WordPress is known for its vast library of free and paid plugins. To modify various parts of your WordPress website you often need a plugin or you do it via code. Modifications/Enhancements vary from project to project, some are absolutely needed in all websites you build and some are optional.
Installing a plugin to achieve a small enhancement is something I never liked. I have always preferred to implement it via code. Imagine, you need 10 different enhancements in your backend or frontend and you install 10 different plugins. Of course, you are free to do that, and nothing wrong with it. But when it comes to maintenance and security, it is a headache. A vulnerability in a poorly written or maintained plugin can break your site. And there is a chance of your site getting hacked.
Here are just some of the scenarios where my clients personally added various plugins in order to achieve small enhancements.
- Content Duplication i.e. duplicating pages, posts and custom posts
- SVG & AVIF Upload
- Content Ordering
- Changing default WordPress Login URL
- Disabling Gutenberg
- Maintenance Mode
In order to achieve the above you have to install different plugins. But not anymore, you can now combine the above and a whole lot of other enhancements by just configuring one plugin: Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE)
Here is a detailed list of what you can do with this awesome free plugin.
Content Management
Content Duplication
Duplicate all content types (posts, pages, custom post types, etc.). Post-meta and taxonomies are also transferred. The plugin also allows you to redirect after duplication either to the edit screen or to the list view.
Content Order
You can easily enable drag and drop to reorder the hierarchical content types e.g. pages.
Media Replacement
Replace any media type file with new one keeping the old meta so that existing links do not break.
SVG & AVIF Upload
By default you can not upload SVG & AVIF files into media. With the help of ASE, you can simply enable it from backend.
External Permalinks
You can add external permalinks to all content types. The rel=”noopener noreferrer nofollow” attribute is also added for better security and SEO.
Open All External Links in New Tab
This is a basic thing lot of developers forget to implement. If you have content heavy website then this feature is really useful. It uses the_content hook to add “_blank” attribute so that each external link opens in a new tab.
Allow Custom Navigation Menu Items to Open in New Tab
As the name suggests you can open custom menu links in new tab.
Auto-Publish Posts with Missed Schedule
It happens sometime that posts scheduled is missed due to various reasons such as server side issues, caching or security plugins, In correct time zones, Cron issues etc. This feature from the plugin publishes all content types which are marked with “missed schedule”.
Admin Interface
Admin Bar Clean Up
You can clean unnecessary items from admin bar such as WordPress logo, Howdy, Help tab and drawer, Customize menu, Updates and Comments counter.
Admin Notices
When you use lot of plugins, each plugin adds a notices in the WordPress Dashboard. You can easily hide this and access it via a separate panel in the admin bar. This makes backed less ugly.
Disable Dashboard Widgets
On your dashboard you often don’t need default widgets such as Welcome to WordPress, Activity, Quick Draft, WordPress Events and News etc. You can easily disable such widgets.
Hiding and Widening the Admin Bar
You can hide the WordPress admin bar user role-wise. The plugin also lets you set the custom width in pixels ranging from 180px to 300px.
Admin Menu Organizer
Plugin gives you the flexibility to customize the admin menu order with simple drag and drop UI.
Infinite Scrolling and Active Plugin
You can also easily enable the infinite scrolling on grid view of the media library. Along with that you can also toggle option to display active plugins first. This is helpful when you have lot of plugins installed and lot of them are deactivated for testing or development purposes.
Customizing the Admin Footer Text
Instead of showing default text on the left side footer which is “Thank you for creating with WordPress” and showing WordPress version on the right side footer, you can easily show your own custom text.
Log In/Out & Register Options
Changing Admin Login URL
Here comes the best part which I like the most. Changing the admin login URL. This is a must enabled featured on your WordPress website.
Redirects after Login & Logout
Easily set redirect URLS after login and logout for each user role.
Other Useful Features
- Log In/Out dynamic menu items – You can add links in WordPress menus for Logged in and Logged out users.
- Last Login Column – Like the name suggests it shows you when was the last time user logged in.
- Registration Date Column – Shows you the registration date and time of user.
Custom Code
This plugin also has option to add/edit:
- Custom CSS for Admin
- Custom CSS for Frontend
- Custom Body Classes
- Any Third Party Code within <head> <body> <footer> tags
- Editing ads.txt and robots.txt
Disabling Components
You can also disable various components easily with just one click. For example disabling Gutenberg, Comments, REST API, Feeds, Disabling All Auto Updates and whole lot other smaller components such as Generator <meta> tag, Version number, RSD tag, WLW tag, Dashicons CSS & JS and lot more.
These are really helpful if you are not using such components.
I highly recommend using this plugin on every WordPress site. It simplifies your workflow by eliminating the need for multiple plugins. With just one installation, you can handle a variety of tasks effortlessly.
Security
Moreover this plugin also add some must have security features.
Limit Login Attempts
Limit the number or failed login attempts, By doing this you can prevent brute force attacks. You can specify the lockout frequency and time. It also keeps the log of login attempts of the last 24hrs.
Obfuscate Author Slugs & Email Address
By default, WordPress shows an author page URL that exposes the username in the URL e.g. yourwebsite.com/author/username. Enabling the Obfuscate Author Slugs option throws 404 URL.
You can also enable Email address obfuscate to prevent spam bots from harvesting them. Use the following short code to display your email address. This will make it easy for humans to read.
[obfuscate email="john@example.com" display="inline"]Disabling XML-RPC
XML-RPC is also enabled by default. By disabling this option it can protect you from brute force and DDOS attacks.
Other Utilities
Apart from all above lists it has more useful options listed down below.
- Multiple User Roles: Enable to allow one user to have multiple user roles
- View Admin as Role: Allows you to see backend as user role other than Administrator
- Password Protection: Puts htaccess authentication on the entire website.
- Maintenance Mode: Enables standard maintenance mode.
- 404 to Homepage : Sets a permanent 301 redirect to all not found pages to home page.
- System Summary and Search Engine Visibility Status: Shows you the server summary in the “At a Glance” dashboard widget. And shows search engine visibility status on the top right corner of the admin bar.
In conclusion this plugin has been one the best rated plugin in the WordPress repository and I would recommend this as a must have WordPress plugin in 2025.