Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down WordPress?

WordPress sites sometimes slow down for several reasons. Since holding too many plugins might be responsible for making your site slow. This may force you to think, do inactive plugins slow down WordPress?

But inactive plugins don’t get loaded on a site. Because inactive plugins don’t have the power to make your site slow. So, we are here to tell you how inactive plugins work on your site. Let’s read to know more.

What is an Inactive Plugin

Inactive plugins are those you have installed but are not in activate mode right now. You have to activate the plugin after you install them. But if you don’t start them, they will remain inactive. In this way, they will keep stored in your dashboard. You can activate them by clicking on the activate option residing below.

In this image, the activated plugins are visible in blue, and the inactive ones show the delete option below.

Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down WordPress

Technically it’s not possible. The only place inactive plugins stay is the plugin page itself. This will be stored on the plugin page when you download a plugin. To have an impact, the plugins have to be activated.

The page will load the associated active plugins whenever the user requests a page. The inactive ones are ignored during this operation. You can have loads of inactive plugins but still a smooth-running website. Because no matter how many inactive plugins you have, it’s always the active one that may affect your site’s speed.

5 Factors Responsible for Making Your WordPress Site Slow

There are several reasons which may make your WordPress site slow. After a thorough analysis, we could figure out the crucial ones. So be careful of the following reasons:

It’s better to avoid the original image file while posting. Typically, the un-optimized images come in larger files. So it makes the content storage heavy, which is alarming for your site speed. You better use an optimized image with the same quality as the original file.

1. Posting Giant Image Files

2. Installing Too Many Plugins

Don’t activate too many plugins because you are not going to use all of them. If you are activating every plugin you cross by, this could be the potential factor that may affect your site speed. So be reasonable while choosing a plugin.

3. So Many HTTP Requests

Every site has a specific capacity to load a particular amount of HTTP requests and access. But if it contains the exact limit, it is normal for any site to take some time. This may look slow to you. This is common in case you have too many users hitting your site simultaneously.

4. Weak Web Server

Suppose your web servers lack HTTP compatibility or are a bearer of the HTTP 1997 version. This could be another reason which can make your website slow. It’s essential to run an HTTP server that holds the latest version. Because HTTP is the original language on which WordPress is built. So, you need a robust web server to run your site smoothly.

5. Inactive Caches

The WordPress site has to download before loading any user request. So caching lets your user set the cookies to serve their purposes. When you use specific plugins to set the cookies, your cache will be useless to your site. This will add extra pressure to your site, which may slow your WordPress site.

Ways to Remove Unused Plugins WordPress

There are numerous ways you may try to remove the unused plugins on your WordPress site. We recommend the following:

1. Deactivate the Plugin

If you find the recently added plugins not helpful enough, the easiest way to ignore them is to deactivate them. To do that, you can follow the steps listed below:

Step 1: Go to the Plugins 

First, click on the plugin option. You will find the list of the plugins you have added to your WordPress now.

Step 2: Click on the Deactivate Button

Now click on the plugin you want to deactivate. You will find this particular option right below the plugin title. So, click on it, and your job is done.

2. Delete the Inactive Plugins

Deleting the inactive ones is the best thing to do. This will declutter your storage as well. Deleting inactive plugins will set your site accessible. You can delete a plugin by the following steps:

Step 1: Select the Unused Plugin

To do that, navigate through the plugins menu. And decide which one you want to delete.

Step 2: Click on the Delete Button

Now, click on the delete button right next to your plugin title. By this action, the plugin will be in the backup store. So you can download the deleted plugins in the future.

3. Use the phpMyAdmin Tool

This is one of the most intelligent tools to declutter your WordPress database. To do so, first search the orphaned rows. Then pick the data files you want to remove. Then, delete the unwanted rows using the delete option.

4. Create a Uninstall.php File

To do this, first, you have to create an uninstall.php file. Entry the delete option and drop the database table option, like the following codes:

// if uninstall.php is not called by WordPress, die
if (!defined('WP_UNINSTALL_PLUGIN')) {
    die;
}
 
$option_name = 'wporg_option';
 
delete_option($option_name);
 
// for site options in Multisite
delete_site_option($option_name);
 
// drop a custom database table
global $wpdb;
$wpdb->query("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS {$wpdb->prefix}mytable");

5. Use Uninstall.Hook

You can set up an uninstall. Hook to declutter the unused plugins of your site. The hook can be set like the following:

register_uninstall_hook(__FILE__, ‘pluginprefix_function_to_run’);

How to Check Unused Plugins in WordPress

As a beginner, you might be worried about figuring out the unused plugins on your site. You can quickly check unused plugins in WordPress by following the steps listed below:

Step 1: Click on the Network Admin

Navigate to the network admin, and select the Plugin menu. There you will find the list of active and inactive plugins.

The active one will appear this way:

The list of inactive plugins will look like this:

Is it Mandatory to Delete the Inactive Plugins

The long list of deactivated plugins might be bugging you a lot. But the thing is, this list doesn’t affect your site at all. So, deleting them is your choice. 

You can delete them and restore them when you need to in the future. After deleting them, make sure you declutter the backup data as well.

WordPress Slow to Load First Page is It the Dead Plugin

Your WordPress can be slow because of several factors, but the deactivated plugins don’t participate in that procedure. So we have figured out the main factors making your WordPress slow. Here goes:

Poor Web Hosting

Web hosting is the circulatory system of your WordPress. So try to invest the best in it. Poor web servers won’t be compatible with the updated features. It can slow your WordPress because it’s too weak to load those features.

Heavy Traffic

Another reason could be high traffic. Many visitors are hitting simultaneously, and your site isn’t ready to load at that capacity. This issue gets fixed after a time.

Outdated PHP Version

WordPress is built on PHP. So updating this central zone will make your site faster than ever. If you are using the older version, this could be the reason why your WordPress is slow.

Images are not Optimized

Raw images come in large files, filling up your storage and blocking the speed. So try to use compressed images for better performance.

5 WordPress Plugins that Slow Down Your Site

Not every plugin will be an asset to your WordPress site. Some may disrupt your site’s performance. After considering the significant aspect, we have found the following plugin types that may slow down your site:

Security Plugins

Security plugins don’t add that much security to your site. The worst part of having a security plugin is that it affects the area that shouldn’t be touched. If the security plugin has an error, it can cause horrible consequences to your website. You have to keep them updated unless your site can get hacked.

Page Builders Plugins

Page builders are aimed to make your task easier. It helps the developer with critical coding functions. But the downside of this app is it bloats your site with unnecessary bloated functions and coding.

Image Manager

People typically install an image manager plugin to optimize images. Images are one of the giant files that a site may have. It blocks the storage and makes your WordPress slow. So it is suggested to manage the image optimization plugin wisely so that your images restore the quality after compression.

Cache and Optimization Plugin

Web developers don’t suggest using cache optimization plugins. However, this plugin accepts the cached requests and ignores the other. This will make other requests slow. It’s good to choose a server-based cache solution.

Social Media Plugin

Social media plugins are threatening your visitors’ privacy. They share links to external platforms. These plugins hold a ‘do it all mentality, which does no good to your visitors’ integrity. On top of that, social media plugins add external functions and codes to the WordPress site.

FAQ

Final Verdict

Since numerous floating myths on the web may question your site’s ability, it’s mandatory to know the actual facts. As a beginner, you may think inactive plugins slow down WordPress. We tried to answer all your possible queries here. This article will help you to figure out the unsolved puzzles related to plugins. Best of luck!