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When I first started building WordPress websites in 2006, there were just a handful of different WordPress plugins to choose from. Today, things are very different. There are more than 59,000 in the free WordPress plugin repository alone. This choice paralysis can make it very hard for new users to pick the best WordPress plugins for their website. In this article, I’ll share my top recommendations based on 18+ years of experience using and trying out all the top WordPress plugins. You might be wondering why my advice matters. Here’s why you can trust my recommendations: Note: These are the plugins that my team installs when I start a new blog or make a new website for my own businesses. Quick Pick – The Best WordPress Plugins In a hurry? No problem! Here’s my top 5 must have WordPress plugins: # Plugin Best For Pricing 🥇 WPForms WordPress form builder $49.50/year 🥈 AIOSEO WordPress SEO $49.60/year 🥉 Duplicator Backups and migrations $49.50/year 4 SeedProd WordPress page builder $39.50/year 5 MonsterInsights Google Analytics in WordPress $99.60/year 1. WPForms – Best WordPress Form Builder Plugin Every website needs a contact form because that makes it easy for visitors to get in touch with you. In my experience, WPForms is the most user-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress. This drag and drop form builder lets you easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, payment forms, surveys, polls, and more with just a few clicks. They have over 2,000+ pre-built form templates and beautifully designed form themes to help you get started quicker. New: WPForms now offers AI-Powered form building to speed up form creation even more. Simply describe the kind of form you want and the AI assistant will create it for you in seconds. WPForms works well with all popular marketing and payment platforms like Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net, so you can build powerful payment forms in less than 5 minutes. It comes with advanced features you may not find in other form builders, such as conversational forms, lead forms, form landing pages, user journey tracking, form abandonment, geolocation tracking, GDPR-friendly, and custom WordPress user registration and login forms. I use WPForms on WPBeginner and across most of my other websites. In total, over 6 million websites use WPForms, and the plugin has consistently maintained a 4.9 out of 5-star rating for over 5 years now. Are you looking for a simpler solution? Then you can download the free WPForms Lite version directly from WordPress.org. This free plugin even supports Stripe so you can collect online payments too. If you’re serious about growing your business, then I recommend investing in the Pro version because it has all the powerful features you need to get more leads. You can even use this WPForms coupon to get 50% off your purchase. To learn more about our firsthand experience with this plugin, check out our detailed WPForms review. Alternative: If you need to create very advanced, solution-focused WordPress forms, then Formidable Forms is an excellent alternative to WPForms. 2. All in One SEO – Best WordPress SEO Plugin SEO helps your website get more visitors from search engines like Google. While WordPress is SEO-friendly out of the box, there is so much more you can do to get even more people to your website by following SEO best practices. This is where All in One SEO (AIOSEO) comes in. It’s one of the most popular WordPress plugins of all time, and is used by over 3 million websites. Out of all the WordPress SEO plugins, AIOSEO offers the most complete set of features and tools you need to make your website content better for the search engines. It helps you properly add SEO titles, meta descriptions, keywords, generate XML sitemaps, connect your site to Google Search Console, optimize it for social media, and more. The AIOSEO team continues to innovate and add new SEO features to help improve your search engine rankings. For example, they have a content optimizer with TruSEO score, author SEO, headline analyzer, custom schema generator for adding FAQ schema, reviews schema, and many other schema markup. They even added an internal link assistant. This feature helps you automatically link different pages on your website, which is great for boosting your SEO. I haven’t seen any other SEO plugin that has this feature. Plus, you can monitor how well your SEO efforts are working with the built-in search statistics dashboard and keyword rank tracker. To get started, you can follow our complete AIOSEO setup guide and then move onto our ultimate WordPress SEO tutorial for beginners. There’s also a free version of AIOSEO available. However, the pro version includes more powerful features like WooCommerce SEO, local SEO, smart schema, video sitemap, news sitemap, smart redirection manager, the ability to find and fix 404 errors, advanced breadcrumbs, and much more. That said, I highly recommend upgrading to the pro version. You can even save 50% by using our All in One SEO coupon. Bonus: AIOSEO has few other powerful tools that you can use to boost your search engine rankings and get more visitors: Alternative: Yoast SEO is another good option if you’re looking for an alternative to AIOSEO. We actually used Yoast for many years before moving to AIOSEO (you can learn more about that in our reasons why we switched to AIOSEO post). 3. Duplicator – Best WordPress Backup & Migration Plugin Duplicator is the most popular WordPress backup plugin on the market. It let you set up automatic backups and safely store them in a remote location like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP, One Drive, and more. It also makes it super easy to restore your website from a backup. Other features include multisite support, archive encryption, recovery points, and a migration wizard so you can move your website easily. We use Duplicator on many of our partner websites, to make sure we always have a recent backup in case something goes wrong. If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then there’s a free version of Duplicator. This lets you create backups manually at any time. You can also move, migrate or clone a WordPress site between domains or hosts without any downtime. However, if you want to schedule your backups, migrate

