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How to Completely Remove MonsterInsights from Your WordPress Site

22 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Monsterinsights

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Many WordPress users choose to uninstall the MonsterInsights plugin for various reasons, such as moving to a different analytics solution like Google Tag Manager or addressing specific GDPR compliance concerns. A common question that arises is whether simply deleting the plugin from the WordPress admin is enough to remove it completely.

Based on community discussions and support threads, the process of removal is generally straightforward, but there are some important details to be aware of to ensure a clean uninstallation.

What Happens When You Delete the Plugin?

When you deactivate and delete the Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights plugin through your WordPress dashboard (Plugins → Installed Plugins), the core functionality is removed. This includes:

  • The plugin's PHP code is deleted from your server.
  • The Google Analytics tracking script will immediately stop being added to your site's pages.
  • You will no longer receive new statistics in your Google Analytics account for that site, as the tracking mechanism has been removed.

Are Database Entries Removed?

This is a key point of confusion. The MonsterInsights plugin stores its settings in your WordPress database's wp_options table. When the plugin is deleted through the standard WordPress method, it should clean up after itself and remove these entries.

However, community reports indicate that in some cases, particularly with older versions or if a plugin was deleted manually via FTP, orphaned database rows with names like monsterinsights_* may remain. It is important to note that these leftover entries are typically inactive and do not affect your site's performance or functionality; they are simply dormant data.

How to Perform a Complete Cleanup

For most users, the standard deletion process is sufficient. If you want to ensure every trace is gone for aesthetic or compliance reasons, follow these steps:

  1. Deactivate and Delete via WordPress: Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins, find "Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights," deactivate it, and then click Delete. This is the primary and recommended method.
  2. Manual Database Check (Advanced Users): If you have database access through a tool like phpMyAdmin, you can search your wp_options table for any remaining entries containing "monsterinsights" or "monster_insights" and safely delete them. Warning: Always create a full backup of your database before making any direct changes.

Important Considerations

  • Google Analytics Account: Uninstalling the MonsterInsights plugin only affects your website; it does not delete your Google Analytics property, data stream, or any historical data stored within your Google account. Your historical data remains safe in Google's system.
  • GDPR and External Scripts: If a security scan continues to report a connection to Google after uninstalling MonsterInsights, the source is likely another plugin or theme. MonsterInsights is responsible for injecting the tracking code, and removing it also removes that connection.
  • Re-installation: If you reinstall MonsterInsights after manually deleting its database entries, you will need to reconfigure the plugin from scratch, as your previous settings will be gone.

For the vast majority of users, the standard plugin deletion process is all that is required to cleanly remove MonsterInsights from a WordPress site.

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