Out of 4,999 WordPress plugins benchmarked for raw speed impact, a whopping 86% scored A or A- — negligible hits to your site’s heartbeat.
That’s right. Your clean WordPress install, humming along with Twenty Twenty-Four theme, PHP 8.3, MySQL 8.0. No Lighthouse fluff, just server-side truth: TTFB spikes, database queries per load, memory overhead, extra HTTP requests. Five page loads, averaged. Baseline? Zero plugins.
But here’s the thunderclap. The king of e-commerce, WooCommerce — 5 million-plus active installs — flunks with an F. Nineteen database queries. Every. Single. Page.
The most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin (5M+ active installs) is the heaviest plugin in the entire database. It adds 19 database queries to every single page load - not just product pages. Your blog post, your about page, your contact page - all taxed equally.
Blog post? Slammed. About page? Drilled. It’s like inviting a sumo wrestler to tea — every room creaks.
Why Does WooCommerce’s Bloat Feel Like a Betrayal?
Look, WooCommerce powers empires. But those 19 queries? They’re ghosts haunting non-shop pages. Imagine your site’s database as a bustling kitchen — each query’s a chef yelling orders. Nineteen extras mean chaos, even on a contact form.
And it’s not alone. Two Gutenberg toolkits, EditorsKit and Cozy Blocks, join the F club. Page builders? Elementor piles on 47ms per load. Beaver Builder? A breezy 2ms. Twenty-three times the drag for the same job. Pick wrong, and your site crawls like a dial-up relic.
Yet 2,357 plugins nailed A-grade perfection. Contact Form 7? Zero everything — load time, queries, memory. The gold standard. Yoast SEO, that behemoth of features? Still A. Wordfence security? A-. Even Jetpack Boost — a “speed” plugin — limps to C. Ironic, right?
The myth? “Fewer plugins, faster site.” Dead wrong. It’s the which ones. Stack ten A’s, you’re flying. One F, and you’re grounded.
| Grade | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| A | 2,357 | 47% |
| A- | 1,945 | 39% |
| B+ | 199 | 4% |
| B | 113 | 2% |
| B- | 150 | 3% |
| C+ | 67 | 1% |
| C | 51 | 1% |
| C- | 28 | 1% |
| D | 8 | 0.2% |
| F | 3 | 0.06% |
Is Elementor Killing Your WordPress Site’s Speed?
Page builders promise drag-and-drop magic. But Elementor’s 47ms? That’s real-world lag — users bounce while your pixels paint. Beaver Builder whispers by at 2ms. Same dream, worlds apart in reality.
All in One SEO? C-grade overhead. Jetpack Boost? C for a speed tool — oof. Here’s the table of shame and shine:
| Plugin | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yoast SEO | A | Well optimized despite scope |
| Wordfence | A- | Better than expected |
| Contact Form 7 | A | Zero measurable impact |
| Elementor | C- | Heavy page builder |
| Jetpack Boost | C | Ironic for a “speed” plugin |
| All in One SEO | C | Significant overhead |
| WooCommerce | F | 19 queries per page |
This isn’t hype. It’s measured pain. Head to makewpfast.com — free search for all 4,999. No signup. Punch in a plugin name before hitting install.
And my unique spin? This echoes the browser wars of the 2010s. Remember jQuery bloat? Massive libraries for tiny tasks, sites gasping under script soup. Plugins now? Same trap. But here’s the futurist bet: AI agents will soon audit your stack in real-time. Imagine Grok or Claude scanning installs, swapping Elementor for Beaver on the fly, querying this exact database. WordPress evolves into an AI-orchestrated fleet — plugins as modular neurons, not lead weights. We’re on the cusp; devs who benchmark today lead tomorrow’s armada.
Methodology nitpick? SAVEQUERIES on, server timings. Clean slate each time. Feedback welcome — it’s open-source science.
Shoutout to the builder behind MakeWPFast and WP Multitool. Tools like these? They’re the oxygen for performant WP.
But wait — corporate spin alert. WooCommerce’s team touts “essential” features. Essential for sales, maybe. For speed? Nah. Call it: bloated necessity until alternatives rise.
Why Does This Matter for WordPress Developers?
Devs, you’re the surgeons. One bad plugin, and your patient’s DOA. This benchmark arms you. Prioritize A’s. Ditch F’s unless vital — then optimize ruthlessly.
Site owners? Audit now. That cart plugin taxing your blog? Migrate. Speed’s the new SEO king — Google rewards snappy.
Picture it: Your site, lean as a fighter jet. Plugins humming invisibly. That’s the future. Not bloated behemoths.
And energy? Electric. Because 86% good news means WordPress isn’t doomed — it’s ripe for renaissance.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What plugins got an F grade in the WordPress speed benchmark?
WooCommerce (19 DB queries per page), EditorsKit, and Cozy Blocks. Brutal outliers.
Does installing more WordPress plugins always slow my site?
No — it’s which ones. 86% add zero real drag.
Where can I check any WordPress plugin’s speed score?
makewpfast.com — search all 4,999 for free.
