It is very hard to imagine WordPress without plugins. The WordPress community and the amount of WordPress sites around the world would be substantially lower without the countless numbers of free and paid plugins that add awesome functionality.
However, in regards to plugins, a question that I rarely hear asked is, “how many plugins should my WordPress site have?” That’s a complicated question. The more plugins you have the more you potentially increase security risks, increase maintenance requirements, and reduce site speed. So the short answer is you should have as few plugins as possible installed.
As the popularity and usage of WordPress continues to increase the WordPress community becomes a bigger (and more lucrative) target for hackers. That’s why you hear about WordPress sites being hacked at alarming frequency. One of the problems is sites with too many plugins and webmasters who don’t keep them updated.
It can be a lot to manage. If you have a site with 20 plugins (which is a A LOT for one site) and each plugin releases one update per month, that’s potentially 20 times you need to log into your website to update plugins and keep them secure. Who has time for that? Well, you can have us do (we have a WPDone4You service) or you can reduce the number of plugins on your site.
There are lot of instances where you can manually code plugin functionality into your site and remove the plugin. The best example is Google analytics plugins. You can insert Google tracking code directly into your website template and delete the plugin. There are some features that you’ll lose, but you’ll gain in security and site speed.
Here are some things to consider when installing plugins.
Consider Quality of plugins
Make sure the plugins you are using are authentic and reputable. Often, many plugins slow down your site or may create security risks. A single outdated or poor quality plugin can cause havoc to a website. While having a lot of plugins can elevate the risk of bad things happening. Choosing your plugins intelligently can reduce the risk.
Nulled (stolen) plugins can be tempting because you can save a few dollars, but I’m against that for two reasons. First, paid plugins are created by individuals or businesses how are trying to provide a great service and make a living doing it. Second, hackers often null the plugins and insert things like the Social.png hack. So by installing a nulled plugin you can be opening the door for hackers to stroll right in. Using nulled (stolen) plugins doesn’t help anyone.
Consider Functionality When Choosing WordPress plugins
Now you know that quality of plugins can affect the functionality of your site. The next thing is to consider is if the chosen plugin would improve your site and make your visitor’s experiene better. In simple terms, you should make clear choices in the type of plugin you actually need instead of choosing one that is flashy and looks cool!
Chances of Conflict in plugins
When you have too many plugins on your site, the chances of them conflicting with each other increases. If plugins are of good quality then these types of conflicts are few and far between. However, plugins of poor quality will only create headaches. Here again, the key to successful use of plugins is to use only those which are properly designed.
Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that by keeping the list of plugins short, you are taking maximum advantage of them. So, do hesitate before using unnecessary and poor quality plugins. The purpose is to have the best quality ones and as few of them as possible.