Do Inactive WordPress Plugins Slow Down Your Site? (Expert Guide)

Hey there, WordPress user! If you‘re like most people, you probably have a few inactive plugins hanging around your WordPress site. Maybe you installed them to try out a new feature, but then decided not to use them. Or maybe they came bundled with your theme and you never got around to setting them up. Whatever the reason, those inactive plugins are just sitting there in your dashboard, taking up space.

But are they actually hurting your site‘s performance or security? Should you bother deleting inactive plugins, or is it okay to leave them be?

As a WordPress expert, I‘m here to give you the lowdown on inactive plugins and how to handle them on your site. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll cover:

• What inactive plugins are and how WordPress handles them
• Whether inactive plugins can slow down your site
• Potential security risks of keeping inactive plugins
• How to decide when to keep or delete inactive plugins
• Step-by-step process for safely deleting inactive plugins

By the end of this post, you‘ll have a clear understanding of inactive plugins and a solid game plan for decluttering your WordPress dashboard. Let‘s dive in!

What Are Inactive WordPress Plugins?

First, let‘s make sure we‘re on the same page about what inactive plugins are. An inactive plugin is a WordPress plugin that you‘ve installed on your site but have not activated. It‘s just sitting there in your plugins list, not doing anything.

There are a few common reasons you might have inactive plugins on your WordPress site:

1. You installed a plugin to try it out, but decided not to use it
2. The plugin came pre-installed with your WordPress theme
3. You deactivated a plugin because it was causing issues or conflicts
4. You no longer need the plugin‘s functionality but want to keep it on hand for future use

If you‘ve been using WordPress for a while, it‘s totally normal to have accumulated some inactive plugins along the way. In fact, a study by WP Engine found that the average WordPress site has 12 inactive plugins installed (Source).

But just because it‘s common doesn‘t necessarily mean it‘s a good thing. So let‘s look at whether inactive plugins can actually cause problems for your WordPress site.

Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down Your WordPress Site?

One of the biggest concerns people have about inactive plugins is whether they can negatively impact their WordPress site‘s performance. After all, every plugin you add to your site increases its complexity and potential for bloat and slowdowns. So surely having unnecessary plugins sitting there unused must hurt your site speed, right?

Thankfully, the answer is no. Inactive plugins do not slow down your WordPress site, even if you have dozens of them.

Here‘s why: when a user visits your WordPress site, WordPress only loads and executes the code from active plugins. It completely ignores inactive plugins during the page load process. So while active plugins can definitely impact performance if they‘re poorly coded or include heavy scripts and stylesheets, inactive plugins have zero effect on how quickly your pages load for visitors.

As WordPress core contributor Andrew Nacin explains:

"Inactive plugins have no impact on a site‘s performance. WordPress doesn‘t load the plugin files, doesn‘t call any of its functions, doesn‘t execute its hooks, and doesn‘t interact with it in any way." (Source)

The only time inactive plugins have any impact on performance is when you‘re viewing the plugins page in your WordPress admin dashboard. WordPress has to scan through all the plugin files to generate the list of installed plugins, so the more plugins you have (active or inactive), the longer that page takes to load.

But this minor backend slowdown doesn‘t impact the performance of your public-facing site at all. And unless you have hundreds of inactive plugins, the difference in plugins page load time is likely to be negligible anyway.

So if your WordPress site is feeling sluggish, you can safely rule out inactive plugins as the culprit. Focus your optimization efforts instead on things like choosing a fast hosting provider, using caching and a CDN, optimizing your images, and keeping your active plugins and theme lean and efficient.

Risks of Keeping Inactive Plugins

Okay, so we‘ve established that inactive plugins don‘t hurt performance. But are there any other compelling reasons to delete inactive plugins? From a security perspective, yes.

While inactive plugins don‘t execute any code on your live site, they still consist of PHP files sitting on your WordPress hosting server. If a hacker were to gain access to your site, they could potentially use those inactive plugin files to run malicious code or infect your site with malware.

This risk is highest with inactive plugins that are very outdated or have known security vulnerabilities. For example, the Plugin Vulnerabilities database lists over 4,500 known security issues in WordPress plugins (Source). If you have an inactive plugin that appears on that list and haven‘t updated it, hackers could exploit those vulnerabilities to take over your site – even though you‘re not actively using the plugin.

There‘s also the issue of plugin ownership. Sometimes plugin developers sell their plugins to new owners who may not be as trustworthy or committed to maintaining the plugin. If you‘re not paying attention, you could be inadvertently harboring an inactive plugin that now contains malicious code.

