WordPress Plugin Roundup – July 2020

The WordPress Plugin Roundup is back! Each month, we recap the best WordPress plugins that were added or updated within the last 30 days on the WordPress Plugin Directory. Here’s a list of our favorite new or recently-updated plugins for July 2020.

1. Filester – File Manager Pro

Filester has all pro features of other file management plugins out there. With the Filester – File Manager Pro plugin, you can copy, paste, create archive, download, upload, edit, delete, preview, duplicate and get info of the WordPress configuration and other files without FTP access.

Nathan’s Notes:

• We’ve featured our share of file manager plugins on the Roundup over the years, and this one is probably the best yet.
• Full-featured file manager, not crippled by pro version hold backs
• Drag and drop file upload
• Very helpful if you need quick access without FTP, but probably not a plugin you want to keep on a site long-term.

2. WP Google Street View (+ 360° virtual tour) with Google maps + Local SEO (Local Business structured data)

This plugin, powered by the Website Carbon project, allows for measuring and reporting on the carbon emissions of your site, so you to can understand the impact, and ultimately, reduce the emissions.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Excellent candidate for the Longest Plugin Name Ever award
• Embeds street view and 360 tour views directly into WordPress
• See the WP Google Street View demo

3. Black Lives Matter Widget This Month’s Plugin with a Cause #1

Floating Widget for solidarity with Black Lives Matter Campaign.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Simple addition to any WordPress site to show support for the social changes happening around us.

4. Website Carbon This Month’s Plugin with a Cause #2

This plugin, powered by the Website Carbon project, allows for measuring and reporting on the carbon emissions of your site, so you to can understand the impact, and ultimately, reduce the emissions.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Shows the carbon emissions generated by each page when it is visited
• Could be an interesting add-on for green-focused clients

5. Cloud Customer Area

The only plugin to create and manage a reserved customer area, using cloud services (ex: Google Drive).

Nathan’s Notes:

• Connects your site to Google Drive and displays a list of downloadable files
• A little fussy to set up with the Google Drive API.
• Folder automatically created in Drive for the user when they visit the page for the first time
• All files in the Drive folder for the user will be available to download
• Pro version allows role-based access control, user file upload, and restrictions by file type and size.

6. Media Library File Download This Month’s Simple But Useful Plugin #1

This plugin allows you to download files directly from your Media Library.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Adds a download button to the media file preview while in grid mode.
• Saves a bunch of clicks if you just want to download the media file.
• Pro version and additional features “coming soon.”

7. Disable Automatic Theme & Plugin Updates This Month’s Simple But Useful Plugin #2

At the core of this plugin, it is simply using the build in filters to disable automatic theme and plugin updates.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Once again proving that when a new feature is added to core, someone will make a plugin to un-add it.
• Developer is on the team creating the Auto Updates feature plugin
• Really just 2 functions here (shown on the plugin page), you can copy them into your functions.php or custom functions plugin.
• Requires the latest beta version of WordPress to run (that has the auto updates feature included)

8. BCT for Gravity Forms This Month’s Simple But Useful Plugin #3

Button Click Text is a really simple way for people using your form to see that your form is actually working when they push the submit button.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Really handy UI tweak when you have a file upload on a Gravity Form.
• Lets the user know something is happening instead of clicking the submit button over and over again.

9. Disposable Email Blocker – GravityForms

Using this plugin, you can block spammy disposable & temporary email domains from submit on a GravityForms form. Filtering spammy emails will keep your subscriber list spam free.

Nathan’s Notes:

Checks a submitted email address against a blacklist of known-spammy domain
names located in a JSON file in the data folder of the plugin

• Checks a submitted email address against a blacklist of known-spammy domain names located in a JSON file in the data folder of the plugin
• Available for other popular form plugins too:
  • WP Forms: https://wordpress.org/plugins/disposable-email-blocker-wpforms/
  • Ninja Forms: https://wordpress.org/plugins/disposable-email-blocker-ninja-forms/
  • Contact Form 7: https://wordpress.org/plugins/disposable-email-blocker-contact-form-7/

10. Waves Bloc kThis Month’s Featured Gutenberg Add-on

Blocks can now be sinuous and soothing with the Waves Block.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Adds an easily customizable cover block that interacts with mouse movement.
• Requires the latest version of the Gutenberg plugin to operate.

11. WP Encrypted Uploads

WP Encrypted Uploads uses state-of-the-art AES-128 encryption standard to secure and encrypt uploaded files’ contents.

Nathan’s Notes:

• A fantastic tool for protecting content on your website.
• Set file types to be encrypted (such as PDFs). PDFs that are uploaded afterward are stored in an encrypted folder and cannot be accessed unless the user meets role criteria.
• Not as flexible as I’d like to see, but a very helpful free tool for easily protecting content.

11. WP Layouts This Month’s Plugin to Watch

Stop wasting time importing, exporting, sorting, digging through, and organizing JSON files on your hard drive or in the cloud. WP Layouts is by far the best way to organize, import, and export your layouts, especially if you have multiple websites.

Nathan’s Notes:

• WP Layouts is attempting to make it easier to export layouts from your favorite page builder from one site to another.
• Many page builder layouts can be exported with the WordPress export feature, but this is far from perfect.
• WP Layouts attaches a cloud that acts as an intermediary between sites.
• Interesting idea… my test revealed some problems. But this is definitely one to watch!

11. WPEasyDocs This Month’s Plugin to Watch

wpEasyDocs is a document store & management WordPress plugin which will save you a lot of time and headache. Simply drag’n’drop the files you want to upload and soon you will be able to use the built-in editor to manage all the important properties of your documents with just a few clicks.

Nathan’s Notes:

• Very simple to use and a nicely designed UI on the back end and front end
• Note files are stored on an external server (so not great for confidential documents)
• Free version allows up to 100mb of file storage. Pro version adds unlimited storage and other features, and is $4.99/mo or $49.99/year

Watch the Webinar: Plugin Roundup – July 2020

Check out the entire series of monthly WordPress Plugin Roundup posts here & register for the next Plugin Roundup webinar here.