My list of essential Drupal modules
After setting up and configuring Drupal for a few websites, I have managed to compile a list of common/essential modules that I install for most websites. And here they are – my list of essential Drupal modules:
Core – optional
Contact - Enables the use of both personal and site-wide contact forms.
PHP filter - Allows embedded PHP code/snippets to be evaluated.
Search - Enables site-wide keyword searching.
Poll – Allows your site to capture votes on different topics in the form of multiple choice questions.
Taxonomy - Enables the categorization of content.
Image
Image – Allows uploading, resizing and viewing of images.
Image assist – This module allows users to upload and insert inline images into posts. It automatically generates an Add image link under the textarea fields of your choice.
Image Gallery – Allows sorting and displaying of image galleries based on categories.
Others
SEO
Meta tags – Allows users to add meta tags, eg keywords or description.
Pathauto – Provides a mechanism for modules to automatically generate aliases for the content they manage.
Token – Provides a shared API for replacement of textual placeholders with actual data.
Menu
Nice Menus – CSS/jQuery drop-down, drop-right and drop-left menus to be placed in blocks
WYSIWYG HTML Editor
FCKeditor – Enables the usage of FCKeditor (WYSIWYG) instead of plain text fields.
Spam Control
CAPTCHAM – Base CAPTCHA module for adding challenges to arbitrary forms.
reCAPTCHA – Uses the reCAPTCHA web service to improve the CAPTCHA system.
Email a friend
Forward - Forward this page module
Technorati Tags: drupal, modules, cms, content management system, web development
Hello! Welcome to Web development blog! My name is Ei Sabai and on this blog, I write about web development, mobile app development, latest web technologies and the likes. Read more 
Thanks for this post, I found a few new modules I was not aware of yet!
Use all good Lida
Nice!
Simplenews , Views, CCK , Addresses and DHTML menus seems to be missing :)
Thanks Ayesh. I found out about CCK and Views after writing this post and yes they are great. Haven’t heard of DHTML Menus though. I use Nice Menu and it is pretty good.