7 Best WordPress Plugins by Donncha
Donncha Ó Caoimh is a prominent member of the WordPress community. He has worked for Automattic for a decade and has developed many WP plugins that have become staples for users of WordPress. All this, and he also manages to maintain a hilarious and insightful blog and Twitter ! To celebrate this homegrown Irish talent, we at WP Carers decided to list his 7 Best WordPress Plugins.
1. WP Super Cache
With over 7 million downloads, this is the most popular cache plugin on the market. WP Super Cache is especially good if your server isn’t powerful or you’re experiencing a lot of unexpected traffic. The site for this WP plugin provides a thorough FAQ section and a support forum if you ever experience any problems or need help.
2. Polldaddy Polls & Ratings – WordPress Review plugin
As an Automattic plugin, Polldaddy works seamlessly with WordPress. This WordPress review plugin allows you to create unlimited polls and to embed reviews left by viewers. It has a simple and easy-to-use rating system, but still allows you to get feedback and opinions from your audience.
3. Exploit Scanner – WordPress Security
This is a free plugin that searches all files and the database of your WordPress install to check for signs of malicious hacks. Unlike other WP plugins, it does not remove suspicious code, it simply notifies the user and leaves them to decide what needs to be taken out. It is extremely user friendly and suitable for even WordPress beginners.
4. WordPress MU Domain Mapping – Best WordPress Plugins
As far as I’m aware, this was the first plugin of its kind, how innovative! If you have a WordPress Multisite Network created using subdomains or a subdirectory, this plugin lets you map external domains to your sites. As this plugin is so specific, it requires manual installation, but it’s definitely worth the hassle.
5. WP Hashcash – WP Plugins
This is a CAPTCHA-based anti-spam plugin that blocks spam and fake comments and blocks most pingback and trackback spam. WP Hashcash features a settings page for configuration and statistics, and works well with both Prototype and jQuery.
6. Sharedaddy – Best WordPress Plugins
Sharedaddy is touted by many as the best of the WP plugins for sharing. It includes options for Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, PressThis, Digg, print and email. It’s possible to configure these services as icons, text, or both.
7. Cookies for Comments – WordPress Security
The innovative approach to this plugin has earned it the title of one of the best WordPress plugins around for anti-spam. Cookies for Comments requires any commenting computer to have an assigned cookie. As most sources of comment spam (such as automated bots and custom interface) can’t take cookies, this is very effective. It’s recommended to use it in conjunction with a plugin that stops spam from getting through in the first place.