Frequently received private messages from my friends asking me about which plugins I use for WordPress, what applications I use for web design, where to look for web design inspiration, which hosting should I use, etc.

Therefore, I wrote this article, and hope it can help any agency owner looking for the right tool to use.

Some of them offer lifetime deals, which is cost saving for agency owners.

WordPress

Theme

• Blocksy - The best feature rich & lightweight WordPress theme, best with WooCommerce.
• GeneratePress - The most lightweight WordPress theme.
• Kadence - Feature rich & lightweight WordPress theme.

Block Editor

• Kadence Block - Feature rich & lightweight block editor.
• GenerateBlock - Awesome & super lightweight block editor.
• Post X - Lightweight block editor for news portal.
• Product X - Lightweight block editor for WooCommerce.

SEO

• SEOPress - Powerful rich SEO plugin with affordable price.

Form Builder

• FluentForm - One of the best WordPress form builder.

Security

• Malcare + Blogvault - The best combo of security, backup and management.
• NinjaFirewall - Lightweight security plugin, best it compliant with GDPR.
• BBQ Pro - Lightweight 6G/7G firewall plugin.
• Blackhole Pro - Block bad bots and traps them into a black hole.
• WP Armour Extended - Honeypot Anti Spam plugin.

Speed Optimization

• FlyingPress - The best WordPress speed optimisation plugin. Is faster than LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
• Swift Performance Pro - One of the best speed optimisation plugin with very affordable price.
• Perfmatters - The best WordPress performance, assets clean up plugin.
• Shortpixel - The best image optimiser plugin.
• EWWW - Image optimiser with Java Scripts & CSS Optimiser & CDN.
• Advanced Database Cleaner - The best database optimiser.
• Disable WooCommerce Bloat - Optimise WooCommerce by Disable unnecessary WooCommerce features.

Multilingual

• WPML - Feature rich multilingual plugin. But working with Oxygen builder is pain in the ass.

Page Builder

• Elementor - Number 1 page builder that power over 10 millions of website.
• Crocoblock - One of the best Elementor add-ons.
• Pionet Addons - One of the best Elementor add-ons & is very affordable.
• Happy Addons - Unique Elementor Addo-ons.
• Oxygen Builder - Lightweight page builder.
• OxyExtra - Expend Oxygen components.
• OxyNinja - CSS Framework for Oxygen.
• OxyWind- Tailwind CSS integration for Oxygen Builder.
• Dezign4fun - Design Sets for Oxygen Builder.
• Bricks -Lightweight page builder.

Utilities

• WPCodeBox - Build and manage your WordPress Code Snippets library in the cloud.
• Metabox - Custom post type with custom fields plugin.
• Advanced Custom Fields - Custom fields plugin.
• FilterWP - Filters, facets or grids plugin.
• WP Sheet Editor - Super handy for bulk editing posts, products & users.
• SmartQuiz Builder - Powerful quiz & survey Plugin.
• WP All Import / Export - The best import / export plugin.
• HappyFile - WordPress media files & post types organizer.
• Stream - Activity log to records WordPress user and system action.
• Better Search Replace - Search & replace on database.
• Debug Bar - Official debug tool from WordPress.org.
• Query Monitor - For debugging.
• Mainwp - WordPress Management.
• Temporary Login Without Password - Temporary access.
• Disable Gutenberg - Disable Gutenberg editor & disable block widgets.

Code Snippets / Misc

• Isitwp.com
• Generatewp.com
• 100 wordpress code snippets
• wpcodesnippet.com
• wpcustoms.net
• billerickson.net
• wp-skills.com
• wp-cli.org

Learn WordPress

• WPTavern - WordPress news.
• WP Builds - WordPress news.
• Kinsta's blog - Learn how to solve WordPress issue.
• WPDevDesign - Awesome Oxygen tutorials by WordPress guru Sridhar Katakam.
• WP Speed Matters - Speed optimizations tips by Performance guru Gijo Varghese.
• Pagepipe - Speed guru.
• WPJohnny - Speed guru.
• WP Simple Hacks - WordPress tips & tutorials.
• Digital Ambition - Learn Oxygen.
• SERT Media - WordPress tutorials.
• ManagingWP - WordPress management tips & tutorials.
• WPCasts - WordPress tutorials.

Social Media

• Dynamic WordPress - Learn WordPress.
• WordPress 马来西亚中文群组 - WordPress sharing.

Web Hosting

You paid what you get, never go for low cost cheap hosting.

