--- title: From 30 Plugins to 22: How Lola Replaced 8 Plugins With Code Snippets in One Conversation canonical_url: https://lolacore.com/from-30-plugins-to-22-how-lola-replaced-8-plugins-with-code-snippets-in-one-conversation/ last_updated: 2026-05-09T16:10:31+00:00 plugin_version: 1.2.1 --- # From 30 Plugins to 22: How Lola Replaced 8 Plugins With Code Snippets in One Conversation I wrote a few weeks ago about [the plugins sitting in your WooCommerce store that do almost nothing](https://file+.vscode-resource.vscode-cdn.net/blog/seven-plugins-you-could-delete-today). The response I got most was: "Okay, I see the problem. But I'm not writing PHP." Nobody's asking you to. Here's what happened when I asked Lola to handle it instead. The starting point ------------------ My test store had 30 active plugins. A pretty normal number for WooCommerce. PageSpeed mobile score: 64. Desktop: 78. Annual plugin subscription cost across all 30: roughly $870. I opened the Lola chat widget and started with a broad question. > **Me:** Can you look at my active plugins and tell me which ones could be replaced with simple code snippets? > **Lola:** I've scanned your 30 active plugins. 8 of them are doing things that can be replaced with lightweight PHP or CSS snippets. Here's what I found: > > 1. **Hide Admin Bar**: Hides the admin bar for non-admin users. Replaceable with a 1-line PHP filter. > 2. **Custom Login Styler**: Adds your logo and brand colors to wp-login.php. Replaceable with a 15-line CSS snippet. > 3. **Disable Comments Globally**: Turns off comments site-wide. Replaceable with a 2-line PHP snippet. > 4. **Simple 301 Redirects**: You have 7 redirects configured. Replaceable with a PHP snippet using an array map. > 5. **Insert Headers and Footers**: Contains your Google Analytics tag and Facebook Pixel. Replaceable with a wp\_head snippet. Note: you already have WPCode active, which does this natively. > 6. **Quick Custom CSS**: 22 lines of custom CSS. This can go directly into your theme's Additional CSS or into a WPCode snippet. > 7. **Disable REST API for non-admins**: Security measure. Replaceable with a 4-line PHP filter. > 8. **Remove Query Strings**: Strips version query strings from static assets. Replaceable with a 3-line PHP filter. > > Combined, these 8 plugins add 14 database queries per page load, load 6 separate CSS/JS files, and cost you $410/year in subscriptions. The replacement snippets would have zero additional database queries and no external file loads. > > Want me to generate the snippets and create them in WPCode? Fourteen database queries. Six CSS/JS files. For functionality that totals maybe 50 lines of code combined. > **Me:** Do it. Replace all 8. > **Lola:** I'll generate each snippet and create it in WPCode. Before activating anything, I'll show you what each one does. > > **Snippet 1: Hide Admin Bar**: Created in WPCode. One line: `add_filter('show_admin_bar', '__return_false');` Scope: everywhere. Priority: 10. > > **Snippet 2: Login Page Styling**: Created in WPCode. 15 lines of CSS injected via `login_enqueue_scripts`. Uses your current logo URL and brand colors (#2E75B6 primary, #1a1a1a background). I pulled these from what your current plugin has configured. > > **Snippet 3: Disable Comments**: Created in WPCode. Closes comments and removes comment support from all post types. > > **Snippet 4: Redirects**: Created in WPCode. Array with your 7 current redirects: /old-candles → /scented-candles, /about-me → /our-story, and 5 others. All mapped from your current plugin's settings. > > **Snippet 5: Analytics & Pixel**: Skipped. You already have WPCode installed and these scripts can go in its header section directly. I've moved your GA tag and Facebook Pixel to WPCode's global header. No snippet needed. > > **Snippet 6: Custom CSS**: Created in WPCode. Your 22 lines of CSS, unchanged, loaded via wp\_head with a priority of 99. > > **Snippet 7: Disable REST API**: Created in WPCode. Blocks REST API access for non-authenticated users. 4 lines. > > **Snippet 8: Remove Query Strings**: Created in WPCode. Strips version parameters from enqueued styles and scripts. 3 lines. > > All 7 snippets are created but inactive. Want me to activate them all and deactivate the 8 plugins? Two things worth noting here. First, Lola didn't just generate generic snippets. She pulled the actual configuration from each plugin. The redirect URLs, the brand colors, the 22 lines of CSS. The snippets are drop-in replacements, not templates I'd need to customize. Second, she caught that Insert Headers and Footers was redundant with WPCode and skipped creating a snippet entirely. Just moved the scripts. A dumber tool would have generated an unnecessary snippet for something the store already had covered. > **Me:** Activate everything and deactivate the plugins. > **Lola:** Done. 7 snippets activated in WPCode. 8 plugins deactivated. > > Before you delete the plugins permanently, I'd suggest testing your site for a day or two to make sure everything works as expected. Specifically check: > > - Your login page styling > - Your 7 redirects > - That GA and Facebook Pixel are still firing (check Real-Time in Analytics) > - That the REST API returns 401 for non-authenticated requests > > Want me to keep a reminder to check back in 48 hours? The results ----------- After deactivating the 8 plugins, I ran PageSpeed again. Metric Before After Active plugins 30 22 Mobile PageSpeed 64 71 Desktop PageSpeed 78 86 Database queries per page load reduced by 14 External CSS/JS files reduced by 6 Annual subscription cost $870 $460 Seven points on mobile. Eight points on desktop. $410/year back in my pocket. And my store does exactly the same things it did before. What this looks like without Lola --------------------------------- I want to be clear about what the manual version of this process involves, because I've done it before. You identify a plugin you want to replace. You Google "replace \[plugin name\] with code snippet." You find a blog post from 2019 that may or may not still work with the current version of WordPress. You copy the snippet. You open your theme's functions.php (and hope your hosting doesn't crash the site if there's a syntax error). You paste it. You test. You realize the snippet doesn't account for some edge case your plugin handled. You debug. You repeat for each plugin. That's a weekend project for someone comfortable with PHP. For a store owner who's not a developer, it's not a weekend project. It's a non-starter. The plugins stay installed, the subscriptions keep renewing, and the PageSpeed score stays at 64. The conversation above took about 4 minutes. Lola handled the code generation, the migration of existing settings, the creation in WPCode, and the activation sequence. The only thing I did was say "do it" and "activate everything." The bundle angle ---------------- This workflow uses two things working together: WooCommerce store management (knowing what plugins are active, what they do, whether they're redundant) and code snippet generation and management (creating the replacement snippets in WPCode, activating them safely). That's the LolaCore WooCommerce Bundle — WooCommerce Pro for the store intelligence, WPCode Snippets for the code execution. Separately, each addon handles its own domain. Together, they let you run a conversation like the one above that crosses both domains in a single exchange. Could I have done the plugin audit with just WooCommerce Pro? Yes. Could I have managed the snippets with just WPCode Snippets? Yes. But the 4-minute "scan, identify, replace, activate" flow only works when both are connected and Lola can think across both. $129/year for the bundle. I just saved $410/year in plugin subscriptions. That's a payback period of about 115 days. --- *Previous in this series: [How I Audited My Coupon Profitability in 2 Minutes](https://file+.vscode-resource.vscode-cdn.net/blog/how-i-audited-coupon-profitability-in-2-minutes). Next: launching a Black Friday campaign in 5 minutes from a chat window.*