Some of the many benefits of standalone WordPress.org are its out-of-the-box features and flexibility with plugins and themes.
Many people choose WordPress.org over WordPress.com for enhanced access and control over their website. However, WordPress.com has some valuable features that require a plugin on WordPress.org. One of them is the WordPress Jetpack plugin.
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
What is WordPress Jetpack Plugin?
Jetpack is a suite of productivity, security and optimization tools developed by Automattic and used across all WordPress.com sites.
There is also a version of the Jetpack plugin for WordPress.org users who want the same functionality on their own website. Jetpack connects you to your WordPress.com account and gives you access to features you didn’t have before.
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
Jetpack comes with WordPress pre-installed from many hosting companies. Users must first register for a WordPress.com account in order to access all Jetpack features. Then activate the plugin when you install WordPress.org yourself.
Is the WordPress Jetpack Plugin Free?
There are four price levels for Jetpack The lowest level is free and includes the basic functionality of the Jetpack plugin.
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The updated versions provide additional security and performance features such as automatic backups and spam filtering. These are:
- Personal: $ 3.50 per month ($ 39 per year)
- Premium: $ 9 per month ($ 99 per year)
- Professional: $ 29 / month ($ 299 / year)
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
There are three ways to install the free version of the WordPress Jetpack plugin.
- Download it from the WordPress repository.
- Use the Jetpack wizard.
- Find it in your WordPress dashboard by going to Plugins> Add New.
Jetpack modules vary in functionality from essential features like backups and site statistics to minor features like Gravatar hover maps and message likes.
Jetpack Modules and Features
Jetpack includes a wide variety of modules for adding different functionality to your website. While they are all activated by default, you can change the settings by going to Jetpack> Settings in your WordPress dashboard.
From there, you can deactivate the modules you don’t want to use, or leave the default settings as they are.
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
The free WordPress Jetpack plugin features include:
- WordPress Security: Monitor downtime and protect against brute force attacks.
- WordPress performance: lazy image loading and unlimited images and static files hosting.
- Traffic & Income: Automatically post social media posts, useful site stats, and display relevant content to keep visitors on your site longer.
- Site Activity: Shows a record of the activity of everything that happens on your site in connection with the last 20 events.
Free Jetpack users also receive standard email support.
There are dozens of modules available in Jetpack Some are free and some require updates to access. Below are the most popular and useful ones:
Security Modules
Safety is the most important feature of Jetpack
- Protect and prevent brute force attacks.
- Site monitoring for downtime.
- Update plugins.
- Site backup.
- Filter out spam in comments and other forms.
- Malware scan and auto-resolution protection.
Skins
- Automatically load the following posts using infinite scrolling
- Optimize, cache and serve images from the WordPress.com CDN.
- Using conditional rules to display specific widgets.
- Load images only to screen to increase page speed with Lazy Image
- Display images in tiled galleries
Interaction Modules
- Add sharing buttons to pages and posts
- Allow users to leave comments when logging into social networks.
- Additional sidebar widgets such as Twitter timeline, RSS links, and Facebook like fields.
- Receive notifications of new likes and comments on your mobile device.
- Keep visitors on your site longer by showing related posts.
- Upl upload and host your videos on WordPress.com.
- Automatically share recently posted content on your social media profiles.
- Use shortcodes to embed tweets, YouTube videos, and other media.
- Use shortcodes to create simple contact forms.
- Add custom post types to your website.
- Publish blog posts using any email client.
- Add a grammar checker to check content before publishing.
Writing Modules
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
WordPress.org offers many plugins to perform some of the above functions. However, Jetpack offers it all in one place.
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
Features of Jetpack
Jetpack‘s secret weapon is the ability to use fast and secure hosting from WordPress.com. This shifts the heavy lifting from your server to theirs. As a result, the number of tasks that your site performs on the server decreases and its performance improves.
Since the core features of Jetpack are free, there is no need to spend a lot of money on other premium plugins. WordPress Jetpack plugin is maintained and updated frequently. New features are constantly being added to the plugin.
It’s a great way to quickly and easily add additional features and functionality to the standard WordPress interface with a single plugin, without having to worry about coding.
Defects of WordPress Jetpack Plugin
The sheer number of different categories and modules offered with Jetpack can slow down your site. Don’t include all of them if you want your site to be fast.
There are many submenus and toggle switches. Finding modules to enable or disable can be difficult. Pros disagree on whether Jetpack slows down sites or not. Some users find that this slows down their site significantly.
Jetpack: What Is It and Is It Worth Installing?”/>
The best solution is to enable only the features you need and disable the ones you don’t need. Jetpack is a massive plugin and it is unlikely that you will need to use all the features. Keep in mind that the WordPress Jetpack plugin connects your site to your WordPress.com account. This is useful in one respect, as some of your content is sent to WordPress.com servers.
On the other hand, some users believe that there are security risks when connecting your account. If you have privacy concerns, Jetpack might not be the best solution.
Should Jetpack be installed on your website?
The answer depends on the circumstances. Looking for the functionality provided by Jetpack modules? How much will you use?
If you will only be using a few modules, it makes sense to use other plugins that serve the same purpose. This will avoid the unnecessary bloat associated with Jetpack
The WordPress Jetpack plugin is a great one-stop solution. Use it to speed up your site, improve security, and add ways to connect with customers.
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