Best WordPress Caching Plugins: For Google, the speed and performance of every page on your website is one of the criteria for a better ranking.
And as the owner, you want the best for your website— after all, who wouldn’t?
Knowing how to optimize your web seems a little bit technical. But this is what your web needs— apart from quality content— for thriving and success.
So, website optimization is necessary! And for that, you don’t need to hire a professional.
That’s where the WordPress caching plugins come in handy.
I know, you probably know about performance optimization by caching plugins.
But here, I am not only going to give a list of best WordPress caching plugins but also gives a comparative analysis on various parameters.
Before jumping directly to the list of best WordPress caching plugins, I am going to acknowledge you why they are necessary for your website performance.
As stated earlier, there is no doubt that the caching plugins increase the performance and decrease the server load on which your website is hosted.
Wonder! How can they do that?
Let me explain this to you, in a simple way with an example.
Your boss called you and said, “Get the sales report for the last 6 months”. For that, you need to search for data from different areas then process them into one sheet or copy or excel sheet. And your boss read that draft without investing too much time and effort.
Here, “The Boss” is like your users, and “the sales report” is the cache file that is viewed by users.
So, cached files are made to process and combine the various data to load faster.
Conversely, a non-cached page loads every element every time when the request is made from browsers. This does three things:
But in the case of cache plugins, a cached copy of the page is saved on the server on the first load.
This makes your hosting server to consume fewer resources and they don’t need to process the whole page again and again. Instead, saved cached copies of the pages are sent to the users.
I hope you’ve got my point about how these WordPress caching plugins work.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about the parameters on which I am going to list the best WordPress Caching Plugins.
For listing and comparison purposes, I use a demo website with a heavy theme such as a newspaper.
As all the tests were performed on a single site, the result can be very realistic what you expect from each plugin.
The website is totally a new website, hence no visitors. So, it can give more close results on which you can trust.
At last, these are the following criteria on which I had tested these WordPress caching plugins.
Note. Before installing a cache plugin first time on my web, I always take a complete backup of the whole website. And I would highly recommend that you do the same.
The following are the pre-test performance score that is hosted on a WordPress shared hosting with a newspaper theme.
A. Pingdom Speed Test
B. GTmetrix Scores
C. Google Page Speed Insights Test
(i) Desktop Performance: 79
(ii) Mobile Performance: 48
Quick Note: Even by installing the best WordPress caching plugins, you can’t fully optimize your website. This is due to the fact that caches are also stored on the server.
So, if your website is hosted on a low-end server, you are not going to get high-end results. You can check the best hosting services that you should try.
This is the sweet spot where you are going to get a fully detailed overview on the best WordPress cache plugins that will be going to boost your website performance.
No doubt, WpRocket is one of the most trustful WordPress caching plugins that you can use to make your web blazing fast.
It works like a charm, even if you have a website with a weighty theme.
There is a list of optimization options that let you enable specific features to tackle down the highly optimized performance.
Among all of the WordPress cache plugins, WP Rocket is my most favorite caching plugin. This is all due to the fact that it is literally beginner-friendly.
You can also configure this with your Cloudflare account that can be conjoined in a single window.
However, you can also switch to WP Rocket CDN for faster delivery of the content. Plus, you get dual caching options i.e. for both the page cache and browser cache.
And let’s say you ignore these features, but there are a lot of other features that make you go with WP Rocket plugins. These are lazy loading, google font optimization, preload cache, minification, and many more.
However, with WordPress 5.6 update, you don’t need the lazyload feature because it becomes an inbuilt feature of new WordPress.
Apart from that, all WP Rocket features can help you to save every single bit that comes crucial for your hosting server.
