This article will cover three important aspects that you need to consider when selecting WordPress plugins.
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) that was first released in 2003 and has since become one of the most popular platforms for website development. As such, there are many plugins and tools available to help extend its functionality to suit a user’s needs. Here are the top aspects when considering plugins for your website or blog.
1) Reviews: You should always take reviews into account when selecting WordPress plugins – good reviews indicate high-quality products, while bad reviews can identify problems with a plugin’s performance or compatibility with other sites. Use the ratings provided by WordPress itself as well as third-party review websites, such as G2 Crowd or Capterra, to find out how a plugin has been received by other users.
2) Downloads are an important metric to consider when measuring the popularity of a particular piece of content. If someone has downloaded your blog post several times, it means that they were drawn to it for some reason.
3) Updates: When was it last updated? If it hasn’t been updated in more than a year and hasn’t been tested within 2 or 3 versions of WordPress. Otherwise, you’re likely to run into problems which is why websites break. In the Upbreak example, you can see the update was made 4 weeks ago. We’ve seen some that have not been updated in 5+ years. That is one to avoid without question.
When comparing the two examples above, we select the Updaft plugin over Backup Migration. Both, have 5 stars. However, Updraft has the most number of installations. Based on the number of installations and number of reviews, Updraft is the one we use. To date, we install on all of our websites. 
Xcloner Plugin: This is an example of a plugin that has not been tested with your version of WordPress. You run the risk of the plugin not working, which could be very problematic if you need to recover your website for some reason. We would stay away from this one.
Ultimately, there are a number of reasons you should choose one plugin over another. You should leave with some of the most important factors; the number of reviews, number of downloads, and the last time the plugin was updated. As a bonus, we show examples of incompatibility and untested with your version of WordPress.
Please reach out to us if you have any questions or issues with your WordPress website.