No More black boxes

Success Is Much Easier To Achieve When You Know What You want & Need to use!

We’ve invested years in refining our recommendations. We never recommend anything we haven’t personally used and trusted to deliver exceptional performance. These tools the secret ingredients to building an awesome website, and we use them too, so we know first-hand how amazing they are!

Our preferred choices are chosen with your success in mind, ensuring you have access to the most reliable and effective tools to support your website’s growth. From hosting, themes, all sorts of fav plugins to design tools. We’ve done the research, so you can focus on what matters most.

Our Fav Stack

Our favorites are trustworthy, deliver exceptional service, offer fast and furious performance, and are the building blocks for creating an awesome website no matter what niche you’re in.

Essential WordPress Plugins

These are the essential WordPress plugins that we use and will give your website a strong foundation without overwhelming you with too many choices.

  • Kadence – best on the market for design and speed. Check out Kadence Theme Review With 17+ Informative Best Features.
  • Malcare – easy to set up, gives you firewall protection, malware scanning and instant malware cleaner, and best of all it keeps your site secure without slowing it down.
  • Solid Security – monitors login attempts, set lockout limits, and add Two-Factor Authentication. This gives you an extra layer of protection without extra hassle.
  • FlyingPress – the best cache plugin for your frontend. Use with Perfmatters for backend caching for a powerful setup.
  • Rank Math SEO – a fantastic, beginner-friendly option that walks you through setup step by step.
  • Sure Cart – our preferred choice, it’s free and offers many free extras that you’d need to pay for if you were to use woocommerce.
  • Antispam Bee â€“ can be found in the WordPress repository, and it does a great job of filtering out spam before you even see it. We have used this since it’s inception and have always had great results—no spam.
  • PrettyLinks or URL Shortify – both are great free plugins.
  • WP Staging or Solid Backups – super fast backup duplicator, staging, and migration – not needed if you use a hosting that offers these options.
  • If you’re using Kadence, we suggest to use their inbuilt forms. Depending on the complexity of your needs you may need WP Forms or SureForms.

Caching Plugins

Every website needs a caching system, some plugins are useless and a minority are great. We’ve experienced it all from mega slow websites to blazing fast. What you use for caching has a serious impact, so here’s our take.

  • Perfmatters – isn’t really classed a cache plugin, but a performance plugin. It is the best plugin for your backend caching, offers outstanding performance if set up properly and can be used alongside other caching plugins.
  • FlyingPress – is a caching winner for a superfast website, it is the best cache plugin for your frontend.
  • Docket Cache – can be used on any server and should be used with your caching plugin unless it offers object caching. For object caching this is the best you’ll find and the free version is suffice.
  • Litespeed Cache – great if you’re tech minded, it’s a complete takeover offering everything you need except object cache. Make no mistake this plugin isn’t a ‘click the preset and forget‘, you still need to make teaks because every site is different. Get it wrong and it can cause awful problems. It’s free and can be downloaded from your repository.

Bonus Plugin Resources

The little extras that say a thousand words – our preferred plugins as your site grows to keep your website in tip-top condition and the easiest way to make your WordPress perform great.

  • WP SMTP – use only if you’re not receiving messages.
  • Lightweight Cookie Notice – the free version is suffice for most websites and is downloadable in your WordPress repository.
  • WPCode Lite – more flexible than others, no need to upgrade to pro unless you’re a developer, and they offer many free snippets.
  • EazyDocs – the easiest, most powerful knowledge base, it’s our go to, is a complete solution for creating a help desk, support center, FAQ, wiki, and more.
  • Site Kit by Google – it’s free, official, and gives you simple insights right inside your WordPress dashboard. If you are using Rank Math, you don’t this plugin.
  • Health Check Plugin – use to find your problem, then deactivate or delete.
  • Query Monitor Plugin – use in staging only.

Browser Extension Resources

Here are some great extension recommendations that can be added to your browser:

  • TinyPNG – free forever – optimizes images.
  • GoFullPage – free option – Is the most reliable full-page screenshot in just a single click.
  • Nimble Capture – free depending on your browser and on some browsers it isn’t available. You can capture the entire web page or specific parts of it, edit your screenshots with a very user-friendly interface, record screencasts – record video from your screen, and more.
  • AVIFStudio – free forever – Background remover, SVG editor, presentation maker, image optimizationfor all formats, photo collage maker, and more.

Design Resources

Design, recreating, or fine-tuning, this list of resources will glamorize any website, images, ads, and more.

Social Resources

Social plugins are essential, don’t under estimate the power of people loving and sharing your content.

