Recommended WordPress Products and Services

Recommended WordPress Products & Services

My WordPress ToolKit

When I am made aware of any promos or deals, look for the 💰.

The Products and Services I Use and Rely On

With all the noise online, how do you know which companies back their products with the support and updates you need to rely on? I know how to identify credible companies and reliable products, and I do that by using their products for my sites.

Below are needed plugins, services, and providers you can rely on to grow your website or Blog. Plus, a few that I’ve helped clients integrate were impressive. I can vouch for these products and their support, so you know you are in good hands!

If a product or service is not good enough for my websites or my clients, they are not good enough for you and, therefore, will not earn a mention on this page.

WordPress Products and Services
I Can Vouch for…

When it comes to WordPress — hosting is one of the most critical decisions you must make. This is because WordPress is database-driven and has unique resource needs.

Only a WordPress-specific hosting platform can ensure that security and performance issues are precisely and appropriately managed. Below are four different hosts that I’ve used and worked on, and they can meet any hosting need.

WPMU DEV Free Trial

WPMU Managed Hosting: A++ on Support

WPMU hosts this website. I’ve been a WPMU member for over a decade due to their great plugins (see below), and now I am using their premium host. Includes domain email services.

BONUS! Plugins & More…

“Your All-In-One WordPress Platform:
Super-powered hosting, support, site management, and plugins!”

If you invest in a premium WordPress product membership — WPMU should be at the top of your list.

If you are a web designer, WPMU has many great tools to help you run your business.


💰 WPEngine Hosting 💰

Forget about four months free… #MarchMadness. Exclusive 6-month FREE offer on any NEW annual plan!

Hosting for eCommerce with WooCommerce

WP Engine’s eCommerce solution is now a complete end-to-end solution with global payments, the building blocks, and hosting you need to roll out and scale the most performant WordPress stores with WooCommerce.

Enjoy the speed, security, and convenience of WP Engine eCommerce plans + Smart Plugin Manager for only $23/month on annual plans. Check it out here.

  • Dedicated & performance-optimized virtual machines make dynamic Woo stores faster.
  • 99.99% uptime SLA.
  • Award-winning 24/7/365 premium support & onboarding.
  • Instant Store Search, Smart Plugin Manager, and Genesis Pro eCommerce Block Editor tools.
  • APM & Smart Scale Options are available.
  • 60-day money-back guarantee.

WPEngine does not include domain email services.

WP Engine® provides a digital experience platform for showcasing your brand. It offers auto-migration, SSL, daily backups, malware scan and removal, CDN, dev tools, and 36 WP themes. Performance Analytics · Cloud Hosting · 24/7 World Class Support.

WPEngine Premium WordPress Hosting

💰 SiteGround 💰

83% OFF All WordPress Web Hosting Plans

I’ve used and can recommend SiteGround WordPress hosting for new and small to mid-sized websites. Includes domain email services.

Ad - Web Hosting from SiteGround - Crafted for easy site management. Click to learn more.

Kinsta Premium Hosting

Kinsta is a top-of-the-line, premium WordPress web host. As they say on their website: “WordPress hosting plans for sites that mean business.” If you run a busy eCom or membership website, you need hosting to meet that challenge. That’s where Kinsta comes in.

Kinsta: Powerful Managed WordPress Hosting
Kadence WordPress Theme Starter Templates

Start with a Premium WordPress Theme. KadenceWP — the best WordPress Theme ever!

You can choose from numerous starter templates that you can customize to your vision. Just replace the theme’s images and text with your own. No code is necessary.

Your theme is the most essential choice you will make! Using a premium theme with a solid framework that offers child themes for every look and application is a must-have. Click here to review the themes I trust for my sites.

Have a stunning coming soon landing page design, and even collect email addresses before launching your new site with SeedProd. Or, you can use this plugin to redesign in the background while letting site visitors know your status.

The Best Coming Soon Plugin for WordPress

SeedProd can be used for much more, too:

  • Create custom WordPress themes without code.
  • Spin up landing pages in under 30 minutes.
  • Restrict access to pages under construction.
  • Integrate with WooCommerce to sell more.
  • Point any landing page to a custom domain.
  • And so much more.

