Extensions to make WordPress do anything

David18 appsUpdated Feb 8, 2017

WordPress was built for blogging but also designed to be extensible through plugins and themes. Developers have taken that extensible core and run with it, creating extensions that turn WordPress into a full-featured shopping site, social network, online directory and so much more. Here are some of the most notable, popular and powerful ones.

BuddyPress
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Social networking in a box. Build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community all based on the power and flexibility of WordPress. Install BuddyPress directly through your WordPress dashboard plugins page, or download it manually from the WordPress.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Social Network
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
Have an idea for a new social network? Add BuddyPress on top of WordPress and you'll get a full-featured social network totally free. Build the network the way you want with this highly configurable plugin.
AnsPress
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AnsPress is a sophisticated Q&A solution for WordPress that offers a wide range of features spanning use cases from support to issue tracking and forums, and of course, questions and answers. The core plugin and many extensions are free and open-source, with a few enhanced...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Q&A Service
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
Create your own Q&A site through WordPress, just like Quora or Stackoverflow. AnsPress is a seriously high-powered solution that looks great, offers much more than just typical Q&A features and best of all, is free and open-source.
WP-Invoice
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WP-Invoice provides a powerful invoicing solution that works directly from your WordPress admin area. You simply create an invoice from your admin section and an email with a brief invoice description and a unique link is sent to your client.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+1
David’s note
Got clients and need to accept payments from them? WP-Invoice integrates with your WordPress site to let you do it all from there. Just create an invoice and your client gets an email with a link to view and pay it.
WP-CRM
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WP-CRM is a full-featured, customer relations management system seamlessly integrated into your WordPress site. Your customer and prospect information is stored in the WordPress user database, giving you the ability of utilizing the vast pool of WordPress plugins to collect and...
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application type
CRM System
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+2
David’s note
If you've got a WordPress user base you need to keep track of, why not use WordPress to do it? WP-CRM is an extensible customer relationship management solution built to work with your existing user database.
WPJobBoard
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WPJobBoard provides a robust job board solution for WordPress that easily integrates with any standard WP theme. It's highly configurable, with beautiful resumes for job seekers, custom user fields and accompanying drag-and-drop form builder for them, as well as multiple...
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+1
David’s note
Run a job board on your WP site! WPJobBoard is an encompassing solution that integrates with any standard theme and provides great looking resumes and listings. All those built-in features make it worth the premium cost.
bbPress
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bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress. Its focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. bbPress will try to keep things as small and light as possible while still allowing great add-on feature possibilities.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Forum Software
Platforms
Online
David’s note
Maybe you'd like to start up a forum for a community you have in mind? With a long history dating back to the earliest days of WordPress, bbPress stands as a great choice. It's extremely powerful and totally free.
WooCommerce
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Open-source ecommerce platform supporting physical and digital sales, customizable storefronts, booking and subscription features, and wide extension compatibility.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application typeApplication types
E-commerce System
Online Store Builder
Platforms
Android
iPhone
Android Tablet
iPad
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+8
David’s note
Got something to sell on the net? WooCommerce has you covered with power and ease of use that have earned it a prime spot in the heart of the WordPress community.
WooCommerce Memberships
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WooCommerce Memberships is an extension for WooCommerce that allows you to restrict your content so that it’s only accessible to members on your site. Customers can get access to a membership by purchasing a product, or you can choose to only create memberships by manually...
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+3
David’s note
This full featured membership solution lets you sell access to your content through memberships. Its main strength is integration with the popular WooCommerce plugin to provide a more comfortable experience for the many people relying on that powerhouse solution.
Pay Per View
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Pay Per View by WPMU DEV provides a simple pay-per-view system for charging users a one-time payment or subscription service to access some, or all of your WordPress content.
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
Your content is valuable and maybe you're looking to charge for access but don't want a bulky membership solution. Pay Per View is simple and fast and integrates with PayPal to let you charge a one-time fee or a subscription for users to view key content.
Booking Calendar
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Booking Calendar plugin enables online booking services for your WordPress site. It's highly supported and happens to be the oldest booking WordPress plugin, featuring an intuitive interface and flexibility to cover a broad range of booking services.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+6
David’s note
Accept appointments from clients or run a full fledged hotel booking system right through WordPress. Booking Calendar offers a powerful solution with tons of advanced features available at a premium.
WPL Real Estate
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Run your real estate website using WPL. WPL has lot's of features and addons for real estate agents and real estate agencies. WPL (WordPress Property Listing) is a flexible plugin for real estate and vertical markets.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+3
David’s note
Run your real estate empire through WordPress with the powerful and hugely extensible WPL and commercial version, Realtyna WPL Pro. The free version gets you started and helps you decide if you need the premium features.
WordPress Chat
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Real-time chat for WordPress, host community live chat sessions and around-the-clock public messaging.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
WordPress Chat makes it possible to run your own chat rooms through WordPress. It's a self-hosted solution so no monthly fees are required apart from the server used to host your WordPress.
Gravity Forms
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WordPress plugin with a visual editor for building advanced forms, secure data collection, file uploads, payment handling, workflow automation, and conditional logic.
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Application type
Form Builder
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+6
David’s note
Gravity Forms is more than just an intuitive form builder. The higher premium version adds powerful features like MailChimp and Aweber integration to add users to campaign lists, and PayPal integration to let you charge users for things like registering an account on your site and for having the ability to create posts. It really is an encompassing solution that lets you do tons of fascinating things through WordPress.
Pods Framework
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Pods provides a robust framework for adding and managing custom fields and custom content types in WordPress. The Pods plugin offers a solid UI for management of types and related content within the WordPress admin while providing a powerful PHP framework to easily extend its...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+3
David’s note
Pods is an impressive extension of WordPress as a CMS, it provides an easy way to manage custom fields and content types through an easy to use back-end UI, and a framework for developers to easily extend that functionality. With that type of content power, you can build comprehensive directories, coupon sites, even alternative app lists!
WP Mailster
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WP Mailster enables you to run a listserv-like email discussion list on your WordPress site. This enables true two-way communication through email.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+1
David’s note
Run a discussion group through WordPress similar to listserv. It will let your users communicate directly through email notifications, no need for them to login at your site.
Photography Management
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Photography Management is a WordPress Photography plugin specially tailored to the needs of professional photographers. Create client profiles, upload images and present them in a beautiful and secure way.
Cost / License
Freemium
Proprietary
Application type
Client Portal
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
A boon for photographers using WordPress, Photography Management provides a simple, integrated solution for client galleries and proofing. Provide clients with a gallery link and they can easily download and favorite the images they love, and you'll get a downloadable list of those favorites to get them printed.
Pro Sites
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Create a premium network in WordPress, just like WordPress.com and Edublogs.org. WordPress already lets you run a network of sites within it, using the Multi-site feature. Pro Sites runs on top of that and lets you charge users for having a site on your network.
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
+2
David’s note
A little known fact, WordPress lets you run a network of sites just like at WordPress.com. Simply enable the option and users can create a site on your WordPress network. Pro Sites lets you charge them for that site!
Domain Mapping
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Give sites on your network a custom URL or offer domain resale and mapping as a premium service and make more money with Domain Mapping for Multisite.
Cost / License
Paid
Proprietary
Platforms
Self-Hosted
Wordpress
David’s note
As of version 4.5, WordPress Multi-site lets users map a domain name to their site on the network. Domain Mapping takes that a step further when used with Pro Sites, letting you charge users for that feature.