There is always lots of questions and discussion one can notice on different WordPress discussion forums that what are the best and essential plugins for WordPress multisite. As together thinking on thought, I feel that I will prepare one such list which can help everyone who has been looking out for such multisite plugins.
Suggested Reading: WordPress Multisite: A Guide for Beginners
Simplified Social Sharing
The plugin lets your users share via their accounts on popular social networks such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vkontakte and over 80 more!
UpdraftPlus – WordPress Backup and Restoration
The plugin simplifies backups (and restoration). Backup into the cloud (Amazon S3 (or compatible), Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud, DreamObjects, FTP, SFTP, SCP, WebDAV and email) and restore with a single click. Backups of files and database can have separate schedules.
WP Photo Album Plus
The plugin is designed to easily manage and display your photo albums and slideshows in a single as well as in a network WordPress site.
MarketPress – WordPress eCommerce
The best free ecommerce plugin available for WordPress – easy to use, beautiful & powerful.
MailChimp for WP Lite
The best plugin to get you more email subscribers. Easily add sign-up forms and sign-up checkboxes to your WordPress website.
InfiniteWP Client
The plugin allows users to manage unlimited number of WordPress sites from their own server.
Hupso Share Buttons for Twitter, Facebook & Google+
The plugin help visitors share your posts on popular social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Reddit and others.
BackWPup Free – WordPress Backup Plugin
The plugin lets you schedule complete automatic backups of your WordPress installation. Decide which content will be stored (Dropbox, S3…). This is the free version
Multilingual Press Free
The plugin connects multiple sites as language alternatives in a multisite. Use a customizable widget to link to all sites.
xili-language
The plugin lets you create and manage multilingual WP site in several languages with yours or most famous localizable themes.
eShop
eShop is an accessible shopping cart plugin for WordPress, packed with various features. Including:
Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting plugin
The plugin brings the essential features for podcasting to WordPress including full iTunes support, web audio/video media players and more.
WP Better Emails
The plugin adds a customizable good looking HTML template to all WP default plain/text emails and lets you set a custom sender name and email address.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
The plugin improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast.
Autoptimize
The plugin speeds up your website and helps you save bandwidth by aggregating and minimizing JS and CSS.
Quotmarks Replacer
The plugin disables wptexturize function that keeps all quotation marks and suspension points in half-width form.
SiteTree
The plugin is a lightweight and user-friendly tool to enhance your WordPress site with feature-loaded Google Sitemap and Archive Page (or HTML5 Compliant Site Map).
Multisite Global Search
The plugin adds the ability to search through blogs into your WordPress Multisite installation.
User Switching
The plugin allows you to quickly swap between user accounts in WordPress at the click of a button.
Ban Hammer
The plugin prevent people from registering via your comment moderation blacklist.
WP Maintenance Mode
The plugin adds a splash page to your site that lets visitors know your site is down for maintenance. Full access to the back- & front-end is optional.
Networks for WordPress
The plugin adds a Networks panel for network admins to create and manage multiple Networks from one WordPress installation.
Social Login, Social Sharing, Social Commenting and more!
The plugin let your users log in, comment and share via their social accounts with Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vkontakte, QQ and over 25 more!
StatComm (StatPress Community) Multisite Edition
The plugin provides realtime statistics on your blog multisite or singlesite, collecting information about visitors, spiders, search keywords, feeds, browsers, OS and more.
Photo Credit: Flickr/Micah Drushal