WordPress Tutorial Videos by WP101®

175+ WordPress tutorial videos for non-techies.

  • About Us
    • Top WordPress Products
    • Testimonials
  • WordPress Tutorials
    • Intro to WordPress
    • WordPress 101
    • Elementor 101
    • Spectra 101
    • How to Blog Better
    • WPForms 101
    • WooCommerce 101
    • Beaver Builder 101
    • Ninja Forms 101
    • WP Rocket 101
  • Help Forum
    • Hire a WordPress Expert
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Sign In

What's the difference in a plugin and a widget?

Get answers to your WordPress questions!

Tired of wasting time scouring Google for answers to your WordPress questions? Since 2008, we've helped countless WordPress site owners just like you get unstuck. Get answers to your WordPress questions — plus unlimited access to our entire library of 150+ WordPress tutorial videos. Why not join us today?

View Membership Options
WordPress Questions and Answers › What's the difference in a plugin and a widget?
0 Vote Up Vote Down
RITA CALDWELL asked 7 years ago

I found the Akismet plugin in the widgets folder. Is that where I find most of the plugins available? I have my own blog but I'm working on two other Wordpress blogs that are for business use. Are there differences in the two?

1 Answers
0 Vote Up Vote Down
Shawn Hesketh answered 7 years ago

Hi Rita,

Plugins and widgets are not the same thing.

Plugins add functionality to your site. A plugin might add a small feature to the admin area, for example. Or add social media sharing icons to your blog articles. Or automatically capitalize your title and heading tags. Some plugins might create a widget, but that might not necessarily be the function of a particular plugin.

Widgets, on the other hand, are small blocks of content that appear in your site's sidebar, footer, or other widget-enabled areas of your site, depending on your site's theme. On this page, you'll notice a couple of widgets in the right-hand side. Once contains a button to “Ask a Question”. Another widget lists the “Most Recent Questions”.

And in our footer at the bottom of this site, you'll notice four widgets. “Site Links” and “Products” are Custom Menu widgets that we've created. “Follow Us” contains links to our social media channels, and is powered by the Genesis Simple Share plugin. And finally, we have an email signup widget that is powered by the Genesis eNews Extended plugin.

So, as you can see, some plugins do create widgets. But not all plugins do. And some widgets are created by or powered by a plugin. But not all widgets are necessarily powered by a plugin.

The easiest way to remember the difference is that plugins add functions or features to your site. Widgets add content blocks to the front end, usually in the sidebar or footer of your site.

We cover widgets in depth in this tutorial video.

And we cover plugins in depth in this tutorial video.

Hope this helps!

RITA CALDWELL replied 7 years ago

Shawn, Thanks so much for the quick reply! I have lots of questions!

Please login or register to join the conversation!

Share this with someone?

FacebookTweetLinkedIn

Most Recent Questions

  • Two questions about editing the title of my blog post and another question about not showing who wrote my blog post asked by acadvisor1, 4 days ago
  • How do I link to a gravity form instead of embedding it? asked by penny.fleming52@gmail.com, 3 weeks ago
  • how to start gutenberg asked by davidsplace8, 1 month ago
  • Still on font loading problem, originally asked a month ago, now amplified. Fourth try. asked by Paul, 2 months ago
  • Site Editor is set to come out of beta mode soon, will there be new videos? asked by Philip Gledhill, 2 months ago

Site Links

  • About Us
  • Your Account
  • Products We ❤️
  • Affiliates
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Courses

  • WordPress 101
  • WooCommerce
  • Elementor
  • Spectra
  • WPForms
  • Ninja Forms
  • View All →

Products

  • WP101.com
  • WP101 Plugin
  • Embed our videos on your site!

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

WordPress Tutorials by WP101© 2008-2023 WP101® LLC, Houston, TX. All rights reserved.
WP101® is a registered trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
WP101® is hosted by Cloudways.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Disclosure | WP101 Coupon