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 are the secret ingredient to building an awesome website. We use them too, so we know first-hand how amazing they are!

kadencewp logo

Kadence

Kadence excels in performance, offers exceptional stability, utilizes minimal coding for efficiency, and delivers lightning-fast loading speeds. It is the ideal choice for anyone seeking to build a website that is not only visually appealing but also optimized for performance and reliability.

Get Kadence

ScalaHosting

Selecting a reliable host is crucial for the success of your business. ScalaHosting stands out with its consistent 5-star reputation. With its top-notch service, quick migration, automatic scaling, high performance, fast speeds, and dependable reliability to keep your website running smoothly.

Get ScalaHosting

MailerLite

MailerLite delivers excellent value, with an intuitive interface that’s easier to navigate than many others and covers every aspect of customer interaction. It’s perfect for both beginners and seasoned marketers, packed with features, and stands out as an outstanding autoresponder.

Get Mailerlite

SureCart

A modern, streamlined checkout option that’s super easy to set up. It’s our preferred eCommerce choice. It’s used for selling digital and physical products, simple pricing, is lightweight, is free, and offers many free extras that you’d need to pay for if you were to use WooCommerce.

Get SureCart

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.
  • 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. And, Docket Cache for object caching.
  • Shortpixel – offers cloud-based image optimization: when you upload images, they’re sent to ShortPixel’s servers for compression, WebP/AVIF conversion, then returned and replaced in your Media Library. This avoids burdening your hosting server.
  • Rank Math SEO or SureRank – fantastic, beginner-friendly options that walk you through the 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 using 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, make no mistake, this plugin isn’t a ‘click the preset and forget’; you still need to make tweaks because every site is different. Get it wrong, and it can cause awful problems. It’s free and can be downloaded from your repository. We 100% highly recommend Litespeed.

NOTE: Do note use caching plugins that offer image optimization directly on your website; they bloat and slow down your website incredibly fast. Check our Image Optimization section for more details.

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 sufficient for most websites and is downloadable from 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.
  • Health Check Plugin – use it 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 optimization for 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 underestimate the power of people loving and sharing your content.

  • ShareThis – the free and the pro version has been around for years and is 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.

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.

Recipe Card Plugins

The plugins below are the gems 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, the free version is loaded with great features, and their pro is beyond excellent.
  • Recipe Card Blocks – a great alternative to WP Recipe Maker.

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.

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. 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 probably using shared hosting! If you’re just starting, go for it, but just don’t do it if you’re an established business. Our recommendations below are the best and smartest choices for a super fast website with no downtime; you simply won’t get better!

Which hosting is the best? Our list suggests top-notch hosting companies, all tried and tested, and all are excellent. We suggest you check each one out for size and budget.

  • ScalaHosting is a solid option for performance, speed, security, service, and first-class support. Uses various web server managers such as Apache, Litespeed, and Nginx; offers managed and unmanaged VPS, user-friendly SPanel dashboards, and support is off-the-scale excellent. Last we looked, they had minimal bad reviews – 4.9/5 star rating.
  • RoseHosting is a solid option, especially if you want managed VPS hosting, excellent support, comes with human support, no AI bots, free weekly offsite backups, free control panel, free migration, 100% uptime & 10x money-back SLA, no price change on renewal, PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage offered nowhere else, which offers 20x faster speeds. Last we looked, they had no bad reviews – 5/5 star rating.
  • 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 Resources

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

  • 1st Preference: 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.
  • 2nd Preference: SureRank – A very new plugin as of Nov 2025 with all the essentials you need. This would be our first preference because it doesn’t have the bloat compared to other SEO plugins. But, because it currently doesn’t offer any trials, monthly subscriptions, or free plugins, it makes it difficult for many website owners.
  • 3rd Preference: All-In-One SEO – outstanding, but doesn’t have one interface so installs many separate plugins for each job, which isn’t ideal if you’re looking to keep plugins limited.

Image Optimization

Do you have images making your website incredibly slow? Probably! You don’t need to understand anything about image compression, only that you need to use the correct tools to NOT make your website slow. This is a mistake that most people make.

Image optimization plugins are extremely tempting because they appear to be very powerful. These plugins will seriously bloat and slow down your website… incredibly fast, they will also consume every space you have on your server, which will make you believe it needs upgrading. Here’s the solution, and it’s very simple:

  • We strongly recommend you either change your images manually to WebP or choose a server-based website such as Shortpixel, which offers cloud-based image optimization.
  • When you upload images, they’re sent to ShortPixel’s servers for compression and WebP/AVIF conversion, then returned and replaced in your Media Library. This avoids burdening your hosting server and the unnecessary feeling of needing an upgrade.

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 using 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

Optimization Resources

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

Affiliate Disclosure

Our resources contain affiliate links, i.e., when you buy any product using the links we provide we get commissions, it doesn’t cost you anything extra. If you do purchase any product using these links, we thank you in advance for supporting us – it helps us a lot!

Last updated on September 1, 2026