From 2000+ real projects
There are a lot of WordPress tools. That doesn't mean they're all good choices.
These are the page builders, plugins and hosts we recommend and use on client projects. For each one we say what it does and why we use it.
Page Builders
Builders we recommend. Divi, Oxygen, Beaver Builder and WPBakery are not on the list for new sites.
Page Builder
Elementor Pro
Our main platform. We use it to build and maintain custom WordPress and WooCommerce websites.
Our default builder
Block Editor
Gutenberg
Ideal for editorial clients and content-heavy sites.
Native & durable
Page Builder
Bricks Builder
A developer-first builder with clean code. Use Bricks when performance matters or your site needs a highly custom build.
Performance builds
Elementor Add-on
JetEngine
A Crocoblock plugin that adds custom post types, custom fields and dynamic listings to Elementor. We use it when a site needs structured content that editors update in one place.
Dynamic content
Elementor Add-on
JetSmartFilters
Crocoblock’s filter plugin for Elementor listings and WooCommerce products. We use it for category, price and attribute filters that update results without a page reload.
Listing filters
Form Builder
JetFormBuilder
Crocoblock’s form plugin. Besides sending email, a form can create posts, register users or update profiles, which suits sites built with JetEngine.
Dynamic forms
Elementor Add-on
JetWooBuilder
Crocoblock’s plugin for designing WooCommerce shop, product, cart and checkout templates in Elementor. We use it when a store needs custom product layouts.
WooCommerce templates
WordPress Themes
The WordPress themes you're most likely to encounter.
Theme
Hello Elementor
Elementor’s own lightweight theme with minimal styling, so the design comes from Elementor. We use it as the base theme for our Elementor builds, including this site.
Our default theme
Theme
Astra
Lightweight and works well with Elementor and Gutenberg. We can build, customize and maintain your site on Astra.
Builder-friendly
Theme
GeneratePress
Another lightweight theme built with speed in mind. Mainly used for performance-focused sites.
Speed-first builds
Theme
Kadence
A flexible theme that works well with Elementor, Gutenberg and WooCommerce.
Flexible & modern
Hosting & Infrastructure
Hosting we recommend for your site.
Managed WordPress
WP Engine
Our first recommendation for client sites that need reliable performance. We regularly manage and deploy business-critical sites on WP Engine.
Top recommendation
Managed WordPress
Kinsta
Excellent performance, a clean control panel, and staging environments make it a strong alternative to WP Engine for clients who want premium managed hosting.
Premium alternative
Managed Cloud
Cloudways
You pick the cloud provider (DigitalOcean, AWS or Google Cloud) and Cloudways handles the server management. A middle option between shared hosting and fully managed WordPress hosting.
Cloud middle tier
Managed WordPress
SiteGround
A good mid-tier option for smaller clients or startups watching their budget. Better performance than generic shared hosting.
Budget-conscious pick
Managed Hosting
Opalstack
Managed hosting with SSH access, one-click WordPress installs and support for other web apps. We build and maintain WordPress sites hosted on it.
Developer-friendly hosting
VPS
DigitalOcean
Cloud servers for sites with steady high traffic or large WooCommerce stores. We build and maintain the WordPress site, and your own team or server admin runs the server.
High-traffic sites
Shared Hosting
Hostinger
Affordable shared and cloud hosting with a simple control panel, hPanel. A good fit for small business sites that need a low monthly cost.
Value pick
Shared Hosting
Bluehost
Easy entry-level WordPress hosting, often bought together with a domain. Good for small sites, and when a site grows we move it to a bigger plan or host.
Starter sites
Shared Hosting
GoDaddy
Handy when your domain is already registered there, so domain and hosting stay in one account. Its managed WordPress plans suit small business sites.
Domain and hosting in one
Shared Hosting
HostGator
Low-cost shared hosting for simple websites and landing pages. A practical start for small sites with modest traffic.
Budget hosting
CDN & Security
Cloudflare
CDN and security services that can help protect your site and improve delivery speed. We can configure Cloudflare as part of your WordPress setup.
Always recommended
CDN
Bunny CDN
A pay-as-you-go CDN from bunny.net that serves your images, CSS, and scripts from servers close to your visitors. We set it up as part of our speed work.
Image and file delivery
E-commerce
WordPress tools for online stores, memberships, marketplaces and course sites.
E-commerce
WooCommerce
Our standard for WordPress stores. We use it for everything from simple shops to complex B2B stores.
Our e-commerce standard
Subscriptions
WooCommerce Subscriptions
For recurring payments and subscriptions. Easy-to-handle setup, billing rules and ongoing management.
