What is a plugin and how do you find the good ones?
Presented by Michelle Hayes
What is a plugin?
A program that extends the functionality of WordPress and your theme.
Quick Facts
- Over 57,000 free plugins in WordPress Plugin Directory
- Thousands more paid plugins on various sites
- Developers can build custom plugins
Where do you find plugins?
WordPress Plugin
Directory
How do you know which plugins are good?
Plugin Directory
- Over 100,000 Active Installs
- 4 Stars or Better
- Recently Updated
- Compatible with Current Version of WordPress
Paid Plugins
- Quality Documentation – are all your questions answered?
- Robust Community – results from various sources in Google search; facebook groups and slack channels exist
- Developer Responsiveness to Questions – ask pre-sale questions if anything is unclear
Custom Coded
- Codeable Experts are Vetted
- Codeable Offers Warranty and Refund Policy
- Existing Plugin Developers – see previous slide
How Many Plugins is Too Many?
Ask Questions
of the Developer!
- pre-sale questions
- developer wants happy customers
- understand refund policies
- support questions
- developer wants happy customers
- may enable developer to improve plugin