Whenever you notice an error or performance issue on your site, it’s crucial to put on your WordPress debugging and troubleshooting hat right away. Failing to act immediately could lead to security risks and more complicated problems that take longer to fix. And you definitely want to avoid that!

WordPress debug plugins are excellent tools to help you consistently stay on top of troubleshooting errors on your site. They simplify the debugging process, saving you precious time so that you can focus on more critical tasks.

With many WordPress debug plugin options available, selecting the right one for your site can be challenging. If you’re currently trying to pick a debugging plugin, this guide will help you. We share key features to look for in a WordPress debug plugin and highlight the top options.

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What are the Key Features of a WordPress Debug Plugin?

When selecting a WordPress debug plugin, there are several key features to look for to ensure the plugin meets your debugging needs. These include:

• Intuitive User Interface: A good WordPress debug plugin should provide a user-friendly interface that makes the entire debugging process easy. You should be able to quickly find and use all its features without having to follow unnecessarily complicated steps.
• Debug Mode Toggle: This is an essential feature that every WordPress debug plugin should include, as one of the primary benefits of using a WordPress debugging plugin is to eliminate the need to add WP_DEBUG code to the wp-config.php file manually. 
• Error Log Viewer with Real-Time Data: You should be able to see a live log of all errors on your website using your chosen WordPress debug plugin. This allows you to quickly identify and fix any new errors on your site.
• Site Performance Monitoring: Sometimes, you need insights into page load times, script and style enqueuing, and other performance-related metrics. A good WordPress debug plugin should provide access to these insights without hassle.
• Safe Mode/Crash Recovery: If you ever get locked out of your admin dashboard or your site crashes, you want to restore everything quickly. A reliable WordPress debug plugin should include a safe mode or crash recovery feature to enable this.
• Database Query Insights: This is essential for situations where you need to identify slow, duplicate, or error-prone database queries. Watch for this feature in a WordPress debug plugin, as it could be valuable for your workflow over the long term.
• Hooks and Filters Inspection: When troubleshooting conflicts between plugins or themes, or issues with your custom code, having this feature included in a WordPress debug plugin can be especially helpful. 
• Search Bar & Filters: A search bar and filtering options make it easier to browse error log entries, saving time and effort in locating errors that need to be fixed. You should ensure that your WordPress debug plugin of choice includes these features if efficiency is important to you.

Some other nice-to-have features to consider when choosing a WordPress debug plugin include: email alerts to notify you as soon as a critical error occurs on your site, HTTP request logging to monitor all outgoing HTTP requests made by your site, and script and style inspection tools.

Now that we have covered what you should look for in a WordPress debug plugin, let’s explore the top plugin options available.

The Best Plugins to Troubleshoot and Debug WordPress

In this section, we will take a close look at the top WordPress debug plugins for troubleshooting and debugging, highlighting their key features so you can decide which would work best for your specific use case.

1. WP Debug Toolkit

WP Debug Toolkit is the most user-friendly debugging plugin that transforms troubleshooting errors efficiently without dealing with complex technical setups. It simplifies the debugging process and focuses on what most WordPress users actually need: clear error visibility and reliable access when things go wrong.

The standout feature is how WP Debug Toolkit handles emergencies. When your WordPress site crashes or shows that dreaded white screen, the plugin’s standalone viewer app keeps working independently. This means you can always see what caused the crash and take action, even if you can’t access your WordPress admin dashboard.

The plugin activates debug mode with a single click from your dashboard. Once enabled, it starts capturing every PHP error, warning, and notice on your site in real-time.

The Viewer App interface displays all errors in a clean, organized format with color-coded severity levels. The smart filtering system lets you include or exclude logs by keyword, error level, time range, or specific source files, so you can focus only on the issues that matter most to your current debugging session.

For each error entry, you can press Q on your keyboard or click the eye icon to open the built-in File Viewer. This feature shows you the exact file and line number where the error occurred, plus the complete call stack and context about what triggered the issue. The File Viewer includes syntax highlighting and makes it easy to understand the code surrounding the error.

