Sikkepitje I am interested in what plugins are recommended for use on a website, that is , single-user, CMS-like, and how to setup on Apache/Linux or Nginx in a safe way with nice/short URLs . and how to make my own templates.
Apache nice url's is the easiest: Just rename .httaccess.dist to .htaccess and uncomment the Rewrite engine lines. Also, you have to change the niceurl option in DokuWiki's config. I'm using Nginx personally, but its server block is a little more tedious to set up, and I remember spending time trying to figure it out from various examples. But I'll dig it up if needed. You can't really go wrong with Apache though.
Regarding plugins, that completely depends on what you want to do with your wiki. Some of the aforementioned ones are nice, but for instance, you'll not need Captcha for a single-user wiki (no registration). At one point in my life I was going through most of the plugins, trying them out to see what they did, and if I could use them for something. Now I just keep tabs on new and updated plugins. I have about 100 installed, but only 40 or so active. Like I said, it depends on what you want to do with your wiki, and you can always ask on this forum as you go about figuring things out.
Please don't make your own template. Not that it isn't a useful learning experience. But better to find one that will do what you need, and you'll have one worry less building your wiki (hint: it's all about the content). I spent a lot of time making my own theme, not really satisfied with what was on offer at the time. The official theme isn't really CMS-like. And other themes were just, well, boring. Or clones of the official one, with just a couple of modifications. Bootstrap3 is a powerhouse of a theme, but felt a bit bloated for my own needs. And it is stuck on version 3 of Bootstrap.
ComboStrap is a theme based on Bootstrap 4, and it has lots of Bootstrap UI elements available via simple syntax, so your header navigation can be just a wiki page, no coding necessary. And the best thing is that it has its own website with documentation and examples. Couldn't be easier to get started with DokuWiki and Bootstrap 4! ComboStrap is part theme, part integrated plugins collection, and should be sufficient to get you strapping in no time.
I have just downloaded Hogfather and ComboStrap to set up a new local wiki, no issues. With the horror(!) stories of Hogfather upgrades on this forum, I wouldn't dare to upgrade my production server with all its plugins. But then, who in their right mind will immediately upgrade their production environment to a brand new, refactored release, expecting everything to go smooth?! Yet for a new DokuWiki convert (or a prospective one), that's the way to go.
Other indispensable plugins that come to my mind: include, simplenavi, addnewpage, changes, comment, gallery... Several of the plugins that I use have been replaced by ComboStrap, while others are mainly relevant for my usage. But these ones, in addition to the aforementioned wrap (and wrapadd for nicer boxes), confmanager, move, etc., will get you comfortably situated. I might also recommend that you browse GitHub users: splitbrain, cosmocode, and dokufreaks, to see what they have to offer.
Please excuse my lengthy post. But I guess you don't mind reading a little to potentially save yourself a lot of time. And with that, my new DokuWiki friend, I bid thee farewell and good luck!