It doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to create a website. These are the best free WordPress plugins to help you make an awesome site on the cheap!
Approximate read time: 9 minutes
Are you in the process of building a new WordPress website and looking for ways to boost its functionality without straining your budget? Well, you're in luck!
There are literally thousands of plugins to help you build the site of your dreams. Not only do they let you add all kinds of features to your website, but they also handle the hard development and time-consuming coding for you.
And there are tons of free WordPress plugins, so you don't even have to spend a dime to save yourself tons of time and effort!
Whether you're a newbie when it comes to creating websites or a seasoned pro, we're rounding up the free WordPress plugins every website could use.
So pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee (or tea, we don't discriminate), and get the lowdown on how to make an awesome site with these WordPress plugins for free.
1. Formidable Forms - Best free form builder plugin
Ratings: 4.7 stars (1,000 + reviews) | 300,000+ active installations
Formidable Lite is the best free online form builder for WordPress. This plugin lets you create all sorts of web forms without any fuss. Plus, it works with any WordPress theme too!
From simple newsletter signups to all-important payment forms, you can make them in just a few clicks with Formidable. And its user-friendly drag and drop form builder means it's simple enough for first-timers. But don't worry. It's also powerful enough for experienced developers.
Formidable goes beyond just building forms, though. Yes, the free version too! Formidable Lite also allows you to send automated emails, collect payments, personalize the design of your forms, and more.
What the free Formidable plugin can help you do:
- Accept Stripe payments for your online products
- Create forms right from the WordPress dashboard
- Autoresponders / automatically send email on form submission
- Save form entries so you always have a backup
- Export form submissions to CSV for viewing and tracking in Excel
- Customize form styling and layouts to make your forms fit your style
And that's only with the free plugin. As you can imagine, Formidable's premium Wordress form maker offers even more advanced features and integrations. Go pro to connect your WordPress forms to your email marketing services, CRM, add calculated fields, and create online surveys or viral quizzes.
Check out Formidable's Pro features, or click below to pick up a plan and try it out risk-free for 14 days!
2. Elementor - Best free page builder plugin
Ratings: 4.6 stars (6,500+ reviews) | 5+ million active installations
If you aren't already using Elementor, this page builder is your new best friend. With the free version of this WordPress plugin, you can design your pages exactly how you want. And you don't need to be a tech wizard to do it!
Elementor is all about drag-and-drop, so you can add text, images, buttons, and more to your website without breaking a sweat. You also have loads of cool templates to kickstart your creativity.
This free plugin (aka Elementor Core) gives you the power to customize your site's layout, fonts, colors, and pretty much everything else. You'll also love the live preview feature — it's like painting a picture and seeing it change in real-time.
Whether you're a pro or a newbie, Elementor's got your back when it comes to building a website that looks fantastic and works like a charm. All without ever needing to write a single line of code!
What the free version of Elementor can help you do:
- Create a webpage in 1 click using the template library
- Pre-built blocks and sections to add to your page layout
- Counters and progress bars
- Show social media icons on your website
- Maintenance mode or "in construction"
If that's not enough for you, upgrading to Elementor Pro gives you access to over 60 additional widgets, a built-in popup builder, advanced marketing tools, and all sorts of integrations.
3. All in One SEO (AIOSEO) - Best free SEO plugin
Ratings: 4.7 stars (3,500+ reviews) | 3+ million active installations
Want to get your WordPress website ranking on Google? Then you definitely want a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Plugin.
You've probably heard of Yoast SEO, the most popular SEO plugin. But AIOSEO offers a better user experience, a simpler setup, improved WooCommerce compatibility, and more features.
Even the free version of AIOSEO gives you the best tools to boost your website's search engine visibility.
You can effortlessly optimize your page titles, meta descriptions, and other crucial SEO elements to help your content get noticed. AIOSEO also generates a sitemap for search engines, making it easier for them to crawl and index your site.
How the free AIOSEO plugin helps you:
- Focus keyword optimization
- On-page SEO score
- Headline analyzer
- Sitemaps
- Social media linking
Really want to increase your organic traffic? The premium version of AIOSEO is packed with even more features to help you optimize your site, including WooCommerce support.
Speaking of WooCommerce...
4. WooCommerce - Best free eCommerce plugin
Ratings: 4.5 stars (4,000+ reviews) | 5+ million active installations
WooCommerce is the go-to for turning a WordPress website into a thriving online store.
With this free eCommerce plugin, you can effortlessly add products, set prices, manage inventory, and provide secure payment options. Plus, WooCommerce is quite user-friendly, making it a breeze to showcase and sell your products or services.
But the benefits of this free plugin don't stop there. You can customize the look and feel of your online shop, add discounts, and set up shipping options too.
