Why does a WordPress site need a plugin for everything?
Too many plugins bog down site performance and turn basic features—like cloning posts—into bloated dependencies. This makes routine site maintenance exhausting and prevents pages from loading quickly.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1removing unused plugins manually
- 2using specific diagnostic tools like Query Monitor
- 3withholding admin privileges from clients
- 4requiring paid training courses before granting admin access
- 5installing dedicated single-feature plugins
- 6adding custom code snippets to functions.php
- 7Writing custom PHP functions or custom plugins instead of installing third-party tools
- 8Rebuilding old sites from scratch when plugins or custom code become obsolete and unmaintained
- 9Auditing and deleting redundant or abandoned plugins during site takeovers
- 10Testing specific scripts like animated counters, live chat, GTM, or Elementor scripts
- 11Using performance plugins like Perfmatters or WP Rocket
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Watched someone install a 2MB plugin yesterday to add a contact form.”source ↗
“And then we wonder why sites load like they're being served through a 56k modem.”source ↗
“none of the plugins could do it. They had opened tickets with the plugin devs and the answer was 'No'.”source ↗
“His site is fucking slow, he says.”source ↗
“I inherited a site that had 83 ACTIVE plugins… I went through and removed all of them that weren’t being used and ended up with 12.”source ↗
“They've spent over $3k with the third party and nowhere near sorting it... It took me an hour, to rewrite a few... lines of code”source ↗
“Do you have a snippet for being able to clone posts/pages? Always felt ridiculous that I need a plugin for that”source ↗
“This is exactly how my site is built, 100%. Sad and funny but true.”source ↗
“I keep seeing multiple SEO plugins installed/active, and multiple social share plugins installed/active.”source ↗
“Mobile LCP failing on 100% of pages-Elementor site. Any advice?”source ↗
“Desktop core web vitals are all good, but mobile is failing across every page due to LCP.”source ↗
“It's also flagging unused CSS/JS, render-blocking requests, forced reflow, and legacy JS.”source ↗
Where this came up
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