Outdated WordPress Plugins- Are They Safe? Don’t Put Your Business at Risk!

WordPress users often ask: 

“Can I install this plugin, it’s outdated?

Will it harm my website? Should I use another plugin”?

Uff! I am sure they had many a sleepless night worrying over this potential harm to their website.

Well no more!

I can’t stand it any longer (because I am starting to lose sleep over it)

So here’s an article that explains when you can, and when you shouldn’t use out of date plugins.

And as a bonus, you will also learn how to contribute to WordPress community by labeling a plugin safe/broken.

Let’s go!

How Can WordPress Tell When the Plugin is Outdated?

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WordPress’s plugin repository is the number one source of free plugins on the web.

Authors there have access to a huge market of plugin-hungry users and a perfect chance to show off their coding knowledge.

By offering pure value (remember- the plugins are free), they hope to also snatch a few paying customers in the process.

This piece of info tells you everything you need to know. Every plugin author wants their work to be immensely popular and have as many free downloads as possible.

However, this rarely happens.

More often than not, a newly released plugin will fail miserably. This leaves the author with no good reason to:

• work on it;
• improve upon it;
• update it (creators pride doesn’t count- this is business).

The usual consequence to this is ”plugin not tested with the newest version of WordPress”

Why Does This Happen Exactly?

When first submitting the plugin, authors must also submit documentation on it.

And within those files, there is a “tested up to tag” which displays whether the plugin is keeping pace with the newest releases of WordPress.

And here things diverge completely.

With paid plugins- the tag is always updated (can you guess why?).

With free plugins- it is often not:

Why?

It’s usually because the author:

• Tests and updates the plugin, but doesn’t bother to change the tag (or forgets)
• Cuts his losses and moves on (abandoned property)

Remember;

Free plugins are just that- free.

Authors don’t really have that big of an incentive to update the tag even when they do update the plugin.

That is why the most popular plugins like All in One SEO, Yoast SEO, Max Buttons, W3 Total Cache are all updated (and all showing it proudly too).

They have enough paying users.

Here, my favorite button creator, MaxButtons, demands to be updated:

As you can guess, there’s a paid version of this plugin which, by the way, was downloaded more than 100 000 times (not bad, free MaxButtons)

How Can I Tell For Sure Whether a Plugin is REALLY Abandoned?

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You can’t.

But you can take an educated guess. Any plugin last updated two years ago should be avoided.

The truth is:

Most would work just fine, but performance is not what I’m talking about.

This is about your site’s security.

As WordPress moves to more and more secure versions, plugins that lag behind become vulnerable to hacking attempts.

In fact, two of the most common routes of attack are through:

• Plugins that are installed, but deactivated
• Plugins that are outdated

A short but illustrative story

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Imagine you found a forgotten pail filled with milk two years of age.

The milk inside is whiter than cheese, smoother than silk (no clumps), with the smell that reminds you of the fondest days of your childhood.

Ah, those were the days!

You were worry-free; you were running about in the fields;

Oftentimes you got tired and you ALWAYS ran back to the house to get a cup of steaming hot milk, fresh from the cow’s belly.

Yes, I am reminiscing, but I think YOU, the reader, have similar sweet childhood memories and can understand the point of my story.

And that point is:

Two years turn the sweet into sour;

Your website is crucial to you– it’s your business.  Be responsible and don’t confuse looking fresh for being fresh.

I know you’re smarter than that.

Can I Install “Not Tested” Plugins?

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I can’t tell you what to do; but I can say that, in most cases, you CAN install them.

Here is what I recommend:

Scenario one:

WordPress’s market for plugin developers is huge and there’s no shortage of healthy competition. Snoop around and see if there is a plugin that does the same job AND is updated.

Chances are you could find an even better plugin.

For example:

I always wanted to have content tables at the beginning of my pages and posts, especially longer ones.

But when I researched online using Jaaxy,  I noticed they all recommend “Table of Content Plus”, which I’m sure was an excellent plugin, but now it’s long outdated.

So I researched further and found another one, less know, but superb, called “Easy Table of Content”

That’s the one I’m using to this day.

Scenario two:

If there isn’t one, then install the outdated one. It is probable that only the tag isn’t updated.

If it works, great! No worries there.

Pro tip. Go to the plugin’s page and see what others are saying about it. You are likely not the first with this dilemma.

Scenario three:

If the plugin is last updated 2+years ago- don’t touch it! Save yourself a headache.

I already talked about site security so I won’t say much here, but…

If your site gets hacked, you will get blacklisted in Google. Then you’ll have to restore a backup and lose a lot of recent work.

Moreover, if the problem is more serious  you’ll need to hire someone to help you and that is:

• More money spent
• More affiliate commissions lost 
• More time lost
• More nerves wrecked

Trust me, no plugin is worth your inner peace.

And What About Deactivated Plugins? Can I at Least Keep Them?

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Now:

I know what you’re thinking.

“I have this plugin on my dashboard, lying around, chilling, doing nothing in particular. I don’t use it, but I might someday”. I think I’ll keep it

Should you?

I say uninstall. Remove completely.

It seems counter-intuitive and hard to believe, but plugins that are installed and deactivated still burden your site.

First, they slow it down.

Just by deleting what you don’t use you can improve your site’s speed and UX, and it is the easiest path to a faster website (the other way is image optimization- very tedious when done manually).

• The other way to quickly improve UX- http://nikolaroza.com/reading-progress-bar-wordpress/

Second, these plugins are a potential hazard to your site’s health.

Once again hackers can gain access to it through a plugin you don’t use.

This happens when the plugin is badly coded or when the plugin has to be updated and you fail to do it in time.
Trust me, even if you’re just a day too late- it can happen and will be catastrophic.

This happens quite often.

I think it’s because people subconsciously erase it from their mind. “Hey, I am not using it, why should I bother”?

Think about this:

You’re also not using your appendix, but still wouldn’t want to catch appendicitis.

Don’t get sloppy, and don’t slip on a banana skin, especially when, and I know you understand this;

You saw it lying on the ground:)

Help a Fellow WordPress’er Out (Yes, I made that word up)

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There are things you could do to help weed out broken plugins.

If it works:

• Return to the plugin’s page
• Log in to your WordPress account
• Go to the compatibility page
• Select your version of WordPress and plugin and mark it as working
• Optional-send a message to the author to update the tag

If it doesn’t work:

• Try it on two different sites to reproduce the same error
• Report the error on the support thread
• Wait for the answer from the community or the author
• If there isn’t response after a few weeks, mark it as broken and move on

Conclusion- Are outdated WordPress plugins safe?

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Plugins are important, your site is crucial.

As a responsible webmaster never lose sight of the end goal for you:

• User satisfaction
• Earning commissions- if affiliate marketing is your cup of tea (hint: check out Wealthy Affiliate)
• Having a successful website as an anchor of your whole life’s success.

Thank you for reading.

Please share if you liked it.

Also, I want to hear your say on this. Do you have something to add?

Something to ask?

A story to share?

If yes, do it in the comment area below, thank you.

I think you are awesome,

and I, Nikola, am signing out