jekyll-paginate vs jekyll-paginate-v2 for multi-collection sites

When implementing pagination in Jekyll 4.x, there is a trade-off between the simplicity of the core jekyll-paginate plugin and the extended capabilities of jekyll-paginate-v2.

The core plugin is designed for a single pagination context, typically limited to the site's index page. In contrast, jekyll-paginate-v2 allows for multiple pagination contexts, enabling separate paginated lists for different collections, such as a blog and a product catalog, within the same site.

However, moving to the v2 plugin introduces increased configuration complexity in _config.yml and requires explicit dependency management in the Gemfile, whereas the core plugin maintains a minimal front-matter footprint.

Technical Uncertainties

• Does the increased configuration overhead of jekyll-paginate-v2 outweigh the benefit of multi-collection support for small-to-medium sites?
• Which approach provides better long-term stability given the community-maintained nature of the v2 plugin compared to core functionality?