• Exabytes -  SEA largest web hosting provider.
• ServerFreak - Malaysia web hosting with awesome support.
• Rocket Net - WordPress web hosting powered by CloudFlare Enterprise.
• Cloudways - Managed cloud hosting platform with high affiliate programs.

Cloud server

• Upcloud - Fast cloud server with FREE USD25 credit.
• Linode - Fast & solid cloud server with FREE USD100 credit.
• Vultr - Fast cloud server with FREE USD100 credit.
• HostHatch - Very affordable cloud server with AMD & fast NVMe SSD.

Control Panel

• RunCloud - Features rich & affordable control panel for cloud servers.
• Gridpane - WordPress focus control panel for cloud servers.
• Cloudpages - LiteSpeed focus control panel for cloud servers.

CDN

• BunnyCDN - One of the fastest CDN with affordable price.
• Cloudflare APO - Supercharge WordPress with Cloudflare CDN.
• NitroPack - Automatics speed optimisation platform.

Email

• Google WorkSpace -  Google business toolkit.
  10% off promotion code for Business Starter Plan: KC44RFUTN3R76VG
  10% off promotion code for Business Standard Plan - K6PUD9VJCT4CH99
• MXroute - Very affordable email solutions.

Email Delivery

• Postmark - Excellent email delivery service.
• Mailgun - Email delivery service.
• SendGrid - Email delivery service.

Emailer Marketing

• Sendinblue - All in one digital marketing tool.
• MailerLite - Advanced email marketing tool.

SEO

• Google Search Console - Track website's search performance.
• Rich Results Test - Structured data test.
• SEranking - All-in-one SEO software.
• Screaming Frog - Best website crawler.
• Labrika - Site Audit tool. Useful for website revamp.
• GetKeyWords - Keywords research.

Learn SEO

• Ahrefs's Youtube - Learn SEO.
• Gotch SEO - Learn SEO.
• Google Search Central - SEO guide from Google.
• Brian Dean - Learn SEO.
• Authority Hacker - Learn SEO.

Web Design

Learn Web Design

• Rafal Tomal - UI/UX design consultant.
• Flux Academy - Learn UI/UX.
• DesignCourse - Learn UI/UX.
• Chris Do - Branding consultant.
• Explosure Ninja - Digital marketing.
• CodePen - Front end web developer community.

Inspiration

• Dribbble - Community of designer.
• Awwwards - Website for inspiration.
• Lapa Ninja - Landing Page Design Inspiration.
• SaaS Landing Page - Landing Page Design Inspiration.

Typographic

• Font Pair - Good library of font pairs.
• Utopia - Fluid responsive typography and spacing.
• webSemantics - Responsive font-size calculator.

Colour

• Huemint - Super cool colour palette generator.
• PALX - Colour palette generator.
• Coolors - Awesome library for colour schemes.
• Scheme Color - Awesome library for colour schemes.
• Colormind - Colour scheme generator.
• Colorspace - Colour scheme generator.
• Gradient Hunt - Awesome library for gradient.

Gradient

• Gradienta - Very cool gradient library.
• CSS Gradient - CSS Gradient tool.
• Gradient Mesh - CSS Gradient Mesh.

Library

• Streamline - Icon, illustration library.
• Flaticon - Icon library.
• Envato Elements - Creative assets library.

Speed Performance

• Page Speed Insights -  Speed test by Google.
• GTMetrix - Page speed performance analyser.
• WebPageTest - Page speed performance analyser with multiple locations and devices.
• Transfonter - Google font optimiser.

Applications

• Local WP -  WordPress local testing and development.
• CloudApp - Best screen recording.
• Userback - Best visual feedback tool.
• Koofr - Cloud storage, free 10 GB!
• Oviond - Digital Marketing Reporting.
• VirusDie - Security solutions for CMS.
• OFFEO - Online marketing video editor.
• Eagle - Best media management tool.
• Octopus - Sitemap planning.
• Quickbooks - Accounting.
• DoneDone - Project Management.
• Plutio - Client Management.
• Hoverify - Chrome extension for web development.
• tabExtend - Bookmark manager.
• Optimage - Advanced image optimisation tool.
• DMARC Report - Advanced email security.
• Affinity Suite - Creative software.
• Visual Studio Code - Code editor.
• ProWritingAid - Writing assistant. Alternative to Grammarly.

Market Place

• ThemeForest - Largest WordPress theme marketplace
• AppSumo - Lifetime deal marketplace.
• StackSocial - SAAS deal marketplace, USD10 discount.