How to manage plugins in WordPress

A plugin is a component intended for the extension of the software capabilities and features. It offers various custom functions and allows to maximize website flexibility, so that each user can adapt the site to his specific needs.

WordPress plugins are available in different sources, great range of free plugins can be found in Official WordPress Plugin Directory.

The following points will be covered in this article:

Plugin installation
– automatic installation
– manual installation
Plugin activation
Plugin removal

Plugin Installation

There are a two ways how to install the plugin in WordPress: automatically from WordPress Admin Dashboard or manually from a .zip archive.

1. Automatic installation

First of all, you need to access the WordPress Admin Dashboard via http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin > Plugins > Add new

In the search bar type the name of the plugin you wish to install, its author, or descriptive keyword that will help you to find the necessary plugin

You will see the list of the plugins available by the search word, you can click ‘More Details’ to get more information about the plugin and instructions that may help you to set it up. When you have fund the necessary plugin, click Install now to install this plugin

You will get the notification that the plugin has been installed and you can proceed with activation

2. Manual installation

Manual installation is necessary when you wish control plugin installation process or if you have obtained a plugin from a third-party vendor.

There are two ways how to manually install and activate a plugin in a .zip format:

1. Go to cPanel > File manager menu > go to wp-content/plugins directory and click on Upload button in order to upload a .zip file from the computer (or use FTP instead):

Once the archive is uploaded, press on Extract button from the top menu and extract the archive to the same directory

Once the archive is extracted, you will see the folder of your plugin in the corresponding directory of your WordPress installation

The plugin is now installed, you can go ahead and activate it in your Dashboard > Plugins menu.

2. Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add new > choose Upload button at the top of the page

Click on Choose File button > select the plugin in .zip format on your computer and click Install now

One done, you will get the corresponding notification that the plugin has been successfully installed from the uploaded file. At the same page you may click Activate Plugin

Plugin activation

In order to activate the installed plugin, access your WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Installed plugins and click on Activate button

Plugin removal

If you wish to uninstall, click on Deactivate button. After this the Delete button will appear

The corresponding notification will shop up, you should confirm that you wish to delete the plugin and files associated with it, or on the contrary, abort the plugin removal

When the plugin is removed, you will get the update that it has been deleted from your account.
The folder of the plugin will be automatically removed from /wp-content/pugins/ directory.