Website Translation and Bilingual Marketing

The first step in your bilingual marketing campaign is translating your website. So, it is worth allocating a marketing budget if you’re going after more business in the Latinx market. Opening your customer base to a second language gives you a competitive advantage, and your company is stronger for it.

“Offering more than one language means you are less fragile than companies that don’t. You are more agile to changes in the market. If your English website fails, your Spanish website is still running.”

Warren Laine-Naida

Translating your online store into Spanish in domestic markets with high percentages of Spanish speakers – for example, Los Angeles, CA, San Antonio, TX, or Phoenix, AZ  – is a smart business move. In that regard, website translation is a priority and makes a lot of sense for an eCommerce site, but what if you’re a real estate agent, hair stylist, or mechanic? Sí, your small business website should be en español also.

“It’s not only online stores that can benefit from going multilingual, though. A translated blog, for example, has the potential to gain new followers and generate more revenue from ads.”

WP Buffs

What is Bilingual Marketing? 

Before going beyond website translation and bilingual marketing, we need to agree on a simplified definition of marketing. Marketing is communication. You’re communicating a message to your audience, and – more importantly – that message is being received by your audience. 

So, if a portion of your customer base prefers to engage with brands in their native language – Spanish – then the best way to reach them is with a bilingual marketing campaign. But is that only in Spanish or a mix?

You have two obvious choices: create a totally different campaign in Spanish or translate the current marketing campaign into Spanish. The latter is an extension of your current marketing strategy, serving as a parallel campaign with a similar goal. That makes the marketing campaign bilingual. One of the best strategies, especially for the Hispanic market, is a hybrid approach –  where the campaign has Spanish and English.

“Before you tailor a bilingual marketing campaign, it is necessary to re-evaluate your business marketing objectives and then create content that positions it under the end-user requirement.”

Alpha Co. Marketing & Media

The important thing to remember with bilingual campaigns is that word-for-word translations aren’t always effective – or accurate. Always make an effort to translate colloquialisms thought for thought. So, be careful, but go ahead and start that bilingual campaign.

Does Bilingual Marketing Work? 

Of course, bilingual marketing works. And if you’re following along with our article, you get it. In fact, bilingual and Hispanic-centered marketing campaigns win awards. Casanova//McCann, who has worked with Denny’s, The California Lottery, and more, has won 2 years in a row at Cannes.

Bilingual marketing works because it honors your customers. It works because it speaks to customers where they are and because people speak more than just English. International companies know this. American companies who both recognize this fact and incorporate it into their business strategy win – all the way to the bank.

“Hispanics and Latinos are more likely to stick with a brand they like, which means strong customer lifetime value.”

SASSO

What Companies Excel at Bilingual Marketing in Spanish? 

McDonald’s is one of the first companies that dedicated social accounts to Spanish speakers. Netflix does well in the Hispanic market, IKEA has had success with Spanish-based marketing, and Ford Motor Company resonates well.

One great example of going beyond just translation in bilingual marketing is from Target. Their #SinTraducción (Without Translation) culture-based campaign won hearts and brought shoppers in the door. How’s that for más negocios?

Target had a spike in Hispanic Share of Voice by over 500%, outperformed metrics on ad recall and persuasion scores, but most importantly for our Target client-partners, it increased foot traffic in key Hispanic markets.”

Third Ear

How Do You Find Developers To Help with Bilingual Marketing?

One of the first places to ask for referrals for bilingual developers is your local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce if “bilingual” refers to Spanish. They’ll be able to source local Spanish speakers who understand local colloquialisms. Another great place to find developers is at local WordPress Meetups. You can always reach out on social media to find experts. But that’s all quite a bit of work. We have a suggestion, though.

Our partners at Codeable have a directory of elite WordPress developers – many of whom are not only bilingual but polyglots (fluent in many languages). When you’re looking for a WordPress developer who can build your WordPress website, help with your bilingual marketing campaigns, y habla espanol, then we have your back.

Featured Photo by Brett Zeck on Unsplash

WP Buffs – Your Best Friends

Have a multilingual site? No problemo. Our “Perform” and “Custom” Care Plans include support for multiple languages. We love WPML for WordPress translation, but there are other plugins and platforms available, such as Weglot and Lokalise to name a few.

According to a survey conducted by CSA Research, 40% of online consumers won’t even consider completing a purchase in a language other than their native one. In Europe alone, 90% of internet users prefer to browse the web in their own language.

If you want to attract global consumers, developing a multilingual website should be at the top of your priority list. 

And since most consumers use websites as the first point of contact with your business, it’s important you give your users a consistent multilingual experience. This means finding a flexible, quality translation solution that is simple to set up and manage. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through some factors you should consider before you start building your multilingual WordPress website. Then, we’ll show you why WPML is the right multilingual plugin for your WordPress site.

Why Consider Going Multilingual 

No matter the type of WordPress website you have, multilingual content can maximize your chances of succeeding in the global marketplace. Let’s explore the main benefits of website translation.

Tap into new marketplaces

If you want to break into new markets or do business globally, a multilingual website is the way to go. By providing your website’s content in multiple languages, you can break language barriers and reach new audiences interested in your products and services.

Build consumer trust

Consumers who can see you’ve taken the time to tailor your products or services to their needs are more likely to stay loyal to your brand, recommend your business to others, and leave positive reviews.

Increase online sales

A translated website doesn’t just let you reach a global audience – it also lets you convert them into customers. In turn, you can expect a significant increase in sales. It’s not only online stores that can benefit from going multilingual, though. A translated blog, for example, has the potential to gain new followers and generate more revenue from ads.

Choosing the Right WordPress Multilingual Plugin 

Translation is only a part of the multilingual journey. If you want your multilingual website to be successful, you need to go with a multilingual solution that is as easy to maintain as it is to use.

As a WordPress user, you have a major advantage – plugins. You can choose from a number of multilingual plugins, most of which come with similar features. This includes the option to add multiple languages to your website and the ability to translate posts and pages.

Premium translation plugins such as WPML come with additional benefits, like different translation methods, full control over the translation process, and the option to integrate with leading automatic translation engines.

Here are a few other factors to consider during the WordPress translation plugin selection process.

Running a Woo store? You’ll want to translate it too 

A multilingual WooCommerce store can help you showcase your products globally and reach new audiences in their native languages. But from a business perspective, there’s a lot more you can do than just translate your products.

With the right WordPress multilingual plugin, you can:

• Rank higher on various search engine platforms and in different languages
• Offer localized shipping methods
• Allow customers to pay in their own currencies
• Translate Cart and Checkout pages
• Automatically translate every element of your WooCommerce store as you add or edit it

Ideally, all these features should be available within one plugin.

Automatic translation: A quick and budget-friendly translation option  

Before you decide on a translation tool, consider how you’ll go about maintaining your multilingual website. 

Once in a while, websites require a content refresh. After taking the time to create a multilingual website, it’s only natural you’d expect the content across all your languages to be up-to-date. 

Outsourcing the translations to a professional translator is an option, and in some cases, the best choice. If you have a website with industry-specific terminology, you want to go with a professional translator who understands the nuances of your business.

However, there’s no hiding how time-consuming human translation is. It can take weeks before your translations are ready. Not to mention the impact of professional translations on your budget. Depending on the type of website you have, you can consider using a second option – automatic translation.

With automatic translation, you can have your WordPress site’s content translated in minutes – and at a friendly cost. Certain WordPress translation plugins, like WPML, also let you review the automatic translations after they’re generated. If you’re not fluent in all the languages on your site, you can hire a professional automatic translation reviewer. This way, you can enjoy high-quality translations at a lower cost than human translations from scratch.

The benefits of a powerful translation management system

Ultimately, the plugin you choose shouldn’t just translate your content. It should also simplify the translation process, enhance the quality of your translations, and make it easy to maintain your multilingual content.  

Some WordPress multilingual plugins come with more efficient translation management systems than others. Key factors that can help you manage the translation process include:

• Translation memory, which speeds up the translation process and helps keep costs down
• Automated workflows that eliminate the need to import and export content for translation
• Centralized project management, making it easier to monitor the progress of translations
• Term bases, which provide translators with guidelines on the best words and phrases to use for specific types of content

Why WPML is the Right Multilingual Plugin for WordPress Websites

WPML is the market-leading multilingual plugin for WordPress. It comes with all the features and tools you need to create and maintain a fully-functioning multilingual website. WPML is an equally great solution for freelancers or agencies creating multilingual websites for clients and WordPress users building sites for themselves.

To illustrate the point, we’ll go over 6 key features that make WPML stand out amongst other WordPress translation plugins.

1. Flexible Automatic Translation Methods

Translating your whole WordPress site automatically is a breeze with WPML. The multilingual plugin is integrated with DeepL, Google, and Microsoft, allowing you to translate your site with only the best and most accurate machine translation engines. You can choose from two different translation methods, depending on which one best fits your needs. 