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Rocket | Optimization |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | B (89) | 1.01x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 631.9 KB | 1.48x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 | 1.36 | 1.55x |
4. Request | 60 | 26 | 2.30x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Rocket | Optimization |
1. Performance | C (67) | B (85) | 1.26x |
2. Structure | 88% | 88% | 1x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.6s | 1.66x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 KB | 597 KB | 1.54x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 22 | 2.63x |
A. Desktop Performance: 91
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Rocket | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 0.8 s | 1.25x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3s | 2.0 s | 1.65x |
3. Initial Server Response Time | 1.66 s | 1.02 s | 1.62x |
4. Render-blocking Resources | 0.77 s | No Blocking | 100% |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | No Unused CSS | 100% |
B. Mobile Performance: 81
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Rocket | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 2.8 s | 1.35x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 4.8 s | 1.97x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | No Blocking | 100% |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 1.04 s | 1.66x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 0.6 s | 1.75x |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | No further minification | 100% |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.2 s | 2.85x |
Not a beginner-friendly but do great at optimizing the site.
The plugin is not one of the popular cache WordPress plugins but it can give you a high level of performance without holding too much of your server resources.
Just like others, it can build cache for almost every page on your website.
It is technical in the sense that it has a lot of technical terms and options that might not be understandable to new users.
But if you learn how to fully tune the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, you’ll get an awesome result that even surpasses some of the WP Rocket parameters in our test.
Apart from this, it also provides image optimization but with a catch. To enable image optimization, you need an API key that is provided by LiteSpeed on signup.
Grades | Pre Test Score | After LiteSpeed Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | B (82) | 1.02x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 791.1 KB | 1.18x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 s | 1.45 s | 1.48x |
4. Request | 60 | 41 | 1.46x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After LiteSpeed Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance | C (67) | C (73) | 1.08x |
2. Structure | 88% | 89% | 1.01x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.6 s | 1.66x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 Kb | 866 KB | 1.06x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 43 | 1.34x |
A. Desktop Performance: 82
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After LiteSpeed Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 0.8 s | 1.25x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3 s | 2.6 s | 1.26x |
3. Initial server response time | 1.66 s | 0.97 s | 1.71x |
4. Render-blocking resources | 0.77 s | NA | 100% |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | 0.18 s | 1.33x |
B. Mobile Performance: 73
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After LiteSpeed Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 3.6 s | 1.05x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 9 s | 1.05x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | 1.15 s | 2.3x |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 1.20 s | 1.44x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 0.9 s | 1.16x |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | NA | 100% |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.15 s | 3.8x |
You may already have the UpdraftPlus Backup plugin for your website backup— if not, I highly recommend using it. Now, you can also optimize your site with the WP Optimize plugin by Updraft.
The tool is very simple and beginner-friendly and called to be one of the best free WordPress caching plugins that have an inbuilt database management system that is paid services offered by other plugins.
But here, you get this feature for free.
In its free version, you are going to get optimum performance with the trust of Updraft.
One of the features that win my heart is inbuilt image optimization not only for new images but also for those you are going to upload in the future. This is one of the features that even WP Rocket is missing (you have to install a separate plugin: Imagify).
In addition, you’re going to get almost the same features that other plugins have on the list.
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Optimize | Optimization |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | B (82) | 1.02x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 898.6 KB | 1.04x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 s | 1.23 s | 1.74x |
4. Request | 60 | 25 | 2.4x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Optimize | Optimization |
1. Performance | C (67) | C (72) | 1.07x |
2. Structure | 88% | 89% | 1.01x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.6 s | 1.66x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 Kb | 878 KB | 1.05x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 43 | 1.34x |
A. Desktop Performance: 85
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Optimize | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 0.8 s | 1.25x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3 s | 2.9 s | 1.13x |
3. Initial server response time | 1.66 s | 1.24 s | 1.33x |
4. Render-blocking resources | 0.77 s | NA | 100% |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | 0.2 s | 1.2x |
B. Mobile Performance: 61
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Optimize | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 3.2 s | 1.18x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 7.7 s | 1.23x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | 2.72 s | 1x |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 0.99 s | 1.74x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 1.2 s | 1.26x |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | NA | 100% |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.3 s | 1.9x |
As a beginner, it is hard to manage money that you pay for different services that let your website online.
