Are wordpress plugins worth it

Hi, I am Praneeth.

In this blog, you will learn Everything related to the pros and cons of wordpress plugins in detail.

Without further ado let’s get started.

here is a 30000-foot view of the blog

What are WordPress plugins & how they work?

WordPress plugins in simple terms are like software or applications which add new features and functionalities to wordpress websites.

It is just like apps in smartphones which add new functions and features to the phone and make the life of the user easy.

Similarly, wordpress plugins are pieces of code written in PHP language because wordpress is written in PHP programming language and these codes or software get connected with the wordpress website and add new features to the website.

WordPress is designed in such a way that every developer can create, modify, and contribute to the changes and additions of functionality in wordpress.

Any developer can see the wordpress code as it is open source cms, create a new plugin, and get it into the wordpress directory for people to install them.

Read why wordpress is the best cms in the world?

Without getting into further depth and details about plugins,

Let’s see what are the pros and cons of wordpress plugins you should consider before choosing wordpress as your cms for your website.

Pros and cons of wordpress plugins.

Here is a list of 10 pros and cons of wordpress plugins.

S/no.	pros of wordpress plugins.	cons of wordpress plugins.
1	It adds new functionalities instantly.	It can leave websites vulnerable to attacks and hacks.
2	It saves a lot of time and effort.	It causes the website load to be slow.
3	It is easy to install and use.	It causes conflicts and breaks down websites.
4	It can be both flexible and reliable.	So many plugins limit functionality.
5	Most of them are free.	It can be an unplanned additional expense.

Let’s see the pros and cons in detail,

Let’s dive right in.

Pros of wordpress plugins.

Here is a quick overview of the pros or advantages of wordpress plugins.

It adds new functionalities instantly.
It saves a lot of time & effort.
It is easy to install and use.
It can be both flexible and reliable.
Most of them are free.

Let’s learn each advantage or pro in detail.

1. It adds new functionalities instantly.

Look wordpress plugins are all about adding new functionality to your website

Even the most complex-looking functionality you can think of can be added within a few clicks through plugins.

Take for example,

You want social share buttons-you to have sassy social share buttons.
You want to increase website speed and caching- you have w3 total cache.
You want to add a contact form-you have contact form 7.
You want to safeguard your website-you have WordFence.
You want to make all your external links in a new tab and nofollow-you have external links plugin.
You want to add an author box on your website-you has a simple author box.
You want to connect analytics and search console without getting into the hassle of technical works and insertion of codes-You have many plugins like monster insights, Sitekit, etc.

It is just an example of what I am intending to say, it is that every sort of feature and customization you would like to have on your website, there is definitely a plugin in wordpress for that.

2. It saves a lot of time and effort.

Look,

The basic and primary aspect of plugins is all about adding features to your website and saving your time and effort in these works.

With saving, I refer to things like,

You write manual code on your website to add that little functionality to your website even if you know to code.
You looking after the speed of the websites by manually checking
You can delete unnecessary assets that load on your website which can slow down your time with plugins instead of manual coding work.

With saving time and effort, here are few cases as perfect examples.

You want to take a backup of your website-You have an updraft plus plugin.
You want to add the sitemap and all the technical works of your SEO like broken links-You have a Rankmath SEO plugin to take care of all the SEO of your website.
You want to design your website like a pro with no coding knowledge and less time-You have an Elementor plugin with a drag and drop feature to help you for free.
You want to create popup ads in less time like automated-You have the Optinmonster plugin.
You want to compress and optimize images on your website automatically-You have a smush plugin.
You want to increase website traffic automatically without your interference-You have the PushEngage web push notifications plugin.
You want to maintain and manage your affiliate links-You have a thirsty affiliate links plugin.

These are a few instances in the life of a blogger where wordpress plugins are a great boon.

For more information about these plugins,

Read my guide on top wordpress plugins you should download on your website.