WPML’s Translate Everything mode handles the translation of your content on the fly. After you create a new post or page, all you need to do is hit the “Publish” button. WPML then automatically translates the content into your site’s secondary languages in the background. The same goes for any existing posts or pages you update. This mode is optimal if you’re looking for a cost-effective and simple solution for maintaining and updating multilingual content as it is added or changed over time.

With the Translate Some mode, you can combine human and machine translation and have full control over what you translate, and how you translate it. Translate content by yourself, enlist the help of local translators, or work with a professional translation agency – the choice is yours. This mode is a great solution if you want the best of both worlds – the efficiency of automatic translation and the accuracy of human review. 

2. WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor

You or your translators can translate posts and pages using WPML’s built-in CAT (Computer-aided Translation) tool, the Advanced Translation Editor. 

Apart from providing you with a side-by-side look that makes translation easy, the Advanced Translation Editor lets you:

• Automatically translate posts, pages, or specific sentences on a case-to-case basis
• Increase the speed of translations and cut costs thanks to translation memory
• Save terms and phrases in the glossary so you and your translators can produce consistent translations

3. An All-In-One Translation Management System

To help you manage all your site’s translations, WPML’s Translation Management brings all the tools and features together in one place. 

From the Translation Management Dashboard, you can:

• Select which content you want to translate
• Add individual translators and assign language pairs
• Outsource the translations to professional translation agencies
• Leave notes for translators and track the progress of translation jobs

Additionally, WPML lets you create dedicated translator accounts. You can then send content to your translators directly from your WordPress dashboard. This way, you don’t need to waste time and resources creating PO files, spreadsheets, or switching between different interfaces. 

It’s also worth noting that while your translators can edit your site’s translations, they won’t be able to access or make changes to any other parts of your WordPress website.  

Once a translator completes the job, the translations are automatically imported to your site. So, you don’t have to worry about manually uploading translations and making a mistake that could break your website.

4. WooCommerce Multilingual: A Comprehensive E-Commerce Translation Solution

WooCommerce Multilingual & Multicurrency (WCML) is a free add-on plugin that comes with the WPML CMS and Agency account types. It comes with all the features you need to start selling internationally.

With WooCommerce Multilingual, you can:

• Automatically translate your entire WooCommerce site
• Translate products, product variations, and product attributes
• Translate Cart and Checkout pages as well as store emails
• Translate URLs and endpoints
• Set prices and collect payments in different currencies depending on the location or language of your clients
• Set up automatic exchange rates

More importantly, getting started with WooCommerce Multilingual is easy and intuitive. Once you install and activate the plugin, you simply need to follow the steps in the setup wizard.

You can then create and edit the translations of products, categories, store URLs, and even set up the multicurrency features from one intuitive interface. Of course, the WooCommerce Multilingual plugin also lets you automatically translate your WooCommerce site. You can then quickly fine tune the translations and have your store taking global orders in no time. 

5. Transparent Automatic Translation Pricing 

You already know that automatic translation is the most cost-efficient way to translate your website, but the question remains – how much does it actually cost?

With WPML, there are no hidden costs. You can choose between two automatic translation pricing options: pay-as-you-go and prepaid credit packages.

With pay-as-you-go, you get 2,000 free translation credits every month. If you use more than that, you pay for exactly what you used at the end of the month. And if you’re not quite sure how many credits you need to translate your site’s content, you can use WPML’s automatic translation pricing calculator to estimate the costs.

Setting up multilingual sites for clients? You may prefer to go with prepaid credit packages. This option allows you to buy credits and manually assign a specific number of them to any of your registered sites. The credits never expire, so you don’t have to worry about using them in a specific timeframe. 

6. Easily Transfer Account Renewals to Clients 

If you build multilingual sites for clients, you know how big of a challenge the account renewal process can pose. Without the right renewal strategy, you may find yourself paying for the maintenance of a client’s multilingual website, but not getting reimbursed for it by your client. 

The costs can add up, but abandoning the multilingual sites you built isn’t exactly an option. After all, you want to remain credible and maintain strong relationships with your customers.

Account renewals should be a transparent process for both you and your clients. That’s why with WPML, you don’t have to deal with the headache of managing renewal fees and sending invoices to your clients. Instead, you can transfer renewal payments directly to your clients. 

This solution comes with a number of benefits for both sides:

• Your clients will receive updates to the WPML plugin, even if your account is no longer valid or has expired
• Your clients will have full access to WPML’s downloads and support 
• Once your clients follow your invitation to take over renewal payments, WPML credits you $20 per renewal and adds one bonus site to your account

Find WPML in the WP Buffs Partners Hub

WPML features in the public WP Buffs White Label Preparation Hub. If you are an Agency client, you can find WPML in your exclusive Partners Hub too! This shows the trust that WP Buffs have put into using WPML on various projects for a wide range of clients. For easy access to a wide range of useful WPML information and documentation, check out the ‘Translate With WPML’ section in your hub.

Wrapping Up

A multilingual website is the best way to reach audiences across the globe. However, to create a successful multilingual website, you need to choose the right WordPress translation plugin. Factors such as the type of website you have, the way you want to translate it, and your budget may play a part in the decision.

WPML comes with all the features and tools you need to both create and maintain any type of multilingual website. It’s straightforward to set up and lets you translate your site’s content using automatic translation, human translation, or a combination of both. 

What’s more, WPML centralizes the translation process in one place, making it possible for you to create, send, and receive translations directly from your WordPress site’s dashboard. 

Best of all, it’s a friendly solution for everyone. No matter if you’re building a multilingual WordPress website by yourself or setting one up for a client, WPML makes it possible for you to have a multi-language website up and running in just a few steps.

Get Started with WPML Today

Join over a million WPML-powered WordPress sites and start using WPML to meet your multilingual needs. You can learn everything there is to know about the plugin by checking out the comprehensive guide to getting started with WPML.

In case you’re not 100% happy with the WordPress multilingual plugin, WPML offers a no-hassle, 30 day money-back guarantee.

This article was produced by Kathy Banach. She is a Writer for OnTheGoSystems, the company behind the popular WPML and Toolset plugins for WordPress. She has a strong interest in cross-cultural communication and improving user experience with well-crafted content.  

How do you assure your company’s website content is making the seven interactions with customers it truly deserves? Get the best social media plugin for WordPress to share content with potential clients around the world, simply and effectively!

One of the best ways to spotlight your business in multiple touch points is by using a plugin. Choosing the option, however, can feel like picking out a new car at the dealership. There are countless bells and whistles to consider, and sometimes, choosing the one you want boils down to deciding what you actually need.

Let’s help you walk away with a steal by taking a glance around the lot! We’ve done our homework and believe the following 12 free and premium WordPress social plugins are some of the best on the market! Buckle up, buttercup!

In this Article

Why do I need a WordPress social media plugin?

What should I look for when choosing the best social media plugin for WordPress?

Best Premium Social Sharing Plugins for WordPress

Free WordPress Social Share Plugins

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

As a WordPress company, we could easily point you to the plugins we use and recommend only. However, at WP Buffs, we believe you deserve evergreen advice, no matter what plugin comes and goes. The latter takes a bit of homework, and we’ve accepted the challenge!

We also believe you should be able to make bold decisions about your website without feeling overwhelmed by technical restraints or lack of knowledge about WordPress. Whether you are a tried and true expert, or on your first day and learning the ropes, here are a few things that may help you narrow down to the best social media plugins for WordPress websites like your own.

(However, if you are seasoned in WordPress, skip to our list, below!)

Why do I need a WordPress social media plugin?

Let’s keep it simple, first.

Simply put- WordPress social share plugins give extra leverage to quality content from your business’ site. For example, let’s say you’ve got great content, resources and products to share with a given audience. Why not add endless opportunities for others to share it, too?

Additionally, you may want to consider things from your audience’s perspective. As the owner, you’ve stayed up all night working on a new blog post you can’t wait to share with the world. As the reader, once the article goes live, it’s much easier for customers, users, and brand loyalists alike via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any major channel of their choosing.

Now, let’s consider the same process for your brand’s biggest fans, this time without a social media plugin. If a WordPress social share plugin is not installed, the user is forced to

1. Copy the URL,
2. Click over to the social media platform of their choice
3. Paste the URL into the post/tweet bar
4. Cross their fingers that the preview open graph image and title tell the best story about your brand.

That would be a horrible experience for your blog’s fans! Using a reliable plugin would give the user full control over the post and how it is received to its audience, all without leaving your website in the first place.

What should I look for when choosing the best social media plugin for WordPress?

There are a few bare minimum things to know and expect from a plugin. Knowing the main characteristics of a good one can help you find the best WordPress sharing plugin in no time.

Choose the right features: Inline, Floating and Sticky Plugins

For most websites, there are three types of plugins to look for: in-line, floating or sticky button options. In-line plugins can disappear as you scroll, floating buttons will remain, and sticky side buttons will appear on the left or right side of the screen as you choose.

Decide between Native page builders vs. dedicated plugins

It’s also worth mentioning that some page builders include native social features, which do not require the use of a dedicated WordPress social share plugin. The Elementor native element, for instance, is an easy way to use what already exists for the everyday, on-the-go user through a WordPress interface.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a dedicated plugin with bells and whistles, it is certainly possible to find a great, free (or cost efficient) option with good support, GDPR compliance, custom features, and easy to navigate features to name a few!

