WordPress was built as a framework/cms for personal blogging in the focus, but as the times passed the extensibility of the platform with plugins make it frequently used for CMS, E-commerce, Forums, Digital-marketplace, directory and what not.
The proven success of the WordPress has mostly be due to its plugin system. WordPress plugins system.
Seen the others, many time when developer starts a new site he frequently starts to make the plugin which has already a better and well maintained alternative in WordPress Eco-system.
Hassles with custom plugins:
Custom made plugins are mostly made with specific purpose in mind. They needed to be patched, updated and maintained with ongoing WordPress update cycles. If not maintained properly, a newly found security vulnerability may even lead to your site to be hacked.
On flip side, if you use a well maintained WordPress plugin, you get the added benefit of regular security updates, updates with internal WordPress apis and wide community of existing users who can help you solve any technical problem if ever needed.
So, If you have a functionality which you need to implemented and that is already available with some reputed well maintained plugin in WordPress, I highly recommend you to go with this route.
Here are five plugins which I highly recommend to avoid re-inventing the wheel.
1. Contact Form 7:
Almost all the website rather static or dynamic do feature a contact us page, where visitor can send their message to website owner. WordPress does not have in built form builder, and does not out of box support this functionality. Rather than hacking your function.php file or create a new custom plugin to make this happen, you should use Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin.
This plugin directly send the received message to your email address.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a plugin by Automattic, which let you add the e-commerce functionality to your existing blog without requiring you have hassle of doing all the complex stuffs related to the e-commerce platforms. WooCommere supports all the types of the products including physical products, Digital products, Virtual products and products with variants.
If you want some functionality in your WooCommerce store, chances are there already exists the plugin to help you add that functionality to you store. You can add payment providers, gallery, tutorial typed product, subscription, shipping and most of all other functionality you can think about readily available in both free and premium supported models.
3. Advanced Custom Fields
If you are using wordpress for purpose other than the blogging, chances are you may frequently need to have an additional field or multiple fields to add related data to the post. There exists the way to create those fields manually by coding in function.php with custom post types but Advanced Custom Fields plugin already comes with all the most needed fields already available with multiple datatypes and formats which you may need.
Using this plugin, you can save hours of the repetitive work, lessen project complexity at the same time make your website compatible with ongoing platform updates and new features.
4. Bbpress
Forums and discussion boards takes the notable part of the internet content, And there are many cases where you might need to have a forum or discussion board connected with your website.
Bbpress is a free WordPress plugin which allows you to easily add forum to your existing website with minimal efforts.It gives you full control over the features and functionality of the forum.
It has many notable features including multi-forum site, spam protection, user generated content section, plugin support, role management, theming, RSS feed support etc.
If you need a bulletin board with trusted history of performance, bbpress is perfect option.
5. Jetpack
Unlike other plugins fulfilling single responsibility, Jetpack is a collection of utilities which adds the desired functionalities to your website.
The jetpack plugin packs many utilities which provides various functionalities like contact forms, CDN service, Email subscription, social sharing, security etc. Its built by Automattic, the same company which is behind the development of WordPress.
