A Full List Of Craft CMS Plugins (Plus What They Do)

Must-Have Craft CMS Plugins for 2023

Essential Plugins for Modern Websites

Craft CMS offers a vast selection of plugins that cater to diverse website needs. For 2023, some plugins stand out as must-haves due to their compatibility with modern web development trends. Do you already know how to add plugins to Craft CMS? 

Blitz, for instance, is an indispensable plugin for building reactive JavaScript-driven websites. It integrates Vue.js seamlessly with Craft CMS, enabling developers to create dynamic and interactive frontends. Blitz is ideal for websites that require complex user interfaces and real-time updates.

Textmetrics is another modern plugin that utilizes AI to optimize website content. It analyzes text and suggests improvements to boost SEO and reader engagement. With AI writing assistance becoming more crucial in 2023, Textmetrics is a perfect match for Craft CMS websites.

Live Preview and SEOmatic are two other essential plugins for modern Craft CMS implementations. Live Preview enables real-time previews of frontend changes, while SEOmatic helps optimize pages for search engines.

Overall, these modern plugins expand Craft CMS capabilities for current web development needs. They demonstrate why Craft CMS remains a popular choice for building feature-rich websites in 2023. You must keep your plugins up to date, so you'll need to know how to update your Craft CMS plugins.

Enhancing E-commerce with Craft CMS

E-commerce capability is vital for modern websites, and Craft CMS offers stellar integration with e-commerce plugins.

Connecting Stripe with Craft CMS. Stripe Payments is arguably the best e-commerce plugin for Craft CMS. It enables secure credit card transactions and subscriptions with full Stripe integration. Stripe Payments works seamlessly with Craft's flexible content modelling to create robust online stores.

Other e-commerce plugins like Craft Commerce and Straight Up Craft also empower Craft CMS sites with shopping carts, discounts, tax calculations, and more. They simplify complex e-commerce tasks like inventory management and order processing.

For small businesses wanting to establish an online presence, Craft CMS with e-commerce plugins provides an easy yet powerful solution. The CMS makes it simple to manage products, categories, shipping rules, and other online business elements.

E-commerce plugins maximize the advantages of Craft's intuitive control panel and flexible content structure. Sites powered by Craft CMS and Stripe or Craft Commerce gain the capacity to drive sales and scale up business operations.

SEO Optimization with Craft CMS

Craft CMS offers many SEO enhancement tools to help websites rank higher and gain more organic visibility.

The SEOmatic plugin is the most popular SEO plugin for Craft CMS. It facilitates search engine optimization by generating metatags, sitemaps, and other structured data. SEOmatic also analyzes content and suggests improvements for better optimization.

Other plugins like Retour for 404 handling, Linkit for internal linking, and Redactor SEO for rich text optimization also boost SEO. They help webmasters overcome common SEO pitfalls and fine-tune pages for search engine crawlers.

By combining SEO plugins with Craft's flexible templating and content modelling, websites can target relevant keywords while delivering engaging experiences. The CMS makes it simple to incorporate SEO best practices at a structural and content level.

For businesses seeking to improve their search rankings organically, Craft CMS provides the right SEO tools and flexibility. With its range of optimization plugins, Craft helps maximize the SEO potential of custom-built websites.

Streamlining Content Creation with Editorial Plugins

Craft CMS offers robust content authoring capabilities out of the box. However, various plugins help streamline editorial workflows even further for teams.

For example, Craft relies on its native Sections and Entries for content creation. However, plugins like Neo and Sprig provide more flexible content modelling and editing options. They enable the creation of diversified content structures beyond basic pages and posts.

Revision History tracks all changes made to content and shows a full audit trail. It improves accountability and transparency in multi-author environments. Collaboration plugins like Scout and Craft Sync facilitate smoother team workflows and content sharing between writers.

Redactor Custom Styles, Smart Map, and other plugins optimize the entry-writing experience. They add valuable formatting options and efficiency tools for everyday content creation.

For website teams with heavy content demands, these types of plugins are indispensable. They help scale editorial operations and enable cross-functional content workflows between authors, designers and developers.

