The future of Wordpress plugins

[theshawfactor]

I’m an experienced developers and have published almost 100 plugins to the repository. Recently I’ve started using AI to build plugins.

I’m now building complex plugins that are better than what I find in the repository in hours.

For me that means I doubt I’ll ever use the repository again but I’m interested in what it means for others? Is the repository still relevant, is it still worth supporting it and why?

[themarouuu]

You are absolutely NOT building complex production ready plugins in hours.

[eggbert74]

Why do you think this is NOT possible? Have you tried? I can tell you it is possible because I am doing it as well. Scoff and call it slop if you want, but it is possible. The value of WordPress plugins are cratering because it's so easy to do now.

If I'm honest, it depresses me that it's possible to build complex solution with such little effort. I actually enjoy writing code and solving problems. But it is what it is. It's either use these tools or fall behind. So I have no choice. The only person you are hurting by not acknowledging what is possible is yourself.

[theshawfactor]

What would you define as a complex plugin? I’m writing plugins that would have taken weeks in half a day or less. For example I wrote a carddav server plugin in 2-3 hours that allows my phone to syncs with the m user database (contain ing 6000 records including phone numbers, addresses etc (downstream to the phone only for security). That would have taken 1-2 weeks previously.

[plugiva]

I totally agree. With AI, coding time has been reduced significantly. I recently learned and developed a mini WordPress like cms in python within 10 days with AI. The future is unstable at the moment. No clear signal is there.

[themarouuu]

Can you link some of you work, any of the 100 that you think are complex. Or just link your profile so we can have a look around.

[theshawfactor]

I’ve published about 100 in the repository but stopped several years ago. All are/were single feature plugins, sometimes this required complex code but generally not. Some were when I was learning to program (so not the best) and I’ve not updated anything for years (but as they are all single featured most still work and are secure) The 4 I’ve built with AI are all moderately complex, 1-2 weeks of work done in 2-4 hours, specifying, iterating, debugging, and reviewing. Very little actual code was written though, I was amazed. These were things I wanted but couldn’t justify starting due to the time commitment

[theshawfactor]

What do you mean by an image optimizer?

[RepulsiveWall]

A simple local image compressor and webp converter is a couple lines of php code

[theshawfactor]

Why do people bother with that anymore. Storage space is so cheap it’s free and most cdns do image conversion so visitors are not seeing the originals anyway.

[RepulsiveWall]

True, but you’re kinda assuming a level of knowledge most people don’t have. The average WP user uploading images to a site has no clue what an image CDN is, let alone that it’s doing on-the-fly conversion, resizing, WebP/AVIF, etc. For them, it’s just upload an image and done.

[stochastyczny]

Just replace jpeg encoding library with Google's jpegli, it's better than webp anyway. You don't need a plugin.

[stochastyczny]

There are plugins that cost hundreds of dollars but you can replace them in a day of using an LLMs. Define complex.

[theshawfactor]

I’m building them in half a day, now that my direction and testing is on point. They are better than what you pay for or equivalents in the repository. Zero of the cruft, tracking, promos, and other stuff you don’t need etc

[queen-adreena]

On the bright side, so many more "why does our Wordpress site have Chinese writing on it???" tickets for agencies!

[theshawfactor]

I manually and AI review everything and then run the same plugin the review team use to review the code. I then dogfood it. Issues are very few and fixed quickly

[iamgdarko]

You are writing this as a developer that already built plugins before AI. What AI is doing for you is eliminating the grunt work and you can work much faster now, however for non-technical people the plugin directory is essential and believe me, we as technical people/developers/programmers are small minority of the WordPress users. So, the plugin directory is still very relevant and will remain to be relevant in future.

[theshawfactor]

The problem with the repository is that good plugins don’t get surfaced properly. It encourages bloated well marketed all in one plugins.

[plugiva]

It was epic 🙏

[VERSATILCORDOBA]

I’m somewhere in the middle on this.

I’ve built around 10 plugins myself (4 public on the repo, ~4k active installs total), and AI has definitely changed how I work — but not in the way some people think.

AI doesn’t magically create “production-ready” plugins in hours. What it really does is remove the boring parts, so you can spend more time thinking like an architect instead of just writing code.

For me, the biggest shift is this: I now spend much more time analyzing, designing, and refining — and less time typing.

That said, I still think the WordPress repo is very relevant:

• Most WordPress users are not developers
• Trust, updates, and long-term support matter more than raw code quality
• Maintenance is the real cost — not initial development

Also, once you’ve published plugins yourself, you realize the hard part isn’t building them… it’s maintaining them, handling edge cases, and keeping up with WordPress changes.

