The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow)
Disable unused WordPress features and remove bloat. 85 toggles for performance, security hardening, and WooCommerce — pure PHP, no .
5(6 reviews)
·100 active installs·Updated 1 week agoAs of April 2026, The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow) is a WordPress bloat plugin with 100 active installations and a 5/5 rating from 6 reviews. It has been downloaded 6.7K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 5.0+ and PHP 7.4+. Available on WordPress.org since 2010. Actively maintained — updated within the last month. Support resolution rate: 0%. Top alternative: Disable Everything.
5/56 reviews
100active installs
0%resolved
16 yearssince 2010
Overview
WordPress prioritises backwards compatibility.
That’s a feature. It also means every install ships with things you didn’t ask for.
An emoji CDN script. An oEmbed script. A Windows Live Writer manifest (discontinued 2017).
Dashicons loaded for logged-out visitors. Heartbeat polling every 15 seconds.
A version tag that tells the world exactly which WordPress you’re running.
None of these are bugs. They’re just not needed on most sites.
Disable what you don’t need. Keep what you do.
The Off Switch lets you disable each one, individually.
The Off Switches
- Emoji script – ~15 KB + 1 HTTP request. Browsers handle emoji natively.
- Embed script – ~4 KB + oEmbed discovery links in
<head>. - RSD link – Really Simple Discovery. Only needed for legac…
Ratings & Reviews
56 reviews
5 ★
6
4 ★
0
3 ★
0
2 ★
0
1 ★
0
Compatibility
| WordPress | 5.0+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | 7.4+ required |
Top Alternatives to The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow)
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.9.8
- Tweak: Limit Post Revisions — if
WP_POST_REVISIONSis already defined in wp-config.php, the plugin now detects it, shows the toggle as active with the configured value, and skips the filter (WordPress core handles it natively). Hint added to description explaining how to set a custom revision count via wp-config.php.
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.