Top 8 WordPress caching plugins to boost your site speed

Where you once happy with the performance of your WordPress site only to find out that it is not loading as fast as it did before?
If that is the case, maybe it is time that you consider installing a WordPress caching plugin. A caching will help you speed up your site.

But first, what is caching?

Your browser is loading all the site elements the moment users visit a page on your site. Therefore, several requests are being sent to the server. Each request can affect your website’s page loading speed.

This is the principle of a dynamic website: Each time a page is shown by a new visitor and via queries, all the elements are being requested from the web server.

How can caching plugins improve a website’s loading speed?

As your WordPress site gradually grows, mostly due to the publication of new content and installing new plugins, this can cause your site to slow down. This can lead to the poor performance of your site during high spikes of traffic, especially if you are only using a low-quality web host.

A caching gets a copy of your web pages, storing them in your server as either cached database queries or static files.

Then, when a site visitor visits a page, the server provides them with a cached page rather than generating your database or re-querying. Thus, speeding your site’s response times and decreasing the server resources that are needed in serving a web page.

Moreover, the faster a website loads, the better the user experience will be.

There are a lot of caching plugins out there in the market, and in this post, we will discuss the more popular and highly recommended caching plugins.

Caching Plugins for WordPress

The fastest (and the most effective way) to speed up your site is through caching tools. Using caching plugins is one of the most effective solutions to speed up your site.

In fact, about half of your audience would want your website to load within three seconds. Therefore, it does not come off as a surprise anymore that Google gives huge emphasis on site speed in its search algorithm.

The quicker your site speed is, the better your search ranking is, and the better your organic traffic will be.

Here are the best caching plugins for WordPress:

1. WP Fastest Cache

This type of WordPress cache plugin includes almost everything that a user can ask for. As of the moment, it has 300,000+ active installs and delivers users a fast-browsing experience.

What’s also great about the WP Fastest Cache is that it is quick to set-up and easy to use. It automatically modifies the .htaccess file and provides a cache timeout feature as well.

Features:

• Supports both CDN and SSL
• Offers Cache timeout for particular pages
• Deletes cache files once a post is published
• Utilizes the mod_rewrite – the quickest method
• Enable/ Disable cache option (for logged in users and mobile devices)

2. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is rich in features, yet easy to use. It also immediately launches after activation, giving you immediate results. But keep in mind that it does not come for free like with other plugins.

Features:

• Instant page caching activation
• Compression of static files
• Simple and easy to use interface
• Lazy image loading

3. W3 Total Cache

Another plugin that is very efficient in boosting the performance of your site is W3 Total Cache. This plugin helps boost your SEO efforts for your site, as well as provide you with a wide variety of customization options.

Features:

• Unlimited customization options
• SSL and AMP support
• Strong security features
• Directly imports the post attachment in the media library
• Supports minification, CDN, and GZIP compression

4. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is one of the most downloaded plugins out there, with over a million active installs. It also works fast and easy enough to configure.

Features:

• Content Delivery Networks support
• Dynamic caching and page compression
• An option for Garbage Collection
• A scheduler to clear your cached pages at a regular interval
• To access the settings, there are the REST API endpoints.

5. Comet Cache

Formerly known as the ZenCache, Comet Cache plugin is rapidly gaining momentum in its new name.

This is a “plug and play” type of plugin. Once you activate and install it, then you are all set.

It can log cache logged-in users. Meaning if you have a membership site or any other site that lets users log-in first, then this plugin is ideal for you.

Moreover, the plugin has cache statistics, letting you gain more insight into the current status of your site’s cache.

If you want to customize your WordPress caching configuration even more, then there are advanced features that are available when you buy the premium version of the plugin.

Features:

• Simple configuration
• URI exclusion, User-Agent exclusion, and HTTP referrer exclusion patterns
• It can automatically set the expiration time of your cached files
• RSS, RDF, and Atom Feed caching
• A more advanced cache plugin for both plugin and theme developers

6. Cache Enabler

Cache Enabler by KeyCDN is lightweight and does two vital things to reduce your site’s loading times:

1. It gives a WebP support
2. Creates a static HTML file

It is also one of the first plugins that allow users to serve WebP images without JavaScript.

As you are already aware, WebP is a new image format that is slowly gaining traction as a web-optimized image that gives a lossless or lossy compression.

Features:

• Exclusion of cache
• Cache behavior
• Cache expiry time
• Cache minification of JS, CSS, and HTML files

7. Breeze

Another free WordPress cache plugin that is gaining popularity is Breeze, with thousands of installs to boot.

The primary reason why Breeze is so popular is that it is easy to use, and it does its job relatively well. It delivers static files to the majority of your web visitors and is a standout in three major areas: Simplicity, convenience, and performance.

Features:

• Integration of CDN
• Gzip compression
• Grouping of JS and CSS
• Browser Cache
• Minification of JS, CSS, and HTML files

8. WP Speed of Light

WP Speed of Light is a complete plugin that allows you to take multiple actions in your WordPress dashboard. All of it is to improve the loading speed of your WordPress site via automated WPO techniques.

Not only this is a cache plugin, but it also lets you combine, optimize, and minify your CSS, HTML, and JS files aside from letting you manage your browser cache settings and Gzip compression.

Features:

• Browser caching
• Grouping of JS and CSS files
• Google fonts and group fonts
• Compression od Gzip data
• Minification of JS, CSS, and HTML files

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Those are the top WordPress caching plugins that can help improve the speed of your site.

Just keep in mind that every website is different, and your particular theme or set-up might need a different kind of caching. That’s because some plugins may not be compatible with your WordPress website’s theme.

What you can do about it is to test how these various plugins might affect your site speed. Install the ones you are considering, activate, configure them if required, run your site on various tools, then take note of the results.

About the Author

Kenneth Sytian is the CEO of Sytian Productions, a leading web designer in the Philippines. He has been designing websites and developing web apps for more than a decade. He is considered one of the top influencers in web design and development.