Confirm Compatibility with Existing Features

Using WooCommerce or Google Analytics? The best WordPress social media plugins allow integration of social shares to other analytics platforms, making it easier to track referrals and leads to and from your site. More often than not, many premium options include this, so it’s safe to make this one a minimum requirement if you’re putting money behind a good plugin.

Support

Maybe you are a WordPress user with multiple sites to manage or many plugins to juggle. Having a readily available support team behind your social media plugin can give peace of mind and updates on key release features that may or may not affect your existing site (and again, if paying for a good plugin, make sure it’s got the support you’d like to have, too).

Pricing

Though options are endless and costs may vary, we recommend choosing a plugin based on how high social media sharing is as a priority for your WordPress site. Maybe the numbers/ROI is important to you; if garnering web traffic from social is extremely important to your business, splurging a bit on a premium WordPress social media plugin can be worth every penny.

User Interface

How comfortable are you with WordPress front and backend configuration? Considering your experience with general backend functionality is important in choosing the right social media plugins for WordPress, as some can require a bit of custom work to fit your needs.

Site speed

The right plugin can share your business with the world. The wrong plugin, however, can slow down your website with bloat and kill traffic before users have a chance to view it. Testing site speed before and after setting up a site is critical to ensuring your site isn’t locked down by the new plugin.

Best Premium Social Sharing Plugins for WordPress

Novashare.IO

Monarch

Social Snap

Social Warfare

Shareaholic

Revive Social Automation

From here, we’ll go in depth to discuss each plugin, based on their support, site speed, user interface, features, compatibility and pricing to name a few.

Novashare: $29+ annual contract

For those with a need for speed (but also, support and regular bug fixes)

Novashare is a lightweight sharing plugin that adds share counters, click to tweet and image hover pin options to your site (if you read our note about types of plugins above, know that Novashare.IO offers the major button types- inline, floating and sticky buttons, oh-my!). Optimized for speed, this small-but-mighty plugin was built for keeping site speeds down and social shares high for your WordPress site.

A common feature in premium WordPress social share plugins, Novashare maintains share count for any website domain or URL changes you may experience (we’ve all been there). Changed your website URL? No worries. NovaShare offers auto recovery of previous social share data, as if nothing ever happened!

The premium plugin boasts four customizable options within its easy to maneuver interface: standard social sharing buttons, Click to Tweet and Pinterest hover options for pinning content from any page on your site.

(In case you’re Wondering, the WP Buffs team recently moved to Novashare.IO in support of its Click to Tweet option and speed enhancement for our developmental tasks and user experience needs.)

• Features: More than 17 network sharing options, color/size/shape customizations, Click to Tweet, Inline, Floating button options available
• Compatibility: Allows for multisite setup, Google Analytics configuration
• Support: Developer Support available, and regular new releases/bug fixes
• Size: 5KB
• Site Speed: Optimized to help decrease site speeds (meaning, this plugin is super small and won’t bog down your site)!
• User interface: Uses native WordPress styling for fast configuration; easy to navigate with beginner to moderate WordPress experience
• Pricing: $29 and up for 1 year of premium support and updates, with 30 day money back guarantee
• Ideal Use Case: A WordPress site with routinely added blog or routinely added resources; websites in between domain changes, beginner to intermediate WordPress user experience
• Things to Consider: This plugin may not be ideal for sites with multilingual social network needs, or WooCommerce web pages

Monarch: $89 + annual contract

For around the clock support and service!

As part of the Elegant Themes brand, the Monarch WordPress social media plugin provides offers more than 20 social networks to choose from.

Not only does Monarch offer the basic inline, floating and sticky button options, the plugin allows for automatic popups and hovers on visual content, too! Monarch is one of the best social media plugins for WordPress websites with videos, vlogs or websites with imagery as its key focus.

This plugin is ideal for websites with aesthetics and branding styles to maintain, as its customizable design offers many transition and orientation options for your WordPress website.

• Features: Popup and media elements, 20+ social network sharing options, pop-up triggers to opt readers into sharing after commenting on posts
• Compatibility: Mobile and desktop friendly design
• Support: Developer Support available, and regular new releases/bug fixes
• User interface: Ideal for beginner WordPress users, includes Divi Support Center interface for direct access to dev team
• Ideal Use Case: Vloggers, Photographers and Media based WordPress website users
• Things to Consider: Strong support team and highly reviewed by customers; Minimal options (+20) for social sharing in comparison

Social Snap: $27+ annual contract

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, but a solid contender as one of the best social media plugins for WordPress websites!

If you are looking for a jack-of-all-trades in a WordPress social media plugin, Social Snap offers a ton of features and options for the budding WordPress website owner.

This social sharing tool is a fairly new kid on the block, priding itself in four key, WordPress sharing elements: robust analytics and tracking, 100% customizable button placement, open graph support and boosting of old posts on social networks.

In addition to its major features, the plugin integrates with Bitly for URL link shortening. Got Gutenberg? Its short codes and widget control options help the plugin stand out among the rest.

Social Snap offers three plans with a 30 day money back guarantee, all ranging between $27-$209 per year. Its smallest package, Snap Plus includes plugin use usage for one site, with more than 30 social media sharing options. Not to mention, Social Snap offers support ticket creation and around the clock help desk support.

• Features: More than 30 network sharing options (wow!), Click to Tweet, Boosts for Old Posts, Social Content Locker (coming soon!), Sticky Bar option for mobile and tablet
• Compatibility: Allows for high level integration with Bitly and reporting platforms
• Support: Developer Support available all package plans
• Size: Unknown
• Site Speed: Optimized to help decrease site speeds (meaning, this social media plugin is super small and won’t bog down your site)!
• User interface: Clean, easy to use interface
• Pricing: $27+ for 1 year of premium support and updates, with 30 day money back guarantee
• Ideal Use Case: A WordPress site looking multilingual functionality and newer, trending social plugin
• Things to Consider: The plugin is newer to the market, but largely remains positively reviewed by customers.

Social Warfare: +$29 1 year licensing

A familiar, trusted resource with more than 5000 customizations

Social Warfare is a tried and true veteran in the WordPress sharing plugin space and offers simple, integrated, and customizable features into any WordPress website.

Though its options range between $29 and up for premium access, Social Warfare does include a free option. Its key features, like the Popular Post option, allow for highlighting content with higher views on any page, from any date range or theme.

Not to mention, the plugin also allows for content protection to keep your site from hijackers. When this often occurs, users embed their own advertisements into shared content from your page. Yikes!

What largely makes Social Warfare stand out is its Visual Options area, with more than 5,000 options for website style.

• Features: Social Share Inline Buttons, Click to Tweet, Popular Posts Widget (Hover to Pin, analytics and click tracking available in pro versions of the app)
• Compatibility: Unknown
• Support: Developer Support and bug fixes are only available in premium versions of the plugin
• Pricing: Free for basic use of the plugin, $29+ for annual use, support and updates
• Ideal Use Case: Gutenberg users, Sites with international audiences, sites with hacking concerns, beginner level WordPress experience required
• Things to Consider: Social Warfare support is not available to free download customers

Shareaholic

Lightweight but fierce tool with multi-lingual social sharing capabilities

Though Shareaholic provides several content marketing tools and data solutions, its social share and follow button are recommended by some of the biggest names in text such as Google and our partners, SiteGround.

Shareaholic’s marketing automation tool offers a collection of more than 100 social media share buttons to choose from and is optimized to comply with WCAG 2.0 AA Accessibility standards.

Shareaholic offers free social share follow buttons and counters, but also includes additional ad monetization functionality, branded URL options and additional extension under a low cost, easy to manage care plan.

• Features: Social Share Inline Buttons,
• Compatibility: Sharing options available for more than 100+ social media platforms
• Support: FAQ and help desk available to paid customers
• Pricing: $8-$31 per month for Professional and Team packages
• Ideal Use Case: Sites with international audiences, sites with analytics and/or ad control as a priority, beginner level WordPress experience required
• Things to Consider: free version does not include support

Revive Social Automation

Social sharing plugin with a knack for audience targeting and tagging

Revive Old Post is a useful social plugin since it can help you be more active on social media as well as keep your content relevant. With this plugin you can share your content to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tumblr automatically.

What revive social automation appears to provide that sets it apart from other social WordPress sharing plugins is the ability to add optimized hashtags directly from the content you’ve created and embed them directly into the social platform of your choosing.

• Features: Social Share Inline Buttons, Click to Tweet, instant social media sharing
• Compatibility: Compatible with WooCommerce, BigCommerce Products
• Support: 30-day money back guarantee, and plans can be changed or cancelled at any time
• Pricing: $75 for base contract, annually
• Ideal Use Case: Sites with international audiences, WooCommerce/BigCommerce users
• Things to Consider: May not be an ideal social media plugin for WordPress websites needing multilingual site support

Revive Social’s free version, or premium for $75 annually

Free WordPress Social Share Plugins

Free plugin options are a dime a dozen, but may require you to install various options from developer teams with and without support. That may leave you wondering, ‘What is the best free social media plugin for WordPress?’ We’ve got your back on the ins and outs of each below.

