There’s no universal “best” list – the right plugins depend on your store – but the principle is the same for everyone: a lean, proven stack beats a big one.
For most WooCommerce stores, a solid, battle-tested stack looks like: Perfmatters for performance, ShortPixel for image optimisation, FiboSearch for fast product search, Fluid Checkout for a better checkout, the official Stripe and PayPal gateways for payments, and 2FA for security. That covers speed, UX, payments and safety with a handful of well-maintained plugins. (We keep a full, current list of the 32 plugins we recommend and why.)
The mistake that costs stores the most isn’t picking the “wrong” plugin – it’s picking too many. Every plugin adds code, queries and update risk. We’ve rebuilt stores that were slow purely because they ran 40+ plugins doing what 12 could.
So the honest answer: choose the fewest, best-maintained plugins that cover what you actually need, and treat each addition as a cost. More: how many plugins is too many? · best payment gateway · why WooCommerce is slow