3. It is easy to install and use.

Look,

Unlike any other cms like drupal and Joomla where managing websites and customization them is a tough task mostly suited for developers,

On wordpress, the beautiful thing is that it is designed for nontechies, so simple and easy to learn.

Things are so simplistic, beginner-friendly, and easy to understand on wordpress that you should not wonder why wordpress cms are powering over 39% of all the websites on the internet.

Right from searching for plugins, installing them, to installing themes and doing other customizations of themes and configurations of important settings of your website are very simple and easily done in a matter of a few clicks.

4. It can be both flexible and reliable.

Another thing about wordpress plugins worth noticing and rewarding is that they can actually be very flexible and reliable.

The plugins help in customizing website features and functions, with one plugin and you can integrate with external tools and use external resources with the help of plugins and use them on your wordpress website.

Another thing is that wordpress plugins can be highly reliable, most of the top wordpress plugins are created by highly reputable websites and developers,

So they can be trusted very much and all the wordpress plugins which get public goes under a lot of testing by the world-class wordpress team to make sure everything is fine with the plugin.

Because wordpress is the largest powering cms on the internet, so the developers and companies which make these plugins always update these plugins to make sure it is safe and secure and,

There are many other things like downloads and rating systems for people to know the current condition of the plugin which makes it easy for users to decide whether to install the plugin or not.

This is not the case with plugins and bundles of other cms like Joomla and drupal which are alternative to wordpress cms for bloggers.

5. Most of them are free.

Another thing about wordpress plugins is most of them are free and just the free version is more than enough for a normal website or a blog.

Let’s consider a few examples here,

For backup of the website you have an updraft plus plugin and the free version is very much enough for all the basic works like schedule backup and remote storage.
For SEO of the website, you have a Rankmath plugin that will take care of all the works of SEO like structured data, sitemaps, broken links, redirects, etc all for free.
For image optimizations, you have a smush image optimizer where it compresses and lazy load images automatically for free.
For moderating and deleting spam comments on your website you have the Akismet spam protection plugin and the free plan is just enough for most of the blogs.
For the safety and security of the website, WordFence which is a security wordpress plugin is enough with its firewall protection and 2 step authentication the free plan is enough for most blogs’ safety.

These wordpress plugins are a great deal for bloggers and without them, you can’t actually enjoy and feel the real power of wordpress.

But,

There are 2 sides to a coin head and tail.

In the same way, there are a few disadvantages or cons of wordpress plugins.

Let’s see them in detail.

Cons of wordpress plugins.

Here is a quick overview of the cons or disadvantages of wordpress plugins.

It can leave sites vulnerable to attacks.
It causes the website to load slowly.
It causes conflict and may break the website with updates.
There are so many plugins that limit functionality.
It can be an additional unplanned expense.

Let’s learn each disadvantage in detail.

1. It can leave websites vulnerable to attacks.

If there is a single biggest problem with wordpress plugins then it would have been this thing.

WordPress plugins can leave a website very vulnerable to attacks and website hacks.

According to wpwhitesecurity, wordpress plugins lead to 17% of vulnerabilities.

That is not a big number but always remember that wordpress plugins are easy targets for hackers to get into people’s websites, steal the information, and hack the website.

Of Course, there are many reasons why wordpress site gets hacked like,

No 2 step authentication of password login.
Bad web hosting company.
Weak passwords.
Not updating themes, plugins, and wordpress latest version.
Not monitoring the traffic and logins.

For the complete list click here.

But, there are many cases where even some of the famous wordpress plugins with lakhs of downloads and high trust and popularity have been found vulnerable and almost hacked like,

Sitekit by google.
Live Chat with Facebook messenger.
Coming soon page.
Duplicator.
File manager.

And many more, these are only a handful of examples with hundreds and lakhs of downloads that were actually vulnerable to hacks and attacks at some point in time.

So it is highly recommended to be very selective and critical in installing plugins on your wordpress website.

