What is a plugin and how do you find the good ones?

Presented by Michelle Hayes

Recording available at

WordPress.tv

About Me

• 3+ years with WordPress
• Not a developer
• Use a lot of plugins!
• Blog at BuiltWithGravity.com
• Create free courses for gravity.guide

What is a plugin?

A program that extends the functionality of WordPress and your theme.

Quick Facts

• Over 57,000 free plugins in WordPress Plugin Directory
• Thousands more paid plugins on various sites
• Developers can build custom plugins

Where do you find plugins?

WordPress Plugin

Directory

• wordpress.org/plugins
• Admin Menu (left)
• Plugin Favorites profiles.wordpress.org/ mnhayes/
  

Paid Plugins

• Google Search

Custom Plugins

• Codeable.io
• Existing Plugin Developers

How do you know which plugins are good?

Plugin Directory

• Over 100,000 Active Installs
• 4 Stars or Better
• Recently Updated
• Compatible with Current Version of WordPress

Paid Plugins

• Quality Documentation – are all your questions answered?
• Robust Community – results from various sources in Google search; facebook groups and slack channels exist
• Developer Responsiveness to Questions – ask pre-sale questions if anything is unclear

Custom Coded

• Codeable Experts are Vetted
• Codeable Offers Warranty and Refund Policy
• Existing Plugin Developers – see previous slide

How Many Plugins is Too Many?

More than you need.

Ask Questions

of the Developer!

• pre-sale questions
  • developer wants happy customers
  • understand refund policies
• support questions
  • developer wants happy customers
  • may enable developer to improve plugin

Must Have Plugins

• Loginizer – brute force protection
• Updraft Plus – back up to Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
• Health Check & Troubleshooting – identify plugin conflicts

Let’s see how they work…

Questions?