Do disabled plugins slow down WordPress?

Do inactive plugins slow down a WordPress site? Should these inactive plugins be removed? This is the question of many site managers who have launched their site with WordPress. Many of these users install different plugins with the aim of testing and getting to know how it works, and after a while they disable it.

In this article, we answer the question, does a disabled plugin cause a slow site? And won't there be a problem for the site by removing the inactive plugin?

What is a disabled plugin?

One of the good things about WordPress is that you can use its plugins to expand the functionality and features of the site. When you install a WordPress plugin on your site, WordPress downloads the files of that plugin to your hosting server.

To start using the plugin, you need to activate it. You can download and activate a plugin at any time. You can also disable unnecessary and unused plugins.

You can see a complete list of plugins installed on your site (both active and inactive) on the Plugins page in the WordPress admin section. Active plugins have a light blue background color, and inactive plugins have a red "Remove" link.

Do disabled plugins slow down the site?
no Disabled plugins do not slow down the site. To better understand this, it's good to see how WordPress works behind the scenes.

Every time a user tries to open a page on your WordPress site, WordPress starts a page loading process. In this process, only active site plugins are loaded and inactive plugins are completely ignored and not loaded.

Even if you have dozens of inactive plugins on your site, they will not affect the speed and performance of your site and will not slow it down.

The only place WordPress looks at inactive plugins is the plugins page itself in the WordPress admin section. Even there, it only looks for the plugin filename, and doesn't load the plugin itself.

If the speed of your WordPress site is slow, it is definitely not due to inactive plugins. You can improve the speed and performance of your WordPress site by checking other sections more closely and using some tools and plugins.

Should I remove inactive plugins from WordPress?

The reason WordPress allows you to disable a plugin instead of removing it is that you might want to temporarily stop the plugin from working.

If you're going to use the plugin soon, and you're worried that removing the plugin will mess up its settings, it's best to keep the plugin.

Otherwise, there's really no reason to keep an inactive plugin on your site. In fact, sometimes, keeping the plugin disabled can cause problems.

For example, whether the plugin is enabled or disabled, WordPress will still show you updates and updated versions of plugins. This can be annoying, especially if you have a lot of plugins on your site and new updates are constantly being released.

Inactive plugins do not harm your site. But still, they are executable files. Therefore, if your site is attacked by hackers, these files can also be infected, or used to install malware. As a WordPress security precaution, it is recommended that you remove any inactive plugins that are not going to be used in the future.

We hope that in this article we have been able to answer your questions about inactive plugins, their impact on site speed, and the need to keep or remove them. You can read our other articles on WordPress and WooCommerce, Digital Marketing, and Mobile App Design and ask us your questions. bring up