If you’re looking for the next blogging tool to add to your collection, then you’ll LOVE this list.
I have tested and used over X free and paid tools since I run multiple sites.
To help you guys sort through this exhaustive list, you can filter them out to find the best blogging tool for your needs.
Check it out:
Analytics & Tracking
Google Analytics
Free – Website: https://analytics.google.com
A must-have for any website. It tells you everything you need to know about your blog. Where your traffic is coming from, what type of traffic, which page is performing the best, which country they’re browsing from, the device they’re using, etc.
Google Search Console
Free – Website: https://search.google.com
Similar to Google analytics, but as the name implies, it’s more for search. It’s a free tool that helps you monitor how Google treats your site. It tells what keywords you are ranking for, where they rank in the search results and which pages of yours show up when people search those terms.
Quick Tip: Go to the “Performance” tab on the right. Scroll down and click on the filter icon and filter for a position greater than #10—afterward, sort by impressions. You’ll be able to find queries that are ranking on page two of Google and still receiving tons of impressions, which you can optimize for quick wins. Another easy way you can do this is through here: https://codingisforlosers.com/quick-win-keyword-finder/
PrettyLinks
Free/Paid – Website: https://prettylinks.com
PrettyLink is a WordPress plugin that prettifies and tracks your link. It’s a plugin that makes your links pretty and easy to share. It also tracks the clicks on those pretty-looking URLs.
Hotjar
Free/Paid – Website: https://hotjar.com
Hotjar is a heatmap and behavior tracking tool that can help you see how your users interact with your site. It’s a tool that tracks your visitors and shows you where they click, scroll or hover on the page. It also tells what parts of pages are not being seen.
VWO
Paid – Website: https://vwo.com
VWO lets you create an A/B test on your website to test what works and what doesn’t. Create multiple A/B tests and see which page/color/design converts the best! It also has heatmap tracking similar to Hotjar.
Speed Optimization
WP Rocket
Paid – Website: https://wp-rocket.me
WP Rocket is a WordPress caching plugin that optimizes and speeds up your site by compressing images, minifying CSS/JS files, and more.
W3 Total Cache
Free/Paid – Website: https://boldgrid.com/w3-total-cache
Similar to WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache is another caching plugin. But unlike WP Rocket, this is a little harder to navigate and can be confusing. There are many options you can play around with, so if you’re a developer and know what you’re doing, you may prefer this one.
NitroPack
Free/Paid – Website: https://nitropack.io
Nitropack is a newer caching plugin; it does the same thing as W3 Total and WP Rocket. I have been seeing them all over, so I decided to give them a try and test it out on one of my niche sites. The result speaks for itself below.
Cloudflare
Free/Paid – Website: https://cloudflare.com
Cloudflare offers CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, and security. Simply put, it protects your site from attacks and speeds up your site as well. No-brainer to have this if you don’t have it already.
ShortPixel
Free/Paid – Website: https://shortpixel.com
ShortPixel compresses your image and makes your website load faster. It’s simple, smaller image size = faster page load.
TinyPNG
Free/Paid – Website: https://tinypng.com
Unlike ShortPixel, TinyPNG is a website that compresses your images online. They also released their own WordPress plugin recently, so you can try that out as well.
GTMetrix & Pingdom
Free – Website: https://gtmetrix.com & https://tools.pingdom.com
I put these two in the same category because they are more or less the same. You can use both of them to check your website speed and what is causing your website to load slow or fast.
Google Pagespeed Insights
Free – Website: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
Pagespeed insights do exactly what its name says. You can check your website page speed and how you can improve the load time on both mobile and desktop.
Domain & Hosting
Namecheap
Paid – Website: https://namecheap.com
Both domain and a hosting provider. Namecheap is my go-to to buy domains, it’s a solid host as well. If you’re just starting your blog, try out Namecheap, you won’t be disappointed.
GoDaddy
Paid – Website: https://godaddy.com
Same as Namecheap, you can buy a domain and host your website. Personally not a big fan of GoDaddy, but I do like to look around domain auction to purchase strong aged domains for my niche sites.
