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April 10, 2024

5 Best WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Website (2024)

Are you looking for the best WordPress caching plugin for your website?

Caching essentially stores a copy of your WordPress site on your server. When users open your website again, the server can simply pull up the copy so that visitors won’t have to reload your site from scratch again.

Since there are so many different WordPress cache plugins, it can feel overwhelming to pick the right option.

To help you pick the best plugin, we tested some of the best options on the market. While testing, we focused on a bunch of factors like ease of use, caching options, and price.

In this guide, we will show you the best WordPress caching plugins to improve your site speed.

In a hurry? No worries! Take a look at our top picks so you can quickly choose the right WordPress cache plugin for your site.

Ranking	Plugin	Best For	Price
#1	WP Rocket	Overall performance	$59/year	Read more
#2	WP Super Cache	Beginners	Free	Read more
#3	W3 Total Cache	Multiple caching options	Free + paid	Read more
#4	Sucuri	Firewall + caching	$9.99/month	Read more
#5	Cache Enabler	Simple caching	Free	Read more

Why Use a WordPress Caching Plugin?

Using a WordPress caching plugin is one of the easiest ways to increase your website speed. When installed, the caching plugin will store parts of your site (like static HTML files, CSS files, JavaScript files, and so on) on your server.

Every time someone visits your site, they are served the cached version of the site instead of having to wait for your server to load the web pages from the beginning.

By storing cached pages of your site, a caching plugin drastically reduces the amount of processing required to serve those pages. Some cache content at the server level and others leverage browser caching. This leads to:

A faster website and better WordPress SEO. Search engines give a significant SEO advantage to fast web pages, which helps you rank higher in search results.
More power to handle larger amounts of traffic without slowing down your site performance or affecting your uptime. This is important if you run an eCommerce website.

Plus, caching can create a better user experience. Users who visit your site will experience faster page loading times, making it less likely for them to bounce from your site.

The probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds.
Think with Google

How We Tested and Reviewed WordPress Caching Plugins

We used them on our websites: Throughout the years, we have used different WordPress cache plugins on our websites to improve our site performance.
We tested the most popular plugins: We tested some of the most popular caching plugins on the market to see if they are worth the hype. We analyzed those plugins based on the following factors: ease of use, features, types of caching, and pricing.
We categorized them based on your needs: Not every website will benefit from the same caching plugin. That’s why we analyzed all the features to help you decide which tool fits your needs.

Why Trust WPBeginner

At WPBeginner, we are a dedicated team of people with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, design, and online marketing. Our WordPress experts extensively review each plugin or tool that is featured here and thoroughly test them on real websites. To learn more, you can see our complete editorial process.

1. WP Rocket

After trying out different plugins from this list, we found WP Rocket to be the overall best WordPress caching plugin. It is the easiest and most beginner-friendly option, which is a big help if you are new to this topic.

With WP Rocket, WordPress users can instantly cache their website with just one click. Once the plugin is activated, its crawler automatically fetches the WordPress pages to build up the cache.

The plugin then automatically turns on the recommended WordPress caching settings. These include page caching, cache preloading, Gzip compression, browser caching, and mobile device caching.

WP Rocket also offers optional features to configure to improve your website performance further. These include lazy loading images, CDN (content delivery network) support, minification, and more.

Pros of WP Rocket:

User-friendly plugin interface for beginners.
Essential caching functions are available out of the box, from page caching and browser caching to mobile device caching.
Additional optimization features to speed up your website loading time, like options to minify CSS files and enable a CDN integration.
Advanced features like database optimization, multisite support, and cache exclusions based on URLs or cookies.
Supports caching for dynamic content, including WooCommerce cart items.

Cons of WP Rocket:

Unfortunately, there is no free version, but WP Rocket does offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Pricing: Starting from $59 per year for one website, product updates, and support.

Why we chose WP Rocket: We have reviewed WP Rocket before at WPBeginner, and we strongly recommend it as the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. While there is no free version, its prices are quite affordable compared to other paid options.

You can also check out our step-by-step guide on how to install and set up WP Rocket in WordPress.

2. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a popular, free caching plugin created by Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com.

This WordPress caching plugin has 2 caching settings: Expert and Simple. The first one is a much faster option than the other because it doesn’t execute any PHP scripts, but it does require you to edit your .htaccess file.

