WordPress without a plugin – is it possible? WordPress: Similar Posts Without Using the ListingPro Plugin – Directory and Directory Theme on WordPress

Have you decided to create a website, but don’t understand which solution to choose? Don't you have any experience with this? This is not surprising and there is nothing wrong with it. Most users who are not savvy in the field of development want to get a website with the least amount of effort, without going into details. Sometimes they even agree to spend a little more by entrusting the development of the site to a web agency. But did you know that things can be done differently? What can you, without much effort, save by creating and at the same time get a full-fledged website? The stumbling block for many who prefer this way of development are plugins. But you can create a WordPress website without plugins, and it’s quite simple.

Plugins are special modules that are built into your theme and website, providing additional functionality. It would seem, what could be bad? Why do many users prefer to create a WordPress site without plugins and generally try to avoid using any plugins or add-ons? Whether this is right or wrong is not an easy question. Much depends on the personal preferences and needs of the individual user. But this is not the only reason why people abandon plugins in favor of ready-made solutions"all in one".

In my opinion, there are pros and cons to using plugins. It is quite stupid to fundamentally state that a website should be without plugins or, on the contrary, that you need to install as many of them as possible in order to have all modern functions, keeping up with modern web design trends.

WordPress without plugins: How to create a fully functional website on WordPress? Benefits of plugins:

— possibility of serious expansion of functionality;

This is one of the most serious advantages, because of which many do not want to give up their usual plugins. This advantage will allow your site to always be one step ahead of your competitors. Another question is to know when to stop.

- wide variety of plugins and options to choose from;

There are plugins for quickly building a website, beautiful animations, fonts, SEO, security, increasing speed and other tasks.

The issue of using plugins is closely related to templates. The fact is that many free templates include a certain set of meager functions, and they may not be enough for the site to fully function. This is where you have to think about installing plugins. Is it worth doing this, taking into account all the disadvantages of plugins? It is quite difficult to answer this question unequivocally, but I will say this - the main thing is to know when to stop. Using dozens of plugins is fraught with consequences in any case, even if you use premium plugins.

To minimize the risk of unpleasant situations, you need to choose web development solutions that initially come with serious functionality for a WordPress site without plugins. In this case, you can only add a couple of plugins that will work as expected. Such solutions are premium templates. But here too a dilemma arises. How to find good ones WordPress templates, which would be beautiful, modern, responsive and functional at the same time?

Whatever kind of website you intend to create (blog, online magazine or media site), the Publisher theme will make it easier for you. It is quite new and popular. She is trusted, otherwise she would not have been able to achieve a rating of 4.8/5.

You will get a built-in ad management system, which is extremely important for advertising. Dozens of prepared home pages for every taste to simplify development. Responsive design, menu support beautiful icons and animations, and the header can be sticky. Automatic update and are present.

Cool WordPress themes for online magazines and media sites can be found.

The Ark is a professional theme for freelancers

In this beautiful theme powerful functionality built in. Quite logical for a solution with the highest rating and number of sales, created less than a year ago. With The Ark template you don’t need to use plugins, because you will have 800+ ready-made objects, a color library, and a layer editor for development background and AJAX quick save feature. 300+ pages with a unique design and the ability to import.

With this theme you can create business websites, authoritative blogs, online stores, landing pages and marketing pages. Whichever option you choose, your layout will be mobile-responsive.

Werkstatt – creative portfolio for generalists

Whether you're a photographer, freelancer, interior designer, or own your own web studio, the Werkstatt theme gives you a whole host of cool features. You will have ready-made pages for presenting your work in your portfolio, WordPress page navigation without a plugin, a work filter, several blog design styles and beautiful fonts Google and Adobe.

Availability useful functions does not deprive you of the opportunity to expand functionality using plugins, in particular Visual Composer, WooCommerce and WPML.

Also look at our website for multifunctional themes for and high-quality.

Stack – Multipurpose WordPress Theme + WordPress gallery without plugin

The theme has built-in beautiful icons and a cool Variant website builder, the main difference from others is the clean code without excessive expansion.

For development, you can use 150 ready-made demo themes for various fields of activity and 280+ interface blocks. Multiple navigation and ribbon styles available social networks. Beautiful Masonry galleries with lightbox effect (the latter uses a plugin).

ListingPro – directory and directory theme for WordPress

If you need a directory website or a catalog of anything, the ListingPro theme is exactly what you need! An intelligent object search system with advanced filters will appeal to your visitors. When searching, the autocomplete function and recommendations of nearby cities work. It is possible to accept automatic payments for using the site.

We have already discussed premium themes for directories and directories on WordPress in one of the previous ones. Find out more about them right now!

Now you know that you can use WordPress without plugins. We do not insist that plugins should be abandoned completely. WordPress is just so powerful system, that even with a clean template you can develop a high-quality website for any needs.

If you are interested in learning more about plugins, I recommend visiting the section of our website where you can find great amount all kinds of plugins. What plugins do you use? Have you had any experience working without plugins? Share your opinion with us in the comments.

Artyom is the author of numerous reviews and articles on the project website “Web Laboratory for Success”, dedicated to templates, plugins, courses and other topics of the site. Expert in selecting templates and plugins for the WordPress platform, etc. Hobbies: reading interesting literature and active recreation.

Hello dear readers. Similar entries on the site, like breadcrumbs, refer to ways to automatically link pages to each other. They usually look like a vertical or horizontal block (See the picture below), in which several posts are located, selected from the database according to certain criteria. The block can be implemented either using plugins or by inserting PHP code into the functions.php file. Today I would like to show you the second method, i.e. using clean code without using plugins.

PHP code

Typically, a sample similar posts in WordPress it occurs by headings (categories). Below is the function that needs to be inserted into the functions.php file. The function is provided with detailed comments.

Function related_posts() ( global $post; $titleRelated = "Read also";//Name of the block of similar posts $countPosts = 3;//number of posts displayed // getting all categories to which the post belongs $categories = get_the_category($post ->ID); if ($categories) ( // forming an array of IDs of all categories $categoryIds = array(); foreach ($categories as $category) ( $categoryIds = $category->term_id; ) // getting similar entries from bases in random order $relatedPosts = new WP_Query(array("cat" => $categoryIds, "posts_per_page" => $countPosts, "post__not_in" => array($post->ID), "orderby" => "rand" )); // output a block of similar posts if ($relatedPosts->have_posts()) ( ?>