If you have a WordPress website and want to increase your loading speed, having a good caching solution is very important.
So in this blog, we will look at what exactly is Caching and why it is vital for your website loading speed, and we will dig deep into finding out the most popular WordPress caching plugins you can use at present.
What is caching, and why is it important?
Caching, in simple terms, is a process of storing some of the website files and data as a copy on a browser temporarily.
Caching is essential for your website loading speed because it will reduce the time it takes for a website 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 which 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, and displays all the CSS, HTML, JS files of 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,
The request has to be sent first, and the server has to respond, and the browser first has to download all the resources, files, code & content before showing the website or any web page for the user.
It is a long and very time-consuming process.
To simplify this process and reduce the time, a copy of some of your website files and data will be stored on the user browser locally when they first visit your website so that,
The browser won’t have to download the files, but 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 processes 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, which was cached in the past, not the original version, to the user’s so if you make any recent changes on your website or web page,
It might not appear immediately to users as long as the cache does not get deleted from the user browser and a new version of the cache is replaced on the browser.
To deal with this issue, you need to make some changes in the htaccess file of your website and add some expired headers; you can read & learn how to make changes in htaccess for caching of your website.
Having an excellent caching solution is very important to reduce the time it takes to load the website.
Caching alone is not good enough to increase overall speed. You need to do other essential things to increase website speed.
For more information, you can read how to increase the website loading speed.
But for now, we will take a look at the best WordPress caching plugins to boost website speed.
Best WordPress caching plugins:
There are five most popular WordPress caching plugins that we will look at and see why they are one of the best in that category and what the price is.
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, but you need to purchase it and upload it to the plugins section of your website.
There are over 1.7 million websites that 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 the best WordPress performance plugin for a few reasons, which are its features like,
- Will automatically preload caches when you make changes to your website and pages.
- Combine and minify CSS, JS files for faster speed. Also enables Gzip compression of all the pages
- It will defer JS files loading to eliminate render-blocking issues.
- It will also enable lazy loading on your website images.
- Clean and optimize your database Tables, comments, 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, what’s really amazing about this plugin is that you can configure all the important settings required for fast speed in a couple of minutes with a simple and easy to use interface, and all you need to do is to check & tick the boxes in this plugin to activate those settings.
This plugin works fine without any compatibility issues with any hosting provider themes and plugins.
The only disadvantage of this plugin is that it is an entirely premium plugin; there is no free version available, and it will not compress the images that you upload on your website at present.
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 for $99 for 3 websites with one year of premium support and updates.
- Unlimited plan of 249 dollars for unlimited websites with one year of premium support and updates of the plugin.
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, if it does not work with your website and increase speed, you can get all your money back safely.
W3 total cache
W3 total cache is another most popular & complete WordPress caching & Performance booster plugin.
This plugin has more than 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 any compatibility issues with all the 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 this plugin has is that it may feel overwhelming for beginners to set up and configure the settings of this plugin.
What’s interesting about this plugin is that the developers say that the plugin can save up to 80% of the bandwidth by minifying your website’s CSS HTML and Javascript files, which is cool because it can save you a lot of your website server resources and also money indirectly. It will increase the website speed on mobile and desktop versions, directly impacting your SEO traffic, conversions, and revenue.
This plugin is also tested with the latest version of the WordPress 5.8 update so that you can use it without any worries.
What’s the price?
You will be happy to know that this plugin is open-source software, so it is free to use.
Since the bold grid company purchased this plugin, made some more modifications, and added more features, you can buy the premium version for $99 per year with premium support and features.
There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t need to worry if you do not work with your website and improve your speed. You can get all of your money back safely.
WP fastest cache
This is another popular WordPress caching plugin as it sounds.
This plugin has more than 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 popular 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.
- May also differ JavaScript files to eliminate render-blocking issues on your website
- It will automatically preload cache for all the pages and posts on your website.
- It also converts all the images into webp format for faster speed.
The only drawback is that you will get all the additional features in the premium version of this plugin.
What’s good about this plugin is that it is straightforward to use, and you just need to check & Tick the boxes to configure the settings.
What’s the price?
Even though this plugin is open-source software, there is a premium version that you can purchase, which costs around $49 for one website and 125 dollars for three websites & 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 this plugin on your website for free and then purchase 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 more than 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 is created by the company Automattic and because of its features like,
- It has CDN support.
- Will also compress all the pages on your website.
- It will serve the caching of websites in 3 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 will only help with the caching of your website, unlike other plugins, which will also help you with other things like minifying CSS and JavaScript of your website for maximum speed.
What’s the price?
Like WordPress.org, this plugin is open-source software, and it is entirely free to use. There is no premium plan whatsoever.
WP optimize
If you observe, all the popular caching plugins start with WP in their name, and their performance is pretty similar to each other.
This is another popular caching and performance booster plugin for WordPress websites.
This plugin is developed by the team of updraft plus, which also developed updraft plus backup plugin, which is 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 cool.
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 & optimize the size of all the images on your website.
- Minify HTML CSS and JavaScript files.
- Enable browser caching of a website and cache preloading.
- Will also make sure to have gzip compression to reduce load time.
- It’ll also differ JavaScript files and eliminate render-blocking issues and help your website load fast.
- 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 to use and Has a simple interface, and is a great thing for beginners using WordPress.
I do not find any significant disadvantage of using this plugin.
What’s the price?
Most of the features and benefits of using this plugin can be found in the free version of this plugin. Still, suppose 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 Dollars a year for 5 site licenses, and 199 dollars a year for unlimited site licenses.
Conclusion:
So these are all the top 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.
