How To Know If A WordPress Plugin Is Safe: What You Need To Look For

Are you unsure if the WordPress plugins you are considering are safe to install? The safety of a plugin can be difficult to assess, but there’s no need to worry! This article will help guide you through the steps necessary for confirming that your chosen plugin is secure. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to confidently add plugins and expand what your website can do.

Quick Answer

You can check the reviews and ratings of a plugin on WordPress.org to get an idea of its safety and reliability. Additionally, you should always make sure that the plugin is up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress before installing it.

How To Know If A WordPress Plugin Is Safe

When it comes to adding plugins to your WordPress website, safety should always be your priority. It is essential that you properly verify the authenticity of a plugin before installing and using it on your website. Knowing if a plugin is safe requires more than just looking at its ratings or reviews; there are key steps you must take to ensure your site’s security and data protection against malicious software (malware).

The first step when evaluating a plugin is searching for any known vulnerabilities associated with it. A reliable source for such information would be the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), which contains verified vulnerability reports from all major vendors worldwide. Additionally, you can search for any recently discovered security issues related to the plugin by performing an online search query with “[plugin name] security issue” as keywords. If no results come up, then this may indicate that the plugin has not had any major flaws reported lately and could thus be considered safe enough to use on your website.

It is also important to check who developed the plugin in question; reputable developers often have better track records when it comes to keeping their products secure and up-to-date with bug fixes, which makes them safer than those created by unknown individuals or companies without much experience in developing WordPress plugins. You can find out who made a specific plugin by either visiting its official page on WordPress or checking out its “developer” section within its admin settings in WordPress dashboard after installation — both of these methods will tell you who created it and provide contact details if need be so you can ask questions about their product directly from them instead of relying solely on third party sources such as reviews or user feedbacks found elsewhere online. This way, you will know whether the developer has taken adequate measures towards protecting users from potentially harmful code injections during regular updates or other activities related to maintenance of their product over time.

Finally, make sure that all plugins installed on your site are regularly kept updated — outdated versions contain known bugs which hackers could exploit if left unpatched too long so make sure they get patched quickly once new updates roll out by setting automatic update notifications within WordPress platform itself (or via e-mail notifications) so patches will install automatically whenever available depending upon how advanced/complex that particular feature was coded into each individual product used on your connected sites/networks across multiple web solutions platforms simultaneously through one unified interface solution provider access point gateway system like WordPress CMS Admin Control Panel dashboard Unity Hub integration point suite option toolkit bundle marketplace app store center hub network manager console etc…

Examining WordPress Plugin Reviews and Ratings

When it comes to selecting a plugin for WordPress, one of the key factors that should be considered is what other people are saying about it. Through online reviews and ratings, it is possible to get an idea of how well the plugin works in practice and whether or not it meets your needs. Going through the reviews can also provide you with a better understanding of how others feel about its features and capabilities.

It’s important to remember that when reading online reviews, there will be pros and cons mentioned by different users as everyone has their own set of requirements for plugins they use. It can therefore help to read multiple reviews from different sources before making a decision on which plugin will best suit your needs. For example, if someone mentions a feature they find useful but another user finds no value in it then this could be worth taking into consideration when evaluating which solution would work best for you.

By looking at both positive and negative comments made by other users regarding any given WordPress plugin, you’ll have more insight into its strengths and weaknesses; giving you much needed confidence when deciding on whether or not to go ahead with using it. Additionally, checking customer support forums can also give some indication as to how quickly issues may be addressed if anything goes wrong while using the particular product – allowing you make sure that any problems experienced while using the tool will be taken care of swiftly rather than being left unresolved indefinitely.

Researching WordPress Plugin Popularity & Usage Stats

WordPress plugins offer an extensive variety of tools, services and features that can be used to enhance the usability, appearance and overall performance of a website. As such, it is important to research plugin popularity & usage stats before committing to using any specific plugin on your WordPress site.

It is possible to assess the current levels of popularity & usage for any given WordPress plugin by checking out a few different resources. One way would be to use a tool such as SiteGur or Plugin Stats Tracker which provide comprehensive details on the number of downloads, ratings and reviews each individual plugin has received over time. This can give you a good indication as to how popular specific plugins have become in recent weeks and months. Additionally, many sites will also list their top rated/most downloaded plugins so that you can see at-a-glance which ones are currently trending within the WordPress community.

Another option available would be referring directly to official sources from developers themselves – most major WP developers release detailed reports outlining exactly how users are interacting with their particular plugin offerings across all platforms. In addition, some websites (such as W3Techs) measure user trends more broadly across various hosting providers/CMS’s for even greater insight into market saturation & usage trends for common web applications and technologies like PHP or WordPress itself.

Checking WordPress Plugin for Malware or Infection Risk

It is essential to ensure your WordPress plugins are secure. When considering a new plugin, it is important to do research and check that the source code has been tested for any malicious code or infections. It can be challenging to determine if a plugin poses a security risk, as there may be hidden backdoors or other vulnerabilities that only become apparent once installed. To make sure you don’t find yourself with an infected website, pay close attention when selecting and installing plugins from third-party sources.

In order to reduce chances of infection from malicious code in plugins, use trusted sources such as the WordPress repository or reputable marketplaces like CodeCanyon. Before installing any plugin always read reviews and research its developer; look at their history and how they respond to customer feedback/complaints etc. It is also important to note whether the plugin has regular updates available – this indicates that development continues on the product which suggests reliability since developers are actively maintaining coding standards against potential threats (i.e., regular updates demonstrate ongoing support).

You should also take into account what type of data will be collected by using a particular plugin – will it require additional information such as payment details? If so, make sure that all necessary data encryption protocols are in place before installation (these should appear on the developer’s site). Finally, scan any downloaded file before installation with anti-virus software just in case something untoward does slip through – this provides extra protection for your website and gives peace of mind against potential risks associated with third party applications running on your server environment(s).