What's the highest number of WP plugins you've seen on a site?

One of things I do for a living is tech support for websites. I have seen a number of WordPress built sites where customers have as many as 65 WP plugins installed on their account! No kidding. hehe. The average I've seen is about 20 plugins installed AND active. That's quite a bit. Personally, I like to make sure I have no more than 7 active plugins on any of my personal WP-built sites. Any plugin I am not using I delete it from the server. But I've seen a lot of people get 'plugin-happy' and don't know when to stop.

What's the highest number of WP plugins you've seen on any WP-built site?

 

I have been using 5-6 plugins on average on a single blog.

 

@silent_1: I think that's a good range for a single WP site. What's the most you've ever seen someone have on their WP site?

 

It would be great if you mention few of the plugins which one should not miss while using WP.

 

Jetpack

 

I just checked my sites and the most I use is 21 active, the average is around a dozen. But - and it's a fairly significant "but" - most of the dozen I install are for single functions. One to add a proper login/logout option to a menu, one to remove attachments when posts go, and so on. I only have three or four large plugins running - Akismet, a cache and CF7 spring to mind.

 

Wow 65 WP plugins!?! That must cause a slowdown in site delivery speed.

Average I use is below 10. Any unused plugin or those not doing the trick get deleted.

 

65 plugins, wow. Its like going on vacation and leaving your doors and windows open with a note for burglars on how to easily find your valuables Seriously, keeping up with so many plugins must not only be hard but creating security loopholes by the minute. The largest I think I ever saw in a client website was something like 30-35+ which I still found to be far too many. I guess that's the downside of WordPress providing so many wonderful options for plugins and themes - people just want to try as many as possible, always thinking they can do better or add something more. In reality, as many of you more experienced users noticed, you should not need more than 6-10 plugins to get the job done

 

It depends on what you need. If you have a team of writers that aren't technically savvy and need to give them a bunch of advanced options, a bunch of plugins is definitely the way to go. Just get a solid host and you'll be fine.

 

Its not really a matter of host @ShipRaider . The host is important to the extent that they need to provide you with an optimized environment that can handle your website and protect it on a server level. But the choice of plugins and their number is detrimental from there on. Many plugins are badly written and can significantly slow down a website, something that your host cannot influence. But most importantly - plugins are the front gate for the largest number of malicious attacks on WordPress websites. So you have to be sure in each and every plugin you use, update it immediately when there is a stable update, monitor your logs constantly, and even then you are just minimizing the security flaws, not completely removing them. I can fully understand the need of plugins with a very specific functionality, my point is just to be as careful as possible and never add something that is not mandatory for your project

 

@silent_1: I think that would make a great thread. So I started one: click here. Feel free to contribute to it -- it was inspired by you.

@TIEro: 21, eh? That's about the average I see on a regular basis when troubleshooting people's websites.

@giorgioarmani: Yea, my reaction exactly. hehe. That particular customer's site actually did not have a delivery speed issue to my surprise. But the customer did run into some compatiblity issues between a number of the plugins and the customer's chosen theme that those plugins were not functioning with and so on. It was a big mess. It got sorted out, though.

@Rado_ch: I agree with you on that. Manually coding things into one's site instead of using plugins would be a good idea, too. But most people like the convenience of plugins.

@ShipRaider: Rado_ch response to your post is agreeable from my perspective as well.

 

In my case, it's a very specific site: an article directory. Consequently, it has a lot more than I would usually install, to handle all the ins and outs of moderation and so on.

I often wish I had the time to dismantle all the "standard" plugins and put all the useful parts back together into a single plugin that I could just install everywhere!

 

@rado-ch i have heard first time that about 65 plugins. i have work on a website that was using 20 plugins and i was really annoy about it.

 

I am using almost 15 plugins

 

65 WP plugins installed? Wow! Happy Plugins Day! lol
Can you mention what kind of site was that?

Based on my experience I only use the necessary plugins like more or less 5 plugins.
Like right now i'm making my own WP theme and here's the plugins:
- Contact Form 7
- WPBakery Visual Composer
- WordPress SEO (Yoast)
- W3 Total Cache

So far those are just the needs of the site i'm doing...

Thanks and God bless always!

Best regards,
alfieindesigns
Front-End Developer / Web Designer / UX Designer
www.alfieindesigns.com

 

I would say the average designer or WordPress user has about a dozen. I must admit I have never heard of anyone with 65 plugins. That must be a record of some sort. Plugins can be a good case for, "less is more."

 

@CU_Designs can you tell me what are those 65 plugins. May be i'll find something useful

 

@samazgor, you and everyone else would surely find at least a few useful. That person could open up their own little plugin store; all them plugins. hehe. It was crazy to see, though. That's for sure. Like, 'Wow, really?!'