Sassy Social Share

Jetpack

Simple Share

Social Media Share Buttons

AddToAny Share Buttons

Better Click to Tweet

Sassy Social Share

For WooCommerce users, and those who like a little support along the way

Whether you’re on day ten or 10,000 of your journey with WordPress social media plugins, Sassy Social Share meets any user with its both easy to use and equally customizable interface.

(We’re collectively renaming this one, “We Can’t Believe it’s Not Premium .”)

With more than 90 social sharing and bookmarking services, the in-line and floating styles option through sassy social Shear are a quick and simple setup and additionally are compatible with Gutenberg editor.

Both BuddyPress and Woocommerce users will enjoy its mobile responsiveness, multisite and 24 hour support.

Jetpack

A familiar friend in the WordPress space, perfect for multilingual and virtual event needs

Known largely for security, performance, and marketing solutions, Jetpack is a trusted resource in the WordPress community created by Automattic. Its social share option is an easy-to-use solution for any website owner.

Jetpack not only offers a social preview extension, it also includes various WordPress social media widgets optimized for Instagram, WhatsApp and EventBrite, making it an ideal solution for websites with key imagery, events and content to share around the globe.

Simple Share Buttons Adder

Keeping it simple for mobile friendly needs

Backed by USA Today Sports, Privy and other major brands, Simple Share could be the best free social media plugin for WordPress websites like your own. It makes adding inline buttons to your site a breeze!

Its Modern Share Buttons allow for a customizable CSS based control over button shape, color and hover.

Additionally, this easy to use plugin prioritizes mobile optimizations, meaning its buttons will adjust and align to any screen resolution whether desktop, tablet or mobile.

Social Media Share Buttons Popup & Pop Up Social Sharing Icons

For aesthetic inclined, blogging enthusiasts

Though many of Social Media Share Buttons Popup’s most robust features are in the premium, paid package, this plugin allows for 16 floating and sticky social media share icons for major platforms on the web. Unlike other free plugins, the animation feature (automatic shuffling, mouse-over effects) help call attention to other platforms, too!

We recommend the plugin to businesses and WordPress users where a newsletter or major blog may be present; its subscription toggle allows for sign-up in one click for anyone browsing your website.

If you are already interested, the premium plugin- available through Ultimately Social- Offers compatibility with popular themes and Page builders, such as beaver builder and Elementorand other common to WordPress brands.

AddToAny Share Buttons

For WooCommerce and ROI hunters alike

A competitor in the wordpress social media plugin game since 2006, AddToAny plugin offers floating in line Sharing capability with easy to set up Bitly and Google analytics Integration capability.

Add to Any supports commerce, multilingual sites, and does not require sign up or login to manage. While lack of login may lend itself to administrative issues-, we’ve done our homework- The plugin’s creator still troubleshoots via its WordPress support channel!

Better Click to Tweet

Simple, easy to follow interface for businesses with devoted Twitter following

The Better Click to Tweet WordPress social sharing plugin allows key blog post snippets to be readily shared to Twitter! The plugin is built for multilingual support and can translate in up to 12 languages.

Regular updates are made to the plugin, but issues and bug fixes can be requested via a GitHub support page for the tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bringing it All Home

If a more budget-friendly, free social media plugin option is priority for your business or growing website, we recommend AddtoAny and Sassy Social Share as free, straight to the point solutions. Its multilingual capabilities, WooCommerce integration, and general ease of access allow for fast and easy setup.

Wait Buffs, I need something with more bells and whistles. Okay, we hear you loud and clear! WP Buffs recommends Novashare.io, Monarch, and Social Snap as the best social media plugins for WordPress websites. Their well-rounded options offer site speed optimizations, support and easy to use interfaces as key priorities.

You’ve chosen your WordPress social media plugin, now what? We have some other useful resources to help you find a good chatbot for your website, or a helpful email newsletter plugin option.

Need to delegate these tasks to someone else? Leave it all up to the pros at WP Buffs! As part of our edits service, the WP Buffs team can provide around the clock assistance to your WordPress website, such as installing and configuring a social media plugin or providing optimization services as needed.

No matter the final call you make, be sure to look for updates on your WordPress social media plugin to ensure it is receiving bug fixes, and not impacting your site security, speed or general functionality.

That makes sense as many of these plugins seem to do the same thing.

Sorting through all of the different features and functionality to get a clear understanding of what’s the best WordPress forum plugin for you can seem daunting, not to mention time consuming.

But have no fear! We’ll guide you to finding the right WordPress forum solution to meet your needs, both now and as you grow.

In this article:

• Evaluating your WordPress Forum Needs
• The Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Consider
• Why BuddyPress isn’t a WordPress Forum Plugin
• Tips on Using Forums for Support
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Wrapping Up

Evaluating Your WordPress Forum Needs

Terminology first. Whether you’ve heard it referred to as a WordPress forum, a WordPress bulletin board, or a WordPress message board, they’re all the same thing. They all have the same basic functions, but have simply been given different names over the years.

And while that clears up one issue, the long list of features most WordPress forum plugins have can create an overwhelming amount of information to wade through.

It would be so nice if there were just one best WordPress forum plugin to use, but there isn’t. The simple truth is the best forum plugin for WordPress is the one that meets your needs, and it will likely take trying a few to find the right one.

So, let’s look at some questions that can help narrow the field from the start and increase the chances of finding a good fit.

• What do you want to accomplish? WordPress forums can be used in many different situations. Narrowing down what you need it to do to two or three primary functions should make it more obvious which plugin is right for you.
• What resources do you have available? Note that this question is not “How much money do you have to spend?” Many of the WordPress forum plugins we’ll look at are free of charge, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and anxiety cost associated with them.
  
  
  
  Setup, community management, and formatting options are some of the factors that will impact your life, and may make it worthwhile to pay for a plugin instead of choosing a free option.
• Do you want support from the developer? Many free WordPress plugins don’t come with support. They are free after all. For someone with the right technical skills or team to rely on that could be irrelevant.
  
  If that’s not you, you’ll want to check — and likely choose — an option with support, particularly one that will be there to help walk you through how to setup a forum on WordPress.
• Is the plugin being actively developed? It’s safe to assume that a purchased WordPress forum plugin is being actively developed as there is a business surrounding it.
  
  This isn’t always the case with free plugins. However, most free plugins are in the WordPress Plugin Repository and there you’ll be able to see when the plugin was last updated as well as reviews, active installs, and who created the plugin.
• Is a WordPress FAQ plugin a better fit? Forums are appealing because of their interactive, community-building nature, but not everyone needs that functionality. Often small businesses and eCommerce shops don’t have the resources to invest in what a forum can require.
  
  If so, the best solution might be the simplest: a nice, straightforward FAQ plugin.

These allow you to still provide a basic level of support while having complete control of the answers being given. All without needing to spend time moderating other people’s answers and conversations.

• Do you want to limit access to your WordPress forums? Limiting access can help reduce moderation needs, allow you to monetize your content, and create an exclusive feeling that leads to more deeply invested users.
  
  Wondering how to create a forum in WordPress while also gating access to your content? Try a membership plugin that can grow with you as your community grows.

The Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Consider

Now that you’re comfortable with how to create a forum on WordPress, have figured out what function you need it to perform, and considered some of the alternatives, let’s find the right WordPress forum plugin for you. Here’s a glimpse at the styles and products on our list.

Up/Down Voting

• CM Answers
• DW Question and Answer

Hybrid

• WPForo
• Sabai Discuss

Discussion-style

• bbPress
• Simple:Press
• Forym
• Asgaros Forum
• Discussion Board

Built-in Membership Functionality

• WP Symposium Pro

What about BuddyPress?

WordPress Forum Plugins with Up/Down Voting

Want the familiarity and functionality of Quora, Stack Overflow, and Yahoo Answers, then this style of plugin is for you!

Their simple format can make it easy for users to navigate the conversations, while the up/down voting for both questions and answers gives you more control over quality since unfriendly users and questionable answers are sent to the bottom of the page.

This style also helps with resource management as user’s votes aid in moderation.

CM Answers

CM Answers is a free option for those who want users to be able to post questions and answers, leave comments, and upload files in a discussion board format.

As the owner of the site, you have the ability to enable forum administrators (admins) to customize the questions and answers, filter unwanted content, add in answers, and easily keep track of users actions in the forum.

Additionally, this allows for:

• multiple file uploads
• private messages
• the ability to subscribe to categories and certain topics
• notifications when there is new content

And, it supports multiple languages including Russian, German, Spanish, and Czech.

The free version itself may not be a long term solution as you could outgrow its functionality, but that’s okay. The Pro version and additional premium add ons allow you to increase your forum’s functionality to fit your community, and all at a price similar to other comparable WordPress forum plugins.

DW Question and Answer Pro

Busy business owners may find that DW Question and Answer Pro covers all their needs.

