Essential Elements adds the small features most WordPress sites end up needing, without installing a separate plugin for each one.

Every feature is a module you switch on or off from one screen. Disabled modules load nothing at all, and enabled modules only load a few kilobytes of CSS and plain JavaScript, with no jQuery and no external requests.

🚀 Upgrade to Pro | 💻 Live Demo Site | 📄 Documentation | 🎧 Support

⬆️ Scroll to Top Button

Add a button that takes visitors back to the top of long pages.

Bottom left or bottom right position, with adjustable offsets
Four icon presets, three shapes and a custom size
Icon, background and hover colors
Show it after a set scroll distance, and optionally hide it on mobile
Accessible: a real keyboard-focusable button with a screen-reader label
Respects the visitor’s “reduce motion” setting

📊 Reading Progress Bar

Show how far a visitor has scrolled through the page.

Top or bottom of the screen (sits below the admin bar when logged in)
Thickness, bar color and an optional gradient
Percentage label you can show or hide
Show it everywhere, or only on selected post types

⏱️ Reading Time

Display “1,240 words, 7 minutes read time” on your posts.

Insert automatically before or after the content
Long (“7 minutes read time”) or short (“7 min read”) format
Choose which post types show it, and optionally show it in blog, archive and search listings
[esse_reading_time] shortcode to place it anywhere
Set the reading speed (words per minute) and an optional label
Word counting works with every language, including Bengali, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese
Reading Time block to place it anywhere, including inside a Query Loop

🎨 Custom Scroll Bar

Match the browser scroll bar to your brand.

Track, thumb and hover colors, with ready-made presets
Scroll bar width and thumb radius
Live preview while you edit

💎 Essential Elements Pro

Essential Elements Pro adds premium modules to the same dashboard:

Announcement Bar: a top or bottom notice bar with a call to action button, scheduling, a countdown timer and dismiss memory.
Click to Chat: floating WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, phone, SMS and email buttons with business hours.
Content Protection: discourage copying with right-click, text selection and copy shortcut protection, with an optional “Read more at” link on copied text.

Import & export

Move your enabled modules and all their settings to another site with a JSON file, from Essentials Settings.

Developer friendly

esse_modules_list filter to register your own modules; entries with a class and a settings class (extending EssentialElements\Admin\ModuleSettings) are loaded automatically
esse_module_{id}_sections filter to add settings fields to a module, and esse_module_{id}_output filters to change a module’s markup
esse_export_settings filter and esse_import_settings action to include your own settings in import and export
esse_init action that fires once all modules are loaded
esse_screen_ids filter to load the admin styles on your own pages

License

Essential Elements for WordPress is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2). You may use, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of the GPLv2 license. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html for more details.

Essentials – Essential Elements for WordPress