5 Best WordPress caching plugins
Is your WordPress website experiencing a slow performance? It can be due to poor hosting service, but also, every new addition to make your site more attractive (images, content, etc.), and the traffic growth can slow it down.
Slow loading directly affects users’ experience and search engine position, so speeding the site is critical. WordPress caching plugins is an easy way to do it!
What’s a caching plugin?
Caching means storing website data in a provisional storage area (cache) to get them faster every time a user requests your site through a browser.
A caching plugin is a software that creates a static version of your site (HTML), faster to load than the dynamic, heavier version.
Now, check out the features of the best 5 WordPress caching plugins!
WP Rocket
- Easy to use for experts and beginners.
- Installing and caching through one-click.
- It’s a paid plugin. For caching, one site $49, three sites $99, and an unlimited number of sites $249. Anual prices.
- Page cache, cache preloading, gzip compression.
- Lazy loading, for images to be loaded only when users scroll them.
- Concatenation, minification (JavaScript, HTML, CSS files), DNS pre-fetching, CDN support.
- It optimizes the site’s database to remove unnecessary data.
- Page and browser caching.
- CloudFare and multisite compatible.
- It works smoothly on the demanding e-commerce sites.
To consider:
There’s no free trial or free version. It offers a 14-day money refund guarantee.
WP Super Cache
- Free and open-source of Automattic, the venture behind WordPress.
- Three modes for caching. Simple, for regular users, without editing PHP files. Expert allows advanced users to modify the .htaccess file. Super caching, to cache pages for known users (regularly logged into the site, commentators, etc.).
- Simple caching and cache rebuilding (cache on the site isn’t deleted every time that a comment is posted. Instead, it rebuilds the cache and shows the old page to other users).
- CDN support, page cache, gzip compression, advanced-cache preload.
- Removes old, useless files to optimize.
To consider:
It might be hard to set up fully.
W3 Total Cache
- It’s free and open-source.
- It’s integrated with a CDN.
- Well suited for regular desktop and mobile sites.
- Minification, feed optimization, HTTP compression.
- Gzip compression, page cache, object cache.
- Database cache.
- Support for Google AMP.
- Compatible with different hosting solutions (shared hosting, clusters, dedicated servers).
- CDN linked to the media library to see the optimization of your images.
To consider:
Beginners can find this plugin hard to use.
Comet Cache
- Easy to install, friendly dashboard.
- Free and paid versions are available. One-site license costs $39, three-sites license $99, and unlimited sites license $139. They’re one-time rates!
- It uses WordPress browser caching with Apache server to avoid multiple roundtrips server-browser.
- You can choose the CDN (CloudFront, MaxCDN, or another).
- It caches tags, categories, pages, posts, RSS feeds.
- It generates site statistics about cache status.
To consider:
Both versions include kind of the same features. The main difference is, the paid one does all the job automatically.
WP Fastest Cache
- Easy installation.
- Free and paid versions. One site license is $49.99, for 3, $125, and for five, $175—one-time fees.
- .htaccess file is changed automatically.
- Blocking cache for specific posts or pages (Short Code).
- CDN, SSL, Cloudflare support.
- Cache for mobile devices and for logged-in users.
- An automatic preload, or create a cache of the whole site.
- Auto-clean cache (Cache Timeout).
- WP-CLI cache clearing.
- The paid version includes disable emoji, minification (HTML, CSS), Gzip compression, adds expires headers, combine (JS, CSS), leverage browser caching, mobile cache, widget cache, lazy load, etc.
To consider:
The free version has limited functionality.
Conclusion
There’s a wide variety of WordPress caching plugins. Paid and free, less or more complex. The decision is yours!