Do you consistently keep all plugins up to date?

[universal4]

Thanks for doing the math on the 5 plugins that changed over time.

This helps to point out that having the 5 plugins "might" be ok, or if you look at the functions you need and find the plugins that cover those functions, with the "least" total amount and trying to make sure you do not have overlapping functions, then at least you trying to reduce the overall overhead "some" plugins eat up.

Dave makes a good point, if it is not relevant to a specific site, don't install it. Need it later? Add it then.

Rick
Universal4

[Former Member 14]

it's not just the plugins that would be a problem, a poorly designed theme can be too.

That's why I mainly use premium themes and plugins.

I agree, a badly coded theme can kill speed too.
And, yes, paying a yearly subscription to a theme developer, is far better than a one-time charge.

A pro-theme not being kept updated, will eventually not work at all. What a waste of time, resources, and could even cost you dearly in the SE's.

[dannyx]

Need it later? Add it then.

I won't quite agree. At the beginning when I was planning the development of the site, I knew about some of the features that I would want to implement in the future. I uploaded the appropriate software right away to get the compatibility out of the way later. I knew that when I started using it suddenly there would be no problems, because it's already in the architecture of the site.
Of course, this is not the case with everything and some things are added later.

I agree, a badly coded theme can kill speed too.
And, yes, paying a yearly subscription to a theme developer, is far better than a one-time charge.

A pro-theme not being kept updated, will eventually not work at all. What a waste of time, resources, and could even cost you dearly in the SE's.

I fully agree. Especially for themes and plugins that are critical to the operation of the site.
A lot depends on your budget, but as a general rule, this is true. In case of lack of budget, it is worth looking for cheaper and "clean" solutions.

It's no fun to put a lot of work into something after which, through lack of updates, we can throw it in the garbage. Certainly, annual subscriptions motivate theme/plugin providers to improve products and updates.

[Former Member 14]

A lot depends on your budget

If you have to five and dime it, then your wasting your time.

Long gone are the days in this industry, and others, where, one can operate on a shoe-string budget.

Besides, if an affiliate can't afford to invest $75 or so into a decent, fast professional WP theme; maybe buy a few pro-plugins ($100), and then pay $20 or less a month for a decent startup shared hosting account... Sorry to say, your up the proverbial creek before you start!

If I had a $ for every newbie who comes here and asks... Why is my site not ranking?
Your using Wix, or some other useless, mainstream targeted option, that's not suitable for this gig

Anyway, if folks want to debate the cr#p out of this topic by agreeing/disagreeing or whatever, that one's prerogative.

However, the advise I've given in this thread and others, is what has kept my head well above the waterline for the last 23 years, in this gig!

[dannyx]

In general, buying any theme equals duplication of other designs.
I am a proponent of blank page and building from scratch.
I myself exclusively use Hello Elementor, a blank page.

Gaming themes like dinomatic, poka, mercury, flytonic are already too often used to be useful.

[gam-navi]

Yes. I keep all plugins updated.

[JKronwritter]

Well, with the latest update of the ThirstyAffiliates plugin, errors began to appear (WordPress 6.4.2)

[universal4]

Well, with the latest update of the ThirstyAffiliates plugin, errors began to appear (WordPress 6.4.2)

This is concerning, can you elaborate on the specific types of errors you are seeing?

Maybe some of the members here can help determine what is happening and suggest changes or work arounds to help clear it up.

Rick
Universal4

[kazino-igri-bg]

Maybe try plugin version 2.12.1? This version is compatible with WordPress 6.4.2

[Niko]

Always updating, unless we found bugs with new versions so we do revert

[dachin]

Plugins are only set to auto-update. There are many latest and useful plug-ins, but when I installed a plug-in in the past, a bug occurred on my site. I install plugins after gaining some knowledge.

[Sofi777]

It's crucial to regularly update plugins and themes when using WordPress for your affiliate site. Updates often include security patches, bug fixes, and new features that improve site performance and protect against vulnerabilities. By staying up-to-date, you ensure your site remains secure, functions smoothly, and stays compatible with the latest WordPress updates. Regular updates also help prevent compatibility issues with other plugins and ensure you can take advantage of new features that could enhance your site's user experience and SEO performance.

[rumbrasko]

I believe that updating plugins that are purely related to design is not a must. I try to keep the plugins to the minimum and I only keep an eye on page-speed plugins, since not updating them could lead to worse results on core web vitals.

[OnlineKasiino]

All plugins are set to auto-update, which maybe a mistake as some after the update tend to break the website...

[universal4]

I believe that updating plugins that are purely related to design is not a must. I try to keep the plugins to the minimum and I only keep an eye on page-speed plugins, since not updating them could lead to worse results on core web vitals.

Have to disagree with this to a point.
Plugins can easily end up have vulnerabilities discovered in them later. Often updates to plugin might be relate to security fixes and in those cases ignoring the update could be risky.

Rick
Universal4

[LepriconGirl]

I have to say that updating plugins is essential and I agree completely with @universal4.

Still, auto-updates without supervision can be painful for the websites overall uptime and perfomance. Most of the plugins can be put to auto-updates, but alas - usually the one that are used the most can't. For instance, Elementor breaks so many websites daily with single update which is trashy. Social Media and Slider plugins as well. The rest should be good to go for auto-updates.

What is crucial, at least from my experience, is to make backups beforehand and turning-off auto-updates for plugins which are known for update issues. Find a good host that has auto-backups for some period, so you don't have to think about that as well. Keep your plugins to a minimum, because loading them all with or without caching is slowing the whole thing down.

That's my 2 cents, hope it helps!

[WBM]

One thing people fail to overlook is checking for existing known security vulnerabilities in their plugins.
LiteSPeed Cache had a huge security flaw which was fixed recently, yet you'll be surprised how many of our clients haven't updated to the latest LSCache version to fix this issue, yet are extremely quick to ask why their WP installation has been compromised.

[universal4]

Interesting thread to re-visit.
The latest word press update has implemented some sort of plugin rollback. (6.6)

A friend and I discussed this last few days, and we have not had the time to see what they are doing. Guessing they will have to add a table or two to track this, and maybe zip up current plugins if you use the wp interface to update one.

This was just some initial speculation on our part but will be interesting to see how it works. Also wonder how they would handle table changes a plugin might make on an update, so I think the best practice is always a backup before updating most plugins or wordpress itself.

Rick
Universal4

[xecutable]

I guess these days wordpress does that for you, unless like many of us you have set wp-cron to run at a specific time. At that point I see it run into issues, which get solved after 24hrs I'm guessing when the scheduled trigger executes. I have it on ever 30 mins so not sure why it takes 24hrs.

I see some of the major ones like Rankmath and contact form 7 (pretty much the only things I use) update ahead of time, which means they are aware of the cycle and when wordpress updates itself.

One thing that always scares me, is some sort of a weird interaction bug that would break the functionality of the site as I had it happen before with Wp-Rocket and Yoast.

Also any plugin pushing jquery as a method to solve outdated code should be abandoned.

Anyways I believe when this thread started there was no autoupdate function but these days most likely everyone has that on.

[universal4]

Good point on the weird interactions, which can come about between plugins etc.

This is sometime why people keep autupdate off for some plugins so they are more involved in the process to be ready in case something does go wrong.

Rick
Universal4