Let me be extremely clear. If you ever read an article that includes the phrase “how to add anything without a plugin”, beware! They do not necessarily have your best interests in mind. What they generally have in mind is getting traffic by giving you what you want.
Don’t get me wrong, not everything you want to do absolutely has to be in a plugin, but more times than not it should be. So why do we see all these articles popping up about how to do all this stuff without a plugin? Mostly because you keep looking for it. People who post these tutorials want traffic so they are going to give you what you want. But is that how we make the community better, by giving people only what they want but never what they need?
The real question isn’t why are people writing tutorials like these, that’s easy. The question is, why are you searching to do things the wrong way. I know that sounds harsh but it’s the truth. When you try to avoid using a plugin 9 times out of 10 you are doing it wrong because a plugin is exactly what you need. It’s my job to try and educate you to make better choices. So here are 3 myths you believe that are keeping you away from doing it the right way.
3 Myths that are Scaring You Away from WordPress Plugins
1. Plugins will slow down my website
FALSE – There is this rumor floating around that if you run to many WordPress plugin you will slow down your site or break something. This just isn’t true. At the very least it’s not telling the whole story. Having a plugins or even a lot of plugins won’t slow down your site. Having too many plugins that do too much will. This is true of that code you add to your functions.php file as well. When you add code or a plugin that does the following it will contribute to the slowness of your site.
- Adding a bunch of javascript files to your header or footer. Especially when unneeded.
- Adding CSS files to your header.
- Adding any files in general.
- Making to many queries. Especially when unneeded or bloated.
- Doing things the wrong way.
You see, these issues can happen with any code, not just plugins. The key here is to be sure the functionality is absolutely necessary. If you want to hook into Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare, and every other social media site you can think of on one of your pages, you are going to slow down your website…period. Regardless if you do it with a plugin or not.
2. Plugins are difficult to create
FALSE – I get it. If you’ve never done it before, creating a plugin can seem very intimidating. Here is the rule of thumb, if you are comfortable adding code to your theme, especially the functions.php file, you are more than ready to create a simple WordPress plugin. The only difference is a file or two you will need to create and where you place the code. That’s it.
3. Plugins cause security issues
FALSE & TRUE – This is an issue of code in general not just plugins. Any code you add to your site, whether it be through a plugin or code you add directly to your theme has the potential of creating security issues. The way around this isn’t to avoid plugins, but to do your research. Get referrals from trusted developers, read support forums about plugins you are interested in, and use plugins that are updated fairly regularly.
Even seemingly secure code can have issues that are discovered later or introduced by changes in other code. Always update your plugins and always review your own code.
The #1 reason you should be using a plugin developed by someone else?
With all of these tutorials and code snippets available I feel like I should give the most important piece of advice I can. If what I’m about to say is true for you you should not be pasting the code into your functions.php file or even creating your own plugin.
You Don’t Understand the Code
If you don’t understand what a piece of code is doing you shouldn’t be adding it to your site on your own and here is why.
- You can’t audit it. You don’t know what it’s really doing so you have no way of testing it for vulnerabilities or making sure it’s not adversely affecting your site.
- You can’t update it. If you don’t have a complete grasp of a particular piece of code you can’t very well enhance or patch it.
By using a plugin , properly researched of course, you have a developer who knows the code and is aware of how to handle things that might arise. If they are doing their job they will update their code. If you report an issue they can audit and resolve it.
I don’t want to scare you away from experimenting but I do want you to make decisions for the right reasons not just because someone told you you can do it without a plugin.
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