So, if you're dreaming of building your own online empire or just want to dip your toes into eCommerce, WooCommerce is the way to go. It's your ticket to a user-friendly, feature-packed online store, all without shelling out a dime.
What WooCommerce's free eCommerce plugin can do:
- Add and manage products
- Set prices and taxes
- Take online payments
- Manage shipping options
- Track inventory
- Built-in reporting
While the core plugin is free, WooCommerce also has an extensive library of premium plugins — or paid extensions, as they call them — that lets you scale easily as your online business grows.
5. Akismet - Best free anti-spam plugin
Ratings: 4.7 stars (950+ reviews) | 5+ million active installations
We don't know about you, but we can't stand spam. Not the mystery meat, nor the junk messages! 😆
Well, this plugin won't do much to help with the canned food version of Spam, but it will keep your site free from spam comments and form entries.
Akismet is your shield against the pesky spam comments that love to crash your comment section. This free WordPress security plugin automatically filters out waste and lets the real, valuable messages in.
With Akismet, you won't have to waste your precious time sifting through a mountain of spam. It automatically detects and blocks spam submissions, ensuring that your site stays squeaky clean.
It's user-friendly, effective, and a true time-saver! So, if you're all about keeping your website's comment section and contact forms spam-free, you'll want to check out Akismet.
What Akismet can help you do for free:
- Basic anti-spam protection for comments and forms
- Save time by not having to remove spam messages manually
- Keep your site's interactions secure
- Improve site loading times by keeping your server from filling up with junk
We should mention that the free version of Akismet is for personal websites only. So, if you're running a commercial or business site, you'll need to upgrade to the premium version of Akismet.
6. Uncanny Automator - Best free automation plugin
Ratings: 4.9 stars (100+ reviews) | 20,000+ active installations
Never heard of Uncanny? It's the most powerful automation plugin on WordPress! 🦾
Uncanny Automator is the easiest way to connect your plugins, sites, and apps so you can trigger time-saving automations.
With more than 350 automation triggers and actions available in the free version of Uncanny, there is a whole lot you can do with this plugin. From taking care of repetitive tasks for you to automating workflows, it's truly a must-have for any small business site.
What the Uncanny Automator free plugin can do for you:
- Send automated emails on purchase
- Trigger an action when a user views a page
- Automatically create a post
- Create Slack notifications
- Add contacts to mailing lists in ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Mailchimp, and more
Want to automate even more? The Uncanny Pro plugin makes your website even more efficient and your life easier. Additional features include social sharing to Facebook, AI integrations, and the ability to schedule automations.
We use it on our sites and love how simple it is to set up. Plus, it's saved us literally hundreds of hours!
7. WP Mail SMTP - Best free SMTP plugin
Ratings: 4.8 stars (4,500+ reviews) | 3+ million active installations
Do you want to send emails from your WordPress website? Well then, this is the best plugin you never knew you needed!
WP Mail SMTP ensures your email delivery is as reliable as your favorite morning brew. It solves the common problem of emails from your website ending up in the spam folder.
With WP Mail SMTP, you can easily configure your site's email settings to use a reputable email service. This means your website's transactional emails, like order confirmations and password resets, are more likely to reach the recipient's inbox.
So, whether you're running a blog, an online store, or a business site, this free SMTP plugin ensures your email communication is smooth, professional, and spam-free.
What the free plugin from WP Mail SMTP can help you do:
- Easy transactional email configuration
- Send emails through reputable providers like Gmail, SendGrid, or SMTP.com
- Hassle-free setup to improve your site's email deliverability
WordPress plugins for free you won't want to miss
Thankfully, you no longer need HTML expertise or a lot of money to make a website. That's because there are a bunch of great free WordPress plugins available to help you build an exceptional site on a budget.
Whether you're a WordPress rookie or have already made dozens of WP sites, it's easy to enhance your new website with these WordPress plugins — for free!
Here's a quick recap of the seven must-have tools we talked about today:
- Formidable Forms: The best free form builder for WordPress.
- Elementor: A top-notch page builder with drag-and-drop simplicity.
- All in One SEO (AIOSEO): Enhance your site's search engine visibility.
- WooCommerce: Turn your site into a thriving online store.
- Akismet: Keep spam comments at bay.
- Uncanny Automator: Simplify automation for small business sites.
- WP Mail SMTP: Ensure reliable email delivery.
With these plugins, you can craft an amazing website without emptying your wallet. So, go ahead — get started and make your website dreams a reality!
Did you know that Formidable Forms is the best free WordPress form builder on the market? If you're not already using it, get started with our free plugin, or go for our full-featured pro version!
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