9 Plugins to Turn Your WordPress Site Into an Online Magazine

Now is the best time to build a magazine on WordPress. Seriously. All the tools are there. And WordPress is getting more feature-rich by the day. So, you have a real opportunity to create something stellar.

We’ve already covered how to set up an issues-based magazine in the past using manual coding as well as how to create a magazine cover-style homepage, so we won’t rehash old material here.

What I will do, however, is cover some of the best plugins out there right now that make turning a standard WordPress site into a real online magazine. Like a real-deal, totally legit publication you’d buy at a newsstand—if those still exist.

• IssueM

  

  While there are plenty of plugins out there that let you create the look of a magazine on your WordPress site, there aren’t very many that actually let you structure it as such. That’s why IssueM is a real standout. This plugin allows you to create an issues-based structure for your WordPress posts and pages, effectively letting you create a real magazine.

  The plugin works by creating a new post type that falls under an “Issues” category. You can create an Issue with several articles that remain in draft form until you’re ready to release the whole thing at once. And what I really like here is that you don’t need a special theme or have to compromise on the look of your site to implement this issues system. Rather, all you need is to insert the included shortcodes and you’ll have an issues-based magazine launched in no time, flat.

  IssueM can be upgraded a bit thanks to a set of premium add-ons as well. One such add on is Leaky Paywall with Stripe and PayPal Integration, which allows you to charge site visitors to view your content. It costs $197 for a single site license. Another add-on is the Post Migration Tool, which allows you to convert your existing blog posts into Articles and Issues. It’ll set you back $19 for a single site license. Finally, there’s the Advanced Search Tool, which adds a more robust search system to your site that allows visitors to search for keywords within categories, tags, and issues. It also costs $19.

• ThemeZee Magazine Blocks

  

  The ThemeZee Magazine Blocks plugin is a simple lightweight plugin that is designed specifically to give a magazine-style look to the posts on your site. It enhances the functionality of your website by providing a wide range of customizable magazine-style blocks that can be integrated into your posts with a click.

  It has an amazing collection of five different magazine-style post layouts represented by blocks. Each block displays the posts in a different fashion. This plugin is compatible with the new Gutenberg WordPress block editor.

  With the ThemeZee Magazine plugin, you can easily create engaging and visually appealing magazine layouts without much effort The block styles include Grids, Lists, Columns, and Horizontal and Vertical post layouts.

• Issues and Series for Newspapers

  

  This plugin allows you to easily organize your posts into issues and series. The series groups posts on similar topics under one collection and gives your site the ideal magazine-style look you wanted.

  The issues can be created based on topics or time periods. You can organize chapters into one complete story or group multiple posts into monthly issues like you would for a magazine.

  Adding a new post to issues, changing the order of the posts within the issues, or updating existing issues can be done with ease.

  The interface is simple and easy to use, any post can be added to a series or an issue with just a checkbox. The plugin also provides dozens of different and unique layout options to display content.

  Engage your readers, and provide a seamless reading experience with this powerful and user-friendly plugin.

• PostX - Gutenberg Post Grid Blocks

  

  PostX WordPress plugin provides a varied collection of customizable post grid blocks. With PostX, you can effortlessly create stunning post grids and display your content in a visually appealing and engaging manner on your website.

  Currently, the plugin offers 19 useful and customizable blocks that can be added to your pages to organize your site’s posts according to your needs. It also provides you access to a list of Google fonts that you can use on your designs.

  Whether you want to showcase blog posts, portfolio items, products, or any other type of content in a magazine-style look, this plugin offers the features you need. Enhance your website’s design, engage your visitors, and present your content in a captivating manner to your readers.

• Blockspare

  

  The Blockspare plugin provides a wide range of customizable Gutenberg blocks for creating stunning web pages. With Blockspare, you can effortlessly design unique and visually appealing layouts without any coding knowledge, giving your website a professional magazine look.

  Blockspare currently provides access to over 250+ pre-designed templates, block layouts, and 50+ exclusive WordPress blocks. This plugin also has an animation option that arranges the look of each section of the layout in a desired fashion and with popular animations.

  Some of the other notable features of this plugin include its typographic settings, color options, icon settings, and pagination.

  Unlike other plugins in the list, block spare not just provides you with a set of pre-designed post layouts and templates but also an extensive ready-to-use block library that you can easily import and start using without any hassle.

  The interface is extremely user-friendly with customizable styling options. With this plugin, you can build a unique and visually appealing magazine layout on your WordPress website.

• Blog Designer Pack

  

  Blog Designer Pack is a feature-rich WordPress plugin that displays your blog posts in a creative manner. With a comprehensive set of design options and layouts, this plugin helps you to create unique and stylish blog layouts.

  It has a total of 7 blog layouts and 2 different styles for each layout. The layout can easily be added to any page or post using a shortcode.
  For greater customization, you can also add parameters to the shortcodes. It has an Ajax pagination option that helps in filtering the posts without reloading the posts which makes it possible to design not just the blog posts but also the archives page.

• WP Magazine Modules Lite

  

  WP Magazine Modules Lite is a versatile and user-friendly WordPress plugin that enhances your website’s magazine-style layouts with a collection of pre-designed templates. There are over 20 block layouts available and all the layouts created with the plugin are responsive and adapt to different screen sizes.

  The plugin also provides options to customize block columns and select posts from multiple categories. It also offers a wide range of color options, including font color, button background color, border color, and link hover color.

  Flexible typography settings are also available for block titles, post titles, content, meta, and buttons.

• Magazine Blocks by BlockArt

  

  With Magazine Blocks, you can effortlessly organize and display your content in a magazine-style manner. It offers a wide range of colors, backgrounds, layouts, and options to enhance the look of your content.

  The plugin offers three post-hierarchy options: large, medium, and small. This allows readers to easily scan post headings and find the articles that are most relevant to them. It is designed to be responsive and optimized for all devices

  The plugin offers one-click demo import functionality, making it easy to import pre-designed magazine demos without any hassle. Currently, there are two demos available. The demos can be fully customized to suit your preferences, and, according to the developer, more demos will be regularly added in the future.

Wrapping Up

The option of building online magazines isn’t exactly a new thing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make the process a little bit easier, right? And with so much emphasis on long-form content these days, it feels especially relevant to try and find the most effective solutions as possible.

That’s why I went with the plugin route here – because you can often create content that functions like a magazine while still preserving control over the design.

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy. [Originally Published: October 2014 / Revised: June 2023]