Besides buying an affordable and faster hosting, a cache plugin costs you another $50. But, you can save some bucks with W3 Total Cache plugins.
W3 Total Cache WordPress plugins give you ample space to optimize your website in fewer clicks.
However, it doesn’t give you that many features that you get with WP Rocket or other cache plugins in the above list.
But I could say, it is one of the best free WordPress caching plugins that I would recommend to smaller bloggers.
With some cuts in features, you can optimize your site for better cache and minification. Apart from this, you can also cache out databases and opcodes.
Though our test results are not as comparable to WP Rocket, but it gives a neck to neck clash to it. That’s why A2 hosting developer uses its free service for optimizing their shared WordPress hosting plans.
Moreover, you can also integrate your CDN services with W3 cache plugins.
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After W3 Total Cache | Optimization x |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | A (91) | 1.13x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 871.3 KB | 1.07x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 | 1.39 | 1.54x |
4. Request | 60 | 52 | 1.15x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After W3 Total Cache | Optimization x |
1. Performance | C (67) | C (71) | 1.05x |
2. Structure | 88% | 85% | 1.03x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.7s | 1.42x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 Kb | 828 KB | 1.11x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 46 | 1.26x |
A. Desktop Performance: 80
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After W3 Total Cache | Optimization x |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 0.9 s | 1.11x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3 s | 2.9 s | 1.13x |
3. Initial server response time | 1.66 s | 0.97 s | 1.71x |
4. Render-blocking resources | 0.77 s | 0.62 s | 1.24x |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | 0.16 s | 1.50x |
B. Mobile Performance: 61
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After W3 Total Cache | Optimization x |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 3.3 s | 1.15x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 8.2 s | 1.15x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | 2.51 s | 1.08x |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 0.94 s | 1.86x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 1.05 s | 100% |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | No further minification | 100% |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.15 s | 3.80x |
Without tuning and hitting any developer mode, you can get comparable fast-loading pages as compared to other listed WordPress caching plugins.
Moreover, in some terms, it even defeats the W3 total cache. That’s why I embrace the lightning-fast speed of WP Super cache WordPress plugin.
Right now, the WP Super cache seems to have a 4.3 rating, but due to their recent modification and optimization capabilities, it might become the fastest, it will ever be.
Like the above-listed cache plugins, WP super cache shares common features from compression to minification, in a very simple yet detailed way.
With its full tuning, it can generate a static HTML file that processes the pages at a faster rate. It’s as true as you see in WP Rocket plugins.
Honestly, the W3 total cache and WP Super cache are so close that I could find the difference in both of them in terms of loading speed.
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Super Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | B (86) | 1.07x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 671.3 KB | 1.39x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 | 1.75 | 1.22x |
4. Request | 60 | 38 | 1.57x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Super Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance | C (67) | B (77) | 1.14x |
2. Structure | 88% | 86% | 1.02x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.5 s | 2x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 Kb | 624 KB | 1.47x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 36 | 1.61x |
A. Desktop Performance: 83
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Super Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 1.0 s | 1x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3 s | 3.0 s | 1.1x |
3. Initial server response time | 1.66 s | 1.0 s | 1.66x |
4. Render-blocking resources | 0.77 s | 0.72 s | 1.06x |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | 0.22 s | 1.09x |
B. Mobile Performance: 62
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After WP Super Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 3.7 s | 1.02x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 8.9 s | 1.06x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | 2.62 s | 1.03x |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 1.52 s | 1.13x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 1.04 s | 1.01x |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | 0.45 s | 1x |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.17 s | 3.35x |
Yet, Wp fastest cache has all the comparable features that most of the best WordPress caching plugins have, but you can’t expect too much optimization from it.
It is even seen that WP Fastest Cache WordPress plugin makes out to the best optimization option but only on paper. I have a lot of expectations from it. But it totally sad me.
This doesn’t mean, it is just a waste.
With WP Fasted plugin, you can get fine-tuning to the server level and it might amaze you in some parameters.
Wp Fastest Cache developers use various measures to cut down the server resource by compression and minification. But they are not as optimized as the above listed WordPress cache plugins.
Moreover, it also features image optimization but for that, you have to pay some bucks.
In addition, another premium feature is database cleanup that lets you delete odd post/page revisions. It has one single window with checkmarks for various optimization options.
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After Wp Fastest Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance Grade | C (80) | B (81) | 1.01x |
2. Page Size | 937.6 KB | 878.4 KB | 1.06x |
3. Load Time | 2.15 | 1.87 | 1.14x |
4. Request | 60 | 55 | 1.09x |
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After Wp Fastest Cache | Optimization |
1. Performance | C (67) | B (71) | 1.05x |
2. Structure | 88% | 81% | 1.08x |
3. TTFB | 1.0s | 0.4 s | 2.5x |
4. Total Page Size | 922 Kb | 850 KB | 1.08x |
5. Total Page Requests | 58 | 56 | 1.03x |
A. Desktop Performance: 77
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After Wp Fastest Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 1.0 s | 1.2 s | -1.2x |
2. Speed Index | 3.3 s | 3.1 s | 1.06x |
3. Initial server response time | 1.66 s | 1.55 s | 1.07x |
4. Render-blocking resources | 0.77 s | 0.69 s | 1.11x |
5. Unused CSS | 0.24 s | 0.24 s | 1x |
B. Mobile Performance: 52
Grade Pointers | Pre Test Score | After Wp Fastest Cache | Optimization |
1. First Contentful Paint | 3.8 s | 3.9 s | -1.02x |
2. Speed Index | 9.5 s | 10.2 s | -1.07x |
3. Render-blocking Resources | 2.72 s | 2.72 s | 1x |
4. Initial server response time | 1.73 s | 1.65 s | 1.04x |
5. Unused CSS | 1.05 s | 1.05 s | 1x |
6. Minify CSS | 0.45 s | 0.45 s | 1x |
7. Unused JavaScript | 0.57 s | 0.55 s | 1.03x |
Note. Even with the highest rating of 4.9, it is listed in the 6th position because the google page Insight for the mobile version is very bad. This is due to the fact that more optimization comes with its premium version.
So, if you want to invest in the paid version, then this could be a great purchase for your website. Otherwise, you can also go with the WP Rocket cache plugin.
Now, let’s have a comparative analysis of all the 6 WordPress caching plugins in our list.
Grades | WP Rocket | W3 Total | WP Super | WP Optimize | LiteSpeed Cache | WP Fastest |
Performance Grade | 1.01 | 1.13 | 1.07 | 1.02 | 1.02 | 1.01 |
Page Size | 1.48 | 1.07 | 1.39 | 1.04 | 1.18 | 1.06 |
Load Time | 1.55 | 1.54 | 1.22 | 1.74 | 1.48 | 1.14 |
Request | 2.3 | 1.15 | 1.57 | 2.4 | 1.46 | 1.09 |
Result | 6.34 | 4.89 | 5.25 | 6.2 | 5.14 | 4.3 |
Best WordPress Caching Plugins as per Pingdom scores are:
• Winner: WP Rocket Plugin
• 1st Runner-up: WP Optimize
Grade Pointers | WP Rocket | W3 Total | WP Super | WP Optimize | LiteSpeed Cache | WP Fastest |
