Recently, one of our readers asked us if disabled plugins are slowing down WordPress and if they should delete inactive plugins. Many WordPress users often install plugins to test them out and then deactivate them. In this tutorial we will answer if disabled plugins are slowing down WordPress and if it is safe to remove inactive plugins?
But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog
Then back to why we are here.
What is meant by disabled plugins on WordPress?
The best thing about WordPress is that you can extend it using WordPress plugins. When you install a WordPress Plugin, WordPress uploads the plugin file to your web hosting server.
To start using a plugin, you will need to activate it.
You can install plugins and activate them later. You can also deactivate a plugin that you tried but that didn't help. You can see all your installed plugins (Active and inactive) on the plugins page of your dashboard.
Active plugins are highlighted in blue and inactive plugins show a remove link below them.
Are inactive plugins slowing WordPress?
No, inactive or deactivated plugins do not slow down WordPress. To understand this, let's see how WordPress works behind the scenes.
To know more about your files read also How to understand the structure of WordPress files
Whenever a user requests a page from your WordPress website, WordPress initiates a loading process. During this process, it only loads the active plugins installed on your website. All inactive plugins are completely ignored and neither loaded nor even viewed.
Even if you have dozens of inactive plugins installed on your website, this would not affect the performance of the latter.
Also check out the top 10 of the best premium WordPress plugins for creating a countdown
The only time WordPress needs to look for inactive plugins is on the page of "Plugins". And even there, it only searches for the plugin header file and doesn't load the plugins themselves.
If your WordPress website is slow, inactive plugins are certainly not the cause.
Do you need to remove inactive plugins in WordPress?
The reason WordPress allows you to disable plugins instead of removing them directly is that sometimes you can just temporarily disable a plugin.
Read also our article on 10 WordPress plugins to create an e-learning website
If you plan to use this plugin soon, and are worried that removing it will remove its settings, you should keep it.
Otherwise, there is no point in keeping inactive plugins installed on your website. In fact, they can sometimes be quite problematic.
For example, whether or not you use this plugin, WordPress will still show you updates for these plugins. This can be a bit annoying, especially if you have several regularly updated plugins installed on your website.
Inactive plugins may be harmless, but they are still executable files. If a hack is attempted, these files can be infected or can be used to install malware on your website. As a WordPress security precaution, you should remove any inactive plugins that you don't intend to use.
See also: How to make your WordPress blog faster by compressing its files
We hope this article will help you answer your questions about disabled WordPress plugins and removing inactive plugins. You can also see our list of essential WordPress plugins that you should install on your website.
Discover also some premium WordPress plugins
You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.
We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.
1. Qards
Designed by the Designmodo team, the WordPress Plugin Quarters is an interesting solution in the field of WordPress plugins creation of Landing Pages. Its strengths lie in the fact that it works with most WordPress themes and that it is very easy to pick up thanks to the structure of the content it offers, which is card-based (as the name suggests).
Ce WordPress Plugin gives you access to a selection of content cards that you can place on a canvas – one after the other – until you have a complete landing page. Each individual card can be personalized and adjusted to meet your needs and goals. To achieve this end, it offers you an excellent editor on the front end.
Discover also our 8 WordPress plugins to create custom pages
Its features are, among others: a very complete set of content maps, which should be enough to satisfy all your Landing Pages creation needs, several types of content areas available, each fully customizable, default templates with modern appearances, drag and drop support, the possibility of 100% personalizing each Landing Page, ease of handling and much more.
Download | Demo | Web hosting
2. Woo Stock Alert Plugin for WooCommerce Stores and Shops
Woo Stock Alert is an efficient premium WooCommerce plugin that sends personalized notification emails to customers for inform about product availability who were out of stock during their visits.
This plugin is very useful for multiple platforms WooCommerce and online stores that need the "must have" to keep their customers informed on the availability of some Products in stock.
Download | Demo | Web hosting
3. Instagram Feed
Instagram Feed helps you put manual work aside when you publish WordPress for Instagram. Indeed, this premium WordPress plugin automatically publishes WordPress videos and images on Instagram according to the settings.
It supports WooCommerce products, WordPress pages, WordPress articles. In addition, you don't need API identifiers and APP secrets.
Download | Demo | Web hosting
Recommended Resources
Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.
- 6 WordPress plugins for signing documents online
- 8 WordPress plugins to add ad slots to your blog
- 6 WordPress plugins to present your cooking recipes
- Some WordPress plugins to redirect
Conclusion
Here ! That's it for this tutorial, I hope it will allow you to answer the questions about disabled plugins on WordPress and removing inactive plugins. Feel free to share this article with your friends on your favorite social networks.
However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.
If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments.
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