The second is a happy medium between fast site loading speed and ease of use. We recommend choosing this method instead if you are not confident editing your own .htaccess file.

Other than that, WP Super Cache includes other speed optimization features like cache preloading. This setting will generate cached files of your pages, posts, categories, and tags that are ready to load as soon as someone accesses the content for the first time.

Pros of WP Super Cache:

Completely free of charge.
Advanced caching settings are available, such as expert caching that can handle high traffic and custom caching options to control how the plugin works.
Cache garbage collection to delete old cache pages and keep your website updated.
Basic CDN support that will rewrite your website content URLs so that they are loaded with CDN.

Cons of WP Super Cache:

While the interface is pretty user-friendly, it uses technical terms designed for advanced users that may confuse beginners.

Pricing: Free plugin.

Why we chose WP Super Cache: If you are looking for a free caching plugin to speed up your website loading time, then WP Super Cache is a great choice.

For beginners, we recommend taking the time to explore the plugin and understand some of the more technical terms so that you can make the most of it. See our article on how to install and set up WP Super Cache for detailed instructions.

3. W3 Total Cache

If you want to use a WordPress caching plugin with tons of optimization features, then check out W3 Total Cache.

Firstly, W3 Total Cache offers various types of caching besides page caching and browser caching. It also has object caching and database caching, both of which can speed up the execution of dynamic parts of your site (the ones that change frequently), not just the static ones.

Secondly, it has a Google PageSpeed Insights integration. During our testing, we liked that this feature lets you test your website speed without leaving your WordPress admin area, so it’s very user-friendly.

Other than that, you can find other speed enhancement features like CSS and JS file minification, lazy loading, and an image converter from other formats to WebP for better performance.

Pros of W3 Total Cache:

Multiple caching options are available for free: page caching, browser caching, opcode caching, database query caching, and object caching.
Google PageSpeed Insights integration to test website speed.
Image optimization features like lazy loading and WebP conversion.
Pro features in the premium version, like CDN support for the entire website and fragment caching for plugins and themes using the WordPress Transient API.

Cons of W3 Total Cache:

The feature set is comprehensive but can seem intimidating for beginners.
Unlike other plugins on the list, the preloading feature is not available out of the box.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The premium version’s plans start from $99 per year for one website license.

Why we chose W3 Total Cache: The free version of W3 Total Cache offers many caching options that you may not find in other plugins on the list, especially not in the free versions.

That said, the sheer range of features can feel overwhelming for beginners. For detailed setup instructions, see our article on how to install and set up the W3 Total Cache plugin.

4. Sucuri

Sucuri is technically a WordPress firewall plugin, but it has built-in caching options to speed up your website in just a few clicks. We used to use Sucuri on WPBeginner, so we are very familiar with this plugin.

If you run an online store or a membership site, Sucuri recommends using Site Caching, which will keep your cache for up to 180 minutes. Meanwhile, blogs or news portals can use Minimal Caching, which will only cache your pages for up to 8 minutes before they are refreshed.

If you make significant changes to your site, then you can clear your old cache in one click. Sucuri also lets you clear the cache for a file or folder instead of the whole site. This allows you to optimize specific parts of your site without affecting its entirety.

Additionally, Sucuri supports Brotli, a data compression algorithm by Google that is faster than Gzip compression. It’s effective for compressing large files and reducing bandwidth usage. This means people with slow internet can visit your website quicker.

Pros of Sucuri:

Easy-to-use caching features that can be enabled in a few clicks.
User-friendly cache-clearing functions for the entire website and specific files or folders.
Support for compression algorithms, like the more popular Gzip, and a newer option like Brotli.
Reliable CDN service with worldwide network coverage, a great feature for websites with a global audience.
Top-notch security features like a web application firewall, malware removal, and DDoS protection.

Cons of Sucuri:

If you are just looking for a plugin with caching functionality, then Sucuri may seem like overkill.

Pricing: Comes in two types of subscription plans: Website Security Platform and Firewall with CDN. The first starts from $199.99 per year and includes the complete Sucuri security kit. The second starts from $9.99 per month and only comes with a firewall and CDN.

Why we chose Sucuri: If you are looking for a security plugin that doubles as an optimization plugin, then Sucuri is the perfect solution. Besides offering user-friendly caching features, you can get great protection without installing other plugins.