Performance | 1.26 | 1.05 | 1.14 | 1.07 | 1.08 | 1.05 |
Structure | 1 | 1.03 | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.01 | 1.08 |
TTFB | 1.66 | 1.42 | 2 | 1.66 | 1.66 | 2.5 |
Total Page Size | 1.54 | 1.11 | 1.47 | 1.05 | 1.06 | 1.08 |
Total Page Requests | 2.63 | 1.26 | 1.61 | 1.34 | 1.34 | 1.03 |
Result | 8.09 | 5.87 | 7.24 | 6.13 | 6.15 | 6.74 |
Best WordPress Caching Plugins as per GTmetrix scores are:
• Winner: WP Rocket Plugin
• 1st Runner-up: LiteSpeed Cache
Grade Pointers | WP Rocket | W3 Total | WP Super | WP Optimize | LiteSpeed Cache | WP Fastest |
First Content Paint | 1.25 | 1.11 | 1 | 1.25 | 1.25 | -1.2 |
Speed Index | 1.65 | 1.13 | 1.1 | 1.13 | 1.26 | 1.06 |
Initial server response time | 1.62 | 1.71 | 1.66 | 1.33 | 1.71 | 1.07 |
Render-blocking resources | 2 | 1.24 | 1.06 | 2 | 2 | 1.11 |
Unused CSS | 2 | 1.5 | 1.09 | 1.2 | 1.33 | 1 |
Result | 8.52 | 6.69 | 5.91 | 6.91 | 7.55 | 3.04 |
Best WordPress Caching Plugins as per Desktop Google Page Insight scores:
• Winner: WP Rocket Plugin
• 1st Runner-up: LiteSpeed Cache
Grade Pointers | WP Rocket | W3 Total | WP Super | WP Optimize | LiteSpeed Cache | WP Fastest |
First Contentful Paint | 1.35 | 1.15 | 1.02 | 1.18 | 1.05 | -1.02 |
Speed Index | 1.97 | 1.15 | 1.06 | 1.23 | 1.05 | -1.07 |
Render-blocking Resources | 1.5 | 1.08 | 1.03 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 1.5 |
Initial server response time | 1.66 | 1.86 | 1.13 | 1.74 | 1.44 | 1.04 |
Unused CSS | 1.75 | 1.5 | 1.01 | 1.26 | 1.16 | 1.5 |
Minify CSS | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
Unused JavaScript | 2.85 | 3.8 | 3.35 | 1.9 | 3.8 | 1.03 |
Total Result | 12.58 | 12.04 | 10.1 | 10.31 | 12.3 | 4.48 |
Best WordPress Cache Plugins as per Mobile Google Page Insight scores:
• Winner: WP Rocket Plugin
• 1st Runner-up: LiteSpeed Cache
Finally, it comes to end.
But Wait, there is more in it.
I made a final verdict based on the total optimization values that each of the plugins gets in four performance tests. The table is listed below.
Final Result | Pingdom | GTmetrix | Desktop Insight | Mobile Insight | Total | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WP Rocket | 6.34 | 8.09 | 8.52 | 12.58 | 35.53 | #1 |
W3 Total | 4.89 | 5.87 | 6.69 | 12.04 | 29.49 | #4 |
WP Super | 5.25 | 7.24 | 5.91 | 10.1 | 28.5 | #5 |
WP Optimize | 6.2 | 6.13 | 6.91 | 10.31 | 29.55 | #3 |
LiteSpeed | 5.14 | 6.15 | 7.55 | 12.3 | 31.14 | #2 |
WP Fastest | 4.3 | 6.74 | 3.04 | 4.48 | 18.56 | #6 |
It is clearly seen that our winner is WP Rocket followed by LiteSpeed and WP Optimize.
Now, I can undoubtedly say that WP Rocket is the fastest among other cache plugins. But the sad part is, you have to invest at least $50/ yr for their services.
Conversely, if you don’t want to pay for it, I would recommend you either go with LiteSpeed Cache or WP optimize Cache plugins.
Both are equally the best.
At last, I just want to ask a question, “Did you get what you’re looking for in this post”.
If yes, please let me know in the comment. However, if you think I missed something, please also comment the same.
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