Open Source WordPress Plugins are functions that you can edit and distribute without any liability for any purpose.
WordPress functions under the GNU GPL, indicating WordPress or any derivative work falls under open source. You can modify, edit and distribute.
The founders of the GNU operating system believed in making software accessible to developers and the freedom to make it better.
For using open source software, the user can do the following:
- Run the program,
- Change the program’s source code form,
- Redistribute exact copies, and
- Modify and distribute the version
The above principles are applicable to WordPress plugins as well.
Also, one thing to note is not every WordPress plugin is open source. Some developers prefer to split the derivative. The CSS code may not be derived from WordPress, where PHP does. Therefore, you can only modify the PHP code and not the CSS.
As you have understood some technicalities of using open-source WordPress plugins, now let’s dig straight into the open-source plugins.
Best Open Source WordPress plugins
WP Fancy Message Box allows you to set up a message box in your blog or templates.
You can use shortcodes [wpfmb][/wpfmb] to create beautiful and fancy message boxes.
On top of it, if you have a knowledge of CSS, you can easily create your own box style with custom messages.
ezRedirect plugin from WordPress allows you to reorganize web pages. In addition to that, you can switch from an older URL structure to a new URL.
To do so, just go to admin settings and choose your current URL and the URL it redirects to. You can insert internal links and if you are an affiliate brand, you can insert external links as well.
Easy Testimonials is an open-source WordPress plugin that allows you to add testimonials to your web page and posts. You can also add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget.
One thing to note is, WordPress does provide this functionality, however you would need to spend a decent amount on it. Whereas, you can use this plugin for free.
When you launch a new website, there is a high requirement for frequent postings and content updates. Bulk Creator helps you add new posts, pages, custom posts, etc without using WordPress admin links. This fastens the process and makes it hassle-free.
If you are a WordPress user and Bitbucket user, then you have good news!
You can now add your Bitbucket project to the WordPress site and showcase it to your users.
Using this plugin you can include the project code or activity feed from Bitbucket easily.
WP ultimate recipe plugin allows you to add recipes to your blogs.
Not only that, you can even create tags for various categories like ingredients, utensils, and many other tags. If you like, you can create custom tags and pin it the way to like.
A lot of freedom from this single plugin, right?
This can also include photos and Microdata formatting to aid with SEO in Google.
If you have a Pinterest audience, you can use the ‘pin it’ function to your site. This allows you to pin recipes to your Pinterest page with customized images, metadata, and description.
Microblog poster is an amazing plugin that you can use to disseminate content on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Using the Microblog poster plugin, you can insert RSS feeds that automatically publish news/content on your WordPress.
The microblog plugin also gives you an added advantage to shorten link URLs.
Easy Image Gallery is one of the best open-source WordPress plugins. It gives you the freedom to create an image gallery on your WordPress post or any web page.
You can easily set the image positions and designs by the drag and drop option available from the plugin.
If you might have noticed, whenever you read a blog post or consume any content on websites, you can share it to your social handles in one click.
This is what the Simple Socnets plugin does. You can add social media icons like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc to your web content. This increases shareability and builds your social presence too.
Please note, by default the plugin will be active on all your posts, however, you can disable it wherever you want to.
Recent comment with Avatars allows you to add customized comment sections to your WordPress blogs and posts.
You can display the comment or quote up to 50 characters and also restyle the whole comment section.
If you like to, maintain your blog aesthetics, then you might probably know about the plugin already.
Using the AwesomePress plugin, you can add creative icon fonts to your blogs and posts.
You can include icons for listings, numbers, features and sidebar menus. This best open-source WordPress plugin imports the icons from an open-source icon directory called Font Awesome.
