Become a faster and more efficient WordPress developer by integrating these powerful plugins into your workflow.

Our curated list includes WordPress plugins for developers that add code quality checkers, general utilities, migration functionalities, advanced user role management, handling of technical features like cron tasks, email logging, and more.

Plugin Check

Our list starts with Plugin Check, a specialized tool that helps developers quickly find coding errors and adhere to the WordPress.org standard.

More in detail, with this plugin, you can run the code checks from a dedicated menu or WP-CLI to identify the following categories of problems:

  • General – Errors of any type not covered by other categories.
  • Plugin Repo – Presence of readme.txt and proper use of its fields to declare license, tags, etc.
  • Security – Proper application of escaping and data sanitization techniques.
  • Performance – Correct use of features that affect the WordPress performance.
  • Accessibility – Implementation of accessibility features.

As WordPress developers, here is how we typically use the plugin:

  1. We keep the plugin always active in the WordPress install where we develop plugins.
  2. When needed, we run code checks from the dedicated plugin menu and then apply the necessary changes highlighted in the generated report.
  3. We check again our plugins with this tool before publishing any public release.

Note: This plugin is essential if your company publishes plugins on the WordPress.org plugin repository. Verifying a plugin with this tool greatly speeds up the review process.

Theme Check

Use Theme Check to quickly test your WordPress theme and verify if it’s up to date with the theme review standards of WordPress.org for theme submission.

Theme Check has functionalities and a UI similar to those of the Plugin Check plugin. This plugin runs the same automated tests that WordPress.org uses when themes are submitted.

To use the plugin, visit the dedicated Theme Check menu, select the theme that you want to check, and run the task. With this plugin, the reported problems are categorized as: Warning, Required, Recommended, and Info.

User Switching

Easily test newly developed functionalities that are available only to specific users with the User Switching plugin. This plugin provides a quick way to switch between users using a switch button added in the users menu.

Things you can do with the plugin:

  • Switch to a specific user simply by clicking a link in the standard users menu of WordPress.
  • Switch back to the originating account after a user account change.
  • Switch back to the originating account after a log-out operation.

User Role Editor

With the User Role Editor plugin, you don’t switch roles. Instead, you can customize them.

With this plugin, you can:

  • Create and delete user roles
  • Create and delete user capabilities
  • Grant standard or custom capabilities to existing roles
  • Create new WordPress user roles

This plugin allows developers to create and edit user roles, allowing you to test particular environments, membership functionalities, and more.

Note that using this plugin is a quick and code-free alternative to using programmatic functions like add_role() and add_cap().

Query Monitor

The Query Monitor plugin provides database query information (as the name implies) and general information about all things that happen under the hood in WordPress.

The plugin adds a panel in a fixed position on the page. You can activate this panel in both the back-end and front-end of the site based on your specific needs by clicking the links added by the plugin to your WordPress toolbar.

The tools are divided into tabs; each tab provides its dedicated information. Here is an overview of the functionalities of the tabs:

  • Overview – This screen gives general statistics on the page that is currently loaded.
  • Database Queries – Here, the plugin lists database query information and optionally categorizes it by caller or component.
  • Timings – Performance reports that can be activated using specific code snippets described in these instructions.
  • Logs – Menu used to display profiling information. Note that these data becomes available only if the developer activate them by adding a dedicated code snippet in the code that should be tested.
  • Request – This view lists general information about the HTTP requests that were performed. Like the request URL, the HTTP method, HTTP headers, and more.
  • Template – This screen lists general template information, theme information, template hierarchy data, and more.
  • Scripts – This menu shows all the enqueue scripts.
  • Styles – This other similar menu shows all the enqueued styles.
  • Hooks & Actions – Here, the plugin lists hooks used on the page, the triggered actions, and the components (WordPress Core, Plugins, etc.) responsible for adding these actions.
  • Languages – This report lists translation files loaded on the page along with their caller functions.
  • HTTP API Calls – Here, the plugin lists HTTP API calls. In this tab, we can see, for example, how WordPress gets updated information in contexts like plugins and theme version checks.
  • Transient Updates – This tab lists the transients used in the page.
  • Capability Checks – Here, the plugin verifies all capabilities and displays the results in a table.
  • Environment – List of environment variables with their values. Variables includes data from PHP, WordPress variables, database information, and server information.
  • Conditionals – Here, the plugin displays a truth table for WordPress conditionals.

WP Crontrol

With WP Crontrol, you can easily execute or delete cron tasks added by plugins, themes, or the WordPress core.