With six months of guaranteed support and a license that starts at only $39, the versatility of this WordPress forum plugin may quickly out-value its small price tag.

The detailed user permission controls and filtering options are ideal for eCommerce store owners and other site owners who have less time to invest in managing their forums. You might also like the ability to build a private question and answer section to house internal corporate discussions, or for a specific group of users.

If providing support is your main goal, the live AJAX search makes it easier to find older topics so they don’t get lost and go unanswered.

Beyond those benefits, there are also additional free plugins that allow you to:

• easily add social sharing
• make use of leaderboards
• enable CAPTCHA for spam control

Plus, it supports over 11 languages including English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic.

Let’s note that this does have a free version in the WordPress.org Plugin Repository, but it should likely be avoided as it isn’t being actively maintained and could cause problems.

Hybrid WordPress Forum Plugins

These are designated as hybrids because they allow you to choose between both the up/down voting style and a classic discussion forum setup, all without changing plugins.

They’re a great option for people who know what features they need, but are unsure of which style they want.

WPForo

WPForo is a must-try if design, flexibility, and SEO-friendly settings and structure are high priority.

Not only does this free WordPress forum plugin give you the opportunity to try both discussion and up/down voting styles, it gives you multiple layout options to do it with.

These beautiful and responsive layouts:

• feature three options to choose from based on your desired structure
• can include a forum sidebar with widgets
• offer colored counter indicators that make it easy to see the number of votes, answers, and views for each thread

Concerned it’s just a pretty face? Nope! It also comes with various moderation roles, antispam and Akismet integrations, and extensions and add ons that allow it to easily grow with you.

Speaking of growing, it also has membership potential with built-in integrations for Ultimate Members and BuddyPress.

All of these options do lead to a number of settings, so you will need some patience once you start the configuration process, but that’s an expected trade off for a plugin that lets you do so much.

Sabai Discuss

For only $24, Sabai Discuss has a lot to recommend it. Along with the hybrid functionality, it’s also ideal for building out a knowledge base or helpdesk on your site. If that’s one of your key requirements, this should definitely be on your short list to try.

Another reason to love it is it’s automatic spam moderation. This feature makes it easy to flag questions, answers, and comments while the built-in user reputation system shows the authority of those responding.

This WordPress forum plugin also allows:

• users to create profiles
• for guest users to post and receive answers
• comments to be added to both questions and answers
• you to designate featured questions

With all of that, you also get a flat, fully responsive design, the ability to create search and filter forms from the visual editor, and a developer with good reviews for responsiveness. What’s not to love?

Forym

Forym at only $19 has some interesting features that make it stand out, but do proceed with caution.

Make sure to read the reviews and comments before taking the plunge. The user ratings aren’t as high as others, but depending on what you need it to do, those reviews might be irrelevant.

That said, let’s look at why it is worth considering.

This is a simple, but attractive WordPress forum plugin that offers:

• both a light and dark theme to choose from
• post templates for design options
• a user reputation system to help with the reliability of the answers being given

You can also enable it’s quote and @ comments functions, as well as using the profanity filter to keep your forums running cleanly.

Some quick research should let you know if there are enough positives for you to override any negatives and take the plunge.

Discussion-style WordPress Forums

When we started talking about forums, this is probably the style that came to mind. And while these are patterned after the originals, they sure have come a long way feature-wise since the ones used at the dawn of the internet.

Read on to see what they can do for you!

bbPress

When it comes to WordPress forum plugins, bbPress is the original. Built by contributors to WordPress core and released in 2011, this functional and dependable forum option has stood the test of time.

Users gravitate towards this one because it:

• integrates with any well-built theme
• offers user restrictions
• has post moderation options
• works well with a multisite setup
• provides full Akismet support
• manage your forums directly from your site’s WordPress dashboard

On top of that, shortcodes exist to make it simple to place forum elements in any post and page, and it has an enormous collection of third-party extensions and add ons, as well as integrating seamlessly with BuddyPress, to increase its functionality.

With all that to offer, it’s easy to see why this plugin has been a go-to for so long.

Have questions about how to create a forum on WordPress with bbPress? Green Geeks walks you through step-by-step.

Simple:Press

Speaking of WordPress forum plugins that have been around for a while, Simple:Press has been under active development since 2008.

While the free version is somewhat limited in functionality and you might grow out of it quickly, there are definitely features that make it worth a trial.

Check out its:

• full integrations with WordPress registrations and logins
• optional private forums
• ability to create custom avatars
• free importer from bbPress
• optional sub-forum levels
• gamification possibilities with ranks and badges.

Find you need it to do more? Take a look at the available extensions that let you upgrade as needed. After all, that’s one of the perks of having a free WordPress plugin with a premium upgrade solution!

Asgaros Forum

Asgaros Forum is a free, lightweight, feature-rich WordPress forum plugin that certainly holds its own among the competition.

The minimalist design is both customizable and responsive, and comes with a mobile theme. Other features include:

• a powerful editor
• statistics
• ad management
• reactions within the forums
• the ability to create profiles and member lists while allowing for notifications and feeds

A perk to this WordPress forum option is its ease of install. Simply add and activate the plugin, create a new page (or post), and put the shortcode where you want the forum to be. That’s it! Just like that, you have a forum up and running.

All in all, if you’re looking for a hassle free start to your WordPress forum journey, this a great option regardless of your skill level.

Discussion Board

Discussion Board is another great free option for beginners or busy businesses, like eCommerce stores, who need to be investing their time elsewhere.

With one click, this WordPress forum plugin sets up the three pages every forum needs:

• a login page
• a page with a form for users to post new topics,
• a page to view existing topics.

In no time, you’re up and running with minimal work on your part.

Similar to other free options, this does have a Pro version you can grow into, and at a reasonable price. If you go this route, you’ll be able to set up post statuses (ideal if you’re using your forum for customer support), multiple boards for different topics, and admin approval for new posters.

There are also some optional shortcodes available to help you personalize your forums without the help of a developer.

WordPress Forum Plugin with Membership Functionality

Whether you’re looking to control access or build a robust community — maybe both — then why not pick a plugin that gives you an all-in-one solution.

Want to start simple with just forums? No problem.

This style of plugin allows you to turn on and off the different elements you want to use. When you’re ready to grow, simply turn them back and you’ve got all you need without the hassle of moving to a different WordPress plugin.

WP Symposium Pro

As you would expect from a free plugin with Facebook-like functionality, WP Symposium Pro is rich with social networking options and forums with community features. If you’d like an alternative to the bbPress/BuddyPress combo (which we talk about next), this could be it!

Installation is simple. As the developer says, “Add the plugin, click a button, and you have your own social network, simple as that.” Once done, you’ll be able to go into the plugin’s settings to create the experience you want your users to have.

Ease of installation isn’t the only reason to like this WordPress forum plugin. It also stands out for its:

• customizable pages — layout, text, and style
• use of shortcodes to assist in further changes
• rare ability to connect to YouTube
• option to allow users with profiles to invite friends.

Particularly nice for those who want Facebook-like functionality, this also offers email alerts when a user likes something on a friend’s page or sends them a message. Nice features that help build relationships and engagement, both of which create a robust community.

Now, as we’ve mentioned with most free plugins that have upgrades available, you may find you outgrow the initial functionality. Fortunately, the premium features come at a reasonable price and with reliable support.

Why BuddyPress isn’t a WordPress Forum Plugin

You’ll be hard pressed to find an article about WordPress forum plugins without seeing BuddyPress, a free plugin, included in the list. Unfortunately this is a disservice to WordPress users.

To be clear, it’s not because it’s a poor product. Far from it.

In fact, BuddyPress has been around as long as it has been because it’s really quite good at what it does. The continued active development of add ons alone vouches for its validity.

So, why isn’t it on our list?

Because BuddyPress is not a WordPress forum plugin. In order to have forums, it must be combined with bbPress. This is in fact why each plugin exists.

The reason that BuddyPress gets treated like a forum plugin is because of it’s groups functionality, think Facebook groups. These groups can act like forums, but they don’t have the detailed threading that allows forums to be structured and searchable.

To sum up, if you’re looking for forums, start with bbPress. When you’re ready to add in groups and social networking aspects, combine it seamlessly with BuddyPress.

Want both from the beginning? Download and activate both plugins, and you’re ready to go!

Tips on Using Forums for Support

Forums can be used in so many ways, and we’ve covered a number of them throughout the article. You might want them for:

• product innovation from customer feedback
• content discussions for course creators
• searchable internal communications
• networking and community building among your users

But one of their primary uses now, and since the beginning, has been as a way to offer support for your business or eCommerce store.

If this is you, then definitely take a look at DW Question and Answer Pro. It’s enhanced search functionality and ability to create private forums will have your support team up and running with all the tools they need.

Beyond technology, Michelle’s episode on the WPMRR podcast will help you with the customer side of Customer Support.

Listen as Michelle Frechette, Director of Customer Success at GiveWP, offers her practical tips on dealing with frustrated customers, keeping happy customers happy, and why managing relationships is the key to lowering churn.

