Introduction

Just like meals need spices to enhance the taste, similarly, CMS also needs plugins to spruce up the functionality and overall performance of the website.

The Umbraco Content Management System (CMS) is already a powerful tool for customizing your website or application. But how can you know if you're getting the value of money? The solution is to add powerful plugins to your CMS. Giriraj Digital is a certified Umbraco Agency that helps you to build CMS development.

One of the key advantages of Umbraco is that the ecosystem has created hundreds of extensions to improve the core system, offering a better user experience and checking off some necessary elements that reduce development time.

Here are some fantastic Umbraco plugins that you should use to enhance your website's functionality. Keep reading to know more.

11 best Umbraco plugins you should know about -

Packages for Editors

Dedicated media folder

Your Content Editor's closest friend is the Dedicated Media Folder. By placing Umbraco Media Picker on steroids, the Dedicated Media Folder speeds up critical media-content operations.

The tool was created to automate the creation of unique media folders and introduce an efficient media management program.

• A dedicated Media Folder increases back-office efficiency and loading speed by providing a well-organized media part without chaos.
• This plugin makes it easier to upload, search, and manage files by simplifying time-consuming tasks.

It operates with Umbraco 8 and 9 and supports all key Umbraco components, like Rich Text Editor, Panel, Block Record, etc.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard package was built in 2018 to give editors a simple way to observe what's going on with their website.

The Dashboard package mostly gives basic data regarding content changes, allowing you to see how frequently your content has been altered or updated, as well as who did it and when.

It covers all users' latest operations in the back office and keeps you informed about unpublished material. It also shows statistics on nodes with published content, nodes in recycle bin, listed members on the website, and also about new members.

Umbraco forms

Umbraco believes that everybody needs a simple form creator, so Umbraco has created one.

In Umbraco, creating forms is as simple as changing content, and it's a completely integrated experience. You can choose from a variety of well-known input types, as well as validators and conditions.

Umbraco Forms allows you to create advanced processes that may send emails, update web services, and save data in CRM systems.

You may easily view and browse through the information using the built-in analytics platform, or you can download files for more complex processing after your users have completed forms.

Packages for SEO

SEO meta-data plug-in

The SEO Metadata plugin saves and preserves SEO data, such as page titles, meta tags, meta descriptions, and keywords, among other things.

You can use the plug-in to insert and change the SEO details of your Umbraco website. The finest feature is that it also shows you how the page will appear in search engine result pages.

It even suggests a decent length for search descriptions and alerts you if it's too short or too extensive. The plug-in complies with 7.5x and can be used across various domains.

URL Tracker

A broken URL is inconvenient for users, and search results hate it. A broken URL refers to a page on a website that appears to be missing.

If you move your content to a different address, you must redirect people to the new page or to another related piece of content.

This redirect will improve the customer experience for your visitors, and the search results will refresh their indexes to reflect the new page. With this plugin’s user-friendly interface, this software gives you complete control over website 301 redirects.

The URL change tracker keeps track of any changes to your URL and also when the need arises, the package provides suggestions for redirection.

AMP for Umbraco

The AMP for Umbraco plugin is the next in line. Search engines have long prioritized quality and authority when ranking websites, but since 2014, they've now considered another factor: a website's mobile experience.

And the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) plugin assures that website:
Quickly load content for mobile devices
Adapt all content and page elements to the screen size of mobile
Prioritize the loading of resources

You're giving searchers an amazing mobile experience with this plug-in who comes to your website through their smartphones and tablets. Remember that responsive design is now a ranking criterion for Google and other search engines, so pay head to help preserve and enhance your website’s mobile presence!

Packages to enhance security

Umbraco Azure File System provider

The Umbraco Azure File System Provider was built to give a cloud storage option for file formats on the Azure cloud. The advantages of this bundle include saving capacity on your website's hosting and providing faster access to the media files stored in Azure.

It is inexpensive and provides a dependable and redundant infrastructure. This plugin has top-notch security, as well as customizable setup and caching. This Umbraco plugin works with Umbraco 7, 8, and 9 versions.

Media Protect package

The Media Protect package was created to safeguard media files or folders in the same way as Umbraco protects content. This plugin is ideal if you want to restrict access to the media assets to just authorized individuals.

This plugin includes a comprehensive media file access restriction mechanism that enables you to limit file access to certain member groups or users. Unauthorized users might be redirected to a custom error page.

A user-friendly interface is integrated into the Umbraco back-office for media protection packages. It's simple to set up and works with Umbraco 7, 8, and 9.

Media Protect makes use of the authentication provider abstraction in conjunction with the usual ASP.NET Membership API, allowing you to switch out and utilize a customized membership. The media protection package will work if you convert to Single Sign-on authentication.

Page comments plug-in

In the current era, when most users are concerned about their online privacy, the page comment plugin can secure the confidentiality of the information who visit a Umbraco website and leave comments on the pages.

Since Umbraco relies on third-party packages for commenting, the privacy of the personal information posted by users is at risk, but if you have this plugin, it will protect the privacy of users.

Another amazing feature of this package is that it allows visitors to leave comments on any tab of a Umbraco site.

The page comment plugin protects commenters' personal information while also allowing the Umbraco administrator to efficiently regulate and handle comments. It even includes Google reCAPTCHA, which helps to defend your site from frauds.

Plugin for Marketers

uSplit

The plugin is every marketer's fantasy. It enables Umbraco users to build up A/B split tests for distinct campaigns, making A/B testing more efficient and effective.

It will even input the test data directly into Google Analytics, so all you have to do is set everything up and check your statistics to see the outcomes.

Unlike other testing tools, which require a monthly membership, this package is free-for-all Umbraco users. And you can be able to utilize your money on different important plug-ins or functions.

uMarketingSuite

Simply install the package to unlock your Umbraco website's market opportunities. A/B analysis, 360-degree segmentation, lead scoring, website traffic, customization, e-mail and SMS advertising, marketing automation, and campaigns are some of the extra out-of-the-box features.

Make sure your website is built with Umbraco 8. Version 8.7 or higher is required to use the uMarketingSuite.

Also, because the uMarketingSuite doesn't really work on SQL CE, utilize Azure SQL, SQL Server, LocalDb 2014, or above.

The package may be easily installed by getting it from our.umbraco.com or using NuGet. Once installed, you will notice a new component in your Back office called 'Marketing.'

Wrapping up!

These were just a couple of the many fantastic Umbraco packages available to make your website more effective and exceptional.

The packages can boost the performance of your website and expand what you can do with Umbraco. Of course, keep an eye out for the recent advancements, as great plug-ins are constantly being produced. Now you can relax and enjoy your newly improved Umbraco website!

Let us know about the best Umbraco packages you have used so far. We would love to hear from you!