PeepSo is a super-light, free social network plugin for WordPress that allows you to quickly and effortlessly add a social network or an online community, similar to Facebook, right inside your WordPress site. How much fun is that!?

Divi Theme and Builder All in One

Divi WordPress Website Builder

For less technical DIYers, Divi would be an option to check out. (I wrote about Divi here.)

Divi Creative WordPress Website Builder

The Anniversary Sale runs through March 26, 2024, and is one of the only times Divi offers its biggest discounts (20%- 70%) across the Divi ecosystem.

If you have no idea about code but still want to give a DIY approach a go, Divi is the theme and builder for you. Divi also constantly adds new “theme packs” for every possible business type. They’ve made incredible performance improvements worth checking out—more on Divi and considerations.

Divi AI can write content and generate images for you right inside the builder. Since it’s integrated directly into Divi, it has unique insight into each Divi element. We provide Divi AI with context about your website and the page you’re working on, allowing it to generate contextually relevant content with the acuity of a professional writer and the skill of a digital artist!

READ MY ARTICLE ABOUT DIVI

Divi Website Builder

Sign up today and discover why 800,000+ customers have chosen to build their websites with Divi.

Already a Divi customer? It’s time to upgrade to Lifetime and lock in your Divi membership for life. Upgrade today and save big.

Are you not sure if Divi is right for you? Check out Divi’s 30-Day Money Back Guarantee, which makes signing up Risk-Free. 

Plus, Divi AI, Cloud, VIPs, Teams, and Marketplace

Divi VIP is a brand-new service that offers VIP Support and other member benefits. Divi AI brings the power of AI to WordPress creators. It can write fantastic content and generate spectacular images out of thin air.

Divi Cloud is like Dropbox for Divi websites, allowing you, freelancers, and agencies to access their Divi assets on every new website they build. And don’t forget about the Divi Marketplace, which is full of third-party Divi modules, child themes, and layouts.

What are you waiting for?

Divi WordPress DIY Theme


Other carts and eCom plugins are available. But if you want a full-fledged eCommerce operation made to work with WordPress and tons of extensions and add-ons, Woo is it.

WooCommerce

Membership sites are a great way to monetize a community and offer different levels of service offerings to your target market. Adding a membership area to your site is a great way to add a service hub for your established customers.

WordPress Membership Plugin

WP Courseware is a powerful Learning Management System, yet it is as easy to use as drag-and-drop. You have a business-in-a-box with a built-in shopping cart, payment gateways, and membership functionality.

Offering courses is one of the lucrative ways to share your knowledge and expertise. WPCourseware makes the process user-friendly and easy to set up with tons of how-tos and support.

WP Courseware

I’ve always been a fan of Ninja. I’ve tried all the others and found that Ninja is more user-friendly. More importantly, you don’t have to upgrade to keep submissions within your WordPress dashboard for future reference.

Ninja does the trick right out of the box for most needs, even complex forms. Need particular functionality or integration with other services? You can purchase add-ons as needed.

WordPress Ninja Forms Plugin

I use WP Mail SMTP on my websites to ensure WordPress sends emails correctly.

  • Fix your emails easily: use ALL mailers, including Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, and Amazon SES.
  • Never lose track of a message: log sent messages + attachments and track delivery status right to the inbox.
  • Easily monitor deliverability: get a weekly email summary and resend failed emails. 
  • Measure your success: see opens and clicks for any email, or create email reports to see engagement at a glance.
  • Export your data: Export your email logs to CSV, XLS, and EML
  • Effortless setup: When you choose the Elite license, we set everything up for you!
Website Spam Protection

I cannot speak highly enough about CleanTalk for Spam Protection against form spam for a couple of my sites, including this one.

I use Canva for everything. Social media images — they have the correct sizes and templates for you to embellish and customize. Blog images, too — with the Pro plan, you have galleries of images and photos to use at no additional charge. You can have all your branding collateral, your palette of colors and fonts, on hand to use with a just click. Branding made easy.