Here’s a quick overview of how WP Debug Toolkit works:

Key Features

• One-click debug activation without touching code.
• Independent log viewer app that works during WordPress crashes.
• Real-time error tracking with automatic updates.
• Smart filtering system to find specific errors quickly.
• Built-in file viewer showing exact error locations.
• Crash recovery system to disable all plugins at once.
• Clean, modern interface that’s easy to navigate.
• Keyboard shortcuts for faster debugging workflow.

2. Debug Log Manager

Debug Log Manager is a solid WordPress debug plugin that offers straightforward debugging features with a user-friendly approach.

The plugin simplifies debugging by allowing you to toggle debug mode on and off to easily view your site’s error logs. You can track PHP, JavaScript, and database errors, then find and filter them using the built-in search feature.

Each error entry shows the source, including file path and line number, making troubleshooting easier. The plugin also includes helpful toggles for log auto-refresh, JavaScript error logging, and other settings to customize your debugging experience.

From a drawbacks perspective, the Debug Log Manager has previously been reported to have security vulnerability issues, such as cross-site scripting, missing authentication checks, and disclosure of sensitive information. While these have been addressed through plugin updates, there’s still a need for users to stay alert for potential vulnerabilities when using the plugin.

Another drawback is that the plugin depends on WordPress’ plugin functionality to work. So if there’s ever a fatal PHP error early in the WordPress execution process, it means the plugin cannot load, and the fatal error is not logged, making it difficult to troubleshoot.

Key Features

• Toggle to enable or disable WordPress debug mode.
• Creation of the debug.log file in a non-default location.
• Parses log entries to remove duplicates and simplify log file reading.
• Filter and search functionality to quickly find specific errors.
• Direct link to the file where PHP errors occurred.
• Toggle to enable and disable log auto-refresh.
• Button to clear the debug.log file to save disk space.
• Dashboard widget that shows the latest logged errors.
• Indicator in the admin bar so you always know when error logging is enabled.

3. Query Monitor

Query Monitor describes itself as “the developer tools panel for WordPress and WooCommerce,” and rightly so. This WordPress debug plugin is packed with a range of basic to advanced WordPress debugging features that make it easy to troubleshoot various issues on your site.

With Query Monitor, you can debug PHP errors, database queries, block editor blocks, hooks and actions, HTTP API calls, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, and more.

After installing the plugin, it adds a toolbar to your admin menu that displays an overview of statistics for the currently loaded page, including page load time, page size, the number of PHP errors, and the number of database queries, among other metrics. Clicking any menu option opens a panel with more detailed debugging information.

The data in the panel is organized to make it easy to filter errors or queries by the plugins, themes, or functions responsible. This speeds up the process of identifying any problematic plugins, themes, or functions.

For more advanced WordPress debugging, Query Monitor offers features to debug Ajax calls, REST API calls, user capability checks, and full support for block themes and full site editing.

While feature-rich, the plugin has some downsides. It does not provide historical data, so tracking issues outside an active debug session is difficult.

Also, on large sites with limited server resources, performance may suffer because the WordPress debug plugin monitors all aspects of page load, which can be resource-intensive.

Finally, the amount of information Query Monitor provides can be overwhelming for users who aren’t technically inclined.

Key Features

• Displays all database queries executed during the current request, including affected rows, slow queries, duplicate queries, and more.
• Groups database queries by type, component, and calling function.
• Shows all PHP errors with their component and call stack, along with a visible warning in the admin toolbar.
• Displays user capability checks performed, along with their results and parameters.
• Indicates use of “Doing it Wrong” or “Deprecated” functionality in your code.
• Provides environment details, including comprehensive information about PHP, the database, WordPress, and the web server.
• Shows all server-side HTTP requests made via the WordPress HTTP API.
• Displays all hooks triggered during the current request, including action callbacks, priorities, and components.
• Identifies language settings and loaded text domains, among other features.

4. Developer Debug Tools

Developer Debug Tools is a powerful WordPress debug plugin designed to simplify the development and testing process for developers and site administrators. The plugin makes debugging easier by helping you identify issues on your WordPress site so you can troubleshoot and fix them quickly.

The Developer Debug Tools user interface is quite comprehensive, offering several settings and options. It features tabs that display detailed information about plugins, activity logs, error logs, error types, wp-config files, site server, cron jobs, transients, cookies, database tables, and more.

