WordPress offers a number of plugins, with the extensive ability to customize accordingly that turns it in one of the most popular content management systems. Plugins are so important for providing certain features accordingly as per the requirements. In case, if you want any extra functionality within an existing plugin, chances are there is a plugin out there for it. If not, then the same could be easily achievable by WordPress plugin development.
Let us discuss several factors that may help you in finding the best WordPress plugin.
Vetted Plugins
WordPress provides free trusted plugins from its official plugin repository. In case, any issue occurs in any of the free plugins, WordPress removes the download from its repository. It is not a perfect system for being assured that the plugin that you are downloading is totally safe to install. But it is generally safer when compared to that of downloading the plugin that is not available through the official WordPress repository. There are various types of plugin available either as a free or the premium one. A free version has been vetted by WordPress development provides the assurance that there is some kind of quality control. While on the other hand, premium plugins may undergo their own private testing. Thus, it is generally safe to download or purchase such premium versions of WordPress. However, it is crucial to have testing and vetting practices before purchasing.
Popularity
Popularity itself is not enough to show the quality of any plugin or even for any type of item around us. Being a popular one, WordPress plugin development does not guarantee that a plugin is not without issues. Certain ones of the most popular plugins have been the sources of some catastrophic issues or larding up the web pages with needless code. However, the popularity of the plugin with other factors can contribute to the assurance that the plugin is likely safe and works according to the requirement.
Support Feedback
Each plugin page in the repository has a support page. This support page is responsible for providing evidence of whether a plugin has some ongoing issue or not. However, issues might of code conflicting with other ongoing plugins. And sometimes WordPress template may need the changes in order to have the best functioning.
No overlapping of the installed plugin
When two or more plugins designed for performing similar activities, one of the common issues that may take place is the overlapping of those similar ones. This generally takes place with structured data or speed optimization plugins. However, it would be more beneficial for users to have less number of plugins. Hence, overloading the site with lot many plugins can slow down the server. If you are using more plugins even for the purpose of speeding up your site, it may result in slow down the speed if you are using too many of them at the same time. So, one needs to be careful while installing any plugin and make sure no other plugin of the same functioning should exist.
WordPress Security
One of the easiest ways that help to guard against security issues is to look at when the plugin was updated. One should always prefer those plugins which are frequently updated, at least within the past two months and are operating on the latest version of WordPress. This ensures that the known security issues were fixed as hackers always use known security holes in the old version of plugins to weasel their way into the site. Hence, nothing can be more than important to fix these holes in their next release or the updates.
Free vs Premium
At the time of searching the plugin, a factor that torn the most is the selection of the plugin either the free or the premium one. Depending on the conditions, even some free plugins can give you exactly what you are looking for. On the other hand, there are a lot of plus points to premium plugins. They maintain compatibility with new WordPress versions and provide many extensive features that allow you to customize the site as per the requirements. There is no need to worry about it because most of the premium plugins are relatively cheap and more likely to be the best possible product. As a result, they are often security tested and tend to be more frequently updated.
These six considerations are not a complete list of considerations. There are various other factors that can be added such as user reviews, a reputation of the plugin’s company, whether the plugin is over-engineered with slowing down the site, etc. We have discussed various points of choosing the best WordPress plugin development if you are still left with any concern about selecting the same. You may reach out to us at [email protected], we are round the clock available and will be more than happy to serve you in clarifying our doubts and queries.