ExpiredDomains.net
Free – Website: https://expireddomains.net
ExpiredDomains.net lets you find expired domains. Some expired domains have strong SEO value and can give your website a boost. I like to visit expireddomains.net and look around, hopefully stumble across a decent domain that was overlooked by others.
Impossibility.org
Free – Website: http://impossibility.org
Impossiblity.org is a domain generator that gives you domain ideas for your blog when you’re stuck. They give you the option to add adjectives, verbs, or nouns to your word, creating some unique combinations.
Lean Domain Search
Free – Website: https://leandomainsearch.com
Like impossibility.org, Lean Domain Search gives you a lot more ideas, but they’re quite random.
Wordoid
Free – Website: https://wordoid.com
Wordoid is another fun domain generator. You can generate all sort of creative words that sounds like a brand! Here’s a random domain it generated for me: managedy.com – it’s a great name for management/productivity software or blog.
Siteground
Paid – Website: https://siteground.com
I have been using Siteground for more than 5 years now. If you’re looking for a good host, try them out, I have only have had a good experience with them. Their customer support is what’s keeping me as a customer.
WPX
Paid – Website: https://wpx.net
I recently decided to try out WPX a year ago with my new niche site. Although it cost slightly more than Siteground, it’s worth the price. If you’re looking for a new host and speed is an issue, WPX is for you. Their customer support is awesome as well.
Kinsta
Paid – Website: https://kinsta.com
Kinsta is for advanced bloggers. If you have a hefty amount of traffic and you’re looking for the best of the best, Kinsta is the way to go.
Cloudways
Paid – Website: https://cloudways.com
Unlike other hosts, Cloudways is quite different. You have the opportunity to host your site on the cloud, such as Digital Ocean, Vultr, Linode, etc. This means you have full control over your space and what you do with it. It’s also cheaper and faster than most hosting!
CMS & Customization
WordPress
Paid – Website: https://wordpress.org
WordPress.org not .com, too many new bloggers starting out confuses the two. If you’re planning to blog seriously, then WordPress.org if not, you can default to WordPress.com or even Medium.
Webflow
Free/Paid – Website: https://webflow.com
Webflow is more of a design first than content. It lets you create beautiful-looking sites without much coding knowledge, the CMS isn’t as straightforward as WordPress and may take some time to get used to it but if you want to create a stylish-looking website, give them a try.
GeneratePress
Free/Paid – Website: https://generatepress.com
My go-to WordPress theme. It’s fast and simple, although not the best looking out of the box, with the premium version, you can create some amazing-looking sites.
Astra
Free/Paid – Website: https://wpastra.com
Astra is another great theme, and it boasts over 1million+ active installations on the WordPress directory, which itself says something about the theme.
Elementor
Free/Paid – Website: https://elementor.com
Elementor is a page builder, has been a game-changer for many websites, from agencies to bloggers. It helps you create beautiful pages without any coding knowledge, thanks to its easy-to-use page builder.
ThriveThemes
Paid – Website: https://thrivethemes.com
ThriveThemes is another page builder similar to Elementor. This blog is built with Thrive Themes. Personally, I have been preferring ThriveThemes over Elementor lately just because Thrive is more catered towards marketers.
Themeforest
Free/Paid – Website: https://themeforest.com
Themeforest a marketplace for themes, plugins, etc. If you are struggling to find a theme you like, Themeforest should have one you like.
WPThemedetector
Free – Website: https://wpthemedetector.com
This tool detects what theme a website is using if it’s WordPress. It’s not 100% accurate, but if you find a blog with a design you like, try this and see if you can find out what theme they’re using.
BuiltWith
Free – Website: https://builtwith.com
BuiltWith gives you information on what the website was built with. It can tell you what theme, plugin, CMS, the website is using, and more.
Design & Editing
Canva
Free/Paid – Website: https://canva.com
If you haven’t heard of Canva before now, this is going to change your design game. Canva is a free/paid tool that can help you design visually striking graphics for your blogs, be it logos, banner, blog image, etc. A lot of bloggers live and swear by this tool.