Enhancing User Experience with UI/UX Plugins

The user experience and interface design of a website significantly impacts engagement and conversions. Craft CMS provides several plugins to refine UI/UX elements without coding.

For example, accessibility and reading ease are vital for positive user experiences. Plugins like A11y and Readable enhance interfaces for vision-impaired and dyslexic users respectively.

Animation utilities like Motio and Scroll Reveal enable the creation of slick, interactive effects to delight users. Creative Nav adds versatile navigation menus that adapt across devices. And Front-End Field provides a real-time, visual editor for tweaking front-end design.

Other UX plugins help simplify workflows for administrators and content managers. Tools like Control Panel SEO, Retcon, and Enupal enhance the usability of Craft's backend interface.

With the right UI/UX plugins, Craft CMS sites can achieve highly polished user experiences. The plugins empower web designers to refine interfaces and interactions without taxing development resources.

Optimizing Site Speed with Performance Plugins

Website speed is a crucial ranking factor and UX driver. Craft CMS offers dedicated plugins to diagnose and refine site performance.

Web implementations often slow down as more features and content get added. However, plugins like Craft Performance Monitor provide audits to pinpoint optimization opportunities. Async Queue, ImageOptimize, and Cache Flag enable front- and backend optimizations to boost speed.

LiteSpeed Cache, FastCGI Cache, and Redis Object Cache specifically target common bottlenecks like uncached pages and overloaded databases. They leverage various caching strategies to alleviate server load and minimize response times.

For site owners seeking lightning-fast experiences, these performance plugins are essential. They complement Craft's already slim core to minimize bloat and enable progressive performance tuning. With optimized sites, businesses can expect to see gains in user engagement, SEO, and conversions.

Integrating Social Media with Craft CMS

In 2023, seamless integration with social media is a must for engaging online experiences. Craft CMS makes social integration painless with plugins for all major platforms. Here are some Craft CMS social media plugins to use: 

The Social Feed plugin, for instance, enables the embedding of live feeds from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Social Share simplifies the addition of share buttons for various networks.

Other plugins like Social Poster and Social Hub enable automated scheduling and publishing to multiple social media accounts. They help streamline cross-channel content workflows.

For companies active on social media, these plugins enhance brand reach and consistency.

They allow teams to easily repurpose website content on social channels and respond to online conversations.

Craft's flexible templating also allows the implementation of advanced social features like user authentication and commenting. With the right social plugins, Craft CMS sites gain immense opportunities for traffic growth and community engagement.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting Plugins

Monitoring the performance of a website provides actionable insights to guide optimization. Craft CMS supports integration with industry-leading analytics tools.

Google Analytics is the most popular platform. The Google Analytics plugin enables seamless tracking and reporting without code tweaks. Plugins like Piwik provide open-source analytics alternatives.

Custom reporting plugins like Craft Stats, Element API, and Console provide additional analytics right within Craft's UI. They help track popular URLs, entry views, error logs, and more.

For ad management, plugins like Google Ads and Smart Pixel empower the tracking of PPC campaigns. And SEO tools like SEOmatic provide rank tracking and content optimization suggestions based on analytics.

For serious analytics capabilities without the DevOps hassles, these plugins deliver. Site owners gain the knowledge to nurture engaged communities and thrive online.

Extending Craft CMS Core Functionalities with Plugins

Dashboard Customization and Enhancement

Craft CMS offers a clean and functional administrative dashboard out of the box. However, various plugins allow even deeper customization and enhancement of the interface.

Widgets like Announcements and Notes enable dashboard messages and reminders for site users and admins. Charts provide graphical insights into site analytics without leaving the control panel. And tools like Dashblock empower UI customization with drag-and-drop widgets.

For larger teams, plugins like Sections and Users Simplified streamline navigation between different user groups and website areas. Login tweaks like Password Expiry Notifications and Two-Factor Authentication bolster login security.

These administrative dashboard plugins save clicks and streamline workflows for content managers, developers, and admins alike. They introduce beneficial utilities without overcomplicating the famously user-friendly Craft CMS backend.

Advanced Field Types and Content Management

While offering a lot of field types by default, Craft CMS becomes even more powerful when enhanced with specialized field plugins.

