My only plugins are zsh-autosuggestion (https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions) zsh-syntax-highlighting (https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting) and zsh fzf-tab (https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab) its been wonderful using these plugins

I prefer prezto to oh-my-zsh for performance reasons.

https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto

Slimzsh[1] is a very nice default configuration. Just a slim prompt, fast-syntax-highlighting and some vanilla settings.

I keep a personal fork with a few added plugins (most notably zsh-autosuggestions and ssh-agent). No need for a plugin manager.

oh-my-zsh is way too bloated. But it's a nice repo if you're looking for plugins and aliases.

[1]: https://github.com/changs/slimzsh

The popularity of OMZ with the performance issues and update nags really makes me wonder if people even notice or care about those two things.

If you use just a few plugins, it's really not that slow. But if you have a lot more, performance might become a real issue.

zinit did wonders for my config, would highly recommend:

https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit

Better to use zgenom, it supports almost every plugins and faster.