Recurring billing
Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships
Members-only content, products and discounts for WooCommerce stores. With WooCommerce Subscriptions, members can pay for access on a recurring plan.
Member-only access
Payments
Stripe via WooCommerce
Our preferred payment processor for WooCommerce. Reliable, secure and easy to integrate.
Default payment choice
Marketplace
Dokan Pro
Turns a WooCommerce store into a multi-vendor marketplace where each seller gets a storefront and a dashboard for products and orders. We use it for marketplace builds.
Multi-vendor stores
Online Courses
LearnDash
A WordPress plugin for online courses with lessons, quizzes, progress tracking and certificates. We connect it to WooCommerce so that buying a course enrolls the student automatically.
Course platforms
Online Courses
Tutor LMS Pro
A course plugin with a drag-and-drop course builder, quizzes, certificates and a student dashboard. Courses can be sold through WooCommerce.
Visual course builder
Multilingual & Migration
Tools for multilingual sites, content imports and site moves.
Multilingual
WPML
Translates pages, posts, menus and WooCommerce products, and works with Elementor. We use it for multilingual sites and stores.
Multilingual sites and stores
Multilingual
Polylang
Links each post and page to its translations and adds a language switcher. A simpler option than WPML for sites that only need translated content.
Simple translations
Import
WP All Import Pro
Imports posts, WooCommerce products and custom fields from CSV, XML or Excel files. We use it to move large amounts of content and product catalogs.
Bulk content import
Migration
All-in-One WP Migration
Exports a whole WordPress site (database, media, plugins and themes) into one file that can be imported on another host.
Site moves
Database
Better Search Replace
Searches and replaces text across the WordPress database, including serialized data. We use it to update URLs after a site moves to a new domain.
URL updates
Redirects
Redirection
Manages 301 redirects and logs 404 errors from the WordPress dashboard. We use it to keep old URLs working after a redesign or migration.
301 redirects
Performance
Tools we use to keep your site fast.
Performance
WP Rocket
Our default caching plugin. We use it to improve loading times and site performance.
Caching default
Performance
Imagify
Automatic image compression and WebP conversion plugin we use to keep image files smaller and your pages faster.
Image optimization
Performance
ShortPixel
Compresses images on upload and creates WebP and AVIF versions. We use it instead of Imagify on some sites, depending on the existing setup.
Image compression
Performance
Smush
WPMU DEV’s image plugin for compression, resizing and lazy loading. We work with it on client sites that already use it.
Compression and lazy loading
Performance
WP-Optimize
Removes old revisions, spam comments and expired transients from the database, and can also cache pages. We use it to keep the database lean.
Database cleanup
Performance
Autoptimize
Minifies and combines CSS and JavaScript and defers scripts that slow the first render. It works alongside a page cache plugin.
CSS and JS optimization
Security, Backups & Maintenance
Tools we use to secure, back up and maintain WordPress sites.
Security
Wordfence
Our go-to security plugin for WordPress. We use it to protect sites and monitor security issues.
Security standard
Security
Sucuri Security
Monitors file changes, logs user activity and applies hardening settings. It connects to Sucuri’s cloud firewall when a site uses one.
Monitoring and hardening
Backups
UpdraftPlus
Schedules backups of files and the database to remote storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox or Amazon S3, with restores from the WordPress dashboard.
Scheduled backups
Backups
BlogVault
Incremental backups stored away from the site’s own server, with test restores, staging sites and one-click restore.
Offsite backups
Management
ManageWP
We use it to manage updates, backups and monitoring across multiple WordPress sites.
Maintenance management
Debugging
Query Monitor
A developer panel that shows slow database queries, PHP errors, hooks and HTTP calls for each page. We use it to find what is slowing a site down.
Performance debugging
SEO, Analytics & Consent
What we use for search visibility, site analytics and cookie consent.
SEO
Rank Math SEO
Our SEO plugin for titles, meta descriptions, schema, sitemaps and redirects. We configure it for each site instead of leaving the defaults.
Our SEO plugin
SEO
Yoast SEO
Handles titles, meta descriptions, schema and XML sitemaps. Many existing sites already run it, and we work with it on client sites.
Common SEO plugin
SEO
Google Search Console
Google’s free tool that shows which pages are indexed, which searches bring visitors and which errors block crawling. We use it to find and fix search problems.
Search data
Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Loads analytics and marketing tags from one container, so tracking changes don’t need code edits. We use it to manage Google Analytics and ad pixels in one place.
Tag management
Analytics
Google Analytics 4
Google’s analytics for traffic, sources and conversions. We can set up conversion events so you can see which pages and channels bring leads.
