The most effective way to improve the load time of a WordPress website is to cache it – plain and simple!
A slow website screams unprofessional and gives the perception that something is not working properly. And there is a good chance that your customers will get cold feet and leave your site for the competition.
To create a welcoming environment and keep your visitors engaged your site needs to load fast. In 2018, you simply can’t afford to not optimize a website! Consider the following study by Neil Patel that investigated the effect of load time on cart abandonment.
Some facts and stats about the study:
- 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
- 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
- A 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
So what can you do to improve your website’s load time?
Before we dive into “caching”, I would like to point out that there are several other considerations when speeding up a WordPress site. To mention a few:
- Great web hosting
- Content delivery network (CDN)
- Image compression
- Minification and Concatenation
In this article, we won’t go into detail about the above points. But we wrote two great articles about fixing slow WordPress and WooCommerce websites.
Our team of website mechanics can make sure that your website is properly cached. If you’re looking for help, consider our speed optimization service.
What is Cache?
So… you may be asking yourself what on earth is caching?
While the precise details and tech behind caching are rather complex, the underlying concept is pretty straightforward.
Kudos to CachingExplained.com for a wonderful explanation.
Paraphrased:
Imagine you are in a classroom and the teacher asks “What’s 3,485,250 divided by 23,235 ?”
Naturally, no one will answer immediately. But eventually, someone will enter the digits in their calculator and do the math and scream “It’s 150”!
A few minutes later, the teacher asks the same question again “What’s 3,485,250 divided by 23,235 ?”
And everyone in the classroom shouts out “It’s 150”!
That’s an example of caching!
The initial time-consuming calculation was done once, then after that, when the same question was asked, the answer was readily available in the students’ memory.
When applied to the context websites, this translates to the ability to quickly deliver a webpage without having to do all the time-consuming and resource-intensive processing that is required to render a webpage.
Technically speaking, a cache is an area in the computer’s memory – usually in the RAM (Random Access Memory) – that stores recently used information. When a website is cached, it means the site’s HTML, images, files, and objects are stored within the server’s cache.
Therefore, when a customer visits your website, the server doesn’t need to repeat the intensive processing of WordPress’s PHP scripts to compile your HTML pages. Instead, it simply sends the already prepared HTML file to the browser reducing the site’s load time.
That’s the role of a WordPress cache plugin. It saves dynamically generated HTML files in the cache and serves them when a page is requested.
Types of Caching
When working with websites, there are two main types of caches – server and browser cache.
Browser cache is carried out by the client (your user’s browser).
Beyond the content of a webpage, there are several assets including style sheets, JavaScript files, and fonts which need to be downloaded and processed by the browser to render the page.
Browser cache allows us to store these files in our browser’s memory so it doesn’t have to download and process them again the next time you visit the same site.
Try refreshing this page! It should load faster than the first time.
Generally, when referring to WordPress cache plugins, we are referring to the mechanism of server caching. At the place of running your application each time a request is made, dynamically generated HTML files are stored in the cache. In turn, the cached files are served to your visitors – improving your site’s responsiveness.
Benefits of Caching
The objective of caching is to speed up an application. Therefore, a well-cached website will benefit from all the advantages related to running a fast website. To mention a few:
- Improved search engine rankings
- Better conversion rates
- More page views and an overall better user experience
In addition, the mechanism of caching saves and serves dynamically generated web pages – reducing your server’s workload. Therefore, in the event of a traffic spike, you will be better positioned to handle a large increase in visitors without maximizing your server’s resources.
Testing Pugins
In our quest to find the best WordPress cache plugin, we installed and tested each of the listed plugins.
In order to provide accurate results, we needed to a real life website. Thankfully, we had a beautiful WooCommerce website in development. The website consisting of the following components:
- GrowBig WordPress hosting on SiteGround.
- Based on Genesis framework with a custom child theme installed.
- 13 plugins installed, all updated to their latest versions.