So while the risk of inactive plugins causing security issues is relatively low, it‘s not zero. Removing inactive plugins you don‘t intend to use is an easy way to reduce your attack surface and keep your site safer.

When to Keep or Delete Inactive Plugins

With those considerations in mind, how do you decide which inactive plugins to keep or delete? Here are some guidelines:

Reasons to Keep Inactive Plugins

• You plan to reactivate the plugin soon (e.g. a seasonal plugin you only use during certain times of year)
• The plugin stores data or settings you don‘t want to lose by deleting it
• You use the plugin regularly but frequently deactivate it for debugging or troubleshooting
• It‘s a complex plugin that would be time-consuming to set up again from scratch

Reasons to Delete Inactive Plugins

• You tested the plugin but decided not to use it
• The plugin is outdated, unmaintained, or has known security vulnerabilities
• You‘ve found a better alternative plugin
• You no longer need the plugin‘s functionality at all
• The plugin came bundled with your theme but you‘re not using it

If you‘re on the fence about an inactive plugin, err on the side of deleting it. You can always reinstall it later if needed. It‘s better to have a lean, clean WordPress installation than a bloated one full of plugins you don‘t actually use.

To help you weigh the decision, here‘s a quick pros and cons table:

How to Safely Delete Inactive Plugins

If you‘ve decided it‘s time to clean up some of your inactive plugins, it‘s important to do it the right way. Follow these steps to safely delete an inactive plugin from your WordPress site:

1. Go to your WordPress admin dashboard and click on the Plugins menu.
2. Scroll through the list to find the inactive plugin you want to delete. Inactive plugins will say "Inactive" below their name.
3. Click the "Delete" link for that plugin.
4. Click "OK" on the confirmation dialog to delete the plugin.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 for any other inactive plugins you want to remove.

Here‘s a quick visual of what that process looks like:

A few important things to keep in mind when deleting inactive plugins:

• Always delete plugins from the WordPress dashboard, not via FTP/SFTP or your hosting file manager. Deleting the plugin folders directly can leave behind orphaned database tables and options that cause issues down the line.
• If the plugin stored any content or settings you need, make sure to back up that data before deleting the plugin. Some plugins have a built-in export function for this, otherwise you may need to copy/paste into a spreadsheet.
• After deleting plugins, test your site thoroughly to make sure everything still works and looks as expected. If you run into issues, you may need to restore the deleted plugins from a backup.

Bonus Tips for Plugin Housekeeping

In addition to removing inactive plugins you don‘t need anymore, here are a few more plugin housekeeping tips to keep your WordPress site running smoothly:

• Keep all your plugins (including inactive ones) updated to the latest version for optimal security and compatibility. Use a plugin like Easy Updates Manager to automate the process.
• As part of a quarterly maintenance routine, audit both your active and inactive plugins and remove any that are unnecessary or redundant. Be ruthless about streamlining your plugin stack.
• When deactivating a plugin, pay attention to any error messages and test your critical site features before walking away. Some plugins can cause issues when deactivated due to unregistered widget areas, custom post types, etc.
• If you‘re not comfortable deleting an inactive plugin, consider replacing it with a "must-use" plugin instead. These are plugins that are always on and can‘t be deactivated from the admin dashboard. Kinsta has a great guide on creating must-use plugins.

Wrapping Up

I hope this in-depth look at inactive plugins has given you the information and confidence you need to tackle this common WordPress housekeeping task. While inactive plugins don‘t directly impact your site performance, removing the ones you don‘t need is still a smart practice for a cleaner dashboard and stronger site security.

Remember, when it comes to plugins (and WordPress in general), less is often more. Be judicious about which plugins you install in the first place and proactive about removing the ones that don‘t make the cut. A lean, mean, well-maintained WordPress site is a happy WordPress site!

As you audit your own inactive plugins, keep the following key takeaways in mind:

🚫 Inactive plugins DON‘T slow down your site… but they can pose a small security risk.
🔍 Evaluate each inactive plugin to decide if it‘s worth keeping – when in doubt, delete!
📝 Use the WordPress dashboard to properly delete the plugins and avoid leaving behind orphaned database tables.
🔄 Audit your plugins regularly and keep them updated as part of good WordPress maintenance.

If you have any other questions about inactive plugins or WordPress best practices, feel free to leave a comment below. I‘m always happy to help a fellow WordPresser out!