You can temporarily or permanently remove a plugin from your website. This guide will show you how.
We recommend keeping your site lean by using only the plugins you need to run your site. Removing a plugin will help:
- Keep your site secure.
- Keep your site loading quickly.
- Keep your dashboard clutter-free and easy to navigate.
- Avoid duplicate features overriding each other.
You can deactivate a plugin to temporarily remove the plugin from your site. Deactivating a plugin is safe and non-destructive: the plugin will remain on your site for you to reactivate if you need to. When you reactivate a plugin, all its settings and content will return just like they were before the deactivation.
To deactivate a plugin, take the following steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
- Find the plugin in the list of your installed plugins.
- Click Deactivate.
The Jetpack and Akismet plugins cannot be deactivated as these plugins provide essential functions to run your site effectively.
On Business plan sites, you can deactivate and delete the WooCommerce plugin only after deactivating and deleting any companion plugins such as WooPayments, WooCommerce Shipping, and WooCommerce Tax extensions. This restriction is a safety measure to avoid an error or crash on your site caused by a WooCommerce extension that relies on WooCommerce in order to function.
If you attempt to deactivate WooCommerce before deleting its companion plugins, you will receive the following notice: “This plugin cannot be deactivated or deleted until the plugins that require it are deactivated or deleted.”
On Commerce plan sites, the WooCommerce plugin can’t be deactivated because it provides the ecommerce functionality for the Commerce plan and is required for included WooCommerce extensions. If you wish to remove WooCommerce while on the Commerce plan, downgrade your site’s plan.
You can erase a plugin permanently from your site.
Deleting a plugin will often delete the plugin’s settings and content, so be sure you no longer need the plugin before deleting it.
To delete a plugin, take the following steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
- Find the plugin in the list of installed plugins.
- Click Deactivate and wait for the page to reload.
- Find the plugin in the list again and click Delete.
An active plugin will always show a Deactivate link first, which you must click before the Delete link will appear.
Deactivating a plugin is a good choice if you think you will need the plugin or any of its data in the future. Deactivating a plugin temporarily is also helpful in troubleshooting problems on your website.
Delete a plugin if you are confident you will not need it again in the future. You can also delete plugins that are duplicating the features already provided by your WordPress.com plan.