Different plugins are available for advanced users and use cases, some of them need extra installation, some not.
There are very useful plugins that allow to parse results using advanced options and analyze them using graphs and charts like http://jmeter-plugins.org/wiki/GraphsGeneratorListener/.
There are also available plugins in order to connect JMeter with your continuous integration tool and run JMeter test plans directly from the CI software like “https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Performance+Plugin” for Jenkins.
As i said the number of plugins is elevated and it is not possible to enumerate all of them, it is probably worth it to check if there is some plugins available in the internet before trying to implement yourself one on your own.
You can also create your own plugin for JMeter, but this is out of the scope of this article.