Plugins & Extensions

What a plugin is

SynaptikCMS deliberately keeps its core small and fast — no booking calendar, no newsletter signup, no comment system bundled in by default, because most sites don't need all of those at once, and every feature a site doesn't use is still weight that slows it down for everyone. A plugin is how you add exactly the one feature you actually need, on the sites that need it, without the rest of the CMS carrying that weight for no reason.

A few examples already built this way: Booking for appointment scheduling, Newsletter for email sign-ups, Comments for letting visitors respond to your articles, Redirects for pointing an old URL to a new one.

Installing a plugin

From Admin → Extensions, upload a plugin's ZIP file. It appears in your list right away — but installing a plugin doesn't turn it on by itself. That's a deliberate, separate step, so nothing starts actually running on your site until you decide it should.

Activating a plugin

From the Plugins page in the admin, click the switch button to Activate any installed plugin. If it comes with its own settings page. If you also turn on the Pin to Sidebar switch, you will see it appear in your sidebar right away for easy access.

Showing or hiding a plugin's dashboard widget

Some plugins (Booking, Analytics, Comments) add a small widget to your main Dashboard — appointments coming up, a traffic snapshot, comments waiting for moderation. If you'd rather keep the dashboard short, each of these has its own toggle in that plugin's Settings tab to show or hide its widget, without deactivating the plugin itself.

Turning off a plugin (without losing anything)

Deactivate switches a plugin off without touching anything it's stored — subscriber lists, bookings, form submissions, whatever it's been keeping track of stays exactly where it is. Turn it back on later and everything picks up right where it left off. Deleting a plugin is the one action that does remove its data permanently, which is why SynaptikCMS asks you to deactivate first, as a safety check against doing that by accident.

Keeping your sidebar tidy

If you have several plugins active but only use one or two regularly, you don't have to live with a cluttered sidebar — pin just the ones you actually reach for often, and the rest stay a click away in the full Extensions list without taking up permanent space.