For example, Table Fields enable creating Excel-like data grids within content entries, while Chart Fields allow embedding rich graphs and charts. The WYSIWYG Plugin provides a visual editor for direct on-page content editing, choosing the right Craft CMS WYSIWYG editor is key. 

For multimedia, tools like VideoEmbed, Lightslider, and Simple Audio extend media handling capabilities. And for relating content, Relational Fields and LinkIt allow complex connections between entries.

Other field types like Color Picker, Slider Control, and Dropdown Options add advanced formatting and input options. These additional fields grant content creators more diverse options for modelling content of all types.

With the right field-type plugins, Craft CMS can handle structured data and complex content on a level rivalling dedicated enterprise CMSs. The field types unlock flexibility without compromising ease of use.

Control Panel Extensions and Workflow Improvements

By default, the Craft CMS control panel focuses solely on core web content management workflows. However, various plugins help extend its capabilities for streamlined project collaboration.

Tools like Project Manager, Craft Discord, and Task Manager integrate popular project management interfaces directly into Craft. They enable the assignment of tasks, documentation of requirements, and team communication.

Other plugins like Multi-Environment Config and Deploy simplify the deployment and synchronization of Craft sites across staging and production servers. Queue Manager enables smoothed queued job handling.

For developers, plugins like Template Pad, CraftQL, and Debug Toolbar provide coding assistance right within Craft's UI. And for agencies, tools like Client Access grants restricted customer access to specific site areas.

With these control panel enhancement plugins, teams can consolidate more of their web project workflows directly within Craft CMS. They help evolve Craft into an all-in-one CMS and collaboration solution.

Security Enhancement Plugins for Craft CMS

Since websites face growing security threats, locking down Craft CMS is crucial. Thankfully, Craft makes security enhancements easy through dedicated plugins.

SSL integration tools like Force SSL and Secure Sites ensure site-wide HTTPS protection and tighten other protocols. Sprout Security provides firewalls against SQL injection attacks and other common hacks.

Privileged provides user-specific control panel access permissions. Two-Factor Authentication adds an extra credential layer for admin logins. Spam protection plugins like Honeypot and ReCaptcha prevent bot submissions.

Monitoring tools like Watchdog audit system logs for suspicious activity. And System Report, Availability Monitor, and Security Headers scan for vulnerabilities.

For site owners seeking robust protection beyond Craft's core security, these plugins deliver vital reinforcements. They harden websites against modern cyber threats.

Multilingual and Localization Plugins

Craft CMS enables launching English websites out of the box but localizing content takes more work. Dedicated multilingual plugins make the process easy and seamless.

Translator, for example, creates multilingual versions of entries while keeping translations connected. Language Redirect automatically detects and redirects visitors by location. And Locale persists user language preferences.

Country select fields, Google Translate integrations, and enhanced text directionality support enable streamlined international content entry. Language detector bars also make UI translation simple.

For global brands, extending Craft CMS sites to new regions is key for growth. Localization plugins empower marketers to easily translate content while retaining structured data integrity.

They help businesses scale websites globally while minimizing complex re-development. Craft's content modelling strengths combine with localization plugins for multilingual success.

E-commerce and Shopping Cart Enhancements

Craft CMS supports basic product catalogs, but plugins add advanced e-commerce capabilities like shopping carts and payment processing.

Tools like Craft Commerce introduce cart and checkout workflows with taxes, promotions, and gateway integrations. Sendowl enables digital shopping carts optimized for downloads and subscriptions.

Inventory management plugins track stock levels in real time. Customer account tools store purchase histories and wishlists. Coupons, guest checkouts, and abandoned cart savers optimize order conversion.

For active online retailers, these e-commerce plugins level up Craft's catalog features to enterprise-grade sales capacity. Products become dynamic listings, and content structures easily accommodate orders.

Without coding, companies can establish fully-featured online stores integrated with their marketing sites. Custom-structured data also remains fluid across sales and content workflows.

Custom Form Builders and Contact Plugins

User input via forms provides engagement and data collection opportunities on websites. Craft CMS plugins empower forms that convert and capture quality leads.