Start off on the right foot to get the most out of the support experience, for both you and your users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrapping Up

Whew, we’ve covered a lot! It’s easy to see how overwhelming all of those choices and features could be. Without some help it can be hard to know where to start to find your best fit.

If installing a forum plugin seems a bit daunting to you, let us handle it!

WP Buffs helps WordPress site owners by doing just that. Under our 24/7 unlimited edits services, we’ll add certain plugins and manage compatibility issues, preventing errors where we can so you don’t have to.

If you’re handling it yourself, in true WP Buffs style, we’re still here for you. To begin with:

1. Be realistic about your time commitment.
2. Systematically evaluate what you need your WordPress forum plugin to do.
3. Prepare to try a few before you find the right fit.

And once that’s done, check out our shortlist of WordPress forum plugin suggestions.

Best for support: DW Question and Answer Pro

Best do-it-yourself option: bbPress

Best all-in-one out of the box: WP Symposium Pro

Best hybrid: Sabai Discuss

Before you know it, your WordPress forum will be up and running, bringing value to your business and functionality to your users.

While WordPress does come with some basic built-in support for sending emails, it’s unreliable and you’ll need the help of some email plugins if you want to implement an email marketing strategy and make sure your emails make it to subscribers’ inboxes.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to finding quality email plugins for WordPress. To help make your search easier, we did the work for you and narrowed things down to 11 of the best plugins for emails and newsletters.

Using Marketing and Email Plugins for WordPress

These plugins are built to simplify your communication with your subscribers, leads and customers. You can use them to convert contacts further down the funnel, with content, special offers or tutorials, or simply to keep your active customers in the loop with any updates. Furthermore, you can segment your contacts and nurture them differently — all within WordPress.

Many of these WordPress email plugins are focused on email marketing and newsletters, but we’ll also include some plugins that improve other aspects of WordPress email performance, such as helping you customize your site’s transactional emails and set up custom notification emails.

Ready to dig in? Let’s get right to the top plugins…

11 Best WordPress Email Plugins

1. HubSpot

HubSpot is a flexible CRM and email marketing tool with a dedicated WordPress integration plugin so that you can manage subscribers, create email opt-in forms, and send emails all without leaving your WordPress dashboard.

To get started, you can use the HubSpot plugin to create forms that send subscribers straight into your CRM. Once they’re there, you can segment your subscribers as needed and send emails.

When you create your emails, you’ll be able to design them using a drag-and-drop builder and choose between sending one-off email blasts or creating automation rules to save you time and make your email marketing efforts more effective.

If you’re running an eCommerce store with WooCommerce, HubSpot also has a separate HubSpot for WooCommerce plugin that lets you sync customer and order details, set up eCommerce-focused automation rules (like abandoned cart reminder emails), and more.

Key Features:

• Full CRM to manage your subscribers’ details, track their activity, segment them, and more.
• Pre-built email templates.
• Drag-and-drop email builder to customize your emails.
• Form and popup builder to create optimized email signup forms.
• Set up marketing automation rules to optimize your marketing efforts.
• Integrates with all popular WordPress form plugins.

Pricing: Free. Optional add-ons to access more marketing features.

Best For: Having one tool to handle your CRM, email marketing, marketing automation, and more.

2. Better Notifications for WP

Unlike HubSpot, Better Notifications for WP isn’t focused on marketing. Instead, it gives you the ability to create custom email notifications and customize your site’s core emails without requiring any HTML or CSS knowledge.

By default, WordPress sends a lot of transactional emails for things like new accounts, password resets, update notifications, etc.

Better Notifications for WP gives you full control over all those core emails, as well as the ability to create your own custom notification emails for actions such as when a user publishes or updates a blog post.

For all of the emails, you can enable/disable them, customize their content using a WYSIWYG editor, choose which types of users should receive certain emails, and more.

Key Features:

• Create your own custom WordPress notification emails for various actions.
• Customize or disable the built-in WordPress notification emails.
• Control the content of all your emails without needing to use code.
• Send notification emails to specific users or types of users.

Pricing: Limited free version. Premium version from $129 (or purchase individual add-ons).

Best For: Gaining more control over your WordPress site’s transactional emails and creating your own custom notification emails.

3. MailPoet

MailPoet is a native WordPress email plugin that lets you manage all of your email marketing efforts right from your WordPress dashboard. You can create one or more lists, design forms that feed into those lists, and then send one-off or automated emails using MailPoet’s drag-and-drop email builder.

There are two ways that you can use MailPoet:

1. You can use MailPoet’s built-in email sending service and pay a recurring subscription if you grow beyond the limited free plan. This ensures your emails get safely delivered to your subscribers.
2. You can purchase the standalone MailPoet plugin and hook it up to your preferred email sending service such as SendGrid, Amazon SES, and others. It’s a little more complicated to configure, but you can save some money if you have a large list and/or send a lot of emails.

MailPoet was acquired by Automattic in late 2020, the same company behind WordPress.com and WooCommerce. However, it’s still run as a separate company.

Key Features:

• Native WordPress plugin.
• Manage lists and segmentation from your WordPress dashboard.
• Drag-and-drop builder for emails.
• Send one-off or automated email campaigns.
• Use MailPoet’s sending service or your own sending service.
• Dedicated WooCommerce integration.

Pricing: The core MailPoet plugin is available for free at WordPress.org. If you use the sending service, it’s free for unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers and paid beyond that.

Best For: Creating a fully self-hosted WordPress email marketing setup.

4. Newsletter

True to its name, the Newsletter plugin helps you create and manage a newsletter right from your WordPress dashboard.

You can segment your subscribers into one or more lists and then send them emails using a simple builder. With the premium version, you can also access more advanced features such as an autoresponder, geolocation segmentation, automatically sending a newsletter when you publish a new post and more.

It’s important to note that the free Newsletter plugin doesn’t include its own sending service, so you’ll also need to configure your site to send its emails with some type of dedicated sending service if you want your emails to reliably make it to your subscribers’ inboxes. You can pair Newsletter with the WP Mail SMTP plugin that we’ll feature a bit later in this list or use another plugin like Post SMP Mailer/Email Log. Or, you can upgrade to the premium version to access built-in integrations.

Key Features:

• Unlimited email subscribers and newsletters.
• Subscriber segmentation.
• Visual email builder.
• Automatic emails and simple autoresponders.
• Delivery throttling to avoid performance issues on large lists.
• No built-in sending service – requires an SMTP plugin and a dedicated email sending service.

Pricing: The core Newsletter plugin is available for free at WordPress.org. You can purchase a bundle of all 20+ add-ons starting at $65 for use on up to three websites.

Best For: Creating and managing a simple WordPress newsletter from your dashboard.

5. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a popular email marketing service that offers a dedicated WordPress plugin to help you connect your site to Sendinblue and manage much of your email marketing efforts without leaving your WordPress dashboard.

You can use it to send one-off or automatic emails, segment your subscribers, view analytics, and even manage customer details in a lightweight CRM.

Key Features:

• Dedicated WordPress integration plugin that lets you access most core features from your WordPress dashboard.
• Drag-and-drop email designer, along with lots of pre-built responsive email templates.
• Email analytics and A/B testing.
• Lightweight CRM.
• Use Sendinblue to send WordPress transactional emails in addition to marketing campaigns.
• Marketing automation features.
• WYSIWYG signup form builder.

Pricing: The Sendinblue plugin itself is free, but you’ll need a Sendinblue account to use it. Sendinblue’s free plan lets you send up to 300 emails per day to unlimited contacts. After that, paid plans start at $25 per month.

Best For: Integrating Sendinblue into your WordPress dashboard.

6. MC4WP

MC4WP, short for Mailchimp for WordPress, is a popular plugin that helps you create WordPress opt-in forms that feed into Mailchimp. You can create inline opt-in forms, add an opt-in form to a sidebar widget, and more.

There are also separate add-on plugins at WordPress.org for things like notification bars, Mailchimp list activity, and more. Overall, it just generally gives you a more flexible way to create WordPress opt-in forms for your Mailchimp lists.

It’s important to note that MC4WP doesn’t help you manage subscribers or send emails by itself – you’ll still need to do all that from the Mailchimp dashboard.

Key Features:

• Create opt-in forms that connect to Mailchimp.
• Add a checkbox to your comment or registration forms to let people join your list.
• Visual form customizer.
• Sync WordPress user information to Mailchimp, including syncing changes when someone updates their profile.
• WooCommerce integration to sync eCommerce data to Mailchimp.

Pricing: The core MC4WP plugin and some add-ons are available for free at WordPress.org. There’s also a premium version that starts at $59 for use on a single site. You’ll also need a Mailchimp account, which is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and basic features and then starts at $10 per month for paid plans.

Best For: Connecting your WordPress site to your Mailchimp email lists.

7. Newsletter Glue

Newsletter Glue is a newer option that gives you a simple way to create basic WordPress newsletters. It’s targeted more towards writers and bloggers, rather than businesses or online stores. Think of it kind of like something to let you create a Substack-like experience on your WordPress site.

