There is a plugin you no longer want. Under its name on the Plugins screen sits a Deactivate link, and once you click it the row changes to show Activate and a red Delete. Some people stop at deactivate and leave the plugin there for years. Others delete straight away and then find odd bits of text scattered across their pages.
Whether you should deactivate or delete a WordPress plugin depends on what you are trying to do, and the two actions do quite different things. Below you will find what each one does, what gets left behind, and a safe order for taking a plugin off a business site. It is one of the plugin tasks in our beginner’s guide to running WordPress.
Deactivate or delete a WordPress plugin: the difference at a glance
| Deactivate | Delete | |
|---|---|---|
| Does the plugin’s code still run? | No | No |
| Are its files still on the server? | Yes | No, the plugin folder is removed |
| Are its settings kept? | Yes | It depends on the plugin |
| Shortcodes and blocks in your pages | Stay in the content, no longer working | Same |
| Getting it back | One click on Activate | Install it again |
| Still needs updates? | Yes, while it is installed | No |
Think of deactivating as a pause and deleting as a removal. What the table cannot show is that neither one tidies up everything the plugin did while it was active.
What deactivating does
When you deactivate a plugin, WordPress stops loading it. Its features vanish from the front of the site and its menu items disappear from the dashboard. Its files remain in wp-content/plugins, and its settings normally stay in the database, so if you activate it again it usually picks up where it left off.
Some plugins run a small clean-up routine on deactivation, such as clearing their scheduled tasks or removing rules they added to the server’s configuration file. Caching and security plugins are the usual examples. That is why a site can behave slightly differently straight after a caching plugin is switched off.
Deactivating is the right tool when you want to:
- test whether a plugin is causing a problem;
- switch something off for a short time, such as a seasonal banner;
- check what breaks before you commit to removing a plugin.
It is not a good long-term home for a plugin. The code is still on your server, and if a security flaw is later found in it, an inactive copy can still be a risk in some cases. An inactive plugin also keeps asking for updates, which is easy to ignore.
What deleting does
The Delete link only appears once a plugin is deactivated. WordPress asks you to confirm, then removes the plugin’s folder from the server. If the plugin’s developer included an uninstall routine, WordPress runs it at this point. This is the step most people mean when they talk about how to uninstall a plugin, even though WordPress itself calls it Delete.
What that uninstall routine removes is entirely up to the developer. Some plugins clear out every setting and table they created. Many keep your data on purpose, so that a reinstall does not lose your work, unless you tick an option in their settings along the lines of “remove all data when uninstalling”. The wording and location vary, so look through the plugin’s settings, often under an Advanced or Tools tab, before you delete.
If you want to clear out what a plugin left behind after it is gone, that is a separate job, covered in removing leftover plugin data.
What neither action touches
This is the part that catches people out. A plugin often leaves traces in places WordPress will not clean up for you.
Shortcodes in your content
Many plugins place content with a shortcode, a short tag in square brackets such as [contact-form-7 id=”123″]. Once the plugin stops running, WordPress no longer knows what the tag means and shows it as plain text on the page. Visitors see a strange line of code where your form used to be.
Blocks the plugin added
If a plugin added its own blocks to the editor, what happens next depends on the block. Some leave their saved HTML in the page, so the content still shows but loses its styling or interactive parts. Others build their output when the page loads and simply show nothing. Open the page in the editor and you will see a notice that your site doesn’t include support for that block, with the choice to keep it as it is or remove it.
Page builder layouts
Pages built with a page builder plugin depend on it completely. Deactivate the builder and those pages typically fall back to a jumble of text and leftover shortcodes. Removing a builder is a project, not a click.
Widgets, menus and files
Widgets supplied by the plugin disappear from their areas. Files it created in the uploads folder, such as form attachments, generated images or cache files, usually stay. So do entries in your media library.
A safe order for removing a plugin
For anything more than a tiny plugin, work through these steps in order.
- Take a backup of files and database, so you can go back if something important disappears. Our guide to backing up a WordPress website explains how.
- Find where it is used. Search your pages and posts for its shortcode or block name, and look at widget areas and menus. If you are not sure which features belong to which plugin, the post on working out which plugin does what helps.
- Export anything you need. Form entries, redirects, settings or galleries are much easier to export while the plugin is still active.
- Put the replacement in place first, if there is one, and update the pages that used the old plugin. Swapping one plugin for another has its own guide on replacing a plugin safely.
- Decide about its data. If you will never use it again, switch on its “remove data” option if it has one. If you might come back to it, leave that off.
- Deactivate it and check the pages you found in step two, plus your home page and contact form.
- Wait a little if the plugin did something important, such as forms or redirects. A day or two of normal use will show anything you missed.
- Delete it, then clear any site cache so visitors see the current pages.
Deactivate first, even when you plan to delete
WordPress forces you to deactivate before deleting, but the pause between the two is worth taking on purpose. Deactivating is easy to reverse, while deleting may not be. Checking the site in between is the moment you discover the forgotten shortcode on the careers page, while getting it back is still a single click.
The exception is a plugin you know is malicious, or one flagged with a serious security problem and no fix. Remove that straight away and deal with the gaps afterwards.
When you cannot reach the dashboard
Sometimes a plugin is the reason you cannot log in at all. Recent versions of WordPress often email the site admin address a recovery mode link after a fatal error, which lets you log in with the faulty plugin paused. If that email never arrives, use your hosting file manager or an FTP client. Inside wp-content/plugins, give the troublesome folder a slightly different name; any small change works. WordPress can no longer find the plugin’s main file, so it stops loading it, and the Plugins screen will report that it was deactivated because the file does not exist. Once you are back in, rename the folder back and leave the plugin inactive, then delete it from the dashboard in the usual way so its uninstall routine runs.
Removing plugins is one stage in a longer cycle, and our WordPress plugins guide for owners covers the others.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still see form entries a plugin saved after I deactivate it?
Not from the dashboard. The entries normally stay in the database, but the screens that display them belong to the plugin, so they disappear with it. Activate it again and they usually return. That is why exporting entries, or anything else the plugin stores, is worth doing before you deactivate for good.
Why is there no Delete link next to a plugin?
Usually because it is still active, so deactivate it first. Must-use plugins never show a Delete link, since they are loaded differently. Your account may also lack permission if you are not an administrator. On a multisite network, only the network administrator can delete plugins.
Is it safe to deactivate several plugins at once?
Yes, with the Bulk actions menu on the Plugins screen. It is fine for a planned clean-up when you have a backup. When you are hunting for the cause of a problem, though, switching plugins off one at a time tells you far more than turning them all off together.
Does deactivating a plugin make my site faster?
It stops that plugin’s code running, so if the plugin was doing heavy work, yes. Many small plugins add very little, so removing them may make no noticeable difference. Deactivate for tidiness and security, and measure speed separately before and after if speed is your reason.
Most removals go quietly when you follow that order. When one does not, and pages are broken or the dashboard is out of reach, our WordPress bug fixing service handles that kind of breakage, from ₹1,499 per incident onwards.
Next in this series: How to Read a Plugin Changelog Before Updating