Entry form builders like Sprout Forms provide responsive form generation UIs without coding. Webhook integrations enable real-time form handling while data storage tracks submissions.

Purpose-built contact form plugins add spam filtering, email routing, and notifications out of the box. They make the most popular user input need painless to fulfil.

With customizable form fields, validation, Conditional Logic, and multi-page flows, these plugins remove the limitations of basic contact forms. They enable diverse opportunities for site interactivity and visitor insights.

For marketers, flexible form-building capabilities in Craft CMS facilitate more customized brand experiences. They allow crafting intuitive touchpoints matched exactly to campaign goals.

Integrating Third-Party Services and APIs

While extremely capable, Craft CMS cannot handle every web need alone. API integrations seamlessly connect it with outside applications and data sources.

CRM plugins like Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, and Salesforce sync email lists, contacts, and tracking data. Marketing plugins integrate analytics, chatbots, and remarketing pixels.

Database and API integrations like JSON Feed, Twig GraphQL, and Dynamic Data pull content from external sources. Productivity plugins connect cloud storage, webhooks, and collaboration tools.

With its open architecture and mature plugin ecosystem, Craft CMS readily embraces outside integrations. APIs enable it to focus on its core strength - flexible content publishing - while handing off specialized functions to dedicated platforms.

The integrations ultimately provide users with the best of both worlds. They get Craft's ease of use alongside the advanced capabilities of external services optimized for specific tasks.

The Craft CMS Plugin Community and Resources

Leveraging the Craft CMS Community for Plugin Insights

The enthusiastic Craft CMS community plays an invaluable role in evaluating and promoting the top plugins for the platform. By tapping into community wisdom, developers can discover the most useful tools endorsed by real users.

On forums like Straight Up Craft, Snugug, Reddit, and Stack Exchange, seasoned Craft practitioners share tips on optimizing workflows with plugins. Their on-the-ground insights reveal which plugins offer the best compatibility, features, and usability.

Community showcases like Made with Craft and Awesome Craft index stellar site examples built with specific plugins. They provide inspiration and proof-of-concept for implementing tools for particular use cases.

Developer blog posts and conference talks also offer tips on advanced plugin techniques. Prominent community professionals like Pixel & Tonic share authoritative guidance on best practices.

Engaging with these community channels provides all the tribal knowledge required to maximize plugins. By learning from others' experiences, developers avoid pitfalls and capitalize on plugins' full potential.

Exploring GitHub Resources for Craft CMS Plugins

Beyond forums, GitHub serves as an invaluable resource hub for discovering and evaluating Craft CMS plugins. With over 3,500 Craft-related repositories, developers can find both popular and niche tools.

GitHub allows drilling down into plugins' technical details - their compatibility with specific Craft versions, code quality, release frequency, and other key indicators. Public development timelines provide visibility into plugins' trajectories.

Code and documentation transparency on GitHub also builds trust in plugins. Developers can inspect their frameworks, dependencies, and underlying approaches before integrating them.

Furthermore, GitHub facilitates contributing to plugins by reporting issues and suggesting improvements. For open-source plugins, the crowdsourced enhancement process leads to added features and optimal bug-free performance.

With GitHub's insights, developers can make data-driven plugin choices aligned with project requirements. The depth of information provides confidence during evaluation and selection.

Utilizing Official and Third-Party Plugin Guides

While documentation varies by plugin, most quality plugins offer extensive official manuals and third-party guides. These resources help users fully harness and implement the tools.

For example, Pixel & Tonic's suite of Craft plugins includes detailed documentation with setup instructions, configuration options, templating samples, and troubleshooting advice. Other sellers like nystudio107 also provide excellent user guides.

Unofficial documentation like the Straight Up Craft plugin resource and tutorials from Mijingo and Envato Tuts+ supplement official docs. They break down plugins' usage in specific real-world contexts with actionable examples.

Without quality learning resources, plugins' capabilities get underutilized. But guides empower users to move up the learning curve quickly and maximize utility. They also help identify capability gaps early to avoid mismatched tools.