I bought my first domain name back in 2004, and I’ll never forget how confused I was by all the options and pricing plans. Since then, I’ve registered hundreds of domains for my own projects and helped thousands of website owners choose the right domain registrar through WPBeginner. Over the years, I’ve learned that choosing the wrong domain registrar can lead to frustrating issues like hidden renewal fees, poor customer support, and complicated domain management. That’s why it’s so important to get it right from the start. For this guide, I spent weeks testing and comparing over 30 domain registrars to find the most reliable and cost-effective options. I looked at everything from pricing and features to security and ease of use, so you can choose the best registrar for your needs. Overview: The Best Domain Name Registrars If you prefer not to read my whole review, then you can check out my quick domain registrar comparison here: Registrar Best For Price Key Features 🥇 Domain .com Unique & premium domains $7.45 /yr Quick search, bulk registration, easy transfers, robust DNS management 🥈 Bluehost Affordable hosting + domain $1.99 /mo Free domain for 1st year, pre-installed WordPress, 24/7 support, beginner-friendly 🥉 Hostinger Hosting + domain + privacy $2.69 /mo Free domain privacy protection, easy DNS management, website builder, fast hosting 4 Network Solutions Wide range of services $7.49 /yr One-stop shop for web services, various TLDs, website builder 5 GoDaddy Domain brokerage $11.99 /yr Domain brokerage, long-term registration (up to 10 years), large domain selection 6 Name cheap Domain auctions $6.49 /yr Domain auction tool, powerful domain search, free WHOIS privacy 7 Dream host Free privacy protection $2.59 /mo Free domain privacy with hosting, 400+ TLDs, shared and managed WP hosting 8 HostGator Easy domain registration $1.99 /mo Beginner-friendly interface, website builder, domain privacy How I Choose the Right Domain Registrar for My Websites Ever since I started building websites over a decade ago, I’ve noticed that not all domain registrars are the same. For example, not all domain registrars have the license to sell all domain name extensions. Some domain registrars can only sell domain names with country-specific extensions (like .io, .in, or .ly). Each domain registrar may also give you different services along with the domain name registration. Some registrars may offer cheap domains as their promotional deals, while others may give free add-ons to attract customers. Based on my extensive experience, here are the key factors I consider when selecting a domain registrar, along with some important red flags to watch out for: Why Trust My Recommendations? With over a decade of experience in building WordPress sites and working with different domain registrars, I’ve developed a careful process for testing and reviewing tools for WPBeginner.  My approach involves hands-on testing on real websites, comparing the costs versus value of these tools, and reading community feedback to gather more perspectives on each platform. You can read more in the complete WPBeginner editorial process. That being said, let’s look at my picks for the best domain name registrars and how they compare against each other. 1. Domain.com Domain.com is my go-to registrar for most of my projects, including WPBeginner. It’s a solid choice for anyone looking for a unique or premium domain extension. I’ve used them to register everything from standard .com domains to more niche extensions like .io and .co. ✅ Pros of Domain.com: ❌ Cons of Domain.com: Why I chose Domain.com: I’ve been using Domain.com for years, and they’ve always been reliable and easy to work with. Their extensive domain selection and simple interface make them a great choice for both beginners and experienced users. Plus, their customer support is top-notch. I once had an issue with a domain transfer, and their support team resolved it quickly and efficiently. Pricing: Domain.com regularly costs $11.99/year. However, Domain.com offers WPBeginner readers a 25% discount on domain products, so you can get started for only $8.99/year. All you have to do is either click on the link from the WPBeginner website or use my Domain.com coupon code: nameboy 2. Bluehost Bluehost  is my top recommendation for anyone starting a new WordPress website. They make it incredibly easy to get online with their one-click WordPress installation and free domain name for the first year. I’ve personally used Bluehost for several of my smaller projects, and it’s a great option for beginners. You can read about my experiences in my Bluehost review. ✅ Pros of Bluehost: ❌ Cons of Bluehost: Why I chose Bluehost: I recommend Bluehost for its simplicity and affordability. It’s the perfect starting point for beginners who want to launch a WordPress website without any technical headaches. The free domain name and one-click WordPress installation make getting online a breeze. Plus, their excellent customer support is there to help you every step of the way. Pricing: With my Bluehost coupon code, WPBeginner users can get a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting, which is a perfect deal for anyone looking to make a new website. Basically, you can get started for $1.99 per month and get a free new domain name. What a steal! → Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ← 3. Hostinger Hostinger is my go-to recommendation for users who want a budget-friendly hosting and domain registration package with free privacy protection. It’s a solid, cost-effective option, especially for international users, as they have data centers around the globe. I’ve personally used Hostinger for testing international versions of my websites, and I’ve been impressed with their performance. In my detailed Hostinger review, you can learn how I have used Hostinger and found them to offer some of the fastest WordPress hosting and support. ✅ Pros of Hostinger: ❌ Cons of Hostinger: Why I chose Hostinger: I recommend Hostinger for its value and international reach. The free domain privacy is a major selling point, and their global data centers ensure good performance regardless of your location. The easy-to-use interface and included website builder make it a great choice for beginners. Pricing: Hostinger is offering WPBeginner users up to 78% off WordPress hosting, which includes a free