After an hour of intense talk about plugins the best of the best have risen to the top. Thanks to @jadana17, @lakeeffect, @markcoppock for taking notes. Links help from Christopher Schmitt.
Must-Have WordPress Plugins
These plugins come highly recommended by almost everyone at WordUp Austin.
Developer Plugins
- Free alternatives to Gravity Forms
Contact Form 7, Grunion, , CForms II, Wufoo, Ninjaforms - Jetpack
- Regenerate Thumbnails
- S2Member
- Relevanssi
- Search and Replace
- Post2Post
- xili tidy tags
- Broken Link Checker (!)
- Theme Test Drive
Backing up
- Backup Buddy ($)
- WPTwin ($)
Post Types & Metaboxes
Social Media Plugins
- Social Plugin for WordPress from MailChimp
- WordTwit Pro ($)
- ShareThis
- AddThis
- Analytics 360 from MailChimp
Plugins for Clients
- WP101 ($) In-Dashboard Tech Support
- Login Logo
- Add Logo to Admin
- Dynamic Widgets
- Simple Page Order
Comments Plugins
$ – Paid/Subscription plugin
! – Warning! Performance problems
I can’t remember what was decided about Related Posts plugins. Use them or code-your-own? Was YARRP (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/) frowned upon?
From my memory, YARRP has performance problems, doesn’t scale, and tends to breakdown. I think the best advice was to seek paid services like OutBrain or nrelate.