Creating Your Own Plugins
Pros:
- Learn about how to create a plugin from the ground up, learning the technology along with it.
- Create a plugin for just what you need
- You don’t have to try to work within someone else’s code to try to get it to do what you want.
- You can add it to your resume, and if it’s a good plugin, you can share it with the world, others may also use it and love it and you can build your reputation.
Cons:
- Lots of time and effort. Development and debugging takes time, so it will take longer to develop your own plugin
- If you don’t know PHP or other front-end technologies that well, it will be a much longer process and learning curve
- It may not work as well as a professionally developed plugin that has been in use for some time, been tested and tried by many people, and had all the bugs worked out of it.
Using Existing Plugins
Pros:
- Much less time involved, and not as much of a learning curve. Easier with much less effort.
- Customization is possible and gives a good framework to start from, developed by a professional. Since WordPress is available under a public license (GPL), as well as derivative work based on it, you can take an existing plugin and build upon it.
- If you use one that has been used by lots of people and has good reviews, it will hopefully have all the bugs worked out of it and be relatively problem free and easy to use.
- There are thousands of plugins in the official directory (around 55,000 and counting), plus more available in other locations on the web, so there is a good chance you will find what you are looking for.
Cons:
- You are using code written by someone else, and if customization is desired, it may be difficult to get it to do what you want, especially if the code is complex or not well commented.
- You may not be able to find exactly what you are looking for, or may have to deal with a much more complex plugin than you really need if you are just looking for something simple.