Figma
Free – Website: https://figma.com
I only recently discovered this tool after taking Jack Butchers Visualize Value course. And this tool is what I use to create most graphics.
ShareX
Free – Website: https://getsharex.com
All the screenshots you have seen on this page are thanks to ShareX, which helps me take a screenshot with just a click of a button. Plus, you can edit the image, such as draw circles, blur images, add text, etc.
Coolors
Free – Website: https://coolors.co
Can’t decide the design and color of your blog? You can mix and match hundreds of color combinations to your liking.
UnSplash
Free – Website: https://unsplash.com
A wide variety of free images that don’t look like your typical “stock photo.” The images are free for both commercial and non-commercial usage.
Pexels
Free – Website: https://pexels.com
An alternative to UnSplash, if I’m unable to find an image I like on UnSplash, I try Pexels next.
FreePik
Free/Paid – Website: https://freepik.com
Another free stock photo site with a lot more illustration style type of photos they do requires attribution.
Google Images
Free – Website: https://google.com
Most bloggers don’t know that you can use Google images to find some great photos. They’re afraid of it being copyrighted, but here’s a little hack for you.
Secret tip: Enter your search term > go images > click on tools > click on usage rights > select Creative Commons license.
Flickr
Free – Website: https://flickr.com
Flickr is an old photo-sharing site that many completely forgot about it or haven’t heard of. You can use their image in your blog as long as you follow their licensing term, most of them are under creative commons.
MemeGenerator
Free – Website: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
The website has hundreds of meme templates that you can use, a good meme can add a lot of personality to an article, and it’s fun 🙂
WordPress Plugins
Sucuri Security
Free/Paid – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner
Sucuri protects your blog from malware, DDoS, or any type of attack. Hackers prey on new blog owners as they don’t know much, so I highly recommend getting secure.
UpdraftPlus
Free/Paid – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus
If your hosting provider server suddenly catches fire, highly unlikely. You would lose everything about your website, which is why you should always be creating backups of your site, and UpdratPlus helps you with that.
Insert Header and Footer
Free – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/insert-headers-and-footers
A very simple plugin that helps you insert codes into the header or footer area. You can do this by customizing the theme files, but this plugin makes it easier and doesn’t mess up the codes.
Redirection Plugin
Free – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection
This plugin does exactly what its name says, it helps in creating redirecting URLs on your blog. You could also do this via .htcaccess, but this plugin eases your work.
Grow Social
Free – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-pug
Grow social is a social share plugin designed for WordPress by Mediavine. It allows your readers to easily share your post or images with just a click.
wpDiscuz
Free – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpdiscuz
wpDiscuz is a comment plugin that helps you create great interaction between you and your readers. It certainly adds a lot of fun in commenting.
Linkwhisper
Paid – Website: https://linkwhisper.com
LinkWhisper a WordPress Plugin that helps you interlink your post and pages without much work. Why Interlink? This helps your website’s overall SEO, meaning a higher ranking on Google.
YoastSEO
Free/Paid – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo
The most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. Yoast has everything you need, from setting up sitemaps to internal linking suggestions.
RankMath
Free/Paid – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math
There was a lot of hype around RankMath, everyone was ditching Yoast for it. They’re essentially the same, but RankMath has a lot more function with their free version compared to Yoast.
The SEO Framework
Free – Website: https://wordpress.org/plugins/autodescription
This is what I use. It’s simple and lightweight. Many bloggers have the misconception that SEO plugins make your website magically rank. No, they don’t. They are just there as a placeholder, in fact, you don’t even need an SEO plugin.
Monetization
Media.net
Free – Website: https://media.net
Media.net is a great alternative to Google’s AdSense, it’s run by Yahoo & Bing. What makes them unique is their text-like ads that look like a part of your site, it doesn’t even look like an ad. In most cases, Media.net also has better earnings than AdSense.
Ezoic
Free – Website: https://ezoic.com
Ezoic is another ad network that you can apply once you hit the 10K monthly traffic mark. Your earnings should also be much better with Ezoic, and it’s also a given since you have over 10K traffic.
