While at work the other day, I thought about how I have not added any new plugins for additional functionality to this site for a long time. The most recent ones being After The Deadline and WordPress.com stats. Other than that, I’ve been pretty darn happy with the features I’ve added to this site thanks to the plugins I’ve chosen to use. WPTavern has 31 active plugins in use. Some add functionality such as WP-Polls while others give me something small such as the ability to have post author comments highlighted a different color. Sure, this could be accomplished from within the theme, but I don’t want to.
Matt has stated at numerous WordCamp events that the average number of plugins active on a WordPress site is around five. Considering the breadth of plugins available in the repository, it’s likely that no two WordPress’s are the same. When I stop to think about that, all I can say is awesome! The 31 plugins I have installed make up the total functionality that I want WordPress to have that I don’t have to force down anyone’s throat. The only time I add plugins to WPTavern now is if I need to test a plugin because it won’t work on my local server. Could things be improved in WordPress? Of course. But, WordPress 2.9.1 doesn’t really pose any problems for me in terms of publishing content. I’m pretty happy with how things are right now.
At any rate, this is just a reflection I had the other day. Are you one of those Pressers that continuously add and remove plugins as time progresses or have you stuck with the same core group of plugins you use on all the sites you administer?
I have 8 plugins currently running on my blog. Usually I’d have a few more, but im still deciding how much I can do with my blog inbetween school and exams..
Performance would be an issue I have with plugins. I cant exactly afford the best of hosting atm, and I like my blog running as fast as possible, so too many plugins is a no no atm for me :P
I’d like to do away with some of the plugins i use and build the functionality into a theme at some stage.
If you had to make do with less plugins would you?