I began working with WordPress about 11 months ago. It seems like a lot longer than that, honestly, given what I’ve learned about the content management system in that period of time. One of WordPress’ best features is the ability to easily install and use plugins to increase functionality and extensibility so that site admins can do more advanced tasks without having to delve into the backend.

In celebration of my almost one-year anniversary of using WordPress, I thought I’d go over the top five free plugins I’ve found and used so far:

5. Captcha or Askimet

If you’ve ever hosted any type of blog, you are likely experienced with comment spam. WordPress comes with Askimet, but you need to buy an API key to use it on a commercial site. It is made by the developers of WordPress, though, so it is a well-updated, well-designed plugin. I also like the aptly-named captcha plugin adds. It’s an unobtrusive add-on to comment fields that asks commentators to answer a simple math problem before posting, and on the small websites I’ve made, it has done the job perfectly.

4. UpdraftPlus

At some point, if you are running a website, you should have some type of backup system in place in case something goes wrong. UpdraftPlus is a great backup plugin. You can backup your entire WordPress database, set up automated backups, and my favorite feature, backup directly to Dropbox or other online solutions.

3. Contact Form 7

This is the most popular free contact form plugin, for good reason. It’s simple, flexible, and relatively easy to use. You generate contact forms, and then use the provided shortcode to output them to your site.

2. WooCommerce

I’m in the process of finishing up an ecommerce site for a client, and after doing a lot of research, I settled on using WooCommerce to run the store. I am amazed this plugin is available for free. It adds a whole slew of features to your WordPress site to turn it into a full-featured ecommerce site. They offer advanced functionality and support in paid solutions, but if you take the time to experiment and read, you can do a lot with this plugin. They even include payment gateway functionality, which is important on an ecommerce site. Developing a custom theme using WooCommerce is not necessarily easy, but it’s doable.

1. Advanced Custom Fields

As with WooCommerce, I’m amazed this plugin is free. It really expands WordPress into a full-fledged content management system. It has allowed me to create designs that go beyond the simple one-block-of-text page layout that WordPress limits you to. Advanced Custom Fields has given me the control I need to support good design on the backend. You can edit and then add fields, which can be nearly anything from images to text boxes, to pages, post types, and really almost any page editor on the dashboard. It’s free with paid addons, and I highly, highly recommend it to any WordPress developer.

Here are some more general thoughts on plugins: it can be easy, especially starting out, to install a lot of plugins to do all the tasks you need on your site. I would caution you to be aware of plugin creep, though. A lot of plugins can decrease site performance, and the more plugins you have, the more room there is for error, especially when updating to a newer version of WordPress; the first thing you will see on the WordPress support forums when there’s a problem is “disable your plugins.” Always check to see how a potential plugin is rated and reviewed before you use it. Make sure the author is updating it, especially if it’s a plugin that will add some core feature and functionality to your site. When used wisely, though, plugins really do add a lot to WordPress.