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If you have a WordPress website and want to increase your loading speed, having a good caching solution is very important.
This blog will examine Caching and its vital role in website loading speed and explore the most popular WordPress caching plugins available.
What is caching, and why is it important?
In simple terms, caching temporarily stores some website files and data as a copy on a browser.
Caching is essential for your website’s loading speed because it will reduce the time it takes to load.
Usually, when a user tries to visit and load your website on their browsers like Chrome or Safari, there is a process between the browser and the website server that takes some time as the browser will first send the website request to DNS, and it will send it to the server where the website is hosted.
Then, it gets the request back from the website’s server, downloads it, and displays all the CSS, HTML, and JS files of the WordPress website on the user’s screen on the browser. This is the exact process that happens behind the screen of your device.
If there is no caching enabled for a website, then every time a user tries to visit a website, it takes a lot of time because, first, the request has to be sent, the server has to respond, and the browser has to download all the resources, files, code, and content before showing the website or any web page to the user. This process is long and very time-consuming.
To simplify this process and reduce the time, a copy of some of your website files and data will be stored locally on the user’s browser when they first visit your website so that the browser won’t have to download the files. However, it can show the copied version of the cache every time users visit your website or any web pages.
This is the exact process and reason to use a caching plugin for your WordPress website so that the browser would not have to go through all the methods of sending a request, getting server response, downloading all the WordPress scripts and code, and displaying the website every time a user visits your website.
The disadvantage of caching is that it will show the copy of your website cached in the past, not the original version, to the user. So, if you make any recent changes on your website or web page, they might not appear immediately to users if their browser cache is not deleted and a new version is replaced.
To deal with this issue, you need to make some changes in your website’s htaccess file and add some expired headers; you can read and learn how to make changes in htaccess to cache your website.
An excellent caching solution is essential to reduce the time it takes to load the website.
Caching alone is not enough to increase overall speed. Other essential things should be done to improve website speed.
You can read how to increase the website loading speed for more information.
But for now, we will look at the best WordPress caching plugins to boost website speed.
Best WordPress caching plugins:
We will examine the five most popular WordPress caching plugins, explain why they are among the best in each category, and compare their prices.
WP rocket
By far, WP Rocket is considered to be the best WordPress caching and performance booster plugin.
This is a premium WordPress performance plugin that we cannot directly install from your WordPress website. You need to purchase it and upload it to the plugins section of your website.
Over 1.7 million websites use this plugin, and it has a 4.9-star rating out of 5 on Trustpilot.
Why is it the best?
This plugin is not one of them, but it is the best WordPress performance plugin for a few reasons, which are its features:
- It will automatically preload caches when you change your website and pages.
- Combine and minify CSS and JS files for faster speed. It also enables Gzip compression of all the pages.
- It will defer JS file loading to eliminate render-blocking issues.
- It will also enable the lazy loading of your website images.
- Clean and optimize your database Tables, comments, and Posts in 2 clicks.
- You can also connect your website with the rocket CDN of this plugin.
- You also get premium customer support.
Above all, this plugin’s unique feature is that you can configure all the essential settings required for fast speed in a few minutes with a simple and easy-to-use interface. To activate those settings, check and tick the boxes in this plugin.
This plugin works fine without compatibility issues with any hosting provider themes and plugins.
The only disadvantage of this plugin is that it is an entirely premium plugin; no free version is available, and it does not currently compress the images you upload on your website.
What’s the price?
There are three different annual plans that you can purchase.
- Single plan of $49 for one website with a year of premium support and updates.
- Plus plan is $99 for three websites with one year of premium support and updates.
- Unlimited plan of 249 dollars for unlimited websites with one year of premium support and plugin updates.
The company will also offer a 30% discount when you renew your license after one year of using the plugin to keep receiving support and updates.
There is also a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee, so you don’t need to worry about whether you can safely get all your money back if it does not work with your website and increases speed.
W3 total cache
W3 Total Cache is another popular & complete WordPress caching & Performance booster plugin.
This plugin has over 1 million + active installations and a 4.4-star rating out of 5.
Why is it one of the best?
The main reason why the plugin is so popular is because of its features and benefits.
The plugin is best for its benefits, such as:
- It works well without compatibility issues with all hosting types, such as shared, dedicated, and cloud servers.
- It has both AMP and SSL support.
- Apart from caching, it will also minify and compress CSS and JavaScript files to increase loading speed.
