When is a plugin worth the page speed loss?

[ashley]

I find plugins very attractive, but they do slow the site down - at what point do you say a plugin isn't worth it?
Specifically I like the looks of Rank Math (schema stuff which is new to me) and redirection plugins (for potential 301 redirects), plus a convert to html plugin for posts (this latter shouldn't affect site load times should it?) An alt text plugin also sounds good, plus a plugin for amazon aff links/images/etc (lassoo maybe?)
I notice people don't use related posts plugins and instead prefer to add them manually, I suppose related posts plugin isn't great?
then there's the sitemap plugin

 

[Potatoe]

I try to weigh what I can accomplish relatively easily without a plugin against my own capabilities or the cost/effort it will take to do things without using plugins, and then decide how much I want to really try to min/max every nanosecond of pagespeed. There's a huge cliff of diminishing returns, but you can get a lot done before you fall off that cliff.

Even speed demons who go to crazy lengths to maximize their performance will often use an SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math.

Rank Math (and probably Yoast) has modules for redirects, alt text, and site maps so that covers a lot of your bases. ManageWP is another singular plugin that can wear several useful hats to help reduce your plugin footprint.

Granted, I'm not sure if there's a difference between having 1 plugin with 5 different modules doing things, versus having 5 plugins doing those same things. I imagine it's a smaller footprint, and it would at least be better from a security perspective, but somebody who knows more about how themes and plugins work can probably clear that up. It might not make a huge difference if the same features/functions are being executed from one plugin vs five plugins - idk.

Last thought, the ease of accomplishing relatively simple to moderate tasks in WordPress is bonkers lately thanks to AI, so you can probably hardcode a lot more stuff into your theme without needing as much coding ability, so that's something to keep in mind, too.

 

[Darth]

Unless it's a dog crap / very old / outdated / page builder plugin, it shouldn't slow down your site.

If a plugin slows down your site, it's a crap plugin or you have bigger problems with your hosting setup generally.

Install whatever plugin you need and let it do it's job so you can focus on stuff that will actually make a difference.

 

[Ryuzaki]

There's a difference between a plugin that only affects the backend dashboard or works on the database, versus one that loads 5 new CSS and JS files on every page load. The latter are the ones that will impact your page speed. Investigating to understand the difference of what I'm attempting to explain here is completely worth your time as it will help you make these kind of decisions in the future, rather than needing to run a bunch of speed tests each time you install another plugin. Typically though, the less, the merrier you'll be in terms of speed and even more importantly, in security.

 

[ashley]

There's a difference between a plugin that only affects the backend dashboard or works on the database, versus one that loads 5 new CSS and JS files on every page load. The latter are the ones that will impact your page speed. Investigating to understand the difference of what I'm attempting to explain here is completely worth your time as it will help you make these kind of decisions in the future, rather than needing to run a bunch of speed tests each time you install another plugin. Typically though, the less, the merrier you'll be in terms of speed and even more importantly, in security.

Related posts plugins I’m guessing load new css files on loading and hence are generally eschewed?

 

[jojo1000]

For me, a plugin worth the page speed loss only when it increases user experience exponentially.​

Example: I have a story-based website where I have accessibility plugins for the differently-abled.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Related posts plugins I’m guessing load new css files on loading and hence are generally eschewed?

Yes. But if you're slick you can take that CSS and place it in your main CSS file and then de-enqueue the one from the plugin. But if you're capable of doing that, you can just code your own related posts functionality. But if you're doing that then you probably can code your own themes.

That's the issue with these plugins and themes. They offer you the world, the world you would have if you could code and design on your own. But you can't, and the allure of the themes and plugins are great (like Elementor, the classic example, or social media sharing button plugins). The cost is massive bloat and page speed losses.

In the case of related posts, it's so simple to code, even for a theme you didn't create yourself. Just use a child theme so you don't lose your new features. All you have to do is use the Wordpress loop to query the same category or sub-category, at the most basic and common. And then write some HTML and CSS to lay it out on the front end and pop that into the right templates.

If all of this sounds like gobbledygook to you, then I'd ask myself if I really need the plugin at all. I bet you can find research showing that related posts barely get clicked on at all.