The debate is endless! Opinions fly back and forth! Still, we seem to be no closer to a definitive answer to an old question, How many plug-ins should I have on my WordPress website? Sorry to disappoint everyone, but this tutorial won't give a definitive answer to this debate.

.

Why?

Simply, the real answer is - It Depends!

What Does It Depend On?

There are many factors that play a role in determining what and how many plug-ins we need for our websites. And we often debate this subject here at Wealthy Affiliate Network because when we check our Site Health rating, like I did today, we often get 0% if our site has more than 5 plugins.

So we have to be realistic when discussing / debating this issue. Some websites need more than 5, even though this is the figure we are taught through Kyle's training. Recently, an online survey of over 500 WordPress users considered this questions. When the votes were tallied, 42% believed that 11-25 plug-in was a reasonable quantity to have on your site while 38% believed the figure should be 1-10. I have around the 10 mark. And Still I wonder if I have too many or too few.

It may be that your website is simply a blogging site that will function beautifully with 5 or less. But if you have plans to add e-commerce, email sign-up and mail-out features, or if it is a portfolio site with many high quality images, then the plug-in number will naturally need to increase.

And it is interesting to note that some WordPress sites function beautifully and swiftly with 20-50 plug-ins. The key is really not the number as much as the quality and resource needs of each plug-in. Having a number of lightweight plug-ins, when well-coded can be great but one plug-in that is badly coded or highly demanding resource-wise can be the ruination of our website.

So let's consider this subject from a slightly different angle. Why don't we think about the categories of plug-ins that are useful for a WordPress site and which ones are rated highly in each category. Of course, I may miss a category as I write this training, so I welcome your input in the comments area.