5. Cache Enabler by KeyCDN

Cache Enabler is a free WordPress caching plugin by KeyCDN, one of the most popular WordPress CDN services.

When we first activated the plugin, the plugin page looked rather simple. In reality, it’s quite powerful on its own. You can customize how long cached files last to suit your website needs instead of choosing a time period that’s been set for you.

There are also many cache-clearing settings that you can enable. For example, you can automatically clear the cache when a post type has been published, updated, or trashed so that your blog content stays up-to-date.

Pros of Cache Enabler:

Simple-to-use plugin page interface that’s easy to understand for beginners.
Gzip and Brotli compression support to reduce your file sizes.
Custom post types support, which is great for portfolios, online stores, membership sites, and so on.
A real-time display of your website’s cache size in the WordPress dashboard helps you keep track of how much space your cache is taking on your server.

Cons of Cache Enabler:

Compared to other caching plugins on the list, the features of Cache Enabler can seem pretty limited.

Pricing: Free plugin. However, if you choose to get KeyCDN as well, then the prices start from $0.04 per GB per month for the first 10 TB (for North America/Europe region). The cost varies by region, but you can use its pricing calculator to get estimates.

Why we chose Cache Enabler: As a free caching plugin, Cache Enabler is great at being easy to use yet packed with the most essential caching features. It can be a good option if you just need a simple caching solution.

Bonus Tip: Use Built-in Caching Features From Hosting Providers

These days, many WordPress hosting companies offer their own built-in caching solutions.

The benefit of using these built-in caching settings is that you won’t have to find or install a plugin yourself. Plus, the caching functionality is readily optimized for your hosting, so you may experience fewer errors.

The downside is that the feature set widely varies. Some may only include basic page caching, while others may have more advanced options. Depending on your website, you may not be able to rely solely on these built-in options.

That being said, we still think these hosting caching settings are worth talking about because they are very easy to enable. Let’s look at the caching features offered by some of the most popular web hosting providers on the market.

Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. Their hosting plans include built-in caching that you can enable from your hosting dashboard.

You can select one of these caching levels:

Assets Only – For eCommerce and sites that update frequently or display real-time information, you can use this level to cache your site’s static assets for 5 minutes.
Assets & Web Pages – If you have a WordPress blog, an educational site, or a website that updates at least once a week, consider using this level to cache static assets for 6 hours and other web pages for 5 minutes.
Assets & Web Pages – Extended – For portfolios or websites that update every month or less frequently, you can choose this option to cache static assets for 1 week and web pages for 5 minutes.

If you compare Bluehost’s caching options to the other plugins on the list, they may seem basic. But they also offer a Cloudflare CDN integration to boost your website performance further.

SiteGround

We use SiteGround to power WPBeginner and have seen many performance improvements since we switched. If you are curious, then you can check out our article on why we switched to SiteGround for more information.

By default, SiteGround offers 3 caching solutions: Nginx Direct Delivery for static content, Dynamic Cache, and Memcached (optional).

The last two are caching modules that not many WordPress hosting offers by default, which is what makes SiteGround so powerful. In fact, they can improve your website speed anywhere from 50% to 500%.

For WordPress sites, SiteGround recommends installing their Speed Optimizer plugin to speed up your website by 20%. The plugin can also compress image sizes by up to 85% without losing quality.

Overall, if you use SiteGround, you really won’t need any caching plugins like WP Rocket or others.

Hostinger

Hostinger is one of the fastest-growing WordPress hosting providers in recent years. They are powered by the LiteSpeed Web Server, so their caching settings also come from LiteSpeed.

From the get-go, Hostinger offers two types of caching modules: the LiteSpeed Cache plugin and the Object Cache.

The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is included in all plans and offers page caching, cache preloading, and image compression for your website. By default, Hostinger will update your cache every 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Object Cache will cache your database queries and is only available for Business plan users or above. It has been said to improve website speed by up to 3 times.

WP Engine

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting company, which means they will take care of most of your back-end maintenance tasks as much as possible. As a result, you won’t have to handle them as much.

Since WP Engine is a more premium hosting service, it comes with tons of caching features by default. These include page caching, CDN caching, object caching, and local browser caching.

You can also set exclusion rules for dynamic content, like shopping cart, checkout, or login pages. If you need to clear your cache, then you can just log in to your user portal and click a few buttons.

