Most recently I had used fair few plugins and I am pretty happy with their extensibilities and flexibilities that I thought I might write my experiences about the plugins and highlight what advantages plugins brings to your website. Its recommend to do proper research before selecting a plugin and follow the best practices when selecting a plugin.
Being a web developer and having a luxury like these, I would never mind. Let me get to the topic straight on though.
One of the advantages of WordPress had been its vast resources for extensible plugins within the plugin repository. WordPress Plugin Repository hosts thousands of plugins and if selected properly it can bring so many added benefits for your site and of your course to your pocket too.
1.Extended Functionalities free or with very reasonable price
WordPress Plugins in the repository are all free. There are plenty of plugins that are really good and well maintained and can be used in the website without second thoughts. Authors behind those plugins are quiet knowledgeable about WordPress and WordPress APIs.
In some cases you might be willing to buy a premium plugin from different website like Codecanyon or from Elite Plugin Authors. But in most of the case plugins are reasonably priced since the benefits to the writer/owner comes after selling in bulk.
2.Save time on Development
Picking up Plugins definitely saves time. The only time you will be spending around will be to do some study about the plugin and reading their reviews.
And you might spend some the get familiarise with the plugin and going through the documentation. That’s it and you ready to plug-in new features to your site.
3.Up to date with WordPress Core
Good thing is that WordPress keep on updating and eliminating vulnerabilities with the Core. WordPress community is quiet big and they work together to make the software better and more secured.
So whenever WordPress releases a new version of software, there is a chance that older functions are deprecated and replaced by new functions. Most of the well maintained plugins are quiet quick to respond to the change and accommodate with the updates quiet fast. So, with plugins you do get compatibility with the latest version of WordPress you are using.
4.Easier Compatibilities with Other Code and Plugins
As mentioned about well-maintained plugins are easily compatible with the latest version of the WordPress.
There is a good chance that your website might be running on more than one plugin which is the case of the most of the WordPress Websites. A good plugin is compatible with another plugin, and if it’s well written following WordPress development Guidelines there shouldn’t be an issue with compatibility with another plugin.
But the main bottom line is that you need to do a proper research before selection one.
5.Better Security Features
Common myth about WordPress being not secured is totally gibberish. Most of the backdoors or weakness in securities coming from basic things such as not updating WordPress to latest version or selecting weak passwords etc.
Plugins written within WordPress Best Practices and within WordPress API are secured most of the times.
On conclusion, WordPress plugins are easier, flexible and efficient way of adding new features in your website. It saves time and money, but careful studies about the plugin before installing is needed.