diff --git a/docs/plugins/index.asciidoc b/docs/plugins/index.asciidoc
index 725c200ee95..8a572d5ee3f 100644
--- a/docs/plugins/index.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/plugins/index.asciidoc
@@ -11,14 +11,28 @@ manner. They range from adding custom mapping types, custom analyzers, native
 scripts, custom discovery and more.
 
 Plugins contain JAR files, but may also contain scripts and config files, and
-must be installed on every node in the cluster.  After installation, each
+must be installed on every node in the cluster. After installation, each
 node must be restarted before the plugin becomes visible.
 
+This documentation distinguishes two categories of plugins:
+
+Core Plugins::    This category identifies plugins that are part of Elasticsearch
+project. Delivered at the same time as Elasticsearch, their version number always
+matches the version number of Elasticsearch itself. These plugins are maintained
+by the Elastic team with the appreciated help of amazing community members (for
+open source plugins). Issues and bug reports can be reported on the
+https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch[Github project page].
+
+Community contributed::    This category identifies plugins that are external to
+the Elasticsearch project. They are provided by individual developers or private
+companies and have their own licenses as well as their own versioning system.
+Issues and bug reports can usually be reported on the community plugin's web site.
+
+For advice on writing your own plugin, see <<plugin-authors>>.
+
 IMPORTANT: Site plugins -- plugins containing HTML, CSS and Javascript -- are
 no longer supported.
 
-For advice on writing your own plugin, see <<plugin-authors>>.
-
 include::plugin-script.asciidoc[]
 
 include::api.asciidoc[]