Unique and Useful Plugins for WordPress in 2021

It’s been nearly 6 years since I wrote a WP plugin list article. This time around I’m focusing on some small & simple/basic plugins.

WP User Avatar

WP User Avatar Plugin Page

Out of the box, WordPress uses Gravatar for users images. This works if you’re a blogger, but falls flat when working on a corporate website that want to upload their own avatar.

Reading Time WP

Reading Time WP

A super simple and small plugin that calculates read time of each article and displays it before the content. You can also adjust how many words per minute it would like to use to calculate read time.

Page title Splitter

Sometimes when you have long titles, they end up breaking onto a 2nd line at a strange spot. This plugin lets you to manually set breaking points for your page and post titles, allowing you control the look more.

WP Query Monitor

Query Monitor is my go-to diagnostic tool for building & developing WP sites. It helps log errors and notices in PhP so that you can debug template files easily.

Another handy tool I use frequently is the script and style tabs that detail what files are being loaded in, and what their ID’s and dependencies are.

The SEO Framework

The SEO Framework is a great lightweight SEO solution for websites that I use exclusively. A few reasons why I like it more than Yoast:

  • It doesn’t clog up your backend with annoying cartoon reminders/ notifications.
  • It’s smaller & faster than Yoast.
  • Better Support