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.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1removing unused plugins manuallyDid this help you?
- 2using specific diagnostic tools like Query MonitorDid this help you?
- 3withholding admin privileges from clientsDid this help you?
- 4requiring paid training courses before granting admin accessDid this help you?
- 5installing dedicated single-feature pluginsDid this help you?
- 6adding custom code snippets to functions.phpDid this help you?
- 7Writing custom PHP functions or custom plugins instead of installing third-party toolsDid this help you?
- 8Rebuilding old sites from scratch when plugins or custom code become obsolete and unmaintainedDid this help you?
- 9Auditing and deleting redundant or abandoned plugins during site takeoversDid this help you?
- 10Testing specific scripts like animated counters, live chat, GTM, or Elementor scriptsDid this help you?
- 11Using performance plugins like Perfmatters or WP RocketDid this help you?
- 12Searching for alternative lightweight themesDid this help you?
- 13Checking wp-content/mu-plugins directoryDid this help you?
- 14Overriding tracking with a custom filter or small mu-pluginDid this help you?
- 15Looking for settings or modules footer in Jetpack dashboardDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, 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 ↗
“I have tried a few themes that were described as lightweight and all of them still have JetPack fully integrated. It is in my dashboard, listed as active, and no option to remove it in the plugin tab.”source ↗
“the way JetPack tracks the page statistics is throwing a major enough error in our compliance checker that it is putting us below the acceptable threshold.”source ↗
“Edit (about 15 min after post): Sorry, forgot that we DID locate the files (we think?). But they require us to pay for a premium account to access them.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 4How to clear a massive Windows C drive full of update bloat