Do plugins slow down WordPress? Well the answer is a little deeper than a simple yes. But in short, they DO have an effect on your site, and not always in a good way.

In today’s WordPress instructional, I talk about plugin frugality, or basically, just good housekeeping. In fact these, rules go for any time you design a website – it’s important to be mean fisted when it comes to letting functions run on your site.

If you don’t understand totally what I mean, that’s cool, all will become apparent as I crack the code of ‘do plugins slow down WordPress.’

How Exactly do plugins slow down WordPress sites?

So to explain how do plugins slow down WordPress sites we probably need to explain briefly what they are.

Plugins or apps if you are using something like Shopify, are no different to an app you might have on your iPhone or Android. They are prepackaged programs that add a skill, function or service to the system you have it on.

So just as Tinder helps you find meaningful, long-lasting relationships with someone you would definitely bring home to Mum, a plugin on WordPress may help you let your site visitors log in with a social media sign-in.

Some plugins are made to constantly compress images in the background, while others such as Astra, let you use pre-designed templates to make the build process easier.

How do plugins work?

Plugins work in a number of ways, some are simply scripts that call information from an external website, such as email integrations, but others are just a wall of code that when you plug it into your site’s back end, have done the work a developer may have done for you.

So plugins are good right?

Plugins can be great. I love some plugins, such as Elementor page builder, but I also hate them too. I even hate the ones I love because of the way they have been built. Take Elementor page builder for example. It’s a really good tool, but their pro version means running two blocks of code on your site, as you need to keep the original.

By the way, don’t see this is a diss on Elementor, there are some horrendous page builders out there, that even with just the one plugin will cripple your site while trying to edit it. UX Editor is one on the Flatsome theme.

In the video, I show you a few problems with bad housekeeping when it comes to plugins and what you should do to make sure they don’t slow your site down. After all, what’s the point of doing keyword studies and making a really well laid out site, only to blow it with bad admin.

What are the bad plugins?

Probably too many to name, and it’s not cool for me to do that either. But I would say that before adding any, check out their support forums and see how long it takes for their support teams to reply to questions.

If you are asking do plugins slow down WordPress, then this video is for you.