Demystifying Plugins

50k+ Plugins. How do you know whats good?

What’s the goal?

Make a list of what you need to accomplish.

Maybe you need more than 1 plugin?

The number of plugins on your site doesn’t matter

The Quality of the Plugin(s) Matter Most.

“A plugin does one thing and that one thing well.”

-Andrew Norcross

How do you Search for a Plugin?

WordPress.org aka “the repo”

Is the plugin actively supported?

Updates Are Important

Is the plugin documented?
Is there a FAQ?
Do they answer support questions?
What do the lowest reviews look like?

Do I know (of) the Author?

Does the author have other plugins? Are those plugins popular/supported?

Are there any articles about the author/plugin?

Does the author have their own site? Is it used actively?

Are they involved in the community?

I found a few, now what?

Refer to your checklist

All things considered, pick the lean choice.

Maybe you need more than 1 plugin?

A plugin should do 1 thing!*

I’ve decided, what now?

Test it out on your staging server. Avoid the white screen of death 🙁

Same host, cheap host, desktop server, etc

It works but it seems slow?

Test the performance!

P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler)
Query Monitor (Advanced plugin)
WP Profile (CLI Interface)

Questions?

STILL NEED HELP? ASK ME!

me@marcgratch.com
https://marcgratch.com
@mgratch You can find me most often in the WordPress DFW & Post Status Slack!