Title: evaluating plugins Last modified: August 31, 2016 --- # evaluating plugins * [edstevensdba](https://wordpress.org/support/users/edstevensdba/) * (@edstevensdba) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/) * I am looking for some advice/sanity on evaluating/choosing plugins. Looking at various plug-ins on wordpress.org I am struck by the number of times I see something with a 4+ rating, but with a handful of ‘1’ reviews claiming that the plug-in trashed their site. Have also read about plug-ins (and themes) that have buried code to drive SEO to the plug-in author’s own site. * Also, I’ve read several reviews that commercial plug-ins tend to be worse. This seems counter-intuitive to me. I’d expect the business case for the authors of free plugins to push towards nefarious ends and paid-for code to be ‘cleaner’. I do understand that the business model for some is to offer basic functionality for free, then try to upsell for a premium version with more functionality. * A counter argument I’ve read (making the case for the free stuff on wordpress. org) is that the code offered there, while free, is more thoroughly vetted. * Thoughts? Opinions? Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * (@macmanx) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951588) * Everything submitted at [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) goes through a very thorough vetting process: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/about/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/about/) * We have an entire team devoted to this [https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/) a system for reporting guideline and security violations: [https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2015/05/04/reporting-plugin-issues/](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2015/05/04/reporting-plugin-issues/) * I can’t speak for commercial plugin stores like CodeCanyon, but I’d say that our vetting process is very thorough. The amount of plugins blocked from entry is no trivial number. 🙂 * For finding a plugin, there are few things I personally do: * 1. Start off by searching at [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) If you can find it for free, and it works great for you, there’s no reason to go for a paid plugin. * 2. Compatibility! Using [https://wordpress.org/plugins/limit-login-attempts/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/limit-login-attempts/) as an example, you’ll see it says “Compatible up to: [WordPress] 3.3.2”, *but* scroll down to the bottom of that sidebar where you’ll see the lovely “Compatibility” poll, where 3 people have voted that it still works in WordPress 4.4.1 vs. 0 who have voted it’s broken. This Compatibility poll is a life-saver. Just because a plugin has been abandoned doesn’t mean it won’t work. * 3. Reviews! Most people go straight for the 5-star reviews, those are a waste of time. Go directly to the 1 and 2 star reviews. You’ll want to look for 3 things here. First, “Are other people reporting this problem?” Second, “Does this sound like a reasonable problem that I can live with?” Finally, how the developer responds to negative reviews is far more important than any 5-star review. Are they helpful, do they use the feedback to consider improvements, or do they immediately start by attacking the reviewer? Using Jetpack as an example, this is what I mean by helpful: [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/useless-129](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/useless-129) and [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slowed-website](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/slowed-website)( and many more under the 1-star reviews for that plugin). * 4. Support! In the plugin’s listing, you’ll also find a Support tab. How well is the plugin supported? If there are threads with no reply going back for month, and there’s no yellow-highlighted thread at the top directing users elsewhere for support, you know that you’ll have no help if you run into a problem. I’ll go back to Jetpack again for an example: [https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/jetpack](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/jetpack) They have *both* a thread directing users to their preferred support system * and* an active developer supporting the people who still post there. * 5. Stats! I don’t usually rely on this on, but it’s still helpful. In the top of the sidebar in the plugin’s listings, you’ll see “Active Installs,” this is very different from the Downloads stat in the Stats tab, this is how many people actually *use* the plugin, and it’s a good indicator of how well-received the plugin actually is. Using [https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/) as an example again, it has 639 total 5/4/3 star reviews, yet over 1 million active installations, so they must be doing something right. 😉 * I hesitate to make high active installs a requirement though in my choices, because you could find an *amazing* plugin released last week with only 5 active installations. * Hope this helps! * Thread Starter [edstevensdba](https://wordpress.org/support/users/edstevensdba/) * (@edstevensdba) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951598) * James, thanks for the quick feedback. I completely agree with your comments on 5-star vs 1-star reviews – I always go straight to the 1-star. Keeping in mind that there are always a degree of outliers, and it is always possible for a ‘ terrible piece of ****’ review to be a result of “a fool with a tool”. (I’ve been in IT for 35 years and have seen my share of that). You did help solidify my thinking in looking for patterns of complaints. It is un-nerving to see more than one complaint about a plugin pretty much destroying a site. * To come back to another point I had . . . what is the business model for the free plugins? As mentioned, I can see it for those that are offered as minimal functionality with a link to up-sell for expanded functionality, and that seems to me to be a very legit model. But what about those that are entirely free? * Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * (@macmanx) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951606) * Not everything has a business model. 😉 * I’d say the most common “business model” for free plugins here is that the developer needed the functionality for their site or a client’s site (or simply wanted to learn how to do something), and then made it available for free to everyone else. * Thread Starter [edstevensdba](https://wordpress.org/support/users/edstevensdba/) * (@edstevensdba) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951624) * I can buy that. 🙂 * Thanks again for the response. * Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * (@macmanx) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951640) * You’re welcome! Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘evaluating plugins’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/) * 5 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * Last activity: [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/evaluating-plugins/#post-6951640) * Status: not a support question ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics