WordPress is the most popular and versatile platform for creating websites, blogs, and online stores. However, WordPress alone is not enough to make your site stand out from the crowd. You need to install some plugins that can enhance your site’s functionality, design, security, and performance.

But with over 60,000 plugins available in the WordPress plugin directory, how do you choose the best ones for your new site? To help you with that, we have compiled a list of the best WordPress free plugins that every new site needs. These plugins are easy to use, reliable, and compatible with most WordPress themes and other plugins.

Here are the best WordPress free plugins for new site:

1. Jetpack by WordPress

Jetpack by WordPress is a plugin that offers a suite of features to improve your site’s security, performance, marketing, and design. Jetpack is made by the same company behind WordPress.com, so you can trust its quality and compatibility.

Some of the features that Jetpack provides are:

  • Real-time backups and restores, malware scanning and one-click fixes, spam filtering, brute force attack protection, and downtime monitoring for your site’s security.
  • Image and static file CDN, lazy loading images, high-speed, ad-free video hosting, and site accelerator for your site’s performance.
  • Social media integration, related posts, site stats and analytics, SEO tools, and email marketing for your site’s marketing.
  • Custom CSS, custom content types, widget visibility, extra sidebar widgets, infinite scroll, and hundreds of professional themes for your site’s design.

Jetpack has a free version that includes most of these features, and a paid version that offers more advanced features and priority support. You can also purchase individual features separately, such as Backup, Scan, and Anti-spam.

Jetpack is one of the most popular and highest-rated plugins in the WordPress plugin directory, with over 5 million active installations and 4.5 stars out of 5.

2. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the best free WordPress plugin for optimizing your site for search engines. Yoast SEO helps you rank higher and get more traffic from Google and other search engines.

Yoast SEO is user-friendly and comes pre-configured with the best SEO settings. Yoast SEO also gives you suggestions and feedback on how to improve your SEO for each post and page. Some of the things that Yoast SEO helps you with are:

  • Choosing and using the right keywords for your content.
  • Writing SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions for your pages.
  • Creating and submitting XML sitemaps to Google and other search engines.
  • Optimizing your site’s structure and navigation with breadcrumbs and internal links.
  • Improving your site’s readability and user experience with content analysis and readability checks.
  • Integrating your site with social media platforms and generating social media previews for your pages.

Yoast SEO has a free version that covers the basic SEO needs, and a premium version that offers more features and support. Some of the premium features are:

  • Keyword optimization for multiple keywords, synonyms, and related keywords.
  • Full control over your site’s breadcrumbs.
  • No duplicate content with canonical URLs.
  • Internal linking suggestions and insights.
  • Content insights and suggestions based on Google’s natural language processing.
  • Redirect manager to avoid 404 errors and broken links.

Yoast SEO is the most popular and trusted SEO plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, with over 5 million active installations and 4.9 stars out of 5.

3. Elementor Page Builder

Elementor Page Builder is the best free WordPress plugin for creating beautiful and responsive websites without any coding. Elementor Page Builder lets you design your site visually with a drag and drop interface and live preview.

Elementor Page Builder gives you full control over your site’s layout and design, with features such as:

  • A library of over 300 templates and 90 widgets that you can use to create any type of page, such as landing pages, home pages, about pages, contact pages, and more.
  • A theme builder that lets you customize every part of your site, such as the header, footer, sidebar, single post, archive, and 404 page.
  • A popup builder that lets you create and display popups on your site, such as opt-in forms, announcements, promotions, and more.
  • A WooCommerce builder that lets you design and customize your online store, such as the product page, cart page, checkout page, and more.
  • A motion effects feature that lets you add animations and interactions to your site, such as parallax scrolling, mouse effects, scrolling effects, and more.

Elementor Page Builder has a free version that offers most of these features, and a pro version that offers more features and support. Some of the pro features are:

  • A theme builder that lets you create dynamic content and custom fields with Advanced Custom Fields, Toolset, and Pods.
  • A popup builder that lets you create advanced popups with triggers, conditions, and rules.
  • A WooCommerce builder that lets you create dynamic product pages and widgets with filters, ratings, and add to cart buttons.
  • A motion effects feature that lets you add advanced animations and interactions to your site, such as 3D tilt, mouse track, and rotate.
  • A form builder that lets you create and integrate forms on your site, such as contact forms, feedback forms, registration forms, and more.

Elementor Page Builder is the most popular and powerful page builder plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, with over 5 million active installations and 5 stars out of 5.

4. WPForms

WPForms is the best free WordPress plugin for creating and managing forms on your site. WPForms lets you create any type of form, such as contact forms, feedback forms, survey forms, registration forms, and more.

WPForms is easy to use and comes with a drag and drop form builder and a library of pre-made form templates. WPForms also integrates with popular email marketing and payment services, such as Mailchimp, AWeber, PayPal, and Stripe.

Some of the features that WPForms provides are:

  • A smart conditional logic feature that lets you show or hide fields based on user’s choices.
  • A file upload feature that lets you collect files and media from your users.
  • A spam protection feature that blocks spam submissions with Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and custom captcha.
  • A geolocation feature that lets you collect and store your users’ location data.
  • A signature feature that lets you collect and store your users’ signatures.

WPForms has a free version that offers the basic form features, and a paid version that offers more features and support. Some of the paid features are:

  • A conversational forms feature that lets you create interactive forms that look like a chat conversation.
  • A form landing page feature that lets you create distraction-free form pages that increase conversions.
  • A form abandonment feature that lets you capture partial form entries and follow up with your users.
  • A user registration feature that lets you create custom registration and login forms for your site.
  • A surveys and polls feature that lets you create and display surveys and polls on your site.

WPForms is the most beginner-friendly and user-friendly form plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, with over 4 million active installations and 4.9 stars out of 5.

5. Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is the best free WordPress plugin for protecting your site from hackers and malware. Wordfence Security is a comprehensive security solution that includes a firewall, a scanner, a blocker, and a monitor for your site.

Some of the features that Wordfence Security provides are:

  • A firewall that blocks malicious traffic and attacks from reaching your site.
  • A scanner that scans your site for malware, vulnerabilities, and other security issues.
  • A blocker that blocks malicious bots, crawlers, and scrapers from accessing your site.
  • A monitor that monitors your site’s activity and alerts you of any suspicious or unusual events.

Wordfence Security has a free version that offers the essential security features, and a premium version that offers more features and support. Some of the premium features are:

  • A real-time firewall that updates with the latest firewall rules and malware signatures from the Wordfence cloud.
  • A real-time scanner that scans your site for new and emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
  • A country blocking feature that lets you block traffic and attacks from specific countries.
  • A two-factor authentication feature that adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress login page.
  • A live traffic feature that lets you see the real-time activity on your site, such as visits, logins, logouts, and more.

Wordfence Security is the most popular and trusted security plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, with over 4 million active installations and 4.8 stars out of 5.

Conclusion

These are the best WordPress free plugins for new site that we recommend. These plugins will help you improve your site’s security, performance, marketing, and design, and make your site more user-friendly and professional.

Of course, there are many more plugins that you can explore and install on your site, depending on your needs and preferences. You can browse the WordPress plugin directory or search the web for more options and reviews.

However, we advise you not to install too many plugins on your site, as this can affect your site’s speed and performance, and cause conflicts and errors. Only install the plugins that you really need and use, and keep them updated and maintained.

We hope you found this blog post helpful and informative. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading and happy WordPressing!

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