With this plugin, you will be able to:

  • List cron events from a dedicated menu. You will have the ability to edit, run, or pause specific events.
  • Monitor and create cron schedules.

This handy plugin allows you to quickly reproduce issues with plugins, monitor cron events in live websites, and, more in general, gain control of an aspect that would be otherwise hidden.

Code Snippets

Want to quickly solve a problem without building dedicated plugins? Then, Code Snippets might be your solution. This plugin allows you to run custom code snippets only where necessary.

Catch ID

The Catch IDs plugin quickly finds and displays the internal IDs of posts, pages, media, categories, users, and comments. The ID of each element is displayed in a new ID column added to the standard administrative pages of WordPress. With this plugin activated, you do not need to manually retrieve these IDs by destructuring URLs used in the WordPress administration pages.

All-in-One WP Migration and Backup

All-in-One WP Migration and Backup, with 5 million downloads, is the most popular migration plugin for WordPress. It offers numerous import and export options and integration with cloud services. Do you want to export your site content? Then, you will be offered dozens of options, including the type of exported files, and you can save the export locally or in the cloud with services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and more.

The plugin also offers backup functionalities to quickly restore a WordPress website to a certain point in time. Another use-case for this plugin is to easily move your site from staging to development with the migration services included in this popular plugin.

WP Mail Logging

Easily log all the email activities that occur on your WordPress site with WP Mail Logging. Email data are logged in a dedicated menu that includes timestamp, receiver, subject, and optional error data. Use this plugin, for example, to test the email functionalities of your newly developed plugin.

Note that this plugin can optionally be combined with WP Mail SMTP (maintained by the same company) to improve email deliverability using third party email services.

reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced

reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced is one of the many plugins that help WordPress administrators with the task of regenerating thumbnails. It comes with many options in terms of desired thumbnail sizes and quality of the generated JPEG. The regeneration can be performed in the media menu for single thumbnail regenerations and in a dedicated plugin menu for bulk operations.

FakerPress

With FakerPress, WordPress developers can quickly create dummy content and properly test complex plugins and theme functionalities.

With this plugin, you can:

  • Delete dummy data in bulk
  • Generate posts of any post type by defining the content length, the tags, and more.
  • Generate comments.
  • Generate categories, tags, and custom terms.
  • Generate users.

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

With ACF, you can easily manage custom meta fields and custom taxonomies using a dedicated UI. Thus avoiding the pain of programmatically configuring these aspects.

ACF is perfect for extending theme functionalities quickly. You first think about the data pieces needed in your theme and then map these data with custom fields. To conclude, you use functions like get_field() to retrieve and manipulate the values and the_field() to display them. This enables you to display custom content in your theme files. ACF also supports conditional logic, allowing you to show or hide fields based on user input or other conditions.

WP Reset

Reset the site database with a single click using WP Reset.

This plugin includes several site reset methods that are all accessible under the plugin WP Reset menu. Specifically, you will find:

  • Options Reset – A reset for options tables.
  • Site Reset – A standard site reset.
  • Nuclear Site Reset – A complete reset task that will only leave your user account and basic WP settings.
  • Reset Theme Options
  • Reset User Roles
  • Delete Transients
  • Purge Cache
  • Delete Local Data
  • Delete Content

Another plugin feature is the ability to create snapshots of the site. Snapshot allows you to restore the site to specific moments.

Additional Developer Plugins

In this section, we quickly cover additional WordPress plugins that are sometimes worth using as tools for developers.

Yoast Duplicate Post

Use Yoast Duplicate Posts to quickly duplicate your posts for testing purposes.

Advanced Database Cleaner

Advanced Database Cleaner is a specialized plugin that removes unnecessary database records that can slow down your WordPress site.

Force Regenerate Thumbnails

The Force Regenerate Thumbnails plugin is another regenerate thumbnail plugin that is useful for regenerating thumbnails and saving your hosting space.

Post Types Order

Easy reorder your content based on your specific needs with Post Types Order. You can achieve this with the plugin’s drag-and-drop functionalities added by the plugin in the back end.

Custom Post Type UI

The Custom Post Type UI plugin provides an interface for registering custom post types. This plugin can be considered a simpler alternative to ACF.

Members

Customize user roles and capabilities based on your specific needs with the Members plugin.

Debug Bar

The Debug Bar plugin adds a debug menu to the admin bar. This bar includes query, cache, and other helpful debugging information. This plugin is similar to Query Monitor but with limited functionalities.