7 (free) Tools To Boost Your WordPress Website

#1 WordFence

First up, WordFence.

Security should be one of if not your main website concern. Wordfence provides real-time firewall protection, malware scanning, and login security to keep hackers out and your site safe. Peace of mind in one powerful plugin. It has a number of paid tiers starting at $149 which add extra security by providing powerful add-ons and expert support.

#2 Elementor

Design without coding knowledge.

This feature rich page builder has become my go-to in recent years based on it’s simple and intuitive approach. You can build stunning pages with drag-and-drop ease using Elementor. Whether it’s landing pages or blog layouts, you get full creative control—no coding needed. Make your site look pro in minutes. It may not be as feature rich as Divi but at a starting price of $60 per year you get a lot of Bang for your Buck.

#3 W3 Total Cache

Boost your sites performance.

Speed up your website because no one likes a slow website. W3 Total Cache improves your site’s load times by enabling browser caching, compressing files, and integrating with CDNs. A faster site = better SEO and user experience. Essential for keeping visitors around longer. If you use GTMetrix, PageSpeed or Pingdom to test your website you’ll notice some improvement to your score using this plugins free features (if done correctly). They also have more subscriptions which bring more features and power to your website including full site delivery, unlimited WebP Image Conversions, auto-removal of unused CSS/JS and much more.

#4 AIO SEO

Get found on Google.

This is one I want to keep quiet about but I just have to include because it’s so good. All in One SEO (AIO SEO) makes optimising your pages for SEO a breeze. From meta tags to sitemaps, it takes care of your SEO so you can focus on content. Perfect for boosting organic traffic without being an SEO expert. It’s very intuitive and has a beginner friendly experience – as you add your page content and elements your page score increases, letting you know what you’re doing right/wrong. It’s paid tier starts at just $50 per year and includes things like adding AI assisted content generation, TRU SEO analysis, social media integration and much more.

#5 Monster Insights

Know your audience.

I don’t mind using SiteKit these days but MonsterInsights is just as good if not better. Connect your site to Google Analytics effortlessly and view key metrics right in your dashboard. See what’s working, what’s not, and make smarter content decisions. It analyses your traffic, your sites performance, SEO, user behaviour, GDPR and more. Its paid tier starts at just $99 per year and includes things like enhanced support, specialised growth tools and enhanced reporting features.

#6 Duplicator

Back-up/migrate like a pro.

For ensuring you have back-ups taken at regular intervals and that you can easily restore a back-up should the need ever arise then this tool is perfect. However, sometimes you may need to move your site from one server to another? Duplicator simplifies both. Whether you’re switching hosts or just staying safe, this tool ensures nothing gets lost along the way. It has a number of paid options starting at $50 per year and includes features like scheduled backups, recovery points, secure file encryption and server to server importing.

#7 Akismet

Goodbye spam – Hello clean comments.

An honourable mention here – Say Good-Bye to spam! Akismet automatically filters out spammy comments, keeping your blog clean and your readers engaged. No more sifting through junk—just meaningful conversation.

That’s all for now folks! I hope that these tools help someone as much as they’ve helped me. 

Now, Obviously using free tools comes with limits. The good news is that all of these tools come with paid versions that take your online game to a whole other level. If you’re not using these then why not try them and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Otherwise are there better plugins that you would use and why?