Avoid These 65 Slow Loading WordPress Plugins

Which Plugin Is Slowing Down Your WordPress Website?

I’ve been using WordPress for a very long time and tested hundreds of WordPress plugins. Below is a list of slow loading plugins that will slow down your website.

Note that I have personally tested the below plugins and your experience with these plugins my differ from my personal results with the below plugins so feel free to let me know.

After getting rid of slow plugins on my blog. My blog now loads in under 2 seconds. The slow plugins like Contact Form 7 and Contextual Related Posts that I still use on my blog I use the Asset Clean Up plugin to trim the bloat and fat (unnecessary CSS/Javascript) from my site.

Hot Tip: Your website's speed and loading time will become a huge ranking factor in 2021 (Google said so themselves) so be sure to get your website ready when the Google algorithm hits in 2021.

Unique/Great content will still dominate the serps though! so don't lose focus of that. It's just that Google will put heavy emphasis on the user experience and page loading times in conjunction with great content.

So just imagine having keyword rich, SEO optimized pages along with a fast website = money in the bank! Anyways back to the slow plugins... that's why you are here right?

You can see below my blog's loading time from using the GTmetrix tool along with my Google Page Speed Insight scores for both Desk top and Mobile users. (Removing bloated plugins was a huge factor.)

1. My GTmetrix Page Speed/Y Slow Scores: 99%/93% and fully load of 1.2 seconds.

2. My Desktop Page Speed Insights Scores 100

3. My Mobile Page Speed Insights Scores 94

Oh yes before I forget to tell you I also use the WP Rocket plugin on my blog that has also helped me achieve those fast load times and scores with my blog.

(Note: it's a premium/paid plugin no free version, but Autoptimze plugin is a great free alternative to WP Rocket if you're strapped for cash.)

List of 65 Slow Plugins I've tested...

1. AddThis
2. AdSense Click Fraud Monitoring
3. All-In-One Event Calendar
4. Backup Buddy
5. Beaver Builder
6. Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps
7. Broken Link checker (use Dr. Link Check)
8. Constant Contact for WordPress
9. Contact Form 7 ( I still use this with Asset clean up )
10. Contextual Related Posts ( I still use this with text only )
11. Digi Auto Links
12. Disqus Comment System
13. Divi Builder
14. Essential Grid
15. Facebook Chat
16. Fancy Gallery
17. Fuzzy SEO Booster
18. Google Analytics
19. Google Language Translator
20. Google Translate
21. Google XML Sitemaps
22. Jetpack
23. Leaflet Maps Marker
24. MyReview
25. NextGEN Gallery
26. NewStatPress
27. Real Estate Website Builder
28. Really Simple Share
29. Reveal IDs
30. Revolution Slider
31. Sharebar
32. ShareThis
33. S2 member
34. SEO Auto Links & Related Posts
35. Share Buttons by AddToAny
36. Share Buttons by E-MAILiT
37. ShareThis
38. Social Discussions
39. Socialable
40. Similar Posts
41. Slimstat Analytics
42. SumoMe
43. Talk.To
44. Tribulent Slideshow Gallery
45. Ultimate Social Media & Share
46. VaultPress
47. WooCommerce Customer History
48. Wordfence (disable live traffic reports)
49. WordPress Facebook
50. WordPress Related Posts
51. WordPress Popular Posts
52. WordPress Social Ring
53. WP Bakey (formerly Visual Composer)
54. WP Facebook Like Plugin
55. WP Jump Menu
56. WP Social Bookmarking Lite
57. WP Social Share
58. WP Statistics
59. WP Power Stats
60. WP-PostViews
61. WPML (if you use too many extensions)
62. WPCloaker
63. WPML
64. Yet Another Related Post Plugin
65. Yuzo Related Posts

Okay, so now that I've hammered home that popular plugins might also be the reason your site is running slowly…what do you actually do about it?

If you’re using any of the plugins on the above list, either get rid of them or find a replacement. If it's a must use the Asset Clean Up plugin to strip unnecessary code from loading on your website post/pages.

Is there any other slow plugins you've encountered?

Let me know if there is a recommendation for me to replace Contact Form 7 and Contextual Related Post plugins with a lighter plugin then do let me know.

