15 Plugins and Tools Every Developer & Freelancer Needs

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15 Plugins and Tools Every

Developer & Freelancer
Needs
Posted by Brandon Yanofsky on March 6, 2015 in category Productivity and 0 Comments.
Building a WordPress website is a complex task. Whenever possible though, we want to try
and make that task as easy and ecient as possible.
So I asked a few of the top WordPress developers what tools and plugins they use.
Here is a list of what they recommend, with contributions from Mika Epstein, Nathan Tyler,
Nathan Rice, Suzette Franck, and Paul Lumsdaine.
1. Developer
This is the ultimate developer plugin. In fact, Automattic is one of the contributors to the
plugin.
What it does is help you set up the best development environment within your WordPress
install. You rst select what you are building (a custom plugin or custom theme) and it
suggests the plugins that will help with your development (many of the plugins are
included in this list).
When beginning a WordPress project, denitely start by installing the Developer plugin.
2. Debug Bar
Recommended by Mika Epstein.
When building a WordPress site, its common you will run into bugs and errors.
The debug bar gives you a ton of information about your site so that you can easily debug
when you do run in to these issues.
It provides information about queries, object cache, and PHP warnings and notices to help
you narrow down what is causing the issue and solve it.
3. Advanced Custom Fields

Recommended by Paul Lumsdaine.
Hands down, this is one of my favorite plugins. It allows you to easily add custom elds to
your site with custom meta boxes that your users can eortlessly input data into.
This plugin comprises of a visual drag and drop interface for building your custom meta
boxes. You also have a huge selection of eld types to choose from, such as an image
uploader, date selector, and WYSIWYG editor.
What makes Advanced Custom Fields even more user-friendly is its extensive
documentation, allowing for an easy integration into your site.
4. Regenerate Thumbnails
If you change the default images sizes in your sites media settings, only images that you
upload from that point on will be sized to your new dimensions.
Older images though will still have the old image sizes. This can cause image distortion.
Regenerate Thumbnails scans through all of your sites images and regenerates the
images to the newly dened dimensions.
5. Custom Post Type UI

This plugin allows you to create custom post types and custom taxonomies without
touching a line of code.
This opens up a ton of options when building websites. For instance, on a real estate
website, you can add a Listings custom post type. Or you can add a Seasons taxonomy
to mark blog posts that are written in summer, fall, winter, or spring.
6. WP Migrate DB
Recommended by Nathan Tyler.
If youve ever worked with a WordPress database, either migrating hosts or changing a
sites domain name, you already know what a hassle it can be.
WP Migrate DB makes this task incredibly easy. It allows you to export your database
directly from the WordPress backend. In the process, you can also run a nd and replace,
perfect for when you need to change domain names.
Or, if you go with the pro version of WP Migrate DB, you can push or pull databases
between dierent websites even if they are on dierent servers. Its perfect for keeping
your databases synced between local and staging environments, as well as migrating
hosts.
7. Simply Show IDs

When working with themes and plugins, youll need to reference the IDs of posts and
pages.
But there is no easy way to nd them. The only way I could gure them out was to go to
the edit page and look at the ID in the URL.
This plugin makes it easier. It adds an ID column on the administration pages that list
pages and posts.
No more having to search for IDs.
8. Admin Columns
Recommended by Suzette Franck.
Seeing as we are already talking about the columns on administration pages, heres a
plugin that will let you customize those columns using a drag and drop interface.
Lets say, for instance, you want to see the featured image of all your posts at a glance.
Well, you can add a featured image column. Or remove the date column. Or just reorder
them.
You can customize these columns however you want to keep the dashboard clean and
keep you productive.
9. User Switching
There will come a time (if it hasnt already) when you need to test your site from a dierent
users account.
Perhaps you are building a membership site and want to see what your site looks like for
members.
The way you used to have to do this was to logout of your administrator account, and then
log in as the other user. Then log out and log back in as and administrator. And you keep
going back and forth.
The User Switching plugin solves this problem. You can remain logged in as the
administrator and just switch over to any user youd like. And then click a button to switch
back to have administrator control.
It saves time, and saves you from the frustration.
10. P3 (Plugin Performance Proler)

You already know or probably heard someone tell you that having too many plugins on
your site can slow it down.
But how do you know which plugins are the culprits?
P3 measures the eect plugins have on a sites load time and then outputs a report. You
can see exactly how long each plugin takes to load, helping you diagnose speed issues
related to plugins.
11. Theme Check

Theme Check will scan your theme and make sure that it uses the latest WordPress
standards and practices.
As the plugins description reads, it allows you to run the same tests that the theme review
team uses when testing themes for inclusion in the theme repository.
But, even if you arent a theme developer, you can use it to make sure that the theme you
have deployed on your website meets all the standards.
12. Log Deprecated Notices

On certain updates, the WordPress team will deprecate a le, function, or function
argument.
However, your theme or plugins may still be using these deprecated items, which can
cause errors on your site.
This plugin will scan your site and look for any deprecated items.
Furthermore, it will notify you if a function is not being used correctly.
This is great for knowing if the theme or website you are building has the strongest code
possible.
13. Query Monitor

Recommended by Mika Epstein.
Query Monitor is like the Debug Bar, but on steroids.
The amount of information it provides is incredibly useful and cant be found anywhere
else.
Its a developers dream.
Heres just some of the information it provides:
Database queries
Hooks red on the currently loaded page
Theme les being used on the current page
PHP errors
Redirects
HTTP requests
Ajax debugger
Information about the hosting environment
What script and styles are being loaded
What conditionals are active on the current page (such as is_front_page or is_single)
14. DesktopServer
Recommended by Nathan Tyler.
Creating a local server environment can sometimes be a hassle.

So DesktopServer came about to make the process as easy as possible.
It allows you to deploy multiple virtual servers on your computer, each with their own
ctional domain name. It even installs WordPress in the process.
Its pro version oers even more features, most notably the ability to directly deploy your
local site to a live server.
15. Advanced Tools

And nally, Nathan Rice, the lead developer at Copyblogger Media, recommends that
developers and freelancers start learning Vagrant and Grunt.
Vagrant makes it easy to create consistent, reproducible work environments. It helps to
make sure your development environment matches your production environment. If youd
like to learn how to use Vagrant with WordPress, check out this great tutorial: Creating a
Professional WordPress Development Workow With Vagrant
Grunt, on the other hand, helps with managing your development and minied versions of
Javascript and CSS les. A great tutorial on using Grunt with WordPress can be found here:
Using Grunt with WordPress Development
What Tools Do You Use?

Do you have any plugins or tools you use every day that make developing themes, plugins,
and WordPress websites easier and more ecient? If so, I invite you to share them in the
comments below.
About LatestPosts
Brandon Yanofsky
Brandon Yanofsky is a WordPress developer and entrepreneur. You can read
more of his WordPress tips and tricks on his site myWPexpert or check out his
WordPress maintenance service at WPRadius.com You can connect with him
on Linkedin
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Building exceptional

15 Plugins and Tools Every

Posted by Brandon Yanofsky on March 6, 2015 in category Productivity and 0 Comments.

3. Advanced Custom Fields

5. Custom Post Type UI

7. Simply Show IDs

10. P3 (Plugin Performance Proler)

11. Theme Check

12. Log Deprecated Notices

13. Query Monitor

Creating a local server environment can sometimes be a hassle.

15. Advanced Tools

What Tools Do You Use?

Follow Up To Build Relationships and Create Opportunities

2015 WP Elevation | Contact | Privacy Policy

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