The WordPress debug plugin also allows you to enhance the admin bar by removing certain items, such as the WordPress logo, shortcode finder, and centering tool. Additionally, you can update user and post meta directly from the admin area.

However, the many debugging features available in Developer Debug Tools can also feel overwhelming. The user interface may seem intimidating and could feel like a lot, even for a site administrator or developer.

Furthermore, some features require manual setup involving coding and careful configuration. Mistakes in this process could introduce vulnerabilities or even break your site. As a result, this WordPress debug plugin might be most effective for developers or site administrators with extensive experience in this area.

Key Features

• Allows viewing and clearing debug.log and other error logs.
• Offers a Debug Log Easy Reader that consolidates duplicate lines and displays each error in an easy-to-understand format.
• Enables access to and editing of wp-config.php and .htaccess files.
• Permits viewing and editing of user meta and post meta.
• Provides quick links for debugging users, posts, pages, and comments.
• Sends Discord notifications for fatal errors, user page loads, and user logins.
• Allows viewing of database tables and entries at a glance.
• Includes access to additional functions and hooks for debugging, along with more features.

5. Debug Bar

Debug Bar is a popular WordPress debugging plugin that makes it easy to access query, cache, and other helpful WordPress debugging information.

The plugin achieves this by adding a debug menu to the admin bar, which, when selected, displays all available information through a simple-to-use interface.

Although Debug Bar comes with limited WordPress debugging features by default, it offers many add-ons to expand its debugging capabilities. These include Debug Bar Cron, Debug Bar Shortcodes, Debug Bar Transients, Debug Bar Constants, and others.

You can also use the plugin to track PHP warnings and notices, as well as MySQL queries. However, accessing this feature requires manually enabling the WP_DEBUG and SAVEQUERIES constants in your wp-config.php file. This is a drawback to keep in mind if you decide to use the Debug Bar plugin on your site.

Its limited features and reliance on add-ons for extra capabilities can also be inconvenient if you prefer a WordPress debugging solution that provides all necessary features right out of the box.

Users have also noted the infrequent release of plugin updates, which could lead to vulnerabilities and compatibility issues.

Key Features

• Shows database query information.
• Shows WordPress object cache insights.
• Tracks PHP warnings and notices when WP_DEBUG is enabled.
• Tracks MySQL queries when SAVEQUERIES is enabled.
• Provides add-ons to extend its WordPress debugging features.

6. Error Log Viewer

The Error Log Viewer plugin offers a simple way to manage WordPress error logs. It allows you to easily locate and view error log files directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.

After installing the plugin, you are prompted to update the error log viewer settings to select which logs to monitor. You can enable the creation of log files for PHP error logs and other WordPress error log options. These log files are then accessible on the Log Monitor page.

You can also choose whether to enable email notifications and set how often you want to receive updates, helping you stay informed about any log changes.

Although the Error Log Viewer plugin does what it claims, it displays error log information using the default WordPress interface, which isn’t always user-friendly. There are limited options for filtering logs to quickly find specific errors.

Overall, its WordPress debugging and analysis features are pretty basic compared to more advanced WordPress debugging plugins available. You also have to manually enable WordPress debug mode in the wp-config.php file for the plugin to display error logs. 

Additionally, there have been previous reports of security vulnerabilities in the plugin. While these issues have been patched in newer versions, it’s important to remain cautious of potential security risks, especially since the plugin isn’t updated very often.

Key Features

• Allows searching and viewing PHP and WordPress error logs.
• Sends email notifications about log changes based on the user’s preferred frequency.
• Provides options to configure log monitor settings to select which logs to display.
• Enables viewing and saving PHP error logs as TXT files.

Which is The Best Plugin to Debug WordPress Errors?

When it comes to debugging and troubleshooting issues on your website, you have several WordPress debug plugin options to choose from.

For most WordPress users, WP Debug Toolkit offers the best balance of ease-of-use and powerful features. Its independent log viewer app ensures you can always access error logs, even during site crashes, while the modern interface makes debugging straightforward for users of all skill levels.

If you’re a developer seeking comprehensive diagnostic tools and don’t mind a steeper learning curve, Query Monitor remains an excellent choice for advanced debugging capabilities.

The Best Plugins to Debug WordPress — Frequently Asked Questions