2. It causes the website to load slowly.

Another common issue with wordpress plugins is that,

These wordpress plugins are essentially a bit of code that gets attached with your core wordpress code and whenever your website loads on the user browser,

The server has to load all the HTML files, CSS files, and javascript like all those technical stuff including these plugins which take additional CSS files.

Ultimately if the server has to load more things or assets on the browser when requested then it usually takes time to load things like not in minutes like a few seconds more to load all the additional files & plugins code other than typical wordpress code and content.

3. Plugins can conflict and break down the website.

Another reason why wordpress plugins are bad is that,

They can actually create a conflict on your website or break your website sometimes,

There are various reasons for conflict of the plugins like,

The plugin is not compatible with your current wordpress version.
The plugin has got an update.
The plugin has found a neighbor on the website like similar plugins usage on 1 website.
Plugins settings and features configuration mistakes.
Mismatch or a bad combination of plugins and themes.

These are some of the things which can cause your website to get conflict with wordpress plugins and can sometimes lead to a breakdown of the website due to such conflicts.

So it is highly recommended to have your backup always ready with yourself to be able to get your website back to how it was before the break down of the website due to plugins.

Check out my list of top wordpress plugins to know which backup plugin is the best and why?

Another best practice of wordpress is that whenever you are updating your wordpress version to the latest wordpress version,

You should test your current website by restoring in a temporary wordpress site and checking if all of your plugins and content are working fine without any conflicts and issues.

4. There are so many plugins that limit functionality.

Another problem with wordpress plugins is that there are over 50000 plugins available on the wordpress plugins directory.

50000, Well that is definitely a huge number.

Not all plugins are created equally and not all the plugins add new unique functionality and value to the website.

But,

The main issue with having so many plugins is that,

You need to install a separate plugin for specific functionality.
Sometimes it can be overwhelming to decide which plugin works for your website considering the number of plugins that are there despite all the reviews and ratings.
It can eventually get you to end up in analysis paralysis where you keep on analyzing, researching for the best plugin in the corner of the room, and waste a lot of time which you could have used in creating content for your blog or building backlinks to your blogs.

There are so many reasons why having a big number of options to choose things [plugins] for your website is a bad idea.

5. It can be an unplanned additional expense in your budget.

When you actually start a blog on wordpress you only think of hosting and domain as your expense in your budget for your online business.

But,

As you continue knowing about these plugins more and more and trying awesome features of some amazing plugins like,

Elementor.
Updraftplus.
Smush image optimizer.
Rankmath.
Optimonster.
PushEngage.
Wordfence.

By the way, These are just a few top wordpress plugins you should download on your website, read my blog on all the wordpress plugins you should add to your wordpress website.

As you enjoy using these plugins and their hype and amazing free and paid features, you might end up paying for some of the paid plans of these plugins in the future.

Most of these plugins come up with a fair, economical price for their premium plan And eventually, you will end up buying this. It then becomes completely and unplanned freemium plans of these plugins.

Ultimately It Is an unplanned additional expense to your budget Of blogging.

How to choose the best wordpress plugins for your website?

Here are 5 things you should check before installing wordpress plugins on your website.

What is the last update date of the plugin looking at the updates of the plugin in the wordpress plugin directory.
Check the reviews and ratings of the plugins.
Is the plugin compatible with your current wordpress version?
Check the current total installations of the plugin.
Check the credibility of the developer and company which created the plugin.

These are all the pros and cons of wordpress plugins You should know When Using wordpress as your Cms for your website in 2020.

Let’s end the blog.

Ending remarks.

Let’s conclude the blog has answered everything there is to know about the Pros and cons of wordpress plugins.

Do comment on what you think about wordpress plugins.

Share the Blog with your family and friends if we found the blog to be helpful You know sharing is caring.

Read my other blogs.

I will catch you in the next blog Till then.

keep learning and keep growing