To set the stage, we ran a speed test without caching the website on Pingdom.
The results that we will be comparing are:
- Load time
- Page size
- Requests
- Performance grade
Here is a screenshot of the first test.
In no particular order, we listed the 7 best WordPress cache plugins!
Top 7 Cache Plugins for WordPress
1. WP Fastest Cache
Pricing policy: Free entry level with a premium version.
WP Fastest Cache is one of the most popular caching solutions for WordPress.
A user-friendly approach to optimizing a website. The plugin is installed and configured with just a few clicks.
Beyond server-side caching, WPFC supports the following features:
- Preload management
- Gzip compression
- Minify CSS & HTML
- Browser cache
- Disable emojis
For the fair price of $39 USD, users have the option to upgrade to the premium version. The Pro versions ships with the following additional features:
- Image Optimization
- Mobile Cache
- Minify HTML Plus
- Combine Js Plus
- Minify Js
- Delete Cache Logs
- Cache Statics
Testing WP Fastest Cache
We tested the free version of the plugin, our configuration settings were as follows:
After installing the plugin, we saw a notable improvement in the website’s load time:
2. WP Super Cache
Pricing policy: Free
WP Super Cache was among the first caching plugins to be distributed in the WordPress repository. When writing this review, WPSC had over +20 million downloads.
To the comfort of many users, WP Super Cache is maintained by Automattic. For those unfamiliar with the name, Automattic is the company behind WordPress.com and the creators of the WordPress publishing software!
The plugin is easy to install and can be activated with the click of 1 button!
Advanced users, will not be disappointed, the plugin also allows for custom configurations.
Testing WP Super Cache
While testing the plugin, we used the advanced settings. Our configurations were as follows:
The test results are listed below:
3. Cache Enabler
Pricing policy: Free
Cache Enabler is a simple caching solution brought to you by the content delivery network provider – KeyCDN.
Installing the software will enable server-side caching. Static HTML files will be stored in your server’s cache. Accelerating the delivery of your site’s pages and cutting back on resource usage.
Configuration options are rather basic. You can set the cache expiry and define exclusions.
Testing Cache Enabler
The settings for our speed test were as follows:
The test results are listed below:
4. Comet Cache
Pricing policy: Free entry level with a premium version.
Comet Cache is one of the most advanced caching solutions for WordPress.
The plugin can be installed within less than two minutes and it will work out of the box. With the click of a few buttons, you should see a notable improvement in your website’s load time.
For advanced users, you have the option to configure the plugin’s settings. And there are a number of them! To mention a few:
- Cache expiration
- Browser caching
- User caching
- Feed caching
- CDN support
- Apache configuration
- HTML compression
Each setting very well documented.
Comet Cache is well known for its user caching possibilities. A handy feature for webmasters who operate membership sites.
For $39 USD, webmasters have the option to upgrade to the premium version – supporting extensive configuration options and features. For more details about the pro version, please visit the official site.
Testing Comet Cache
For the speed test, we did not enter custom configurations. We simply installed the free plugin and ran it out of the box.
The test results are listed below:
5. W3 Total Cache
Pricing policy: Free entry level with a premium version.
As a WordPress enthusiast, there is a good chance that you have already read about the plugin. W3 Total Cache is a favorite among many service providers and is often recommended in online reviews.
It’s hands down the most advanced caching plugin. After installing the plugin, 18 settings pages will be added to your WordPress admin area! Personally, I find that a little daunting and overwhelming (even as a developer).
Here are some of the features supported by the plugin: Page Cache, Minify, Opcode Cache, Database Cache, Object Cache, Browser Cache, and Content Delivery Network integration.
For a subscription of $99 USD per year, webmasters have the option to upgrade to W3 Total Cache Pro unlocking even more performance options.
Some of the added benefits of going pro include:
- Extensions for Genesis & WPML-powered sites
- Full Site Delivery (FSD)
- REST API Caching
- Fragment Caching
On a positive note, W3 Edge (the developers of W3 Total Cache) offer consultation services. Configuring the plugin costs $200 USD and a performance audit of your site will cost you $250 USD.
