WordPress Optimization Part 8: Which WordPress Caching Plugin Should You Use?

Speed is of utmost importance for the performance and success of your website. Caching is a popular method to enhance the speed of your WordPress site. However, there are several WordPress caching plugins out there. So which WordPress caching plugin should you use?

In this article, we will be taking a look at some of the most popular WordPress caching plugins.

Which WordPress Caching Plugin Should You Use?

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a very popular WordPress caching plugin that has over a million active users. It is currently maintained by Automattic, the parent company behind WordPress itself.

This plugin is useful when you want to serve static copies of your website. Basically, it creates static HTML copies of your site’s content and serves them to the visitors. This way, repeated PHP calls can be avoided and your site will load faster.

WP Super Cache is a safe bet for anyone who is not familiar with WordPress caching processes. It has a lesser chance of breaking your site and is fully compatible with most of the popular WP themes and plugins.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is another extremely popular WordPress caching plugin. It has over a million active users and has been around for quite a while.

W3 Total Cache offers a wide range of features including static HTML copies of your content, minification and compression. In fact, its diverse set of features makes W3 Total Cache an overkill for most users.

You should also bear in mind that W3 Total Cache has a steep learning curve simply because there are way too many options to configure. If you are not comfortable with the idea of multiple tweaks and adjustments to your site, you should overlook W3 Total Cache.

WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is a slightly less popular but equally powerful WordPress caching plugin. It can do everything that other caching plugins can, such as generation of static HTML pages from your website’s content.

However, WP Fastest Cache is one of the few plugins that bundle simplicity with superb set of features. You get minification as well as Gzip compression for further speed enhancements. And to make things even better, this WP plugin is rather easy to configure and simple to use.

WP Fastest Cache is a good plugin for most users, especially those on shared web hosting. Its compression and minification technique as well as the ability to combine CSS and JS queries and leverage browser caching makes it a very handy performance optimization solution.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache, as the name suggests, is a custom-made WordPress caching plugin for websites hosted on a LiteSpeed server.

LiteSpeed, in itself, is faster than Apache when it comes to server-side optimization. However, LiteSpeed Cache helps you boost your website’s performance even more. This plugin communicates with LiteSpeed’s native LSCache mechanism. Since LSCache is a server-level module, it can deliver more thorough results as compared to a simple caching plugin that generates static HTML pages.

Of course, this plugin would require your web hosting provider to have LSCache enabled. VeeroTech does offer LiteSpeed and LSCache if you would like to learn more.

Cache Enabler

Cache Enabler is not as popular as the other names on this list. However, if you are looking for a simple WordPress caching plugin, look no further.

Cache Enabler is by far the simplest and easiest to use WordPress caching plugin. It has just one settings page wherein you can specify whether you want just simple caching, or minification and compression as well. There are no additional measures to configure nor any complicated code to follow. Cache Enabler support WebP images too.

Comet Cache

The last WordPress caching plugin on our list, Comet Cache, is a complex solution with a learning curve and feature set at par with W3 Total Cache.

This WP plugin is by no means inferior to any other such plugin in its league. It can minify HTML, combine JS and CSS queries, optimize pages, and make use of browser caching. However, the configuration settings are a bit too much for a starter level user. Unless you have decent WordPress skills and are at ease with numerous configuration changes, Comet Cache might seem confusing to you.

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is, for many WordPress users, the de facto leader when it comes to WordPress caching plugins. It comes with a wide range of features, including the standard ones such as on-page cache, browser caching, JS/CSS minification, and so on.

However, what makes WP Rocket stand apart is the additional set of extended features that it brings to the table. It is one of the few caching plugins out there that offer GZip compression out of the box, in addition to preloading for cache and sitemaps. Furthermore, it integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, and can also manage asynchronous loading of Google Fonts.

WP Rocket is a worthy investment for anyone looking to speed up their site. That said, it is a premium-only WordPress plugin and does not have a free version as of now. The price for a single site license of WP Rocket is $49 per year. If you are managing multiple sites, you can get the Unlimited Sites license that costs $249 per year.

So Which One To Use?

Now that we have seen some of the top WordPress caching plugins, which one should you use?

The answer is fairly simple. It depends on your needs:

• If you can afford the additional cost, you should definitely invest in WP Rocket and look no further.
• You should use WP Super Cache if you are looking for the brand name that it brings along. Automattic is the same company that is behind WordPress and this automatically makes WP Super Cache a very popular plugin.
• However, if you are looking for simplicity, Cache Enabler is the best plugin in its league.
• Lastly, if you need terrific performance, WP Fastest Cache does justice to its name. In most benchmarks, this plugin has fared better than the others. Note that such benchmarks do not usually include LiteSpeed Cache simply because LiteSpeed Cache does not work on non-LiteSpeed servers.

Need more WordPress optimization tips? Start at Part 1 of our WordPress Optimization series to learn what steps you can take as soon as you install WordPress.

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