If you’re using WordPress as the platform for your website it is wise to routinely check out (and perhaps test) some of the newly released plugins to make sure you’re not missing out on the latest and greatest.
But what if you are more interested in plugins (and their associated functionality of course) that are more proven or established? That is not always easy to ascertain however. Perhaps an appropriate unit of measurement to determine this is through the number of downloads.
Below you will find 38 WordPress plugins we discovered while conducting a few searches during a routine visit to WordPress. You will likely be familiar with many of these but even I, someone working with WP for many years, have not used them all. These WP plugins are definitely worth your time to download and install if only for the novelty of being able to say, “Yeah, I’ve used that.”
All in One SEO Pack – 6.9 Million
Akismet – 5.8 Million
Google XML Sitemaps – 4.8 Million
Contact Form 7 – 3.1 Million
NextGEN Gallyer – 2.7 Million
WordPress Stats – 2.2 Million
WP Super Cache – 1.9 Million
WPtouch – 1.5 Million
AddToAny (share/bookmark) – 1.4 Million
Google Analytics for WordPress – 1.4 Million
WP-Page Navi – 1.2 Million
Google Analyticator – 1.1 Million
Sociable – 1.1 Million
Fast Secure Contact Form – 948K
WP e-Commerce – 912K
Twitter Tools – 759K
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – 751K
Smart YouTube – 682K
Viper’s Video Quicktags – 643K
Simple Tags – 623K
GD Star Rating – 619K
WP-Polls – 611K
Broken Link Checker – 598K
WP-Cumulus – 586K
TinyMCE Advanced – 573K
ourStats Widget – 517K
ShareThis – 517K
Redirection – 499K
Lightbox 2 – 496K
TweetMeme Button – 485K
Platinum SEO Pack – 467
podPress – 452K
BuddyPress – 446K
Subscribe2 – 425K
Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu – 404K
WP-PostRatings – 398K
HeadSpace2 SEO – 372K
WP-DBManager – 318K