What Is the Best Cache Plugin for WordPress?

After comparing the different options on the list, we found that the best WordPress caching plugin is hands down WP Rocket. It has a great balance between being beginner-friendly and powerful to elevate your website performance.

If you are looking for a free caching plugin, then we recommend W3 Total Cache. It has plenty of caching features out of the box, from basic to advanced.

We also recommend checking out the caching modules that hosting providers like Bluehost have to offer. These may already be good enough to speed up your website, and they are already customized to suit your hosting needs.

Best WordPress Caching Plugins: FAQs Answered

Now that we’ve covered the list of best WordPress caching plugins, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.

Do I need a caching plugin?

Yes, we strongly recommend installing a WordPress caching plugin, as it can significantly improve your WordPress site’s speed.

Caching can reduce server load, improve the user experience by reducing load times, and potentially boost your site’s SEO rankings due to improved speed.

However, if your hosting provider offers built-in caching solutions like SiteGround, then you might not need to install a separate caching plugin.

Should I use multiple cache plugins in WordPress?

Using multiple caching plugins simultaneously can lead to conflicts and potential issues with your site. We generally recommend using only one caching plugin to avoid these problems.

However, if you need to use multiple caching tools for specific purposes, make sure they can complement each other and do not result in the same action being performed twice.

Which is better: WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache?

Both WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache are highly-rated WordPress caching plugins. However, the choice between the two depends on your specific needs and preferences.

WP Super Cache is a free plugin with some basic and advanced caching features. But some settings require some technical knowledge, so we don’t recommend it if you are a complete beginner.

W3 Total Cache is a freemium plugin with a comprehensive set of caching settings. The abundance of features may intimidate beginners, but the ease of use is generally much better than WP Super Cache.

Check Out More Guides to Speed Up WordPress

We hope this article helped you find the WordPress caching plugin to speed up your website. You may also want to see our list of the best WordPress plugins for business websites, and the best WordPress SEO plugins to help you boost your rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclaimer: We also looked at other WordPress cache plugins and solutions for this article, including WP Fastest Cache, Hummingbird, and WP-Optimize. However, we picked only the very best WordPress caching plugins to help you avoid choice paralysis.

The post 5 Best WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Website (2024) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 2, 2022

Jetpack Performance Team Takes Over WP Super Cache Development

WP Super Cache, one of the oldest and most widely used static caching plugins for WordPress, is changing hands. After 15 years, the plugin’s author, Donncha Ó Caoimh, is handing over maintenance and development to Jetpack’s performance team.

If you have been building WordPress sites since the early days, you are almost guaranteed to have used WP Super Cache on at least one project (or hundreds). It is based on an earlier plugin called WP Cache 2 that Ó Caoimh forked in 2007 when its author had lost interest and was no longer developing it.

Jetpack’s performance team manages the Jetpack Boost plugin, used by more than 100,000 sites, and the CDN. In today’s announcement, Jetpack assured current users that they will still be able to “enjoy its core features without a new plugin or a connection to Jetpack.”

“We’re excited to start working on WP Super Cache,” Jetpack Performance Lead Mark George said. “Our goal is to create an experience where anyone can make their site extremely fast without being an expert. We want to help make sure that WP Super Cache remains a reliable and easy option for that.”

This change in hands is not an acquisition. Ó Caoimh, who was the very first Automattic employee, confirmed the company did not buy the plugin from him.

“I’ve worked in Automattic since the company was founded, so they’ve supported the development of the plugin all along,” he said. “Really, the plugin is moving sideways in the company, from one developer to a team.

“I just don’t have time to work on it properly. I’m working on other projects, mainly Crowdsignal now, and it was hard to find time to work on it. Jetpack will be able to do a lot more with it than I ever could.”

Ó Caoimh said the support burden for the plugin isn’t that bad, despite it being active on more than two million WordPress sites.

“The plugin has a ‘debug log’ that will log (almost) everything it does to a file, which makes it easier to figure out why a problem is happening a lot of the time,” Ó Caoimh said. “Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to give the support forums the time it deserved either. Now, a team in Automattic will be helping answer questions and solve problems. It can only be a good thing for users of the plugin.”

Ó Caoimh said handing over maintenance and development to the Jetpack team frees up time for his family and eliminates a source of stress, as he was worried that WP Super Cache wasn’t getting the attention it needed.

