Every website owner will be interested in increasing their page speed. This is because page speed is one of the key factors that determine how easy it is to navigate your site, as well as how many users will actually stay on your site. Improving your page speed can increase conversion rates and help you compete with other websites in your industry.
As with most things, there are several different ways that webmasters can improve their page speed. One of the best ways to do this is by optimizing your images and code.
In order to optimize your website code, you need to first understand what a website code is and why it needs optimization. A website code, or HTML code, is the primary language used for building websites. There are many different types of codes, including php, Java, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
These types of codes have different uses and are often used together in order to create a high-quality website for a business or individual. In order for these codes to work together properly and produce fast results, the webmaster must optimize them using various tools and techniques.
Best Free WordPress Plugin For Speed Optimization
1. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin in the market. It is the easiest and most beginner-friendly caching plugin, which is a big help if you don’t know the technical terms used for different caching options.
It allows users to instantly cache their website with one-click. Its crawler automatically fetches your WordPress pages to build up the cache. The plugin then automatically turns on recommended WordPress caching settings like gzip compression, page cache, and cache pre-loading.
WP Rocket also includes optional features that you can turn on to further improve performance. This includes lazy loading images, CDN support, DNS pre-fetching, minification, and more.
This is why we use WP Rocket on WPBeginner to speed up our site.
2. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is another popular WordPress caching plugin. It is free and comes highly recommended by many of the top WordPress hosting companies.
WP Super Cache plugin includes all recommended caching features that you will need to speed up your website. This includes gzip compression, page cache, cache pre-loading, CDN support, advanced cache preload, and more.
It includes a comprehensive settings section with a separate tab for easy setup. For detailed instructions, see our article on how to install and set up WP Super Cache plugin.
3. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular WordPress caching plugins. It is a comprehensive WordPress caching plugin with a ton of options which may make it appear a bit intimidating for beginners.
It includes all the features you will need to properly set up WordPress cache. This includes page cache, object cache, gzip compression, limited minification support, CDN support, and more.
Beginners may find W3 Total Cache a bit difficult to use. For detailed setup instructions, see our article on how to install and set up W3 Total Cache plugin.
4. Sucuri Firewall
Sucuri is the best WordPress firewall and security plugin. As a website firewall, Sucuri comes with a built-in option to cache your website content and enable gzip compression with a click of the button.
It is the best option for any website because Sucuri is a DNS level firewall. This means that they can serve cached content to your users even before their request reaches your website. This gives your website an incredible performance boost.
5. Built-in Cache Plugins from Hosting
Caching helps significantly reduce the load on hosting servers allowing them to perform optimally. This is why many managed WordPress hosting companies now offer their own built-in caching solutions.
If your website is hosted with one of the following hosting companies, then you can use their built-in caching plugins for your websites.
SG SuperCacher
SiteGround offers a built-in caching solution with all their hosting plans. It can be enabled by from your hosting account’s dashboard.
Once enabled, their dynamic WordPress caching will improve your website speed anywhere from 50% – 500%. They have also added an option for site owners to opt-in to get memcache enabled.
SiteGround has also added Brotli compression which can also help you unlock 15 – 20% speed improvements.
Overall SietGround’s caching has improved a ton. If you’re on their platform, you really wouldn’t need any caching plugins like WP Rocket or others.
best wordpress cache plugin
The best cache plugins for WordPress will enable you to quickly and easily cache your posts and pages. Below is a collection of premium and free performance plugins for WordPress that do just that.
1. WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache is the highest-rated cache plugin in the official WordPress directory. The free version of WP Fastest Cache offers a range of advanced features. With this plugin, site admins can delete all cached files and minified CSS and JS files, or schedule them to be deleted at a particular time. They can also enable or disable the cache option for mobile devices and logged-in users — all by checking a box in the settings page.
Unlike other free cache plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Fastest Cache not only minifies HTML and CSS files — it combines them to make your code cleaner and web pages leaner.
The premium version offers even more functionality, including minifying JavaScript files, eliminating render-blocking JavaScript resources, and lazy loading.
2. LiteSpeed Cache
LiteSpeed Cache is another five-star cache plugin in the WordPress directory. It can minify and combine your CSS and JavaScript files, lazy load images, auto-optimize images, and more.
What sets LiteSpeed Cache apart from other plugins is that it’s server-level cache, which is faster than a PHP-level cache. So while the plugin is free, it does require you to use the LiteSpeed Web Server for its built-in page cache features.
Page cache can bypass PHP and database queries, and use cookies to serve multiple versions of cached content depending on the user’s device, geographic location, and currency. You’ll have to pay a small monthly fee to purchase a license to use this server.
3. WP-Optimize
WP-Optimize is another five-star cache plugin in the WordPress directory with over one million active installations. You can configure the plugin settings to instruct client browsers to reuse cached resources, compress HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, and minify and defer CSS and JavaScript to reduce the size and number of requests to your server.
You can also check a box to generate separate files for mobile devices to ensure an optimized version of your website is served to users on mobile devices.
Unlike the previous plugins, WP-Optimize is an all-in-one solution for web optimization. In addition to caching your web pages, it will help you clean your database and compress your images, which will make your site even faster.
4. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache (W3TC) W3TC is one of the most popular cache plugins for WordPress. One reason for its popularity is that it’s compatible with most hosting plans, including shared, VPS, and dedicated server hosting.
With W3 Total Cache, you can minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files as well as posts, pages, and RSS feeds. You can lazy load images, defer CSS and JavaScript, eliminate render-blocking JavaScript resources, and schedule automatic database cleanups.
You can also set up an integration with your CDN provider for even better website performance. And, you can test all these configurations in preview mode before deploying them on your website.
W3 Total Cache Pro offers even more functionality, including fragment caching, advanced caching statistics, lazy load for Google Maps, and more.
5. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is a free cache plugin developed by Automattic. With over two million active installations, it’s the most downloaded cache plugin from the WordPress directory.
Part of this plugin’s appeal is its three caching modes. “Expert” mode is the fastest, but requires you to modify the .htaccess file. While it’s great for developers and users with technical experience who want more control over the caching process, it’s not ideal for all users — particularly since making a mistake in the .htaccess file can take down the whole website.
That’s why WP Super Cache also offers “Simple” mode. In this mode, the plugin generates static HTML files to serve to most visitors. There is one other mode called WP-Cache for serving custom cached files that are tailored to visitors who are logged in, viewing a password-protected page, or have left comments.
Conclusion
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