Testing W3 Total Cache
We tested the free version of the plugin and enabled the following features: Page, Browser, Object, and Database cache as well as file minification.
Our test results were as follows:
6. Hyper Cache
Pricing policy: Free.
Hyper Cache… Because speed matters!
That’s a great name and slogan!
Hyper Cache is a user-friendly PHP based caching plugin. It combines ease of use with the flexibility to configure several important performance features.
Key plugin specs include:
- Double cache for desktop and mobile site versions
- Cache exceptions
- Compression
- Controls over cache cleaning on website events (e.g. post edited and comments)
- Autoclean
- CDN support
Testing Hyper Cache
The only setting we enable when testing the plugin was compression.
The test results were as follows:
7. WP Rocket
Pricing policy: Premium.
Finally, the last plugin on our list is the infamous WP Rocket. WP Rocket is also the only premium plugin we tested.
So is WP Rocket worth its premium price tag?
For starters, WP Rocket’s UI is beautifully designed. It’s a very user-friendly plugin and each feature is meticulously documented. And, as a paying customer, if you any questions you can simply email their support desk.
Just by installing the plugin, caching will be enabled and you should notice an improvement in your site’s performance.
But beyond caching, WP Rocket adds the following features to your site:
- File optimization (supports minification, concatenation, and deferred loading)
- Media optimization (supports LazyLoad)
- Preloading configuration
- Database optimization
- CDN integration
- Advanced caching rules
Super helpful features when optimizing a website. WP Rocket is really an all-in-one speed optimization plugin.
Testing WP Rocket
While testing the plugin we enabled caching and file optimization.
Our test results are included below:
Conclusion
The test results are in! See the results in the comparison table ranked by load time.
| Load time | Page size | Requests | Performance grade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP Rocket | 1.05 s | 1.1 MB | 37 | 99 |
| WP Fastest Cache | 1.09 s | 1.1 MB | 51 | 89 |
| W3 Total Cache | 1.13 s | 1.1 MB | 35 | 99 |
| WP Super Cache | 1.41 s | 1.2 MB | 62 | 88 |
| Comet Cache | 1.41 s | 1.2 MB | 62 | 88 |
| Cache Enabler | 1.44 s | 1.2 MB | 62 | 87 |
| Hyper Cache | 1.88 s | 1.2 MB | 62 | 88 |
Assessing the results.
Based on our tests, the top 3 caching plugins were WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache.
When to use which?
WP Rocket is the winner! Hands down its the best plugin of the year. It’s user-friendly, perfectly documented, feature-rich, and brought in the fastest load time. On the other hand, it’s a premium plugin with recurring yearly costs which needs to be accounted for.
WP Fastest Cache is the best free plugin. It combines optimum performance with ease of use. Improved website performance with the click of a few buttons.
W3 Total Cache is the most advanced caching solution for WordPress. The ideal plugin for advanced users and traffic intensive sites. First time WordPress users may find the plugin a little overwhelming. Additional add-ons and premium support are offered by W3 Edge but are rather pricey for most webmasters.
Additional Considerations
As website mechanics, we often get emails from our clients asking us to fix a slow WordPress website. And a common issue that we have noticed is that webmasters install multiple caching plugins.
Whatever solution you choose, do not install two or more caching plugins on your website. It adversely affects performance.
In some cases, hosting providers offer their own built-in cache mechanism. For instance, W3 Total Cache is banned on the WP Engine platform. This is due to the plugin’s conflicts with WP Engine’s native caching systems.
It’s a good idea to send an email to your hosting provider asking them for their recommendation.
Finally, if you opt for a lightweight caching plugin, you can further optimize your website by installing Autoptimize.
So there you have it! The best cache plugins for your WordPress website.
What plugin did you choose? Let us know if you managed to improve your site’s load time in the comment section below!
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