“In the past I worked on this late into the night but I have a family, and they come first,” he said.

The Jetpack team already has plans to modernize the plugin and will be investing more resources in support and new features.

“While we research new features to help make WordPress sites cache faster, we will begin updating the WP Super Cache UI to bring it in line with modern standards, so it is easier to use,” Jetpack VP of Marketing Rob Pugh said. “In addition, we’ll be working behind the scenes to ensure it’s compatible with our other performance features like Jetpack Boost.”

After 15 years, it’s impressive that WP Super Cache has maintained a 4.3 out of 5 stars rating on WordPress.org with 1,296 reviews. With the Jetpack team’s resources, support in the forums is likely to improve, and users can expect to see more improvements as the plugin now has a team of people moving it forward.

“I have no regrets handing over the plugin to Jetpack,” Ó Caoimh said. “It’s one thing to create and maintain a plugin that might be used by a handful of sites, but this plugin is used by two million sites. If I introduced a subtle error that impacted people using WordPress in a manner I hadn’t thought of that might cause problems for thousands of websites. The itch that I scratched by creating WP Super Cache has well and truly been scratched and has long healed.”

November 9, 2020

How to Enable GZIP Compression in WordPress (3 Ways)

Do you want to enable GZIP compression in WordPress? GZIP compression makes your website faster by compressing the data and delivering it to the user’s browsers much quicker.

A faster website improves user experience and brings in more sales and conversions for your business.

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to easily enable GZIP compression in WordPress.

What is GZIP Compression?

GZIP compression is a technology that compresses data files before it is sent to users’ browsers. This reduces the file download time which makes your website faster.

Once the compressed data arrives, all modern browsers automatically unzip the compressed files and display them. GZIP compression doesn’t change how your website looks or functions.

It just makes your website load faster.

GZIP is supported by all popular web browsers, server software, and all best WordPress hosting companies.

How does GZIP compression work?

Gzip compression uses compression algorithms that work on website files like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. When a user requests a page from your website, the algorithm sends the output back in a compressed format.

Depending on data size, the compression can reduce file sizes by up to 70%.

This is why most website speed test tools like Google Pagespeed Insights highly recommend enabling gzip compression. These tools will also show a warning if gzip compression is not enabled onn your website.

Note: By default, Gzip compression does not compress images or videos. For that you’ll need to optimize images for web on your WordPress site.

Why You Need to Enable GZIP Compression in WordPress?

Plain raw data takes longer to download which affects your page load speed. If several users arrive at the same time, then it will further slow down your WordPress website.

Using GZIP compression allows you to efficiently transfer data, boost page load times, and reduce the load on your website hosting. It is an essential step in improving your website speed and performance.

Now, you might think that GZIP sounds very technical and complicated. However, there are many WordPress plugins that make it super easy to add GZIP compression on your WordPress website.

In some cases, you may even have GZIP already enabled by your WordPress hosting company.

Bluehost an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider automatically enables GZIP compression on all new WordPress sites.

To test if GZIP is enabled on your site, simply go to this GZIP tester and enter the URL of your site. If GZIP is working on your site, you will see a ‘GZIP Is Enabled’ message.

If you need to add GZIP compression by yourself, then you can use any of the following methods to do so:

Enabling GZIP Compression with WPRocket

WP Rocket is the best caching plugin for WordPress. It is incredibly easy to use and turns on all the essential speed optimization features out of the box, including GZIP compression.

First, you need to install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, your license key should be automatically activated for you. You can check this by going to the Settings » WP Rocket page in your WordPress admin.

You should see a message letting you know that WP Rocket is active and working.

WP Rocket automatically enables GZIP compression for you if you’re using an Apache server. Most WordPress web hosting providers use Apache for their servers. You don’t need to take any additional steps.

For a breakdown of all WP Rocket features, check out our guide on installing and setting up WPRocket.

Enabling GZIP Compression with WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a free WordPress caching plugin. It is also a great way to enable GZIP compression on your WordPress site.

First, you need to install and activate the WP Super Cache plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the Settings » WP Super Cache page » Advanced in your WordPress dashboard. Then, simply check the box ‘Compress pages so they’re served more quickly to visitors’ box.

You then need to scroll down the page and click the ‘Update Status’ button to save your changes. WP Super Cache will now enable gZip compression on your WordPress website.