Mediavine
Free – Website: https://mediavine.com
Mediavine is one of the best ad networks out there. Their payment is much higher than most networks, but they also have a heavy requirement of 50K monthly visits.
Amazon Associate
Free – Website: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
Without a doubt, the biggest affiliate program. Lots of bloggers use Amazon as an affiliate, they’re an established brand, everyone knows them, and they have a lot of products in different categories. I have long ventured off Amazon because of their commission cut, and I suggest you do the same too, but it’s still a good program nonetheless.
ShareASale
Free – Website: https://shareasale.com
ShareASale is an affiliate network where you can sign up and apply to hundreds of different affiliate programs. There are also several other similar networks, such as FlexOffers, that work the same way.
Flexoffers
Free – Website: https://flexoffers.com
Same as ShareaSale, Flexoffers is another affiliate network where you can sign up for other programs. I suggest you sign up for multiple affiliate networks if you can’t find everything from one network.
Clickbank
Free – Website: https://clickbank.com
Clickbank is also an affiliate network but for digital products. Thanks to that, their usual commission starts at 50%, the downside is, they have a limited range of products.
Email Marketing
ConvertKit
Free/Paid – Website: https://convertkit.com
One of the most popular email marketing tools out there, especially for bloggers. Its user interface makes it easy to use and send emails. It also has a free plan now up to 1,000 subscribers.
Mailerlite
Free/Paid – Website: https://mailerlite.com
If you have zero experience in email marketing and not a single email list. I recommend MailerLite, similar to ConvertKit, it’s free up to 1000 subscribers, but the reason MailerLite stands out here is because even in the free plan, you have tons of features available from building out landing pages to email automation.
GoViral
Free – Website: https://wanttogoviral.com
Want to receive more traffic? GoViral is probably one of the most creative ideas I have seen. It’s upselling your email optin. So whenever a reader optins to your email list, they’re being upsell to another freebie, but all they need to do is share it on their social media. That’s essentially free traffic at no cost.
OptinMonster
Paid – Website: https://optinmonster.com
To capture your reader’s email, you need to attract them. OptinMonster lets you create amazing-looking capture forms to get those emails. You can try out their free trial before you decide to with them. They usually have an amazing discount on Black Friday, so keep your eyes open for it!
ThriveLeads
Paid – Website: https://thrivethemes.com/leads
ThriveLeads is a great alternative to OptinMonster. Unlike OptinMonster, ThriveLeads is only for WordPress.org users since it’s self-hosted and it requires you to purchase the entire ThriveSuite, which may be a turn-off for some.
ConvertFul
Free/Paid – Website: https://convertful.com
Convertful is a great alternative to capture leads as it comes with a free plan, and you get access to all different types of widgets.
DripScripts
Free – Website: https://dripscripts.com
From the same person who created GoViral, DripScripts helps you create your email sequence in “record time” If you don’t know how to start your emails, they have a few templates ready to go. Just be sure to personalize them so that you don’t look like you just copied them.
Hunter.io
Free/Paid – Website: https://hunter.io
Looking to email someone for collaboration, but you can’t seem to find their email on their blog? Sometimes they hide their email because of all the spam, but Hunter.io can help you find their email quick and easily.
Course & Payment
Stripe
Free – Website: https://stripe.com
Stripe is a payment processing platform, meaning you can sell whatever you want and get paid through Stripe.
Shopify
Paid – Website: https://shopify.com
If you haven’t heard of Shopify already, it helps you sell your products online easily, so if you’re planning to sell something in the future, Shopify will help you.
ThriveCart
Paid – Website: https://thrivecart.com
Thrivecart is a solid payment processing software. They help you take payments for your physical/digital products, services, and even subscriptions. You can also create upsells at the checkout to further increase your sales.
Gumroad
Free/Paid – Website: https://gumroad.com
Gumroad is somewhat similar to Shopify, but it’s only for digital products. It’s also easier than Shopify to set up, so if you’re looking to sell your ebook or recipes, Gumroad is for you.
