Catalyst Theme - WordPress Accelerated

WordPress Plugins – Easy Way to Find the Best Plugins

| December 6, 2011 | 7 Comments More

WordPress is the most popular content management system by a wide margin.  It is power 68 million website, it is intuitive and easy to learn. The plugins system is arguably the greatest feature of WordPress because plugins can transform WordPress with new features to meet almost any need.  Currently, there are 17,278 free plugins in the repository. The range of available plugins grows every day as new plugins are added.

If you want to add a contact form, email list,  slideshow, gallery, videos, shop, forum, community features to your website, numerous plugins are there to help.  There is such a forest of WordPress plugins that the challenge is not “finding one” but “finding which one”.  Finding the perfect plugin for the task can be a major headache.

Search WordPress Plugins

Advanced filtering with Search WordPress Plugins search engine

The official WordPress repository search engine will give you long lists of potential candidates but there is no way to filter those lists to find only the best.  You must work through the lists and this is time consuming.

People do publish lists of their favorite WordPress plugins.  These lists can be helpful and any plugins search is like to involve reading up on recommendations. Lists that a recent and  well researched are the best.  Unfortunately, with time the plugin landscape changes so a list from 6, 12 or 24 months ago may not be as reliable.  You must also take care because experience and the quality of research varies  and the better plugins may not be included because the author wasn’t aware of them.

Now there is a search engine to find the best plugin much quicker.

SearchWordPressPlugins.com is a free search engine dedicated to finding WordPress plugins. This search includes all plugins from the plugin repository and offers more advanced search filters. With http://searchwordpressplugins.com you can filter by:

  • name
  • keywords
  • rating,
  • number of ratings,
  • number of downloads
  • when the plugin was last updated.
  • whether the plugins is broken.

In addition, the boolean search mode can  use modifiers such as + – ( ) ” ” ~ < > to refine ‘name’ and ‘keyword’ .

If you are searching for a plugin, use the keywords and change the levels until you get a short list of plugins to look though.

To find the best plugins you’ve never heard of you can set the rating and the minimum number of ratings high then search while excluding any incompatible plugins. You can change the levels until you have a list of a few really great plugins. For example, you could try searching with a minimum rating of 4.75 and at least 25 ratings that has been updated in the last 6 months.

 SearchWordPressPlugins.com is a very good tool.  Give it a try.

Tags: ,

Category: Plugins

About the Author (Author Profile)

Comments (7)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Richard
    Twitter:
    says:

    Actually, I use my wordpress dashboard a lot to look for plugins. Also, I find a googlle search for the type of plugin I’m looking for will actually give me a lot f blogs with list posts of plugins that fit y needs. I find that works really well for finding the right plugin.
    Richard recently posted..Learning Forex with eToroMy Profile

  2. rexmagus says:

    Hi Richard,
    Thanks for stopping by.

    The WP dashboard search doesn’t offer many search options and the result list doesn’t tell you how many ratings a plugin has or whether it is compatible, so you have to click through to the details dialog. You can waste a lot of time checking out plugins you don’t really want to see.

    Google is good for checking what is recommended by people, but having a precise database search will give you a short list quicker than trawling through a multitude of “favorite plugins posts” some of which are out of date.

  3. Awesome. Earlier I had to search the wordpress plugins for 10 mins to find one plugin. Now things will get easier :D

  4. Jass from Mix Twist
    Twitter:
    says:

    it great to find awesome right plugins for our wordpress blog this search engine is good to search the web but using expert review to choose a plugin it always recommended.
    Jass recently posted..Micromax A70 Touch screen Android Smart PhoneMy Profile

  5. Assaf from Practical Cures says:

    While this search seems to give better value than the built-in WP plugin search, I prefer to follow recommendations of people I professionally trust.
    Assaf recently posted..Complete HerSolution™ ReviewMy Profile

  6. kishore
    Twitter:
    says:

    Plugins are the one for the famous reasons for many bloggers to migrate from blogspot.com to wordpress.org. But there are plugins on that can inject hidden code on to your server and from there they can take control of your site and server as well. So beware of the plugins while installing and do some research while installing a new plugin.

  7. Ayush Agrawal
    Twitter:
    says:

    This is really a great share because of the increasing number of wordpress plugins. With thousands of plugins around and new ones being developed everyday, it is very difficult to find the right plugins with the wordpress.org search.
    Ayush Agrawal recently posted..AssistantExtensions – The Ultimate Siri modification tweakMy Profile

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge
This blog uses premium CommentLuv which allows you to put your keywords with your name if you have had 3 approved comments. Use your real name and then @ your keywords (maximum of 3)