Traffic and conversions
Consent
CookieYes
A cookie banner that blocks tracking scripts until visitors agree and keeps a log of consents. It supports Google Consent Mode for analytics and ad tags.
Cookie consent
Consent
Complianz
A consent plugin that scans the site for cookies, blocks scripts until visitors agree and generates a cookie policy. It also supports Google Consent Mode.
Consent and policies
Forms & Email
What we use for contact forms, lead capture and email delivery.
Forms
Gravity Forms
Our choice for more complex forms. We use it for multi-step forms, payments, file uploads and integrations.
Complex forms default
Forms
WPForms
A simple option for contact and inquiry forms. We use it when a more advanced form setup isn’t needed.
Simple forms
Forms
Elementor Pro Forms
The form widget built into Elementor Pro. We use it for contact and request forms on Elementor sites, including this one.
Elementor sites
Forms
Contact Form 7
A lightweight form plugin that doesn’t store entries on its own. We add Flamingo, its companion plugin, so every submission is also saved in the dashboard.
Lightweight forms
Email Delivery
FluentSMTP
A free plugin that sends WordPress email through a mail service such as Amazon SES, Mailgun or Postmark and logs every message, so you can see that form notifications and order emails went out.
Form email delivery
Email Delivery
WP Mail SMTP
Sends WordPress email through a mail service such as Gmail, Microsoft 365 or SendGrid instead of the server’s PHP mail. We use it or FluentSMTP, depending on the site.
Email deliverability
Email Marketing
Mailchimp for WordPress
Adds Mailchimp sign-up forms to WordPress and a subscribe checkbox to comment, contact and checkout forms. New subscribers go straight to your Mailchimp list.
Newsletter sign-ups
Email Marketing
Klaviyo
An email and SMS platform for online stores. Its WooCommerce integration syncs customers and orders, so the store can send abandoned cart and post-purchase emails.
Store email flows
Looking for more specific tools?
Our Mineweb Addons for Elementor add lightweight widgets without the performance hit while MineFrame generates starter layouts in Figma instantly.
Not sure what some of these technical terms mean?
We’ve created a glossary of common WordPress terms, explained in plain English so you can quickly understand what they mean and why they matter.
Have a question about tools for your specific project?
Tool choices depend on the site, the client, the budget, and the goals. Tell us about your project and we’ll tell you what we’d recommend and why.
FAQ
WordPress tools questions.
No. These are the page builders, plugins, hosts, and tools we recommend and use on client projects. It’s not a paid badge wall: nobody pays to be listed, and the tags on each card show where each one fits best.
It depends on the project. We use Elementor for sites that need easy visual editing, native Gutenberg blocks for the lightest, most durable builds, and Bricks for performance-focused custom work. We match the tool to your goals, not a default. We don’t recommend Divi, Oxygen, Beaver Builder or WPBakery for new sites, and we can migrate an existing site off them.
Quality managed WordPress hosting for most businesses, scaling to cloud or dedicated setups for high-traffic sites and stores. The right host depends on your traffic and needs; we recommend based on fit, not affiliate payouts. Whatever the host, we build and maintain the WordPress site and the host runs the server.
A lean set: a solid SEO plugin, a caching and performance tool, a reliable backup solution, security hardening, and a good forms plugin. We keep the plugin footprint small because every plugin adds weight and risk.
Yes. We work with the leading SEO plugins for on-page control, schema, and sitemaps, and configure them properly rather than leaving defaults. The plugin matters less than how it’s set up, which is where most sites fall short.
Yes, on nearly every site. A good caching and optimization plugin, combined with image optimization and a fast host, is central to passing Core Web Vitals. We configure it to your site rather than installing and hoping.
Yes. Recommending tools is one thing; configuring them correctly is where the value is. We install, configure, and tune the plugins and settings your site needs as part of a build or a standalone setup. The server itself stays with your host.
Usually the opposite. Every plugin adds code, potential conflicts, and security surface. We use as few as possible, favoring well-built, well-maintained ones and custom code where it’s lighter, so the site stays fast and stable.
The right tools help, but security is a combination: hardening, updates, a firewall, backups, and monitoring, not a single plugin. We recommend and configure a stack that covers those layers together.
Yes. Tell us what you’re building and we’ll recommend the builder, host, and plugin stack that fits, based on real production experience. Reach out through the contact page and we’ll point you in the right direction.
Time to bring in a specialist?
Send a message about your issue. We will review your site, tell you exactly how we can help, and lay out the steps to begin our work together.
