Toolbelt – think Jetpack, but simple, fast, and privacy-first

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Today I discovered Toolbelt, a ‘lightweight plugin inspired by Jetpack but designed for speed, simplicity, and privacy’ made by Ben Gillbanks.

Though I’m yet to test Toolbelt on an actual website, I already love how this guy is taking on the elephant in the room. Jetpack is successful because it delivers a turn-key solution for common plugin use cases. It is no secret, though, that some of Automattic’s design decision around it have been controversial, and that it has been both, a performance and a privacy nightmare in general.

Toolbelt: A New Jetpack-Inspired Plugin with a Focus on Speed and Privacy

Via Ben mentioning one of his inspirations on the Tavern, I found out about SustyWP by Jack Lenox as well. Susty is a ‘super-lightweight theme […] built to demonstrate how small a WordPress site can be (just 6KB of data transfer, or 7 with Yoast!)’.

Time to spend a weekend tinkering with both of these! 🤩