For smooth Craft CMS projects, working effectively with plugins as intended is crucial. Comprehensive documentation and guides prevent frustration by setting accurate expectations and imparting best practices.

Recently Added Plugins

Exploring the Latest Additions to Craft CMS

The Craft CMS plugin directory sees frequent new releases that unlock fresh possibilities for websites. Tracking the latest plugins helps developers stay atop of new trends and efficiency gains.

For example, Copy Field enables quick duplication of fields across sections and entries - a huge timesaver for complex projects. Alt Text Generator automatically creates SEO-optimized alt text for images to boost accessibility.

Other recent useful arrivals include Table Rate Shipping for configurable shipping costs, Social Preview for optimized social sharing, and Phone Number Input to collect international mobile numbers.

New plugins also cater to emerging needs like augmented reality web experiences through WebAR integration. And tools like Page Fly enter the trendy visual editor space heightened by WordPress's Gutenberg editor.

By keeping pace with these bleeding edge plugins as they hit the market, developers can deliver instantly modern website experiences to clients. The new tools tackle the latest challenges and opportunities.

Innovations in Craft CMS Plugin Development

The newest Craft CMS plugin developments showcase the innovation pushing the platform forward in unique directions. They provide glimpses into the future of web development possibilities.

For example, Craft CMS recently gained access to AI-powered content improvement through plugins like Seer. This hints at the growing role AI will play in streamlining workflows.

Plugins utilizing reactive frameworks like Vue.js and React also exemplify the shift towards smoother JavaScript-driven frontends. And tools integrating LiteSpeed caching reflect the emerging need for speed in web experiences.

Developers are also exploring more versatility in content modelling. Navigation plugins like Entri and Faceted, enable the high flexibility required for today's diverse content structures.

Other innovations like mobile-first editing interfaces, natural language search, and instant previews simplify traditionally complex processes. The plugins make cutting-edge technologies accessible to mainstream users.

By rapidly embracing these innovations, the Craft CMS community elevates websites beyond ageing conventions. The plugins help deliver the modern, slick experiences users increasingly expect.

Assessing the Impact of New Plugins on Craft CMS

While expanding Craft CMS's capabilities, new plugins also impact the platform in deeper ways worth considering. Developers should evaluate their holistic tradeoffs.

On the positive side, the plugins enhance UX by introducing timesavers, automation, and smoother workflows. However, more plugins also increase the back-end complexity that admins must manage.

Performance-focused plugins improve site speeds in the short term. But longer term, site bloat from excessive plugins will hinder performance without vigilance. Security plugins increase protection but require ongoing maintenance as well.

Some innovations like new field types also bring more power but subtly increase platform lock-in. And the growing array of speciality plugins makes it harder to know the optimal solutions.

By consciously assessing plugin impacts early and in totality, developers can maximize their upside while mitigating downsides. This allows truly elevating site capabilities versus accumulating haphazard technical debt.

With judicious evaluation and integration, new Craft CMS plugins provide building blocks for creating experiences that stand out in a crowded web. Their innovations give sites the tools to rise above competitors.

New & Noteworthy Plugins

Spotlight on High-Potential Plugins

Several fresh Craft CMS plugins have quickly gained attention for their potential to simplify critical website tasks. These tools show early signs of becoming staples for developers.

For example, Easy Translations makes localizing sites painless by detecting visitors' languages and swapping out text and images on the fly. Its seamless multilingual experience requires no content duplication.

Easy Image is another rising star that optimizes image handling. It generates responsively-sized image transforms on demand for ultra-fast performance. The plugin alsolazy loads images for up to 80% faster page loads.

Other high-potential tools include Table Builder for frontend-editable data grids, Custom Error Pages for polished error handling, and Position Field for flexible element ordering.

These new plugins solve common pain points with smart UX-focused designs. Their polished workflows for traditionally complex tasks help build streamlined, modern sites.

Emerging Trends in Craft CMS Plugins

Several nascent trends stand out among new Craft CMS plugins that developers should watch closely. Adopting these innovations early provides competitive advantages.

For example, plugins like Sprig and Faceted Navigation demonstrate a shift towards more powerful and flexible content modelling capabilities. This caters to diverse, future-ready structures beyond pages and posts.

