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Benefits of WordPress plugins.
Plugins are one of the two pillars of WordPress websites. Themes being the other pillar. WordPress themes provide WordPress it’s “skeleton” and aesthetics, and plugins power WordPress’s functionality.
There are many benefits of WordPress plugins, but unfortunately the concept of plugins is often misunderstood, especially by beginner WordPress users.
In this post, I’m going to go over 15 benefits of WordPress plugins.
By the end of this post, I hope that you will clearly understand why you should embrace plugins and more importantly use them to help create the best and most functional WordPress website you can.
All without knowing a single piece of code!
1. There is a plugin for almost anything.
Need to see how many visitors are visiting your WordPress website? There’s a plugin for that.
Do you need to add a clickable table of contents before every post? There’s a plugin for that.
Need an extra level of security, perhaps hide your login page? There’s a plugin for that too.
In fact, there are well over 50,000 WordPress plugins that can perform almost any function a website needs.
2. Plugins are adaptable and scalable.
Plugins are very adaptable. Many times plugins work in tandem with one another to create a unique functionality on your website.
Many plugin developers actually develop plugins to work together, or work separately, depending on the individual website owners needs and requirements.
Plugins can also be scalable.
Although all WordPress plugins offered on WordPress.org are free, which is a requirement for them to be listed on WordPress.org, most have paid versions as well.
Paid versions of plugins, or premium versions, allow the user to expand that particular plugin’s capabilities.
3. Plugins are either free or have low-cost options.
As I’ve mentioned above, all plugins offered on WordPress.org are free.
Although, most of those plugins also have low-cost premium options.
Many WordPress users, especially first time WordPress users, shiver at the thought of paying for anything, especially a theme or a plugin.
However, when you look at the costs as well as the amount of benefits a premium version of a plugin has over its free version. It becomes very clear.
In most cases, plugins are well worth the extra cost in the amount of additional functionality they offer as well as the convenience they provide.
Finally, if you compare what it would cost you to hire a developer to custom make and code a similar function, it’s a no brainer.
4. Plugins are Open-Source, information is clearly available about any plugin.
The whole foundation of WordPress is the fact that its CMS or “Content Management System” is free, open source and open to the public.
This means that any code produced for WordPress is available to all. Whereas any code, themes or any functionality developed with closed and proprietary platforms like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Webflow, Ghost etc. aren’t.
That’s right, with WordPress, all functionality that has been developed for these plugins including their coding is available for all to see, use as well as customize, improve and even sell.
This is one of the major reasons why WordPress is the most popular CMS on the internet today and powers over 40% of all websites on the web.
For example, if you have a plugin that you got from a developer and you would like to customize it a little more, you can either visit one of many WordPress forums and see if there’s any code snippets that you can add to that plugin.
Or if you don’t know any coding, you can ask a developer to tweak and customize that plugin even more for you. Try doing that with Wix.
5. Plugins are easy to add and activate to any WordPress website.
Plugins are basically pieces of code or software that are put together to perform a function or many functions on a website.
The beauty of plugins is that you don’t need to integrate them into your WordPress website through writing code or adding code.
You simply download the plugin into your WordPress dashboard then activate it. That’s it basically.
Of course, all plugins have sets of instructions as well as options you would need to choose depending on the plugin etc.
But all you have to do, basically, to get it working for you, is download it and activate it.
6. Plugins save a ton of time with plenty of options.
Since plugins are the second pillar of a WordPress website, they can help you save a ton of time in customizing and making your WordPress website function the way you like.
Aesthetics and appearance is one thing, but making your website function exactly the way you want it requires you to find the right plugins.
Finding the right plugin is quite easy through the WordPress.org search box or in your own WordPress dashboard, where you can go into the plugin section, type in the function you need in the search bar and you will have a plethora of choices.
There’s no faster way to get what you want than to simply type it into a search box, download and activate it.
7. Plugins save money.
Yes, even though thousands of WordPress plugins are free, their paid and premium versions will save you a ton of money as well. How?
Imagine you need a particular function, especially on a closed platform, or even a custom coded website.
