Oversaturated: The World Of Bad WordPress Plugins. We’ve Got You Covered.

• January 22, 2015
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Sometimes finding a quality WordPress plugin that has everything you need is like buying chocolate online: the market is so saturated that you’re not sure where to look, you think you may have found the perfect recipe to fit your needs but there’s no way to be sure, and once you commit it’s too late.

In truth, nearly anyone can develop a shoddy plugin and commodify it. Nearly every developer has multiple opportunities to lay ruins to your once beloved plugin in a myriad of ways; from too much maintenance to no maintenance at all, a plugin is a dynamic, yet WordPress-necessary, beast.

As WordPress expert Jenny Bones of IvyCat.com writes in “Confessions of a Lazy WordPress Updater:”

It’s not necessarily laziness that prevented me from taking care of business. It’s more of a fear, and a strong distaste, of updates. There are several huge companies, who I will not name here, who seem to manage to break everything with each new update. I’ve been trained to be wary of the update, see? It’s not my fault. I’m the victim here. *cough*

vteams has seen this trend time after time in the industry. Given the nearly 35,000 plugins available, the logical assumption would be that there’s a plugin to fit every need; unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Common concerns range from plugins that induce lag, maintenance issues, and the fact that we’re at the mercy of a third party the minute we install. If you’ve found yourself with a similar problem, one of our most recent projects will be of interest.

When a client approached us in search of a community plugin that would fulfill his social sharing needs, our first thought was to source from an existing plugin. When it became apparent that this plugin wouldn’t suffice, we knew we’d need a custom solution.

Thus, a multi-functional plugin was born, with all the features of a present-day platform: notifications, friends, the ability to search, profile management, privacy and messaging functions.

To quote Atta, the development manager on this project, “If I can find a perfect match for my needs, why would I go for custom development?” If you can find a plugin that you’re comfortable with, meeting all expectations and necessities, then there’s no need to go this route. But when that just isn’t the case, you’ll know. We’ll tell you.