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AMP is a Google-backed project aimed at speeding up the mobile web. If you want to add AMP functionality to your WordPress website, you’ll need a WordPress AMP plugin, which is what we’ve collected in this post.
We’ll start with a brief introduction to AMP and its pros and cons. Then, we’ll jump straight into the best AMP plugins for WordPress.
What Is AMP? Should You Use It On WordPress?
AMP – short for Accelerated Mobile Pages – is an open-source project from Google that tries to speed up page load times for mobile visitors.
To do that, AMP pages use a stripped-down AMP code framework. Additionally, Google caches AMP pages for visitors from Google Search which can further speed up load times (other companies can offer these caches, too, with Cloudflare offering a white-label AMP cache option in 2017).
So, should you use AMP for your WordPress site?
Well, that depends…
It’s pretty well shown that AMP will speed up your mobile page load times – that part isn’t in question.
Additionally, mobile visitors want fast page load times, and there’s some evidence that moving to AMP can increase time on site and decrease bounce rate. For example, Events Ticket Center noted these trends after moving to AMP:
- 10% decrease in bounce rate
- 6% increase in pages/session
- 13% increase in average session duration
- 100% increase in eCommerce conversion rate
At the same time, AMP hasn’t worked for everyone. For example, Kinsta saw their leads drop by 59% after moving to AMP.
So – this is really something you need to test for yourself! All of these AMP plugins for WordPress are easy to set up, so give them a try, pay attention to your analytics data, and see if they move the needle in a positive direction for your site.
5 Best AMP Plugins For WordPress Compared
1. AMP
The creatively named AMP plugin is the official AMP plugin from WordPress.com and Google.
This plugin is 100% free and super easy to use – you just activate it and you immediately have a working AMP site.
However, the downside of this plugin is that you don’t have a lot of flexibility for how your AMP content looks and functions.
For example, if you go to the WordPress Customizer, the only style options you get are:
- Change text color and header background color
- Choose between a preset light or dark theme
Beyond that, you get a simple settings area where you can choose your template mode – e.g. whether or not to use separate URLs for AMP – and which post types to use AMP on.
There’s also a separate Analytics area that lets you add analytics tracking scripts to your AMP pages:
In a nutshell, this is the simplest, but least flexible, way to implement AMP on your WordPress site.
If you use this plugin and Yoast SEO, you’ll want to grab the Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin so that Yoast can add the proper SEO meta data to your AMP content.
2. AMP for WP
AMP for WP is a freemium WordPress AMP plugin that offers a lot more functionality than the official AMP plugin.
With it, you’ll be able to:
- Have much more control over how your AMP content looks, with different themes to choose from and an in-dashboard theme customizer
- Insert advertisements and tracking scripts
- Add a cookie consent notification bar
- Include contact forms from Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, or Ninja Forms (requires paid extension).
- Automatically redirect all visitors to your AMP content
- Integrate with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads (EDD requires a paid extension)
When you first install AMP for WP, it will give you an installation wizard that helps you get up and running with the most important settings. Then, you’ll get a detailed settings area where you can control the plugin’s many features:
To control how your AMP content looks, you can choose from a number of pre-made themes (Pro only*) and then customize the theme using that same settings area:
*The free version only has a single theme, though you can still customize that theme.
If you feel restricted by what the official AMP plugin lets you do, AMP for WP will give you a lot more control over how your AMP content looks and functions.
The core version is a great starting point. After that, you can further extend the plugin with individual extensions that range from $19 to $89 each. Or, you can get all of the extensions starting at $149 for use on a single site.
3. weeblrAMP
weeblrAMP is another freemium WordPress AMP plugin that goes a lot further than the official plugin in terms of what it lets you control.
Like AMP for WP, it comes in both a free and premium version.
With the free version, you’ll get access to features like:
- Support for all WordPress content, including posts, pages, custom post types, categories, archives, etc.
- Analytics
- Option to insert ads in AMP content
- Plugin integrations for Yoast SEO, Jetpack, Beaver Builder, and Elementor
- Support for the native WordPress comments
And if you’re willing to pay, weeblrAMP can also help you with:
- Form integrations for Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and Mailchimp for WordPress
- eCommerce integrations with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads
- Facebook Pixel integration
- Polylang support for multilingual AMP pages
- Automatic dynamic ad insertion in your AMP content
To control these many settings, weeblrAMP gives you a comprehensive dashboard:
And to customize how your AMP content looks, weeblrAMP gives you another interface that gives you detailed control over:
- Colors and styles
- Exactly what information to include
- Custom CSS, if you want to tweak things yourself
The core version of weeblrAMP is available for free at WordPress.org. After that, the premium version starts at $49.
4. Better AMP
Better AMP is a good in-between option that goes a little further than the official AMP plugin, but is not as detailed as something like AMP for WP or weeblrAMP.
So if you want that middle-ground, give this one a look.
Once you activate the plugin, it starts working right away.
You get a basic settings area where you can edit all of the text strings used on your AMP content:
Then, you can jump into the WordPress Customizer to customize everything else, which is a really convenient approach.
From the Customizer, you can:
- Change layouts for various parts of your AMP content
- Switch up colors
- Insert Google Analytics tracking
- Add custom CSS or HTML
- Automatically redirect all mobile visitors to AMP content
- Choose which post types/taxonomies to use AMP for
Better AMP is 100% free.
5. AMP WP
Finally, AMP WP is a slightly less popular option that comes packed with lots of features.
Like Better AMP, it lets you use the real-time WordPress Customizer to control how your AMP designs look, which is really convenient.
For example, you can change your header layout right from the Customizer:
Beyond those design controls, AMP WP also includes a detailed settings area that lets you:
- Choose which post types to use AMP on
- Switch up basic layout choices, like whether or not to include the header
- Include your social links
- Insert various tracking analytics, including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and a lot more
- Add a cookie notice bar
Currently, AMP WP only offers a single theme, but the developer has plans to add more themes in the future, as well as paid add-ons to further extend its functionality.
At this time, AMP WP is 100% free, but that will probably change as the developer adds those extra features.
Which Is The Best WordPress AMP Plugin For You?
If you just want the absolute simplest way to start using AMP on your WordPress site, the official AMP plugin is a great first stop. It’s not nearly as detailed as the other plugins, but it’s super easy to use and works right out of the box.
If you do want more functionality, that’s where things get a little tricky.
If you want the most flexibility, go with AMP for WP or weeblrAMP as those two have the deepest feature lists.
AMP WP is also intriguing, though it’s still fairly new and lacks some deeper functionality, and Better AMP is a great middle-ground that gives you a lot more control than the official AMP plugin while keeping things simple with the user-friendly WordPress Customizer interface.
Will WP Rocket Work With These AMP Plugins?
WP Rocket is automatically compatible with the official AMP plugin.
Better AMP should also work with WP Rocket; AMP for WP should work as well, though there have been some compatibility issues in the past.
When in doubt, we recommend testing on a staging site. ?