Canva Images, Templates and MoreCanva Images, Templates and More
  • 2.5 million stock videos
  • 71 million photos
  • 4.5 million graphics
  • 5 thousand stickers
  • 25 thousand audio tracks
  • 420,000 designer-made templates, with new ones added daily

Whether it’s a presentation with visuals to share, invitations with graphics to wow your customers, or images for your social posts, just drag and drop them on your designs.

Soliloquy makes creating beautiful images, videos, and product sliders easy with just a few simple clicks.  I’ve used this plugin many times over the years. Better yet, with a Soliloquy Pro account, you can unlock unique features like:

  • WooCommerce slider
  • Featured content slider
  • Carousel and Thumbnail navigation
  • PDF Slider
  • Dynamic Addon
  • Lightbox
  • and a whole lot more…

Soliloquy is a responsive WordPress slider plugin that makes building sliders in WordPress a task you will want to experience over and over again. 

You can also customize the look and feel of your sliders using one of Soliloquy’s prebuilt templates. It doesn’t get any easier than his folks!

SEMRush

SEO doesn’t just “happen.” Nothing happens by osmosis online. You work it, but how do you know if your efforts are paying off if you aren’t tracking the results (or lack thereof)?

Yoast SEO Premium, which I use on all my websites, is another plugin I highly recommend.

SEMRush offers all the tools you need in one dashboard. This includes a Social Media Toolkit, which enables automated posting, tracking, promotion, and analytics across the major social channels. Test, track, and react!

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software for marketing agencies, bloggers, eCommerce websites, and small businesses. If you want to grow your email list, improve your website conversions, and reduce cart abandonment — you need OptinMonster.

OptinMonster Lead Generation Software

All I can say is WOW! I was beyond surprised when I discovered how easy it was to create PDFs from WordPress pages and posts! Just think about how you can create downloadable marketing materials, sign-up incentives, and mini-ebooks from your already-created content. Very cool!

Make eBooks from Posts, Pages, Videos

Smash Balloon is the best WordPress social feeds plugin because it lets you create customizable social media feeds tailored to your website.

Smash Balloon

I talk about keyphrases a lot. You have to know what phrases your market uses to find what you have to offer. You then integrate those terms into your pages and posts. That’s how you get rankings. Discover what your potential customers are using and put that data to work.

Wordtracker

You create a marketing email that links to your website. But are you linking to just any page or a page that will convert to that particular campaign’s specific focus? ConvertKit makes creating powerful, converting landing pages easy.

Are you thinking of migrating email platforms but are stressed by the process? My friends at ConvertKit offer full migrations for professional creators, complete with bonuses like workshops and concierge service.

Easily Create Landing Pages for your Email Marketing Blasts

SeedProd

Also, check out SeedProd: Website and Landing Page Builder for WordPress.

The numbers tell you what’s happening, but Hotjar’s visual insights tell you why so you can make the changes that matter.

  • Frustration Signal Trackers: Are site visitors frustrated by your design or layout? Find out what you must improve.
  • Heatmaps give you an at-a-glance overview of how people interact with a page. See how far they scroll, what buttons they click, and what content gets ignored.
  • Discover opportunities to optimize by watching Recordings of users dropping during the sign-up flow/the conversion funnel.
  • Create a routine where you check Feedback regularly to spot any unforeseen problems.
  • Open up Recordings after a feature launch/site change to discover issues you may not have considered.
  • Use Surveys to gather new product ideas on an ongoing basis.

Do you know what’s going on on your website? Find out with Hotjar.

I’ve used this plugin on and off for quite a while. Depending on what your website is about, what you are offering, and to whom you are offering it, there is a legal text that you should have on your site. Just enter your business details & click save to generate 25+ policy pages required for any website—examples such as Privacy, Cookies, T&C, GDPR, CCPA, affiliate statements, and more.

Website Legal Page Templates

With this plugin, you can create links using your domain to post on social media or any marketing venue. This is great for covering those ugly long links, including affiliate links. Plus, you can then track the click-thrus too!

Pretty Links branding and link tracker

I have found several unique, feature-rich, and inexpensive WordPress plugins on Envato. When I can’t find what I need, I go to this site and see what’s available. Gravitate only to highly rated plugins tested up to the latest version of WordPress.