Teachable
Paid – Website: https://teachable.com
Teachable is another alternative to Gumroad if you’re looking to create video courses. While Gumroad does have the ability to host videos. Teachable is more streamlined and more “class-like” ultimately, it comes down to what you want.
Thrive Apprenticeship
Paid – Website: https://thrivethemes.com/apprentice
Thrive Apprenticeship a WordPress-only plugin that allows you to create courses right on your blog. As with all Thrive products, you do need to purchase the Thrive suite to have access.
Productivity
Trello
Free/Paid – Website: https://trello.com
Trello is a kanban style productivity tool. I use it a lot when brainstorming new topics or just a simple weekly to-do list.
Evernote
Free/Paid – Website: https://evernote.com
Take note on the fly – Evernote is a note-taking app that syncs both on your phone and PC. Whenever I get a new idea for a blog post or product outside, I immediately jot it down on the app and go over it on PC later.
Notion
Free/Paid – Website: https://notion.so
Friendship ended with Evernote, Notion is my best friend now. I use Notion for everything now, from note-taking to organizing my week, etc. To sum it up. Evernote + Trello = Notion
Google Drive
Free/Paid – Website: https://drive.google.com
A secure place to save and host all your files online.
Lastpass
Free/Paid – Website: https://lastpass.com
Lastpass is your password manager, it organizes all your passwords in one secure area. If you have a VA (virtual assistant), you can also give them access to your blog or social media accounts without giving them your password.
Rescue Time
Free/Paid – Website: https://rescuetime.com
RescueTime is a time tracking software that keeps tabs on what you’re doing on your PC/Laptop/Mobile so that you can know if you have been procrastinating or working on your blog.
Get Toby
Free/Paid – Website: https://gettoby.com
Toby is a Google Chrome extension that helps you organize and manage your tabs. Sometimes, I want to read a lot of interesting articles, and I don’t have time for it. Toby helps me save the tab so that I don’t forget about it the next time I get back on my laptop.
F.Lux
Free – Website: https://justgetflux.com
F.lux helps you reduce eye strain when working on your PC/Laptop throughout the night. I tend to work better at night, and this has helped me a lot. A must-have tool for night owls. Since it changes your monitor display color, it may not be best if you’re working on graphic/colors related.
SEO
Ahrefs
Paid – Website: https://ahrefs.com
The most popular SEO tool in the industry. Almost everyone who does SEO uses Ahrefs, it has various tools from website audits to checking backlinks. If you’re serious about SEO, I highly recommend Ahrefs.
SEMrush
Paid – Website: https://semrush.com
A competitor to Ahrefs. It has similar features to Ahrefs, and I believe both tools should be used in tangent instead of comparing the two. If you’re doing a lot of PPC ads, I’d go with SEMrush.
KWFinder
Free/Paid – Website: https://kwfinder.com
KWFinder is a keyword research tool. It is one of the most used tools in my arsenal. You put in your keyword, and it spits out a list of related keywords, keyword difficulty, and your competition ranking. I use KWfinder a lot when doing keyword research on the surface level because of its clean UI. You also get access to other tools in their suite with KWFinder.
SurferSEO
Paid – Website: https://surferseo.com
SurferSEO helps you create SEO-optimized content. It gives you a content guideline with related phrases, content structure, etc., to rank your content higher on Google. You can also audit and optimize existing content too.
Frase.io
Paid – Website: https://frase.io
Similar to SurferSEO, but with Frase.io, you can easily create your content outlines with a click, thanks to its automated content briefs. You do have to edit and make some changes as it is automated and not perfect.
SERPRobot
Free/Paid – Website: https://serprobot.com
SERPRobot is a free SERP checking tool that can check where your keyword or your competitor’s keyword are ranking. You need to manually check and have up to 10 keywords to check for ranking at any time.
SEO Screaming Frog
Free/Paid – Website: https://screamingfrog.com
A more advanced SEO tool, SEO Screaming frog, crawls your entire site and spits back data such as broken links, H1 usage, index status, etc.
Quick Tip:
- Insert your URL on the top bar.
- After the crawl finishes, on the right section, scroll down until the response code section.
- Click on the Client Error (4xx), and it should give you all the dead links your website is pointing to.
