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This may come as a shock to many of you, but the Jetpack WordPress plugin we’ve all come to know and depend on can actually slow down your website. Luckily, optimizing doesn’t mean you have to lose out on your favorite functionalities. I’ve taken the liberty of creating a list of the best Jetpack WordPress plugin alternatives just in case your site needs a speed boost.
What Is Jetpack WordPress Plugin?
Jetpack is a plugin suite which combine many features into one mega plugin. Many themes and even WordPress itself push Jetpack as a useful tool for beginning bloggers and website owners. I myself even used it for years. Then what, you ask, is the problem?
Why Jetpack WordPress Plugin Could Be Killing Your Website
Jetpack, with all of its extras turned on, is what we in the industry call a bloated plugin. Jetpack includes over 20+ plugin applications and Jetpack WordPress Plugin is larger than the WordPress Core itself. When you have too many of these plugin functions running, it can take up over a 1/3 of your website’s full bandwidth to support. That means your site is fighting the plugin for resources just to run. This can make your website extremely slow.
Slow sites create quite a few problems. They hurt your website’s user experience, resulting in frustrated users who end up leaving your page when your content won’t load properly. When users abandon a page without visiting any other pages, this raises a stat known as the bounce rate, meaning you’re losing out on user engagement. Site speed also plays a huge role in search engine optimization ranking. If your site is too slow, Google will dock your search engine rank.
- Damages UX
- Raises bounce rate
- Hurts site speed
- Lowers SERP
What are the best Jetpack WordPress Plugin Alternatives?
The good news is you may not even need all of the functionality that Jetpack provides. That leaves you a few options. You can deactivate Jetpack functions you aren’t using to see if it helps. Don’t take it from me- measure your site speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see if the gains are worth it. Luckily, there are plenty of light and fast alternatives you can install a la carte for all of your website needs, too.
Spam Control
Contact Forms
Google Analytics & Stats
Backups
Website Security
SEO & XML Sitemaps
Can’t choose? We have a great article about the pros and cons of these free WordPress SEO plugins so you can make the right choice for your needs.
Photo Galleries
Publicize
Related Posts
Post Scheduling
Infinite Scroll
CDN
Lazy Load
Shortcode Embeds
WordPress Core now includes shortcode embeds for most types of media
Easy Updates Manager
Spelling and Grammar
Email Subscriber
- Subscribe 2
- New Post Notification
- RSS Feed (http://www.yoursite.com/rss)
Widget Visibility
Custom CSS Manager
Beautiful Math Markup
WordPress Notifications
Omnisearch
Short Links
Mobile Theme
- WP Touch Mobile Theme
You only need a mobile theme plugin if your existing theme isn’t reflexive or optimized for mobile already. Check to see if your site is already mobile-friendly before installing.
Post By Email
Image Compression
As you can see, there are many alternatives and out-of-the-box solutions for making sure your site has the functionality it needs. You’ll need to assess which functionalities you really need. Most importantly, look at the quality. If Jetpack WordPress plugin isn’t as robust as its alternatives, why use it?
