Every time WordPress loads a page, it runs every active plugin, regardless of whether or not that plugin affects the actual output of the page.
The implications of this are pretty huge. Let’s look at some math:
If you have 14 active plugins, 1000 visitors a day, and zero caching in place, WordPress will run at least 14,000 commands every single day on behalf of your plugins.
Seek to reduce the number of active plugins
There are three practical reasons why reducing your number of active plugins just makes sense:
- Fewer plugins means less stuff to update and maintain!
- If your site is reliant upon fewer “moving parts,” then it’s less likely to break down as a result of idiosyncratic plugin functionality.
- Plugin authors “quit” their projects all the time (primarily because most of them give their work away for free). For folks who use a lot of plugins, their sites are reliant upon the quicksand that is the careers of multiple plugin authors. “Bad idea” barely begins to describe the folly here.
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