Reading Time: 17 minutes As someone who has spent countless hours working directly in WordPress code to optimize sites, troubleshoot errors and design implementations for clients, I can say with certainty that the tools you are using make all the difference . Developing a WordPress site, whether it be a blog or an extensive e-commerce site is not just about putting together themes or basic plugins. It's about control, ease, and to have the power of use WordPress on your terms and not the other way around. This is where we talk about the developer-focused plugins. These are not your typical drag and drop page builders, or the all-in-one SEO plugins (even though they serve a purpose). These are the heavy-duty, headless plugins that let you debug, optimize, customize, and manage WordPress like a pro. developer plugins are the secret sauce for any serious WordPress developer. Now, let's take a look at some valuable WordPress plugins every developer should own, or at least know about. Think about these will help you streamline your workflow, make your sites faster and will help ensure that debugging isn't a total hell. An Introduction to WordPress Developer Plugins WordPress developer plugins are powerful tools that allow you to build websites easier and faster. They cover a wide variety of functions for many aspects to optimize your development process and experience with WordPress. These very powerful plugins can be classified by what they allow you to do: Get Information: Get insights into your site. This means to access technical information like database queries, debugging logs, and everything else that is important to help you get an understanding of what your site is doing internally. Conduct Testing: Shorten your testing by using a plugin to quickly switch users, view the template hierarchy of any page, and conduct cross-browser testing. Add Functionality: Allow you to add to the functions of your WordPress Admin. For example, some plugins allow for the manipulation of cron events directly from the dashboards, so you can control scheduled events. Add Custom Development: Allow for the addition of custom code and program elements. You can add or modify PHP snippets, add custom fields, and build a custom...
