Deleting 18 plugins doubled the speed

Deleting 18 plugins doubled the speed

A reader's site felt slow and crashed weekly. When we looked, he had 31 plugins installed. Many did the same job twice.

Remember, a plugin is an add-on that gives WordPress a new ability. Each one also adds a little weight and a little risk.

What he did, carefully:
— Listed every plugin and what it actually did.
— Found 18 he never used or that overlapped.
— Deactivated them one at a time, checking the site stayed fine.
— Then deleted them.

Results: page load dropped from 6 seconds to under 3, and the weekly crashes stopped completely.

Deactivating is fully reversible, so you can always switch one back on.

In plain words: fewer, well-chosen plugins almost always beat a big messy pile.