You can create the content for your emails using the regular WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg). Or, you can just automatically publish a blog post straight to your newsletter, which is great if you want to create your own sort of Substack setup where your blog and newsletter content are identical.

Overall, it’s a good option for bloggers who are looking for a simple, non-technical way to create an email newsletter. However, you shouldn’t expect automation, A/B testing, or similar advanced marketing tactics.

You’ll also need to pair it with your own email sending service, such as Sendy, Mailchimp, MailerLite, etc.

Key Features:

• Create newsletters using the native WordPress block editor.
• Dedicated blocks to improve your newsletter, such as inserting your latest content or displaying an author byline.
• Publish full blog posts straight to your newsletter, much like how Substack works.
• Requires a dedicated email marketing service to actually send the emails and manage your subscribers.

Pricing: The core version is available for free at WordPress.org. You can also purchase a premium version that adds dedicated blocks starting at $76.

Best For: Writers and bloggers who want to create simple newsletters by using the native WordPress block editor.

8. WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is a unique option on this list of WordPress email plugins in that it’s not focused on helping you create emails to send. Instead, it’s focused on helping you improve the reliability of the transactional emails that your site sends. Transactional emails are emails for tasks like password resets, contact form submission notifications, welcome emails, order confirmations, etc.

By default, WordPress sends transactional emails using WP mail, which often results in those emails ending up in users’ spam folders (or just not sending at all). WP Mail SMTP lets you change that behavior by hooking your site up to a dedicated email sending service such as SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.

However, you’ll still need one of these other plugins if you want to send marketing emails – WP Mail SMTP is just for improving the reliability of your site’s transactional emails.

Key Features:

• Replace WP mail with your own dedicated email sending service for transactional emails.
• Dedicated API integrations for SendGrid, Mailgun, Gmail, and more.
• Generic SMTP option to connect to any SMTP server.
• Test email function to make sure your sending service is working.

Pricing: The core plugin is available for free at WordPress.org, which is all most people need.

Best For: Improving the reliability and deliverability of your WordPress site’s transactional emails.

9. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a popular email marketing plugin that helps you attract more subscribers and then add those subscribers to your preferred email marketing service.

It helps you create a variety of different opt-in form types including popups, inline forms, full-screen welcome mats, notification bars, slide-ins, and more. You then get a ton of rules to target those forms to specific content or users, which lets you create personalized email opt-in offers.

It’s important to note that OptinMonster doesn’t help you actually send emails to your subscribers. Instead, it just helps you collect subscribers and funnel them into your email marketing service. For example, you could use OptinMonster to generate leads that go into your HubSpot CRM and then you could email them using HubSpot’s drag-and-drop email builder.

Key Features:

• Dedicated WordPress integration plugin to use OptinMonster on your WordPress site.
• Create a variety of different form types, including popups, inline forms, welcome mats, notification bars, and more. Also includes unique options like a gamified “spin the wheel” opt-in.
• Integrates with most popular email marketing services including HubSpot, AWeber, Mailchimp, and many others.
• Dozens of pre-built templates.
• Visual, drag-and-drop builder to design and customize your forms.
• Detailed targeting and trigger rules to control who sees your opt-in forms and when.
• Built-in analytics and A/B testing to optimize your opt-in forms and list building efforts.

Pricing: Plans from $108 per year, but you need the higher-tier plans to access more advanced features.

Best For: Creating targeted opt-in popups and forms to grow your email lists.

10. Newspack Newsletters

Newspack Newsletters is a new free WordPress email plugin from Automattic, the same team behind WordPress.com and WooCommerce. As part of Automattic’s Newspack initiative, it’s targeted towards news and media organizations, but anyone can use it to create a newsletter on WordPress.

It gives you a simple way to send basic newsletters that you’re able to design via the native WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg). In that respect, it’s similar to the Newsletter Glue plugin. You’ll also get dedicated tools to insert your latest blog posts, advertisements, and more.

However, it doesn’t include a built-in email sending service, so you’ll still need to pair it with an email service provider such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact.

Key Features:

• Built for publishers and media organizations – part of Automattic’s Newspack initiative.
• Use the native WordPress block editor to design your emails.
• Dedicated blocks to insert excerpts from live posts on your site.
• Dedicated blocks to insert ads in your newsletter.
• Send emails via Mailchimp or Constant Contact.

Pricing: Newspack Newsletters itself is free, but you’ll need an email marketing service such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact to actually send the emails and manage your subscribers.

Best For: News organizations and media publishers looking for a simple solution to manage email newsletters.

11. Mailster

Mailster is a native WordPress newsletter plugin that offers everything you need to create a newsletter including list management, a drag-and-drop email builder, built-in analytics, and more.

The only thing you need to add is your own dedicated email sending service – you can use any service because Mailster includes a built-in SMTP configuration feature.

Key Features:

• Native WordPress plugin – all your data is self-hosted.
• Drag-and-drop email builder.
• SMTP integration feature to connect to your preferred email sending service.
• Import an RSS feed to your email.
• Create autoresponders.
• View campaign analytics.

Pricing: You can purchase Mailster for a one-time $69 payment for lifetime updates.

Best For: Creating a fully self-hosted email marketing solution for WordPress.

Try These WordPress Email Plugins Today

All of these WordPress email plugins are quality options – you just need to choose the plugin(s) that best match your needs and budget.

You can also mix-and-match some of these plugins. For example, you can use HubSpot as your site’s CRM and email marketing tool, while still using WP Mail SMTP to improve your site’s transactional emails and Better Notifications for WP to create custom notification emails to help you manage your site.

All of that information falls under the banner of ‘analytics’. WordPress doesn’t include an analytics solution out of the box, which means you’ll need to use a service such as Google Analytics (which happens to be both free and fantastic).

We love free and powerful solutions, so in this article, we’ll show you how to add Google Analytics to WordPress using two approaches. Then we’ll introduce you to five Google Analytics plugins that can make monitoring your numbers much easier. Let’s get to it!

In This Article

• The Benefits of Adding Google Analytics to WordPress (And Using a Dashboard Solution)
• How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress (2 Methods)
• 5 Top Google Analytics WordPress Plugins to Create a Data-Rich Dashboard
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Wrapping Up

Video Tutorial

Our team at WP Buffs helps website owners, agency partners, and freelancer partners set up and monitor Google Analytics, 24/7. Whether you need us to manage 1 website or support 1,000 client sites, we’ve got your back!

The Benefits of Adding Google Analytics to WordPress (And Using a Dashboard Solution)

A WordPress website is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. In order to maximize this tool within your marketing arsenal, you have to keep an eye on what visitors are doing on your site. Then you can begin to formulate a plan for how to make them respond even more positively.

Google Analytics enables you to do just that. This tool can provide you with access to a staggering amount of data, including specifics such as:

• Number of pageviews
• Average session duration
• Bounce rate
• Geographic origin
• Device type
• Traffic source
• Behavior flow
• E-commerce data points
• Custom-created goals

All of that information is invaluable, but in some cases it can be overwhelming. In fact, if you’re using Google Analytics for the first time, it can be hard to find the data you’re interested in. To give you an idea of what you’re in for, here’s a quick look at a Google Analytics dashboard:

That’s just a single tab, and it may already seem hard to navigate. Google Analytics’ User Interface (UI) is great, but there’s a lot of information on every page. That’s why a WordPress Google Analytics dashboard can make your life a lot easier.

By a “Google Analytics WordPress dashboard”, we mean a section of your admin area where you can monitor data without leaving your website:

Along with helping you monitor key numbers, a WordPress Google Analytics dashboard can benefit you in a multitude of ways. Some of the key benefits include:

• It’s easy to implement. Thanks to WordPress Google Analytics plugins, connecting this platform with our favorite Content Management System (CMS) can be a breeze.
• You can be more productive by integrating your analytics into the WordPress dashboard, keeping all of your most vital information in one place.
• Google Analytics plugins are easy to customize and use. You can set them to display the data that matters most, and within the time frames that are most relevant.
• WordPress analytics dashboards are great for clients, as they take the intimidation factor out of Google Analytics.
• By putting analytics within the dashboard, you’ll encourage your clients to log into WordPress regularly, since they’ll know they can get a high-level overview of their statistics right there.
• Real-time insights and long-term analytics are available within the same dashboard panel, making it easier to make smart and timely decisions for the site based on data (rather than on gut instinct).
• You’ll be able to tell if your site is receiving unusual traffic, which could indicate potential security issues.

There’s no reason not to track your website’s numbers, and every reason to do so. All you need is the right solution.

Fortunately, Google Analytics is the most powerful free solution on the market. In the next section, we’ll go over how to install Google Analytics manually and by using plugins, so you can start tracking analytics right away.

Before we move on, though, we should mention that you don’t have to go it alone. Adding Google Analytics to WordPress can be a little tricky, but we can help! We include Google Analytics setup as a part of our services, and can help you with the processes below.

Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools you can use to monitor and track your website. Plus, it’s free and easy to integrate with #WordPress
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How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress (2 Methods)

As usual, WordPress provides you with more than one approach to accomplish a specific goal. When learning how to install Google Analytics on WordPress, there are two routes you can take:

1. Add Google Analytics to WordPress Manually
2. Use a Google Analytics Plugin

Both approaches have their pros and cons, which we’ll explore within their respective sections. Let’s start by going over how to set up Google Analytics on WordPress manually.

1. Add Google Analytics to WordPress Manually

Signing up for a Google Analytics account is simple. All you need in order to use the free service is a Google account and a website. For the purposes of this walkthrough, we’re going to assume that you already have both.

During the signup process, Google will ask for some basic information about your website, including its URL and what it’s about:

Once you make your way past the signup stage, you’ll gain access to your Google Analytics dashboard. Keep in mind that at this point, your site isn’t connected to the service yet. Now Google will ask you what type of property you want to connect:

If you select the Web stream option, Google will ask you once more for your website URL and enable you to select what interactions will be tracked:

After you click on Create Stream, Google Analytics shows you a section called Tagging Instructions. You need to add what is called a ‘tag’ or a code snippet to your website, in order to connect it to the platform:

If you select the Global site tag option, a custom code snippet will appear. Copy and save that snippet, or keep this tab open because you need to add that code to WordPress.

That begs the question – where to add Google Analytics code in WordPress? The Google Analytics global site tag code should go within your website’s header. There are two ways you can add that code manually, which are:

1. Use the Customizer to modify your site’s header.
2. Edit your theme’s code (or a child theme’s, preferably) manually via File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Both approaches are relatively simple, but they require you to be comfortable editing code manually. However, when it comes to adding code to the WordPress header or footer, we almost always recommend that you use a plugin.

2. Use a Google Analytics Plugin

Google Analytics plugins are tools that enable you to connect the platform with your website without needing to dig into its code.

In the past, a lot of Google Analytics plugins required you to enter a unique ID from the third-party site. These days, most plugins simply ask you to grant authorization for them to pull data directly from your Analytics account.

That process works much the same regardless of what plugin you’re using. For example, if you use Site Kit by Google, it will ask you to sign into your Google account and confirm site ownership:

This particular plugin automatically sets up a Search Console account for your website. Once that’s done, you can connect other Google services with a few clicks, including Analytics:

If you select that option, Site Kit will ask you to confirm which Google Analytics account you want to use. Then it will ask for permission to access your analytics data:

Once you allow the plugin all the permissions it needs to function, it will start pulling data from Google Analytics. However, keep in mind that if you just started using the service, it may take a while until it starts showing you concrete numbers:

As you can see, using a Google Analytics plugin can be much simpler than adding the platform’s tracking code manually. However, we’ve just shown you one plugin so far. In the next section, we’ll expand that selection.

5 Top Google Analytics WordPress Plugins to Create a Data-Rich Dashboard

Now that you know how to use Google Analytics on WordPress, let’s talk about the tools you can leverage. There are a lot of WordPress Google Analytics plugins to choose from. For this roundup, we’ll focus on tools that enable you to connect the platform to your website and display some of its metrics within your dashboard.

As we mentioned earlier, most Google Analytics plugins let you connect the analytics tool with your website without you needing to input any data. However, some extensions may still ask you for your Google Analytics ID. If that happens, you can refer to this guide on how to find that ID.

Below, we’ll take a look at five of the best Google Analytics WordPress plugins to consider:

1. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
2. Google Analytics WD
3. Site Kit by Google
4. Google Analytics Dashboard by Analytify
5. Beehive Analytics

1. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights

Among the most-highly trusted WordPress plugins for Google Analytics is the one available from MonsterInsights*. Since this is a freemium plugin, you can expect that there will be more data available as you pay to play. However, the free version of this plugin is also quite powerful.

Here are some of the highlights:

• The interface of the plugin is beautiful, and features some subtle animations to keep your clients engaged with their data.
• Rather than just focusing on numbers, the MonsterInsights plugin shows data that’s especially helpful for clients that produce a lot of content. Specifically, they’ll be able to see the number of pageviews, the top URLs, and a list of referral websites.
• The premium version of the plugin provides additional insights. Among other things, you can see what’s going on with your AMP content, AdSense ads, e-commerce products, and Facebook Instant Articles.

With this MonsterInsights plugin, you’ll be able to access a dedicated Google Analytics dashboard from within the WordPress admin area:

However, some parts of that dashboard aren’t available if you’re using the free version of the plugin. This is one of the many reasons we recommend investing in a premium license. 

Buy MonsterInsights for $100-$400/yr*

2. Google Analytics WD

The Google Analytics plugin from 10Web is definitely one of the best Google Analytics WordPress plugins around. If you want access to comprehensive analytics and more control over how the data is displayed from within WordPress, this is a solid tool to consider using.

Here is what you need to know about this plugin:

• The premium plugin provides access to reports from within WordPress, as well as more customization of those reports (especially for e-commerce goal tracking).
• You can see a high-level overview of your analytics from the main WordPress dashboard widgets, or you can use the new Analytics tab to drill down deeper.
• Analytics can be displayed using one or two variables, depending on what you’re trying to track.
• You can also experiment with the type of data visualization through the use of line charts, standard column charts, or even pie charts.

Here is how the data is displayed from within the main WordPress dashboard widget:

And here is the expanded view and customization capabilities from within the Analytics tab:

If you need an analytics tool for your own websites, this plugin is a terrific choice. However, for clients, you can expect there to be a learning curve if they’re new to analytics tools. In that case, you may find that one of the simpler plugin solutions will be more suitable for them.

Buy 10Web for $85-$150/yr

3. Site Kit by Google

We’ve already given you a taste of how this plugin from Google works. To sum it up, Site Kit from Google is an official plugin that provides you with a simple way to connect multiple Google services with your WordPress website.

Those services include:

• Google Analytics
• Search Console
• AdSense
• PageSpeed Insights
• Tag Manager
• Optimize

If you’re the kind of person who likes using Google services, this plugin can be a one-stop solution for integrating almost all of the options that you might need. Moreover, each platform that you integrate gets its own dashboard where you can monitor its data:

Connecting most services using this plugin is as easy as selecting which Google account to use and granting it the corresponding permissions. However, if you don’t want to integrate any other Google services beyond Analytics, there’s little reason for you to use this swiss-army knife of a plugin.

Download Site Kit for free

4. Google Analytics Dashboard by Analytify

The Google Analytics Dashboard plugin by Analytify does precisely what its name implies. With this plugin, you can add Google Analytics to WordPress with a few clicks, and get access to a dashboard within your admin panel.

Here are some of the many features that the plugin offers, as well as some of the data sets it can show you:

• Enhanced e-commerce tracking with support for WooCommerce
• Built-in traffic numbers for all your WordPress posts and pages
• Top countries and cities by visitors
• Page bounce rates
• Statistics by device type
• Which websites are sending you the most visitors

All of that data is available both in the form of graphs and simple numerical breakdowns:

If you value a user-friendly analytics dashboard, this plugin is one of our top recommendations. Its free version also offers a wealth of information, and it’s a great option for both personal and client websites.

Keep in mind that there’s also a premium version which provides you with access to much more data within the dashboard. That includes real-time numbers, analytics campaigns, goals, and much more.

Download Google Analytics by Analytify for free

5. Beehive Analytics

Beehive Analytics is part of the WPMU DEV family of plugins. It’s a free plugin that enables you to connect your Analytics account with WordPress, and display its data within your dashboard.

This Google Analytics tool includes options to protect your visitors’ privacy, such as IP anonymization. Beehive Analytics also enables you to decide which user roles have access to which data within the dashboard.

Using Beehive Analytics, you get access to the following information from a custom dashboard:

• Number of sessions and users
• Number of page views
• Average time on page
• Bounce rate statistics
• Top countries and most visited pages
• User trends
• Referral websites and search engine reports

If you want a powerful Google Analytics dashboard that gives you insight into all the most important metrics you should be monitoring, Beehive Analytics is a solid choice:

Since we’re talking about a free plugin, there are no hidden premium features to speak of. Although Beehive Analytics is a robust solution, it’s also missing some more advanced functionality, such as e-commerce tracking and goals reporting. However, if you only want access to core metrics, we recommend giving this plugin a try.

Download Beehive Analytics for free

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Wrapping Up

Using an analytics tool for your website is not negotiable. Without a service such as Google Analytics, you’re essentially flying blind. You may know how much traffic you’re getting, but you’ll miss out on a wealth of information about your visitors’ behavior, where they come from, and how well your SEO efforts are working

Learning how to add Google Analytics to WordPress is easier than you might imagine. You can do so manually or using a plugin. As is often the case, the latter is the better approach. As for what plugins to use, there are plenty of top options, including Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights and Site Kit by Google.

If you want help setting up Google Analytics for your website, we have your back. A WP Buffs, we can help you find the Google Analytics solution that works best for your needs and integrate it with your WordPress website. With our premium maintenance services, you’ll always have access to the critical metrics that you want to monitor.

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Image credit: Unsplash.