Featherweight

78 Quality Score

Active Installs

18/30

With 10,000 active installs and a 30th-percentile popularity score, the plugin has a real user base but is not a household name in the performance category.

Update Freshness

25/25

A perfect maintenance score reflects very recent updates and active development, signalling the plugin is not abandoned.

User Rating

12/15

An 82 out of 100 average from 45 reviewers is solid, though the small sample size keeps confidence modest.

Support Health

8/15

Only one support thread exists in total and it was resolved, which limits how much we can infer about long-term responsiveness.

WP Compatibility

15/15

It requires WordPress 6.4 or higher and PHP 7.4, and is tested against WordPress 7.0, giving it a strong compatibility score.

Scores higher than 62% of indexed plugins

About

Speed up WordPress by disabling unused features — emojis, embeds, query strings, XML-RPC, RSS and more — for fewer requests and faster pages.

Active Installs 10k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.1/5

Last Updated 2026-06-13 7:54am GMT

Requires WordPress 6.4+

Tested Up To 7.0.4

Requires PHP 7.4+

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

Featherweight strips out a long list of WordPress features most sites do not need, including emoji scripts, oEmbed, query strings, XML-RPC, RSS feeds, and various header links. The goal is fewer HTTP requests, a smaller frontend payload, and faster page loads without any configuration required beyond toggling the disable switches.

Who It's For

This plugin suits owners of content-heavy sites on shared or resource-limited hosting who want a quick, lightweight performance win without paying for a full caching suite. It is also a good fit for developers hardening WordPress by removing unused endpoints and scripts on client builds where granular control matters.

Who Should Skip It

Sites already running a full-stack speed plugin like LiteSpeed Cache or Jetpack will get most of these disable features baked in and have little reason to stack another tool. Larger e-commerce stores that depend on XML-RPC for third-party integrations or mobile apps should avoid disabling those endpoints.

The Bottom Line

Featherweight is a tidy, focused tool that does one job well and scores 77.71 out of 100 on PluginCheck. It is not a replacement for a full caching plugin, but as a complement or a quick-win install on a lean site it earns its keep. Skip it if you already disable these features through another plugin or your hosting stack.

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