Another tip, you can do this for big websites in your niche and email them about the broken links with a replacement link which can be yours or anyone, either way, the owner will be thankful, and you can start building a relationship.
Chrome Extensions
Keywords Surfer
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
Keyword Surfer provides you keyword ideas along with an estimation volume for the keyword you searched right on Google. It’s a great tool that helps you in your keyword research.
Detailed SEO Toolbar
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
Detailed SEO Toolbar is a simple extension that gives you a quick rundown of page details. Such as Page title, H1, H2, schema, etc.
Nightwatch Search Simulator
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
Similar to the SERProbot I mentioned earlier but as a chrome extension. Although you can only check the ranking of 1 keyword at a time, you check multiple URLs ranking for the target keyword.
SEOQuake
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
SEOQuake is a free extension that gives you quick data such as page index on Google, backlinks, the traffic it’s receiving, etc.
WhatFont
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
WhatFont helps you detect what font the website is using. You can use this to find what font your favorite blogger is using and use it on your own blog as well.
Site Palette
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
SitePallete helps you grab the colors the website is using. Use this together with WhatFont, and you can create the perfect blog for yourself.
LinkClump
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
Opening multiple links by clicking one at a time can be annoying. Linkclump helps you open all the links together at once.
VideoSpeedController
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
This extension speeds up your video. If you bought a course and you’re going over the video, sometimes they can be slow and time-consuming, use this to speed up and save your time.
Screenity
Free – Website: Chrome Extension store
Screenity lets you record your screen and send it over to anyone. If you have VA and want to quickly walk through some of your processes, Screenity will make this easy.
Writing
Answer the Public
Free – Website: https://answerthepublic.com
Answer The Public is a keyword tool that gives you autocomplete data from Google. If you’re stuck and don’t have an idea for your next blog post or you’re doing keyword research, give this a try.
Conversion.ai
Paid – Website: https://conversion.ai Get an extra 10,000 bonus credit if you sign up with my affiliate link
Why spend hours on tedious content writing when you can use this AI-powered tool to get the job done in minutes? You don’t even have to be a professional writer as Conversion.ai will do it for you! All that was created by Conversion.ai!!
Grammarly
Free/Paid – Website: https://grammarly.com
Grammarly is every writer’s best friend, it helps you check your spelling, grammar, and more. Even if you consider your English perfect, I highly suggest getting Grammarly to help your article editing much faster and better.
Hemingwayapp
Free – Website: https://hemingwayapp.com
Hemingway makes your writing more clear and less cluttered. No one likes a block of text, Hemingway helps you with that. Aim for Grade 6 – 8 level.
Exploding Topics
Free – Website: https://explodingtopics.com
ExplodingTopics is a lot similar to Google trends, but unlike Google trends, in Exploding Topics, you can pick a category to see the trends, whereas, in Google trends, you need to insert a keyword.
Sharethrough Headline Analyzer
Free – Website: https://headlines.sharethrough.com
A simple tool that analyzes how good your headline is. The higher you score, the better your headline.
Social Media & Outsourcing
Tailwind
Paid – Website: https://tailwindapp.com
Tailwind is a Pinterest marketing and automation tool. It repins and schedules pins without you online 24/7. This is a must-tool to have if you are doing Pinterest.
GetZlappo
Free/Paid – Website: https://zlappo.com
Zlappo is a Twitter automation that helps you schedule your Tweets and replies. If you’re trying to grow on Twitter, try Zlappo.
Fiverr
Paid – Website: https://fiverr.com
A great place to find someone to get things done quickly at a low cost. Need a logo? Try Fiverr, but remember you do get what you pay for. I use Fiverr for a lot of things, from transcribing to gathering data online, etc.
Upwork
Paid – Website: https://upwork.com
Most of the writers I hire for my niche sites are from Upwork. You can find some amazing people with different sets of skills here to help you build your blog but remember to do your due diligence when hiring.
And that’s the end.
Did I miss anything?
Let me know if I did.
Or if your favorite tool isn’t here, comment below, and I’ll try to add it.