WordPress is an awesome Content Management System. In fact, for most of our projects here at Untame it is our CMS of choice. However, often we require functionality that moves beyond the core WordPress offering. This is where plugins come in. The “Premium” WordPress community has grown in leaps and bounds for the last several years allowing top WP contributors to make a living developing for the platform that they are so passionate about.
This post is no kind of definitive list of the absolute best plugins on this fine planet of ours. Instead, we want to showcase five plugins we have used in the trenches of development that have made a significant difference for us.
Fancy Gallery
“Create unlimited of galleries and each gallery can hold unlimited of albums. You can add different types of media – Images, Video, Websites to the albums.”
One of the most requested features of our sites is an ability to host an image gallery on a particular site. Fancy Gallery provides for a highly customizable way to not only adjust the look of your gallery but also manage the order of the pictures within it. If your site is photo heavy (I’m looking at you wedding photographers) then fancy gallery could be a great solution for your site.
Easy Custom Content Types for WordPress
Easy Content Types provides an extremely easy-to-use and intuitive interface for creating custom post types, taxonomies, and meta boxes.
WordPress is full of incredible functionality. However, some functions are less intuitive than others, even for developers. Easy Content Types allows developers to create and manage their own post types, taxonomies and metaboxes within minutes.
Visual Form Builder Pro
“Visual Form Builder Pro is an affordable WordPress plugin that helps you build beautiful, fully functional forms in only a few minutes without writing PHP, CSS, or HTML.”
Forms stink! From coding them to working with databases to ensure that the correct information is delivered to the client on time, forms can definitely be a hassle. However, it would serve you well to take the $10 plunge into Visual Form Builder Pro. Sure, the free version that we have already covered is fantastic. But seriously, $10 is not too much to ask for such a versatile plugin that makes managing forms almost (dare I say) fun.
RoyalSlider – Touch Content Slider for WordPress
RoyalSlider for WordPress is a cross-device jQuery content slider with touch-based navigation and responsive layout. It has a user-friendly admin area where you can manage slides, change slider settings, customize your interface and add blocks-captions using custom WYSIWIG editor.
IT is one of the most popular files on CodeCanyon, and for a good reason. Image slideshows are one of the best ways to deliver a message of show off your work on a site. RoyalSlider makes integrating one or multiple slideshows a breeze. With an easy-to-use administration area, RoyalSlider can integrate into a page or post within minutes. What’s better, RoyalSlider packs in all of this power while remaining responsive. Yep, that means that RoyalSlider would look equally at home on an iPhone as on a giant desktop screen.
Visual Composer for WordPress
“Visual Composer for WordPress will save you tons of time working on the site content. Now you’ll be able to create complex layouts within minutes! It’s built on top of the Twitter Bootstrap and jQuery UI framework”
We love to set our clients up for success. Sometimes that means giving them the ability to create their own layouts without a bit of coding knowledge. Enter Visual Composer. Using Visual Composer could not be easier. Simply tell the plugin how wide your site is, set a few custom colors and you are off to the races.
We encourage you to experiment with WordPress plugins of all sorts. Plugins help make a site stand out, adding key functionality in places that WordPress just does not cover on its own. Do you have a favorite plugin that we have not covered yet? Let us know by leaving a comment or using our handy contact form.