Tools like ImageOptimize, CSS and JS Minify, and Redis caching reflect a growing focus on optimizing for web performance. Speed and optimization are becoming higher priorities.

On the presentation side, plugins like Motio, Polyfill, and Scrollmagic integrate richer interactions with smooth animations and dynamic components. These enhance visual appeal and interactivity.

Other trends like multi-site management, cloud collaboration, and AI integrations simplify increasingly complex workflows for distributed teams. The plugins tackle emerging remote work needs.

By tracking these cutting-edge plugin trends as they emerge, Craft CMS developers can deliver the experiences that define modern websites.

User Reviews and Feedback on New Plugins

While promising on paper, the ultimate test for any new plugin lies in hands-on user reviews from real-world testing. Developers should lean on community experiences.

Sites like PluginFactory and the Craft Plugin Store gather ratings and testimonials across plugins. They highlight tools delivering results versus those with bugs or compatibility issues.

In-depth reviews from web development bloggers also provide valuable independent assessments. Their detailed testing and benchmarking quantifies performance gains and other impacts.

Issue boards on GitHub help gauge factors like code quality, release cadence, and responsiveness for open-source plugins. They provide transparency into development practices.

By validating plugins against these crowdsourced experiences, developers avoid disappointments. User feedback provides an invaluable compass for identifying and integrating the most polished new tools.

Top Paid Plugins

Analyzing the Best Premium Plugins

While Craft CMS offers a wealth of free plugins, premium paid plugins provide extra capabilities worth the investment for serious implementations.

For example, SEOmatic remains the most polished SEO enhancement plugin for Craft. It delivers unparalleled capabilities like deep search engine integration, content analysis, and rank tracking. The value justifies the cost for marketing-focused sites.

Amazon S3 and Cloudinary plugins provide hassle-free integration with cloud media storage for large-scale assets. Valued e-commerce solutions like Craft Commerce and SendOwl charge for their robust shopping cart features.

Productivity plugins like Feed Me, Templating, and Layout Builder save vast amounts of developer time when building complex sites. And tools like Super Table and Neo add advanced content modelling capabilities.

For resource-intensive sites, these commercial plugins provide professional-grade solutions refined over time. The support, ongoing development, and premium features lend them trust and reliability.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Paid Plugins

At $10 to $99 for most paid Craft plugins, the financial investment may seem trivial next to the benefits. But a structured cost-benefit analysis still helps ensure value.

For example, a $99 SEO plugin like SEOmatic can easily deliver a 5-10x ROI in generating more organic traffic. The costs pale next to the revenues unlocked from higher visibility.

Spending $29 on a performance plugin like CacheFlag that accelerates pages can also boost conversions enough to cover costs quickly. Paid plugins enhance UX and credibility, also benefiting engagement and sales.

The costs of developer time saved through automation and batched tasks with commercial tools like Feed Me also warrant consideration. Business continuity risks without support for mission-critical paid plugins are also calculable costs.

Overall though, careful plugin selection allows recouping costs manifold through tangible benefits like more sales, conversions, and traffic. The numbers underscore purchasing top plugins’ strategic value.

Comparing Free vs. Paid Plugin Features

Free Craft CMS plugins provide quick solutions for common basic needs. But for complex and business-critical functionality, paid plugins offer the necessary robustness.

For example, free SEO plugins like SEOmatic Lite have limited meta tag management and no content analysis or rank tracking. The Pro version unlocks the advanced, marketing-focused capabilities expected from enterprise SEO platforms.

Similarly, free contact form plugins lack spam protection, email services integration, and multi-page form-building capabilities that commercial tools like Sprout Forms provide.

Free plugins also often lack official documentation, update support, and guaranteed compatibility. Cookie policies, compliance auditing, and advanced administration tools are other exclusive paid offerings.

So while free plugins address common niches well, businesses needing reliability, support, and professional-level features are better served by premium solutions. The superior polish and capabilities justify costs for production sites.

By understanding the advanced aspects available exclusively in paid plugins, developers can make sound investments scaled to project needs.