The story of using Jetpack

Though some people said it’s bloated, for others, it’s still useful. You can indeed replace each of the Jetpack modules with another plugin for that function only. Yet, only a few people can find the plugin to replace the Jetpack function they needed. So, here’s my story of using Jetpack plugin myself.

The beginning

I try Jetpack on this blog when it’s still on an old host with that $9/year plan. That plan doesn’t exist anymore now. Though it’s useful and I can remove several considerable plugins, I found installing this Jetpack slows down the site considerably.

I keep testing the sites and comparing the performance when:

• Jetpack is there

• I deactivate Jetpack

• We remove Jetpack

The result is mostly the same. When we remove the Jetpack, the site’s performance is considerably faster. However, I need most of its features.

Some efforts to speed up with Jetpack

I even try some efforts to speed up the site when Jetpack is running. Most of the efforts go in vain. I don’t see a considerable improvement no matter what I do to the site. Even with all caching plugins I’ve installed, I still see no performance improvement unless I uninstall Jetpack. Sad.

The sleeping period

For almost a year, I left the blog as it is. No updates at all. I even forget to renew the old host plan and somehow most of the old contents lost.

The old host migrated my blog to their new plan with a $3/month, since that cheaper plan of $9/year is not available anymore.

Moving to a new host

Until last May, I moved it to a new host: VeeroTech. The plan I use there is similar, it’s a $3.95/month plan. However, on this new host, the blog is running on the SSD powered machine. This helps a lot with performance.

Try Jetpack again

This time, the site did not get slow at all. Even with no caching plugins installed, the performance is still the same. I wonder if the problem with a slow performance last year is caused by the server’s configuration on the old host. Or, the team behind Jetpack has fixed it.

Now it’s been almost three months since I activated Jetpack on this blog. All the default modules are active. I still don’t see any considerable performance problems.

During this time, I also put the Cloudflare service to sit in front of this blog’s host. The performance and site’s loading time are just getting better, even with significant traffic improvements.

Verdicts so far

If you’re still wondering whether you need to install Jetpack on your WordPress, just try it and watch for some periods. You’ll find the answer yourself just like me.

This also reminds me that, on everything, there is always another side. Some people will agree with you to put Jetpack on your site. There are the other ones who will against you to put Jetpack on. You can listen to both sides, or ignore them at all.

Just like my favorite author always says:  we are all individuals.