When searching for a particular type of WordPress plugin many people first search in the WordPress Plugin Repository. However, there are other ways to search for that particular WordPress plugin you might need.
Here are some of the best places to look for them.
rankWP
rankWP is a plugin repository that not only lists the plugins but also provides information about them such as quality score and an indication of how many installations are currently active.
Choose Plugin
Choose Plugin shows you a list of plugins by name, also including the WordPress version they’ve most recently been tested on, the last time they were updated, the amount of downloads they’ve had, their percentage rating as well as the actual amount of people who voted for that rating.
The searching process also provides you with multiple criteria to filter out the unwanted plugins. These include the name, description, author, rating, updated date and more.
WP Plugin Directory
The WP Plugin Directory website lets you browse through plugins all at one go or else by categories, tags and plugins reviewed by WPD themselves. They also have a list of recommended plugins and you can sort your search by rating, votes, last updated or even most downloaded.
Tidy Repo
Tidy Repo provides a curated list of the best and most functional plugins from the WordPress repository and around the web. It gives you a description and download link for each one. You can search for the plugin you need using any of their tags up top or through their search bar.
Tidy Repo goes through each and every plugin that shows up on here in order to make sure you’re getting a quality product that won’t break your site.
WP Nuggets
WP Nuggets consists of a collection of well written reviews about free and premium WordPress plugins. Each plugin’s review consists of a rating, summary and full review. You also have the option to submit a plugin to the collection.
Search WP Plugins
At Search WP Plugins you can search for over 30,000 plugins using their advanced search box. You can search via the most popular searches, most popular tags, or even the most freshly updated plugins. They also have lists of the Best WP Plugins, 50 Most Popular and 100 New Plugins.
The Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins
This site is just what is says, a table of plugins in the style of the periodic table of elements. Although it’s annoying to read the fine print of the elements, the list of 108 most popular plugins ranked by the number of downloads is quite good.
Plugin Discovery Tool on ManageWP.org
ManageWP recently launched this great service that helps you discover the best new WordPress plugins. It has the main goal of exposing the best new plugins to the wider audience. Explore best new plugins in two categories under 100,000 downloads and the very new rising stars up to 5,000 downloads. The lists are updated and recreated every week.
Related Plugin Search
A bit of a different tool here. This site lets you enter a WordPress plugin slug or URL and it gives you a list of similar plugins (as long as they’re in the WordPress.org plugin repository).
In Conclusion
As you can see all of these sites are great places to look for the plugin you need apart from the plugin repository.
While some are more focused on the best plugins for every particular need, others are generic, giving you absolute freedom to look for anything that comes to mind.
The rating systems and reviews are also very helpful, giving you an idea of what each plugin is like without having to go through all the Google search results you might find.
The last update dates, number of downloads, version of WordPress last tested on, and so on all make your search easier and quicker, guiding you to your best solution within minutes.
Which source do you use? Are there any others that you prefer? Leave a comment below and let’s keep developing this list for all the WordPress users out there.
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22 Responses
This article needs a serious update. Most of the sites on your list no longer exist.
Indeed, it does, Laura. We’ll work on it. Are there any particular places you look for WordPress plugins in 2024?
Hello Mark,
Nice list of plugin repositories. Is WP Nuggets still that popular?
Hey Adrita, it doesn’t seem like it’s been maintained. I haven’t updated this post in a long time, so a number of these platforms may no longer be available.
Thanks alot Mark, it is a better way to come up among huge crowd to show our plugins via different mediums. It helps me alot. Thanks again.
Hi Marc, nice list most of the repo’s I have never seen before 🙂
You say about about WP Nuggets, that this is one of the most popular sites. The last posted review on that site is more than 2 years old, are you sure about the populairity?
Thanks Olaf, you’re right about WP Nuggets & I’ve changed the wording accordingly. Sorry about that.
Tnx for great article in a problematic topic 🙂 I mentioned it here in my article about it
You’re welcome Amit, and thanks for the mention! 😀
Hey Mark, I love the idea of the post. I know about rankWP, ManageWP, and Plugin Table. The other resources are also cool. I will check em out.
Thanks Waseem, hope you’ll find them useful too 🙂
Hi Mark
This is really a good collection for all those who want to find out wp-plugins besides these I also love to have some plugins from codecanyon. Thanks again for this wonderful list. Keep in touch
Thanks Rakesh!
What I love about RankWP is that they estimate the number of active users for each plugin. It might not be the most accurate estimate but until the .org repository gives us better statistics it’s one of the only ways we have of knowing how many people are using our plugin. I’m loving the ManageWP directory too, very useful stuff, especially the plugin comparison tool.
Definitely agree Jean. Both are great to keep track of your progress and to see what other plugins are making the grade at the moment.
Thanks for this overview, Mark! What exactly would you improve about the periodic table of WordPress plugins? Increasing font size is rather difficult as space is limited…
Have you already seen the periodic table of WordPress themes (wpthemetable.com)? Coincidentally I launched it just today.
There’s not much you can improve about the periodic table of WordPress plugins because of the size limitations. Having said that, a popup window when hovering over a plugin might help show the name more clearly.
Hi Mark,
great collection of plugin directories thanks for sharing it.
I would mention one more, this is a fairly new directory by Managewp.org:
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks very much for this list! I’m going to check them all out 🙂 I’ve got another suggestion you might like… Just the other day I was looking for alternatives to the repository and found Related Plugin Search. All you have to do is input a plugin-specific slug from the repository url and it returns a list of related plugins along with information about each. It’s useful for replacing outdated plugins or finding different plugins to compare against… There’s also a pretty cool “top authors by plugin” list, which is another way to find good plugins. Hope you find it as useful as I have so far. Off to check out the resources on your list now… 🙂 Cheers!
Hey Mark! Thanks for shining light on some of these repo alternatives. Sometimes when I am looking for a plugin for a very specific use, it can be frustrating digging through directories and going through the install > trial & error > remove > repeat process. Especially after failing to find what you need after some research, I’ve found that asking others can really help thin out the choices. Whether that’s in the #wordpress IRC chat, /r/wordpress on reddit, or maybe in a Facebook reddit group, usually someone out there has good insight and asking real people can save a lot of time.
You’re welcome Julie! That looks like an interesting site too, will definitely have a look 🙂
Thanks Tom! Yep, I’ll be adding ManageWP’s site to the list for sure. It’s one of the best tools to find your ideal plugin right now. Definitely worth a mention.
Hey Robby thanks for the feedback! Glad you find them useful too. Asking others should definitely play a big part in making your choice. After all, there’s no substitute for actual experiences with a plugin. You never know what it’s really made of till it’s thoroughly tested.