A free trial is available to experiment with Envato Elements for seven days before purchasing a subscription. Why not give Envato a whirl?

Unique Premium WordPress Plugins

I like FixMySite because they will fix your site or give you a 100% money-back guarantee. They will also install WordFence, my favorite security plugin, and provide a report when the job is done.

You may know I am not a fan of builders. However, now that WordPress has the new Gutenberg editor and is going to almost full-site editing (FSE) in WordPress 5.8, why add another plugin and unnecessarily use more resources?

That said, if I used a builder, it would be Elementor.

I have worked on many sites using this plugin. Its difference from other builders is that it uses blocks, like Gutenberg, instead of locking you into other “builders,” where your entire website is built on that builder’s proprietary shortcodes. That said, you can still get “locked” into Elementor-specific blocks (or check out Kadence).

Elementor WordPress Visual Page Builder Plugin

ConvertKit is a full-featured email service provider. Thanks to its ease of use, automation, and other features, it’s one of the fastest-growing email marketing companies. It also offers customizable sign-up forms, email automation, and landing pages to help attract more subscribers.

As a creator, you’ve likely been on a journey and have come a long way since your first blog post or podcast.

You should be proud because you have grown, changed, and evolved–from timidly sharing your work to becoming a professional creator on a mission.

But now, it’s time to level up that mission with a fresh start.

Get a fresh marketing start with ConvertKit!

The tools that once “worked just fine” no longer serve you because you’ve developed processes that fuel your growth as a creator. It’s time to focus on your continued growth and simplify what it takes to run your business successfully.

Being a professional creator doesn’t have to come with the baggage of complicated tech stacks. If your business is ready to grow, there’s no reason to stay stuck in your current tool. Your fresh start is just a click away!

ConvertKit Email Marketing Automation

OptinMonster

Check out OptinMonster, too! Convert and Monetize Your Website Traffic. Stop losing visitors! Instantly grow your email list, get more leads, and increase sales with the world’s #1 most powerful conversion optimization toolkit.

Reach new audiences to drive more sales with affiliates and influencers. Impact’s Starter Edition is a self-serve brand offering that uses one of its five e-commerce plugins, allowing small brands to create partnership programs in minutes.

If you have a blog, you must write engaging, quality, grammatically correct content. Working on your writing skills is a work in progress. With a continual learning curve. Something I work at with every article I create. Grammarly will help you continually hone your writing skills.

I use Grammarly every single day to improve my content and skills. Love it!

The #1 Writing Tool

Are you tired of wasting time searching Google for homemade WordPress tutorial videos? Check out the  WordPress 101 tutorial videos that are meticulously scripted and professionally produced so you can learn how to use WordPress to create your website in just a couple of hours. What are you waiting for?

EasyWordPresstutorialvideosforbeginners.

Security plugins can check your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggest corrective actions. Things like:

  • Passwords
  • Hiding Your File Editor
  • 2FA (Two Factor Authentication)
  • File Permissions
  • Database Security
  • Version Hiding
  • WordPress admin protection/security

But they aren’t the be-all and end-all. For example, I’ve seen sites with a “security plugin” exploited anyway. So, I use WordFence as a monitoring tool to help keep my sites secured and monitor any activity that could be of concern.

I can’t say enough good things about Advanced Database Cleaner Pro. It is easy, efficient, and the best database optimization plugin I’ve run into. I consider this a must-have for every WordPress website.

Advanced Database Cleaning

What’s cool about Blubrry is that they have a plugin that makes managing your podcast easy directly from your WordPress site. They also offer hosting with stats, social, and monetization options. Plus, you can easily submit to Apple and Google podcasts.

Blubrry Podcast Hosting

I do not recommend a product or service simply for commissions alone. Unless I have personally used the product or service successfully, they do not get a slot on this page. I confidently refer to these products, services, and plugins only if they meet my high expectations. Review my Ethics and Affiliate Statements for more.


*Some of the links on this page are to companies I have a professional affiliation with.
Read my full affiliate statement here.