Excellent works here. I am also considering remove GA since many claimed it slows the page down.

Btw, I am trying to find a "real random related post" plugin but no luck after tried many of those, consider I have a ton of articles (thousands), I want to each time a page loaded the plugin will show X posts from thousands not same category or what, do you know any plugin can do this job?

Really helpful list....Bookmarked
I've installed none of them but still loading slow

Thanks for the info.

Questions:
1. Which related posts plugin (with thumbnails) has the least impact on page speed?

2. Are there any lightweight contact form plugins that loads only on contact us page?

3. Are you using any social share plugin?

4. What wordpress theme are you using ?

Thanks in advance.

-Neo

Would you mind if I added the link to this as a free resource in my guide

Good list. Bookmarking it.

neo said:

Thanks for the info.

Questions:
1. Which related posts plugin (with thumbnails) has the least impact on page speed?

2. Are there any lightweight contact form plugins that loads only on contact us page?

3. Are you using any social share plugin?

4. What wordpress theme are you using ?

Thanks in advance.

-Neo

Click to expand...

I am interested in these questions as well.

Thanks for the list.

Thanks for sharing mate

You have included the jetpack, which i use for analytics, image optimization. I thought this helps my website speed?

Good one

Thank you for the list, bookmarked.

Have to review my sites plugins because of this... Thanks

For those who wish to try it, here is the latest Pro version activated along with its competitor, Permatters activated too.

[GET][ACTIVATED] Perfmatters v1.5.6
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/get-activated-perfmatters-v1-5-6.1237944/

[GET][ACTIVATED] Asset CleanUp Pro v1.1.7.2
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/get-activated-asset-cleanup-pro-v1-1-7-2.1237945/

NOTE:

The actual version of Asset CleanUp Pro in this file is v1.1.7.3, NOT v1.1.7.2

terrycody said:

Excellent works here. I am also considering remove GA since many claimed it slows the page down.

Btw, I am trying to find a "real random related post" plugin but no luck after tried many of those, consider I have a ton of articles (thousands), I want to each time a page loaded the plugin will show X posts from thousands not same category or what, do you know any plugin can do this job?

Click to expand...

Yes those GA plugins have a lot of bloat there's no need to have a GA plugin if you are able to paste your GA tracking code in your themes header. If your theme allows this then I suggest getting rid of any GA plugin and use the the GA site to few your traffic stats.

As for the post plugin I suggest the Contextual Related Post plugin as it can be configured in your dash board to show either related or random post, I have my own set to show post links only but their is an option to show post thumbnails as well. I don't show the thumbnails on my blog although they look good I focus on blog speed and loading times so i avoid the thumbnails. Hope that helps.

neo said:

Thanks for the info.

Questions:
1. Which related posts plugin (with thumbnails) has the least impact on page speed?

2. Are there any lightweight contact form plugins that loads only on contact us page?

3. Are you using any social share plugin?

4. What wordpress theme are you using ?

Thanks in advance.

-Neo

Click to expand...

Hi Neo I can't say which related post plugin has the least impact but what I can recommend is to use the Asset Clean Up plugin like I did to remove unneeded code from the related post plugin to avoid any speed concerns.

For your second questions there is WP Forms and WP Forms Lite which allows a premium version that is lightweight but you can do your research and see if that works for you. That plugin has other email form optin features as well.

For social sharing I'm using Social Warfare it has both a free and paid version, it's super light weight and I've been using it on my site for a while. As for my theme I'm using a premium theme from StudioPress called Magazine Pro which is a child theme that sits on the Genesis framework that I have installed it's build for SEO and speed. Hope that helps.

I would add Google Fonts as well in a website's slow factors.

If you use WP-Rocket Cache plugin i think that you do not need to "host" any plugin for analytics. Am i correct?

Nihilism said:

Would you mind if I added the link to this as a free resource in my guide

Click to expand...

Sure that is not a problem feels free to use as a free resource. I'm that you found some value in it.

Bro, if the site need WooCommerce and FB plugin will not choice isn't .

So true. I just deleted my Contact Form 7 three days ago when I noticed that it's slowing down my website. I'm looking to go with ordinary html form