I’ve built plugins on kitchen tables, in mountain cafes, and late at night after client calls.
Wherever I’m working from, these tools stay with me.
Here’s a look at the tools I reach for most often in my WordPress plugin development workflow.
1. Local by Flywheel
For spinning up quick WordPress sites without wasting time.
- Fast and clean local environment
- Great for plugin testing
- SSL and HTTPS out of the box
2. VS Code
Lightweight, smart, and full of plugin extensions.
My go-to setup includes:
- PHP Intelephense
- Prettier
- Code Spell Checker
- GitLens
- WordPress Snippet packs
I also keep custom code snippets for hooks and filters I often use.
3. WP-CLI
For me, this is non-negotiable.
From installing plugins to managing users and cleaning databases — WP-CLI is a huge time-saver.
Example I use often:
wp plugin install my-plugin --activate
4. Query Monitor
The best plugin to debug performance issues, database queries, hooks, and PHP errors in real time — without bloated admin panels.
5. InstaWP
When I need a staging environment to test plugin behavior across themes or replicate user issues — these tools help me spin up environments quickly.
6. Poedit
For plugin translation and making sure my .pot files are ready for global users.
Helpful especially when preparing free + pro versions for .org.
7. Freemius SDK
Still my preferred framework for handling plugin licensing, subscriptions, and usage tracking — especially during launch phases.
(In the future I may self-host it, but it works well for now.)
8. Notion + Apple Notes
For documenting ideas, changelogs, email templates, and future features.
I keep it super simple — just one clean table per plugin.
9. Pingdom Tools + Lighthouse
Performance and Core Web Vitals testing after every major UI/plugin update.
Simple, honest, and browser-native.
10. My Starter Plugin Boilerplate
I’ve created my own internal boilerplate — nothing fancy, but it saves me from rewriting:
- Activation hooks
- File structures
- Class autoloaders
- Safe enqueue functions
Final Thought
Tools don’t make the dev — but they do help speed up the path between idea and execution.
These are the ones I trust, tweak, and carry with me across every plugin project.
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