How To optimize WordPress speed without plugins - Why would you do that?
At least once a month I get approached to speed optimize a WordPress site without using plugins. My focus today is not to directly answer the question: How To optimize WordPress speed without plugins – instead I want to focus on: Why would you want to avoid using plugins to optimise the page speed of your WordPress site?
How to increase WordPress speed without using plugins - a false narrative
Let’s start off with a quick back to basics about WordPress as a web platform.
First off – if you want the fastest website possible you should NOT be using WordPress!
Yes that’s right – WordPress will slow down your website. But WordPress out of the box is very fast – it’s not the fastest website platform – but it is fast.
There will be an upside and a downside to any website building tool you use.
WordPress has a great upside of being simple to use – fast and fairly cheap to build, easy to maintain, while being able to find the right skilled developers at the best price with ease.
If you chose to build your site using a Vue JS solution instead of WordPress, you may win on speed, but you will lose on all the other things that make WordPress a great choice.
In the end, with WordPress, it comes down to how you choose to build your website. Your build choices will create either a fast or slow site.
For example, the WordPress theme you choose – the plugins you add – the fonts you use and how you use images – all affect your final page load speed.
So why is avoiding using plugins a false narrative?
WordPress plugins are powerful and easy tools to add functionality to your website.
The whole WordPress architecture is built around using plugins as an effective and efficient way to add and extend core functionality.
Finally – if a WordPress plugin is coded and used correctly, the added page speed cost vs the improved functionality value is low.
Avoiding using plugins in WordPress is a little like asking a car manufacturer to just build your car with a fixed gear, using the flawed login that adding more gears would add more complexity to the motor, and add more potential issues and is expensive to replace when it beaks or wears out.
A gear box with multiple gears has a cost, but the benefits far outweigh the cost. The same goes for using WordPress plugins.
If you’re using the WordPress platform then its best to make life easy and simple.
Always remember, the total life-time cost of your website depends on how simple the site is.
The cost builds up over time if your site is more complicated.
While it may seem great to create a coded solution, in the end you will shoot yourself in the foot when you have to maintain that code.
Just this last week, a speed optimization client of mine spent over $3000 USD just fixing up old code so their site could be migrated to PHP 8.1 from PHP 7.4. And when PHP 8.2 hits the tarmac, they may have to spend the same again!
Taking care to use the best plugins best practices
Let’s not forget WordPress best practices.
Using plugins makes your website easier to maintain and manage as long as you are careful about what WordPress plugins to use.
Kinsta has a great article about this. Did you know that Kinsta has a risk free 30 day free web hosting trial? I recommend Kinsta as a top managed WordPress host that is 100% focused on client value and page speed.
In essence you should not install just any old plugin – paid or free – without checking the plugin quality making sure the plugins you choose will give you more upside than downside.