- It also had CDN support for images and other files.
- This plugin will also help you with lazyLoad images to improve the website’s user experience and speed.
The only drawback of this plugin is that it may feel overwhelming for beginners to set up and configure its settings.
What’s interesting about this plugin is that the developers say it can save up to 80% of bandwidth by minifying your website’s CSS, HTML, and Javascript files. This is cool because it can indirectly save many website server resources and money. It will increase the website speed on mobile and desktop versions, directly impacting your SEO traffic, conversions, and revenue.
This plugin has also been tested with the latest WordPress 6+ update so you can use it without any worries.
What’s the price?
You will be happy to know that this plugin is open-source software that is free to use.
Since the Bold Grid company purchased this plugin, modified it, and added more features, you can buy the premium version for $99 per year, which includes premium support and features.
There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t need to worry if you don’t work with your website and improve your speed. You can safely get all of your money back.
WP fastest cache
This is another popular WordPress caching plugin, as it sounds.
This plugin has over 1 million + active installations and an impressive 4.9-star rating out of 5, which is fantastic.
Why is it one of the best?
The plugin is so famous for its features. Some of them are:
- Has SSL and CDN support.
- It will minify all the CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files & enable gzip compression.
- You may also use JavaScript files to eliminate render-blocking issues on your website.
- It will automatically preload the cache for all the pages and posts on your website.
- It also converts all the images into webp format at a faster speed.
The only drawback is that you will get all the additional features in the premium version of this plugin.
This plugin is straightforward to use. To configure the settings, you need to check and tick the boxes.
What’s the price?
Even though this plugin is open-source software, a premium version can be purchased. It costs around $49 for one website, $125 for three websites, and more plans for a lifetime.
There are no annual charges for this plugin, and they also have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you want to purchase the premium plan of this plugin, you should first install and activate it on your website for free and then buy it from the settings section of the plugin to get the premium license.
WP super cache
This is another popular WordPress caching plugin developed by the company Automattic, the founder of wordpress.com, led by Matt Mullenweg, who developed WordPress open-source software.
This plugin has over 2 million + active installations and a 4.3-star rating out of 5, which is good.
Why is it one of the best?
By far one of the most important reasons why it is one of the best is because it was created by the company Automattic and because of its features like:
- It has CDN support.
- It will also compress all the pages on your website.
- It will serve website caching in three stages: simple, expert, and WP caching. You can enable whichever feature you want based on your website needs and technical knowledge.
The only drawback of this plugin is that it only helps with website caching, unlike other plugins, which also help with other things like minifying your website’s CSS and JavaScript for maximum speed.
What’s the price?
Like WordPress.org, this plugin is open-source software and entirely free to use. There is no premium plan whatsoever.
WP Optimize
All the popular caching plugins start with WP in their names, and their performance is similar.
This is another popular caching and performance booster plugin for WordPress websites.
This plugin was developed by the Updraft Plus team, which also created the Updraft Plus backup plugin, the most popular and highly trusted backup plugin for WordPress websites.
This plugin has 1 million + active installations and a 4.8-star rating out of 5, which is fantastic.
Why is it one of the best?
You cannot just call this plugin a caching solution for your WordPress website because it does more than just caching like:
- Clean and optimize your website database.
- It will automatically compress & reduce the size of all the images on your website.
- Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
- Enable browser caching of a website and cache preloading.
- I will also make sure to have gzip compression to reduce load time.
- It’ll also differentiate JavaScript files, eliminate render-blocking issues, and help your website load quickly.
- It will also enable and disable all the trackbacks and remove all spam comments on your website with a single click.
I like this plugin because it is straightforward, has a simple interface, and is excellent for WordPress beginners.
I do not find any significant disadvantage of using this plugin.
What’s the price?
The free version of this plugin includes most of its features and benefits. However, if you want more features and support, In that case, you can consider purchasing the premium plan, which costs around $49 a year for two website licenses, $99 a year for five site licenses, and $199 a year for unlimited site licenses.
Conclusion:
So these are all the best WordPress caching plugins you can find online.
Consider sharing this blog post if you have found it helpful.
Using a plugin to enable WordPress caching is one of the best and easiest ways to increase your website loading speed, and we all know website loading speed has a direct correlation with higher rankings in Google and more revenue from your business overall since nobody likes to visit a slow loading website due to lack of attention and patience.