How To Install WordPress on Debian and Ubuntu with a LAMP Stack (Digitalocean Tutorial)
I try to use as few plugins as possible. The more plugins the more issues! I am no fan of the commercial and more and more spammy plugin culture either. So I prefer plugins from indie developpers.
Simple SEO for adding meta information sitemaps
WP SMTP for sending mail
I used to think that I need a plugin for removing the category base, to get domain.com/news instead of domain.com/category/news, but you can get this done within the permalinks setting. In “Category base” one just needs to enter a single dot: . (source)
Unfortunately, the Wordpress theme culture is getting more spammy as well. So I either use one of the official themes or one from one of the few indie designers. My favorite theme designer is Anders Noren.