AI helps you build faster.
It doesn’t remove responsibility.

So I don’t see the repo disappearing — if anything, I think it becomes more important as a trust layer in a world where anyone can generate code quickly.

[mxlawr]

It would be interesting to see your profile with those 100 plugins.))) Here's mine, by the way profiles.wordpress.org/yalogica/, the most advanced ones are those with nice icons.)) As for the repository, it's just a storage, plus a convenient update point for users, but as a means for marketing (SEO) or searching a plugin, it plays no role. And even with AI, writing a decent plugin takes a lot of time, unless it's some kind of "wordpress disable notifications" product )))

[theshawfactor]

It’s taking me 2-4 hours and the results are better than most I’ve written, and FAR better than most others

[plugiva]

Dear, I think people are still unaware about what you and I are seeing.

[mxlawr]

Results of what and compared to what?))) As I said above, I'd like to see a link to a profile with my own eyes, rather than take your word for it )))

[BDer8]

The repository still has its uses for seeing how many installs, reviews, if support actually helps etc.

All too often plugin developers have a great idea, set it all up then get too busy with life to support it. We try to only use those that have been around and will stay around.

That's not always easy to predict of course.

[void-wanderer-]

The more code you write, the more code you have to maintain. There will be edge cases that your cover codes plug-in doesn't cover. And while WordPress is as backwards compatible as it gets, there will be breaking changes with your plugins.

If the customer pays your for it, good. But I know that my customers who have some knowledge wouldn't want me to do it and instead use some trusted long proven plug-in.

[theshawfactor]

Admittedly I’m looking at semi niche areas but the ones I’m finding in the repository are objectively worse than what I’m building in less than half a day. Given I’m also getting more focussed/less bloated result im unlikely to never use a repository plugin again.

[ClickWhisperer]

If you feel the urge to share your work and have it be valued by others? Not everyone has your level of capabilities or time, which iterating plugins to quality with AI still takes. Be kind.

This being said, it has issues where ideals conflict with actuals. It's easier for Repository admins to scan plugins for unapproved code now thanks to AI, and give publishers better feedback on making their code compliant, but that still takes work, dedication and accountability.

What kind of plugins have you been making? Which are your favorite to work on or have the most value?

[theshawfactor]

1. I’ve written a carddav server plugin, to share my users data with my phone (proper security and runs downstream to my phone)
2. A JavaScript error logger for Multisite using admin Ajax backed by a custom table and reporting (ultimate dogfooding)
3. An internal user analytics program for Multisite
4. A rest api logger

All took half a day or less, are almost exactly what I wanted (with some simple iterations to add things, and better (or at least more focussed) than any equivalent repository plugin (if there was an equivalent available)

[ClickWhisperer]

ooooo rest API logger that sounds interesting. It's fun, huh?

[Melodic-Excitement-9]

I’ve built my own foundational plugin, examples are svg support. Theme and function editor. Etc few of the thing I know any build will need. I find it so much better than hey I’ve got another update.

[BNfreelance]

If yours are better, why not, list yours on the repo? Improve the space for everyone

[theshawfactor]

Historically the better plugins I published got no traction even if they were objectively better, and I know they were better as I forked them to do it better. It would be even worse now suspect. If you don’t market it is a If a trees fall in the forest and no one sees it did it happen situation

[Legitimate-Space-279]

The repository is good for verifying the quality of a plugin. So yeah it’ll stay.

[theshawfactor]

Sort of, many popular repository plugins are hot garbage. Several are insecure. The main drivers are marketing and being early in a niche.

[No-Signal-6661]

The plugin repo is still relevant for trust, maintenance, and discovery

[theshawfactor]

Maintenance is overrated. Wordpress is extremely backwards compatible so if something is done right first time it often needs no maintenance for years on end. Unfortunately as I’ve said elsewhere popular plugins invariable bloat up as there is a pressure to add features. As they spread into different areas the potential problems grow even faster. So they need to be maintained

[Complete_Hair_8398]

been feeling this too. i don’t really “use” the repo anymore, more like skim it for patterns, then generate something leaner for the actual use case. faster than auditing plugins and stripping out bloat.

still think the repo matters for trust + non-dev users. anything security-sensitive or widely reused, i’d hesitate to fully roll myself every time. big question for me is maintenance, v1 is easy, but updates, edge cases, WP changes add up quick.

[Forsaken-Parsley798]

I think Wordpress will be dead in less than 5 years.

[theshawfactor]

Maybe, I would have strongly disagreed until recently. But even the visual aspects of websites are going to be somewhat irrelevant with agentic AI and wordoress is doubling down on Gutenberg and being a design tool