In order for you to get that particular function added to your website, you would need to hire a developer to actually write the code and add it to your website.
How much do you think that would cost?
With WordPress most functions can be added through either free plugins or premium versions for a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer.
8. Plugins offer flexibility.
Another benefit of WordPress plugins is that they provide many functions within individual plugins themselves.
You usually have a choice of many options on how you want that plug into function.
You may not need all the functions a particular plugin offers, so you can pick and choose what works best for your website.
In addition, if you need more options you can always upgrade the plugin to its premium version.
9. Plugins can be very reliable.
Plugins are built to perform a function that many WordPress users may need. Most WordPress plugins offer support from their developers as well.
Developers are constantly updating and improving their plugins so that they remain well functioning, reliable and safe.
10. Plugins are easy to customize with Themes and other Plugins.
One of the great things about plugins is that they can take any theme and website in general and make it unique.
For example, if you take a theme that already has certain functions built into it by the developer you can add onto those functions by adding plugins.
In fact, you could build function after function by adding plugin after plugin.
This process of adding a variety of plugins helps create unique WordPress websites that can clearly differentiate themselves from other websites on the internet today.
11. Plugins have strong community support.
Most WordPress plugins have very strong community support.
If you visit WordPress.org for example, in the plugin section click on any plugin and you will find reviews as well as instructional videos, FAQs from the developer etc.
In addition, you will also find a support form.
This is where users of plugins can ask questions and get help not only from other WordPress users of that plugin, but from the developers themselves.
12. Plugins are safe and secure.
Like the WordPress core, WordPress plugins are also safe and secure. How?
Not only does WordPress core updates happen regularly, but so do individual plugins.
In fact, one of the criteria you should use when choosing a WordPress plugin for your website is just how often and how recent the developer has updated their plugin.
Plugin updates not only help improve the plugins functionality, but it also can streamline the plugins code making it less bloated and helping your WordPress website load faster into your visitor’s browsers as well.
In addition, updates are very necessary to fill in any potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and other nefarious actors looking to cause havoc among WordPress websites.
13. Plugins add unlimited functionality.
Since there are well over 50,000 plugins on WordPress, you can actually add unlimited functionality to your WordPress website.
However, be careful, plugins also add additional scripts and code to a WordPress website which can slow it down. So you need to be very judicious in which plugins you choose to use on your WordPress website.
But theoretically, the amount of functionality possibilities are seemingly endless.
14. Plugins work straight out of the box.
Another benefit of WordPress plugins is that they normally are created and developed to work straight out of the box.
Simply download the plugin onto your WordPress dashboard and activate it.
You may need to select certain options in that plugin for it to operate the way you want it to on your website.
But literally you can simply download, activate and the plugin works.
If you don’t like the way the plugin works on your WordPress website, don’t worry, you can simply deactivate the plugin and even delete it if you like from your WordPress dashboard and it’s gone.
In fact, trying out a plugin and deciding if it’s worth it or not for your website is another benefit of using WordPress plugins. You could try out several and pick the one that is best for your website.
All of course without any obligations to buy anything.
It’s a great way to experiment with several function possibilities while customizing your WordPress website.
15. Plugins require no coding to use.
The last, and probably the most important benefit of plugins in WordPress is that they require no coding nor coding knowledge from the WordPress plugin user.
Plugins again, are basically little software packages that provide a function or several functions for a WordPress website.
There’s no need to code it or change any of the codes on there to make it fit your needs.
WordPress plugins are built so that the end user does not need to mess with any coding whatsoever.
This is a major reason why WordPress is the most popular CMS on the internet today. It’s simple and easy to use right out of the box. No coding necessary.
Benefits of WordPress plugins, final thoughts.
There you have it, 15 benefits of WordPress plugins. So if you were on the fence or a little hesitant on getting a WordPress website, don’t be.
WordPress was created so that the non-programmer, non-coder or IT professional can use and create beautiful and well functioning websites to serve their needs.
In fact, WordPress has evolved to become more and more user-friendly through the use of plugins to the point where formerly complex functions have now become simple to implement by just downloading a plugin and activating it.
