Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down My WordPress Website?

Impact of Inactive Plugins

Did you know that inactive plugins can slow down WordPress sites? This is why you should always review your plugin updates before they go live. As soon as you activate them, they’ll start using resources and thus slowing down your site.

When looking at their dashboard, you might notice that some plugins don’t show any statistics such as views or downloads. If the stats aren’t showing, then you probably shouldn’t count on those numbers. These inactive plugins won’t be generating revenue. The good news is that you can get rid of these inactive plugins without having to worry about deleting them from your server.

Let’s see how and why to deactivate plugins that slow down your WordPress website.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) that allows you to create websites. It’s easy to use, has an intuitive interface, and it’s very popular amongst bloggers and small businesses.

The best part about WordPress is that it can be used for any type of website – from blogs to eCommerce stores, portfolios, business websites, and community websites. You can install WordPress in just minutes and customize it to fit your needs.

What are WordPress Plugins?

WordPress plugins are the most powerful and useful tools for your website. They can be used to add new features, improve functionality or even make changes to how a site looks. There are thousands of free and premium plugins available in the market today. It can be summed up as a piece of software that adds additional features to your WordPress website. Some plugins are free while others require monthly or yearly subscriptions. These WordPress plugins are usually developed by third-party plugin developers who want to help other people with their work. 

How To Install A WordPress Plugin?

Installing a WordPress plugin is pretty simple. All you have to do is download the file from its official source, upload it to your wp-content/plugins folder and click Activate. That’s all there is to it!

You can also find plugins online. Just search Google for “best wordpress plugins” and you’ll get loads of results.

Do inactive plugins slow down WordPress?

Website Loading spped

WordPress is smart! Yup, it has been going through huge improvements. Inactive or unused plugins do not slow down your WordPress website. WordPress reviews all the plugin files and selects the active plugins while going through the loading process.

WordPress ignores deactivated plugins just like how your crush ignores you (it’s a joke, no offense, we wish your crush replies). WordPress reviews the necessary and unnecessary plugins and creates a list of plugins that are not to be included in the processing time of your website. Even if you have 20-30 inactive plugins on your WordPress website, it will not cause any performance errors such as slower load times.

If your WordPress website is not performing well, then it is most likely not due to deactivated plugins. Here, check our ultimate guide to Speed Up And Optimize WordPress Sites In 2022.

Should I consider deleting these plugins?

In other words, there’s no reason to maintain dormant plugins on your site. In fact, they may be extremely bothersome in some cases.

For example, regardless of whether or not you use the plugin, WordPress might continue to display plugin updates. This might be aggravating, especially if your website has a number of routinely updated plugins.

Although inactive plugins are safe, they are still executable files. In the case of a website assault, the files might be contaminated or used to download malware onto your site. As a WordPress security step, delete any plugins that are inactive and that you do not intend to use.

Is it safe to deactivate plugins in WordPress?

Deactivating plugins is a great way to save space on your server. However, this does not mean that you should delete inactive plugins. Deleting inactive plugins may lead to unexpected issues. For example, if you delete a plugin that was required for another plugin to function properly, then the latter plugin will stop working too. This means that you need to take extra caution when deleting inactive plugins.

WordPress introduced deactivating outdated plugins rather than instantly removing them because it thinks you would also want to turn off a plugin on a temporary basis. That’s so kind of WordPress, isn’t it?

Well, there’s another reason why WordPress allows you to deactivate inactive plugin files. You do not know when you’re going to use that plugin again. Deleting the plugin means you’re going to forget all the plugin settings. Hence, rather than deleting the idle plugins, keep them deactivated so you do not face any major issues in the future.

How do you find out which plugins are slowing down your WordPress site?

Website managment

However, a time will come when you are forced to think that the unused plugins are slowing down your WordPress website. Don’t worry, you can check which plugins are causing slower load times by installing Query Monitor. When you’re finished, remove Query Monitor since it collects data and increases CPU utilization.

Do inactive plugins slow down WordPress? – Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt about it: inactive plugins are a waste of disk space and resources. But, don’t delete them right away. Instead, make sure that you only delete those inactive plugins that you never plan to use again.


Interesting Reads:

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