  • ShareThis – free and pro version, been around for years and still going strong.
  • Hubbub – added to your posts, at the side and at the bottom of your website.
  • Simple Share by Kadence – added to your posts, we use it on this site.
  • Tailwind – great piece of social kit and more.
  • Grow for WP – free forever and offers much more than social. It works well combined with another social plugin.

Starting a website is an exciting journey, but knowing which resources to use is essential for achieving rapid growth and long-term success. The right tools and services can make all the difference in building a professional, functional, engaging online presence, and connecting with your audience.

JoiN Glamsy ClOud Free

Start with 20 gorgeous Kadence blocks on us. Love them? Unlock ‘50 FREE FOREVER‘ that’s 50 more free blocks just by choosing any essential tool from our trusted fav stack!

Grab Your Free Templates

Good News! You don’t need any of our themes or templates to take advantage of this offer. This offer is open to everyone! These blocks are compatible with any Kadence website, and work with the free Kadence version. It’s a win-win! So, no matter what your setup is, you can enjoy the benefits of these amazing blocks!

Hosting Resources

If you’re paying under $10 p/m, you’re with a trash hosting company – period! Just don’t do it, they don’t function well. Our recommendations below are the best and smart choices for a super fast website with no downtime; you simply won’t get better!

  • ScalaHosting – is a solid option for performance, speed, security, and service. Uses various web server managers such as Apache, Litespeed, and Nginx, offers managed and unmanaged VPS, user-friendly SPanel dashboards, and excellent support.
  • Curious why we recommend Scala? ScalaHosting Review 2025 – What Makes It a Hidden Gem & Why We Finally Switched Over!
  • StellarSites – was set up specifically for Kadence users; however it’s not limited. Combines Kadence themes and plugins, modern hosting speed with beginner-friendly dashboards, and it’s optimized for WordPress sites from the ground up. Uses Apache and Object Cache Pro for exceptional performance.
  • BigScoots – solid option, especially if you want managed WordPress hosting with excellent support. They are more pricey than most servers, but last we looked they have no bad reviews.
  • Castos – specific for podcasts and videos.

Domain Resources

Looking to find a great domain name, here are some helping hands to get you started.

SEO & Optimization Resources

Powerful and friendly tools that can drastically improve your online presence! High-performing websites mean everything to Google and your customers.

  • Rank Math SEO – A fantastic, beginner-friendly option that walks you through setup step by step. We use it on all our websites and is our preferred choice for SEO – the paid version is also worth considering.
  • All-In-One SEO – outstanding, but currently installs many separate plugins for each job.
  • WP Smush or ShortPixel Image Optimizer – powerful plugins that automatically optimizes images as you upload them. If you’re using Litespeed Cache it has an inbuilt image optimizer so you will not need an extra image optimizer.
  • Broken Link Checker – external link, and is better than any link checker plugin.
  • RankIQ
  • MozBar
  • Ahrefs
  • SEO Analyzer

Analytics Resources

It’s important to know how people are finding and using your website. An analytics plugin connects you to Google Analytics without the tech overwhelm.

  • Site Kit by Google – it’s free, official, and gives you simple insights right inside your WordPress dashboard, makes installing Google Analytics a breeze.

eCommerce Resources

eCommerce resources that can be accessed for free or as a premium membership. We do not recommend WooCommerce, but if you sell products, services, and downloads, then these options are the best you’ll find.

Courses & Membership Resources

Comprehensive learning management systems that facilitates learning options for your customers and beyond.

Form Plugins

Every website needs a way for visitors to get in touch. A contact form plugin makes it easy, even if you’re not technical.

  • If you’re using Kadence, we suggest to use their inbuilt forms. Depending on the complexity of your needs you may need WP Forms or SureForms.
  • WP Forms – their free version can be found in the WordPress repository, is perfect for general forms, offers drag-and-drop, and is quick to set up. Their paid version is worth considering due to the huge selection. Be prepared to install an SMTP Plugin with WPForms.
  • SureForms – is a modern, lightweight option if you want something built for speed. We use SureForms Pro because it offers more distinct design options, and it offers other features that can’t be found in other form plugins

Recipe Card Plugins

The plugins below are the gem of all recipe card plugins. They have been tried and tested, check out Recipe Card Plugins Reviewed: Top Free & Paid Options for Food Bloggers (& Which Ones to Skip) for more details.

  • WP Recipe Maker – currently #1 download, free version is loaded with great features and their pro is beyond excellent.
  • Recipe Card Blocks – great alternative to WP Recipe Maker.
Affiliate Disclosure

Our resources post contains affiliate links, i.e., when you buy any product using the links we get commissions, it doesn’t cost you anything extra. If you do purchase any product, we thank you in advance!

Last updated on October 10, 2025