Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down WordPress? [Quick Fix]
Today, many WordPress users wonder if the slowdown they’re experiencing may be traced back to any inactive plugins on their site. But the main concern is If unused or deactivated plugins slow down the WordPress website or not?
As most new WordPress users who simply want to test a new plugin do, they will typically install the plugin, test it, and then deactivate it until they are ready to use it on their website.
Inactive plugins have no effect on the performance of the WordPress site. The processing time of WordPress and your platform will not be affected even if you have uninstalled or unused plugins on your website. And it does not slows down your WordPress Website under any circumstances.
Plugins are add-ons to your WordPress website that provide you with additional features that are not included with a standard WordPress installation. These plugins can be used in conjunction with themes, customizations, and email marketing, among other things.
Will Inactive Plugins Slow Down WordPress?
No, plugins that are inactive or deactivated do not cause WordPress to slow down. This can be better understood if we look at how WordPress works in the background.
The loading process for a page on your WordPress site begins each time a user requests a page from your site. This process only loads active plugins that have been installed on your website during the time period in question. All inactive plugins are completely ignored, and they are not even loaded or looked at at all.
No matter how many inactive plugins you have installed on your website, it will not affect the performance of your site or cause it to load more slowly than usual.
Using WordPress plugins allows you to extend or add new functionalities to WordPress, which is currently one of its most popular features. Other than new functions, these plugins can enhance your website’s functionality.
In general, WordPress uses freely available plugins created by contributors for open source. Inactive plugins are those that you install but never use. Most users believe that too many plugins will slow down WordPress or cause it to malfunction by adding more code to the browser.
Inactive plugins have no impact on WordPress. WordPress starts a loading process whenever it receives a request command. Plugins that are inactive or deactivated are not loaded during the loading process. The number of idle plugins won’t affect the speed and performance of WordPress.
It’s important to troubleshoot if your WordPress is running slower than usual.
What Is an Inactive or Deactive Plugin In WordPress?
If you go to your WordPress dashboard and click the plugins button on the left side, then click the installed plugins button, you will see a list of all the plugins that are installed on your WordPress website.
The plugins below which you see the “active” button are the deactivated or unused plugins, as shown in the above image. And the plugins with a “deactivate” button are the ones that are currently active on your WordPress website.
If you choose to install a new plugin by selecting the add new plugin option, the newly installed plugin will be initially deactivated, and you will need to activate it to use it by pressing activate the button.
Should Deactivated Plugins Be Deleted?
Whether or not you delete your WordPress plugins is entirely up to you. You have the option of either removing the unused plugins or keeping them for future WordPress updates. Although it’s clear to see that installing WordPress plugins isn’t a piece of cake, temporarily deactivating them will suffice.
Installed plugins in WordPress can be temporarily disabled by the user. This option is offered because most users will simply want to turn off the plugins and turn them back on at a later date.
If you’re worried about losing your plugin settings when you delete them, you’ll most likely just turn the plugins off for now.
Some WordPress issues may arise if you don’t remove inactive plugins from your site. For example, your sedentary plugins may prompt you to update. The fact that inactive plugins can still be updated on a regular basis is particularly aggravating for some users.
If you do not regularly update your website’s deactivated plugins, hackers can use them to infect your website with malware. And, as a standard practice, WordPress advises its users to either keep all plugins in the most advanced version or delete them if no updates are received from the developers.
So, it is up to you whether you want to keep updating the deactivated plugins to keep your website secure or remove them and reinstall them later if you find them useful in the future.
Wrap Up
I hope you understand that deactivating plugins has no effect on the performance of your WordPress website. However, if they are not updated on time, they can pose a security risk and should be removed if you are not going to use them for an extended period of time.
Please let me know in the comments if you are experiencing any performance issues with your WordPress or if you would like a guide to improving the performance of your website.
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