Self-employed
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Can you run a Wordpress website without Jetpack?

In short? Yes, you can! And depending on the theme and plugins you use, your website will be a lot faster after removing Jetpack.

Now with that open en out, here is why I removed Jetpack and how I added the feature I used from Jetpack to my website.

The Why

The ‘why’ is simple: I dislike the enormous strain Jetpack is laying on my website. It is a monstrous plugin absorbing way too many bits and bytes. And it slows down my website.
At the beginning of Leaving Holland, like any other good-willing WordPress user I added Jetpack. It comes standard right? After that I turned so many features off, to speed up my page loading time.
I started to wonder whether I could run the website without Jetpack.

The first time I tried it I had just bought a well-coded theme at MHThemes and they offered a list of plugins that work great with the theme. We bloggers all know that there is a lot of crap in the WordPress plugin directory. So, a list of plugins that compliment your theme and do not cause any conflicts is very handy.

Nevertheless, one of the social share plugins they recommend slowed down my website again, so I changed it to another social share plugin.

It was a bit of a scary moment to click the remove all data button in my WordPress dashboard regarding the Jetpack Plugin. After all, you never know exactly what happens. Is there a skeleton in the closet? A hidden feature nobody knows about?

There is none! My website works just fine. Even better, with faster page loading and a cleaner dashboard.
The only negative is that the contact form plugin I use is not really spam-proof, somehow my spam has increased a little.
I need to attend to that later this week.
Or search the MHThemes knowledge base and see if there is a contact form build-in in my theme. I’m the kind of person that, when buying a new gadget, I never read the manual, I figure it out along the way. Same with my theme.

Later on, I switched themes and it is still working perfectly. I have been running my website for over 2 years now without Jetpack and I am happy about it.

ask a question about living abroad, countries, life changes

The How

I dare to say that for every feature in Jetpack there is a plugin that can replace it. Just do some research, ask your theme builder or read reviews and discover.
Be aware that there are a lot of crap plugins in the WordPress plugin directory. Always read reviews, and see how the plugin-builder responds to the complaints (if any) good support to me is proof of a conscious and service-minded developer.

Remember: there is a plugin for every feature Jetpack offers

You just have to dive into the WordPress plugin directory. Great opportunity to do some website maintenance!

Some plugins used on Leaving Holland

Adrotate for WordPress
Great plugin to place advertisements all over the place. Good developer, good support. Ads in the sidebar are placed with Adrotate, my theme has a build-in advertisement post-injection, but nevertheless, I would recommend Adrotate over the build-in function for it gives me more freedom of where and how and when to show ads.

Akismet
Where would we be without Akismet? It protects your blog from comment spam. And now I can see you think: your comments are off, yeas, but not in the Members Only area behind the paywall. So I do need some protection against all those spammers.

Analytics Spam Blocker
Same thing with this plugin. Spambots can wreck your analytics. When your statistics show lots of specific sites like Semalt and buttons for the website and many, many more, this plugin prevents them from even coming close to your website. So your analytics stay clear of fake visits.

Change Author Link Structure
Yeah, nothing dumber than ‘admin’ is responding to comments and your login name showing up in the archives. Never ever show your login name to anyone! Your website might get hacked! And I have a very awkward login name so I do not want that to show up in the author archives anyway. This plugin prevents that usernames are publicly visible, the username in the author’s permalink is replaced with the ID you choose.

Cookie Law Info
The European Union has a cookie law. privacy freaks as we are over here we need to spell out to visitors that we are doing nothing with their visits and information coming along with the IP addresses. So every blog needs that wretched stupid pop-up. This plugin is a simple little piece of code offering a pop-up with  ‘implied consent’ The EU Cookie Law came into force on 26 May 2012.

Other plugins used:

  • Tablepress
  • Classic Editor
  • Woocommerce
  • AddtoAny Sharing Buttons
  • Content Views (I love that plugin!!)
  • Fast Velocity Minify
  • Mailchimp for WordPress
  • The SEO Framework

And a few more.

Can you run a WordPress Website without Jetpack?

Yes, you can run a WordPress blog or website without Jetpack. Just be a daredevil and start experimenting, a few tips:

  • Remember to switch off the corresponding feature in Jetpack before activating your plugin
  • Check your performance report at GTMetrix.com and retest it (keep in mind that their report is an impression and a recommendation, not a law!)
  • If an error occurs on your website after installing a plugin: deactivate all plugins and activate them one by one to see which one is causing conflicts
  • Ask for support on the developer’s forum, you find the link on the plugin page in the WP directory

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