved Core Web Vitals (CWV) across sites. The overall passing rates went up from 28.31% to 36.44% on mobile and from 32.55% to 40.80% on desktop, making both WordPress and the whole web perform better.
• Volunteers are needed for 2024’s WordPress major releases. If you’re interested, now’s the time to get involved!
• Check out all the community achievements and contributions that moved the WordPress project closer to its goals in 2023.

https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/

Requests for feedback & testing

• Complete the 2023 Annual Meetup Survey before January 14, 2024, and help strengthen WordPress meetups in the future.

WordPress events

• WordCamp Asia has opened registrations for its Contributor Day. The conference will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 7-9, 2024.
• WordCamp Europe’s call for speakers is open until January 15, 2024. Don’t miss the chance to be part of this event by either submitting your speaking proposals or supporting it as a sponsor.
• Mark your calendars! WordCamp US 2024 is headed to Portland, Oregon, from September 17 to 20, as revealed during the State of the Word.
• Check out these WordPress events happening soon:
  • Kolkata CareerCamp, India on January 6, 2024
  • WordCamp Nepal on January 12-13, 2024
  • WordCamp Zaragoza, Spain on January 19-20, 2024
  • WordPress Web Challenge, Indonesia on January 27, 2024

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Thank you to Bernard Meyer, Nicholas Garofalo, and Lauren Stein for contributing to this edition of The Month in WordPress.