Avoid these 75 WordPress plugins and your website will load faster.
Some plugins load slow on the frontend while others create resource-intensive background processes that increase CPU. This is common when plugins collect statistics (and other data), create backups, or generate large database tables which can be measured with WP-Optimize.
This list was made with the help of the WP Hive Chrome Extension which shows a plugin’s impact on memory usage and PageSpeed. However, I adjusted the results since WP Hive doesn’t take into account frontend CSS/JS/fonts loading when you actually display plugin content on the frontend. For example, even though WP Hive says Elementor doesn’t impact PageSpeed, it’s extra CSS/JS/fonts do once you start actually building your site in Elementor.
I also took into account Ivica’s list of slow plugins from the WordPress Speed Up Facebook Group page, as well as testing many WordPress sites using these plugins in Chrome Dev Tools.
Lightweight Plugin Alternatives
- SEO – Rank Math.
- Backups – UpdraftPlus.
- Comments – native comments.
- Sliders – Soliloquy or MetaSlider.
- Gallery – Gutenberg Gallery or Meow Gallery.
- Analytics – Google Analytics + Google Search Console (ideally no plugins).
- Social Sharing – Grow Social is a fast social sharing plugin with less requests.
- Theme/Page Builder – GeneratePress, Oxygen, Gutenberg, Genesis, Kadence.
- No plugin – many things can coded in CSS or be done manually without using a plugin.
Find Your Slowest Plugins
Use Query Monitor or New Relic to find your slowest plugins. Some tools like GTmetrix Waterfall only show slow plugins on the frontend even if they create heavy background processes. Delete Query Monitor when you’re done since the plugin itself can increase CPU.
Disable Unused Plugin Addons, Modules, Settings, Usage Tracking
Deactivate all addons and modules you’re not currently using (Ultimate Elementor Addons, JetPack, or other robust plugins). Also disable usage tracking for plugins that collect statistics.
Selectively Disable Plugins
Use a plugin like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters by Kinsta (recommend) to selectively disable plugins from pages/posts where they don’t need to load. Can significantly improve load times.
Examples:
- Disable slider plugin on pages that don’t use sliders
- Disable rich snippets plugin on pages that don’t use rich snippets
- Disable contact form plugin on pages that don’t have a contact form
- Disable affiliate link management plugin on pages that don’t use aff links
- Disable social sharing plugin on all pages (since it’s usually for blog posts)
AWStats Helps Identify Sources Of High CPU/Bandwidth
AWStats is a tool built-in to most hosting cPanels that provides statistics on CPU usage. It tells you whether certain bots, images, downloaded files, and even IP addresses are consuming a lot of CPU. You can also use the WP Server Stats plugin but I think AWStats does an awesome job.
AWStats helps you find:
- High bandwidth crawlers
- High bandwidth IP addresses
- High bandwidth download files
- High bandwidth files (eg. images)
- Total bandwidth usage (for monitoring)
Avoid Slow Plugins On Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is very limited on server resources.
If you’re running slow WordPress plugins and are experiencing slow server response times in PageSpeed Insights, 503 errors, or you’re exceeding CPU limits, I highly recommend skipping shared hosting all together and go with someone like Cloudways. This is especially true for WooCommerce sites which require extra scripts, styles, cart fragments, and often more plugins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do plugins slow down WordPress?
Yes, some more than others. Robust and poorly coded plugins will definitely slow down your site while lightweight plugins with clean code will have minimal impact on load times.
Which plugins slow down WordPress?
Page builders, social sharing plugins, portfolios, backup, and statistics plugins are all notorious for slowing down WordPress. Three common culprits include Elementor, WooCommerce, and Jetpack.
How can I find my slowest plugins?
Use Query Monitor or New Relic to find your slowest plugins.
How do I make plugins load faster?
Use lightweight plugins, be minimal, and selectively disable plugins from loading on specific pages and posts using a plugin like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters.
Do number of plugins matter?
Every plugin adds to your load time, it just depends how much. Using lightweight plugins is more important than reducing the number of plugins, but both are important.
See Also: Ultimate WordPress Speed Guide
If you found this tutorial helpful, a share is always appreciated :)
Tom
Which plugin do you use for your forms? I agree regarding Contact Form 7; very interested in your suggestion for a lightweight alternative. Thanks Tom!
It’s an embedded form from Dubsado, otherwise Gravity Forms and WP Forms are both good.
This is terrific information! I have had a couple of these plugins in the past. Great to know that none of my current plugins are on the list.
Lightweight WordFence alternative please!
Cloudflare Firewall. Can also try Limit Login Attempts, Two-Factor, and Blackhole For Bad Bots.
This is huge!
You’ve nailed it in this article. Great piece of advice.
I chose WordPress and WooCommerce for all my website projects and clients’ project. The major reason behind this was user-friendly and the existence of a vast list of plugins. It was fun and worth it at the earlier stage. But later the website’s performance deteriorated.
Removed several plugins, cleared revision drafts, coded with the help of a developer and fixed most of the speed issue while scaling.
It really helped me a lot in improving my website user experience and SEO.
I’ll strongly recommend this guide to my circle for sure.
Keep up the good work Tom! ;)
Thanks Sathish! Tried to include every single one. Yes, hard coding some plugins is a solid route and I’ll also be doing this during my redesign.
That’s a hefty and cool list of the slower plugins. I was always suspecting Word Fence and Broken Link Checker has lot of impact on slowing down of one of my site. Finally now i know, and uninstalled it and found the alternative from this post too.
Thank you so much Tom :)
You’re welcome :) yes, deactivating those should cause much less usage and a faster site.
In summary every plugin you will ever need.
Pretty much.
Quick question: Why is “Elementor” listed twice? (see positions 14 and 15). Is Elementor really *that* slow? :)
Thanks!
Lol thanks for the catch Tom, fixed it. Maybe it should be :-I
You say: Maybe it shoukd be??? is or not. ´cause in this website , i see you use ELEMENTOR?? Just go to https://whatwpthemeisthat.com/ and check 2 plugins used 1. wprocket y 2. elementor. Then if slowdown why you used in this website.
Yep, Elementor and WooCommerce slow down your site. Does that mean you shouldn’t use them? Not necessarily. I wanted a nice design so I used Elementor. Next redesign will likely be in Oxygen.
Really well written article. Clear and easy to understand. Big thank you. I’m still in construction mode. Its taking me quite a while to build tbh.. so information like yours is extremely helpful. I know I can just shove a website online quickly, but what would be the point if it doesn’t run right from the start. Am keeping your website in an open tab to refer back to. Thank you again.