Is there a limitation in no. of plugins for WordPress Website?


is-there-any-limitation-on-plugins-in-wordpress-website

Creating a WordPress website is a thrilling experience for the beginners. WordPress provides a bunch of plugins (around 49,500 plug-ins) to add the functionality on the website. And the website without plugins is like impossible in WordPress.

But, several questions may arise in your mind before using any plugins.

How many plugins can I install for my website? Do these plugins reduce the performance of my website? Which plugins are suitable for my website? And so on …..

From my research on the niche topic, I get to know that there is no such limitation in installing any number of plugins. The things that matter is the quality of the code of the plugins and its better functionality.

Some of you might think this is vague. But, trust me this is true. Let’s have a deep conversation on this subject.

wordpress-plugin

How many plugins are limited to a website?

Well, as I mentioned above that there is no limit on an exact number of plugins to install on a website. You can use as much as you need. This type of question arises after the clients use a lot of plugins on their website and make their developers frustrated. Then developers comment the reason was due to plugins and the clients believe it was.

We can see the use of a number of plugins in the most famous website and their performance is better than we thought. For example, the well-known site-WPBeginner uses more than 50 plugins, ShoutmeLoud uses more than 25 plugins. But their site performs well.

Do you know the importance of Plugins?

Today, WordPress will not restrict its use for blogging. You can create different types of website. But, WordPress does not provide advanced functionality and plugins are developed to fulfil the need of a CMS. In simple words, we can explain the relation of WordPress and Plugins as the bread and jam. The combination of both (WordPress and Plugins) will provide you with a beautiful website.

The plugin is a code developed by professional developers to perform specific functions and extend the features of the website. For example, WordPress doesn’t provide a contact form. You have to install WordPress contact form plugins to add this feature on your site.

If you think to add your code in your system instead of using plugins, you can do that, but it’s difficult to everyone. WordPress is designed for anyone who has an interest in the web development. So, you can take the advantage of WordPress plugins.

What are the possible problems caused by poor plugins?

We cannot guarantee all plugins are good. But, we can find out if plugins are causing the problems on the site through inspection. You’ll notice these problems if poor plugins are used on your site.

Slow down the website

Installed plugins include CSS, JavaScript and other files which will occupy a space of the memory.  Also, some plugins perform complex SQL queries. These may add workload to the server and slow down your site.

Cause plugins conflict

While working with more plugins, it can cause conflict and makes your site suffered. Two plugins are coded in different ways. If they work well in this version, they might not supports in its next version and can cause malfunction of your site.

High-security risk

The poorly coded plugins may have the high-security risk as hackers can easily attack your site through these plugins. Another possible reason may be if a plugin is not updated then it will not be compatible with your current version. Avoid this to secure your WordPress website.

How to choose the best plugins?

best wordpress plugin

You find a thousand of WordPress plugins and may have doubts about picking the right one. Every plugin on the market may not be suitable to use. You must consider these aspects while choosing the plugins.

No. of active installs and rating of the plugins

Human nature is to judge based on a review. So, I’d recommend you to look the number of active installs of the plugin and the rating by users. More active installs and good rating have a high chance of good plugins.

Date of recent updates and age of the plugins

You can determine the quality of the plugin by checking its age and date of the latest version. If the plugin was not updated for a year, then its functionality may be outdated to support your latest website.

Proper Functionality and Good coding

While searching a plugin, you must know your requirement. Then see whether the plugins functionality meets your need or not. After that, you have to do some research on the quality codes of the plugin. Examine if the coding meets the WordPress Coding Standards.

Proper documentation and customer support

There are plenty of plugins in the market. The most important point is to assure the customer support and proper documentation of the plugins. You can go to the developer’s site and check the installation process, screenshots and required documents related to the plugins. If the documentation is written poorly, what will be the condition of the code? Also, you can ask any confusion to the developer and analyse how well they were able to clear cut your problem.

How to resolve plugin issues?

Installed plugins carry extra features along with an extra headache of the users. But, you can easily avoid these problems if you are concerned with important points and make plans before using plugins on your site.

Check the functionality of existing plugin

Whenever you want to add plugins, first of all, check whether your existing plugins contain that functionality or not. This may prevent you to install plugins with the same functionality.

Update later version of plugins

Stay up-to-date with the latest version of the plugins and update it when available. This may help your plugins to be compatible with the latest technology.

Ask WordPress experts to pick plugins

If you think you are unsure about the correct plugins, you can contact/hire any WordPress experts and consult with him to pick the right one.

Which plugins your first WordPress website must have?

mist have wordpress plugin

Image Source: https://www.betterinfoview.com/essential-must-have-wordpress-plugins/

If you are new in the web development, you might think what important plugins your website must contain. I have listed plugins that every website must have.

Security Plugins

Cache Plugins

SEO Plugins

Backup Plugins

Social Media Plugins

Note: If you don’t need your installed plugins, you can deactivate them instead of deleting it (lightweight plugins). You never know when you will have to use it in the future.

Final Thought

Don’t go through others thinking. Installing plugins will not decline your website performance or privacy. You can install many plugins as you need. The important fact is the selection of the plugin and the way of its use on your website.


Updated on: 23 March 2017 |


Nirmal Gyanwali, Director of WP Creative

Nirmal Gyanwali

With over 16 years of experience in the web industry, Nirmal has built websites for a wide variety of businesses; from mom n’ pop shops to some of Australia’s leading brands. Nirmal brings his wealth of experience in managing teams to WP Creative along with his wife, Saba.