There are over 50,000 WordPress plugins. When you traverse through them, it feels like you are walking through a candy store – you want every single one of them. But do you need them?
Why We Use WordPress Plugins
These are handy pieces of independent codes, written to perform particular functionalities to help ease a website.
Just like humans, some of WordPress plugins are extremely efficient while some are nothing but a cause of nuisance to your website.
So, the question is: how much is too much?
What Happens When You Add More WordPress Plugins on Your Website
1. It Takes Longer to Access Your Website
In the world of websites, speed is of paramount importance. Many people are frustrated to leave a website if it fails to load under three seconds.
Plugins make your website heavy. It is only fair that when you load a website, your installed plugins will also be loaded and this will holistically make your website slow.
2. Overloaded HTTP Requests
Standard web protocol, HTTP is used for accessing internet. With each plugin taking time to load its functionality, your website may suffer a severe lag if it is overloaded with HTTP requests. In extreme cases, your website may not load at all and your clients may leave your website and switch to other options. You will lose business as well as ROI (return on investment)
3. Saturated Database
All the web hosting companies offer a finite space to your website. The website data is stored on a server with limited capacity.
All the installment of plugins makes your database bloated. If it is too much loaded, it will cause your database to run inefficiently. This transforms your website into a super sluggish website.
4. Compatibility Issues
The more plugins you install, the more compatibility issues your website will face. This is the case when code of two or more plugins fails to collaborate, resulting in a site’s crash.
All the plugins are not written by same developers. This makes the final output of your website inefficient. You can compare the example of a gearwheel inside a machinery.
When gearwheels are compatible, they swiftly work their way but if their teeth are not calibrated, they will get stuck in each other, making machine useless.
And while you may feel tempted to test different plugins, rest assured that there are over 50,000 WordPress plugins and it is practically impossible to test a distinct plugin against all its competitors.
Our WordPress Plugin Advice
You definitely do not need to install every plugin you see on the internet.
While some websites have reported to have been working efficiently with as much as 50 WP plugins, this does not guarantee that you will benefit if you install all types of WP plugins.
Adopt a utilitarian approach. Take only those plugins which are beneficial for you and remove all those plugins which you do not require. Adopt a good hosting plan, test plugins before you install them and regularly make a backup of your website.
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