Enabling GZIP Compression with W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is another great WordPress caching plugin. It’s not quite so beginner-friendly as WP Rocket, but there’s a free version. This makes it a good option if the costs of creating a WordPress site are adding up.

First, you need to install and activate the W3 Total Cache plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, GZIP compression will be automatically enabled on your website. You can check or change this by going to the Performance » General Settings page in your WordPress dashboard.

Scroll down this page to Browser Cache and make sure there is a check in the Enable box:

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save all changes’ button if you make any changes.

Checking that GZIP is Enabled on Your Website

After enabling GZIP, you may notice that your website pages load a bit faster. However, if you want to check that GZIP is running, you can simply use a GZIP checker tool.

We hope this article helped you learn how to enable GZIP compression in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide to speeding up WordPress, and check out our 27 proven tips on how to increase your website traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Enable GZIP Compression in WordPress (3 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

July 25, 2019

WP Super Cache 1.6.9 Patches Security Issue

There’s a new release of WP Super Cache (1.6.9) available that patches a security issue discovered in the debug log. The vulnerability can only be exploited if users have debugging enabled.

It’s highly recommended that all users upgrade to 1.6.9 to patch the security issue. Details of the vulnerability will be published after users have had time to upgrade. In addition to patching the security issue, this version also improves the debug log by hiding data such as the ABSPATH directory of the WordPress install and login cookies.

“Unfortunately in the past users have copied the log file data into forum posts. A warning message has been added asking the site owner not to publish the debug log,” Donncha Ó Caoimh said.

Also worth noting is that after updating to 1.6.9, existing debug logs will be deleted.

April 17, 2019

Best of the Best WordPress Caching Plugins Compared 2019

When you play a game of thrones with your site you win or you only slightly improve performance. And who wants that when optimizing your site with a caching plugin, you want to be the very best.

That’s why in this post, we’re going to find who the best cache plugin for WordPress really is. Join us as we compare and review the most beloved WordPress cache plugins for WordPress – Hummingbird vs WP Rocket vs WP Super Cache to see who comes out on top.

Establishing the Baseline: Google PageSpeed Insights

Grades aren’t everything and they don’t determine success in the real world, but they can give you valuable insight into what you need to improve.

Google PageSpeed Insights is no different. When you run a test, you get a sneak peek into what the mighty search engine values. If you can deliver the goods and make the right improvements, such as utilizing lazy loading and next-gen formats, you could massively improve your user experience and SEO at the same time.

Google uses the open source tool Lighthouse to test the quality of webpages based on how they actually perform in the real world. This isn’t just theory. This is real life, as in how does your site perform on a mid-tier device on a shoddy mobile network, realness. So you can see how it’s a pretty valuable test.

In Google PageSpeed Insights, there are three tiers. Anything below 50 is bad news bears. Scores from 50-90 are considered average. While anything above 90 is considered fast, so that’s the territory we want to conquer. We wrote a whole post on how to get a 100 in Google PageSpeed Insights.

But the overall score isn’t the only important metric. The following metrics paint a richer picture about what your visitors’ experience is like on your site:

First Contentful Paint – First Contentful Paint marks the time at which the first text or image is painted.
Speed Index – Speed Index shows how quickly the contents of a page are visibly populated.
Time to Interactive – Time to interactive is the amount of time it takes for the page to become fully interactive.
First Meaningful Paint – First Meaningful Paint measures when the primary content of a page is visible.
First CPU Idle – First CPU Idle marks the first time at which the page’s main thread is quiet enough to handle input.
Estimated Input Latency – Estimated Input Latency is an estimate of how long your app takes to respond to user input..

How We’re Running the Test

We’re going to run two sets of tests on each plugin:

First, we’re going to test the default settings for all three plugins. If things are activated or configured out of the box, that’s the way we’re leaving them. We’re basically going to install the plugin, give it a minute to do its thing, refresh the home page a couple of times and then run a Google PageSpeed Insights test.
Then, we’re going to flip all the switches and activate all the things and run the test again to see what a difference it makes. The goal is to squeeze as much speed out of WordPress as possible.

In order to get stable results, we’re going to run the test 3 times and return the average.

Starting with a Baseline

The first thing we need to do is establish a baseline and find out how our test site performs without any optimization plugins.

Our initial tests yielded the following results:

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	36	58
First Contentful Paint	5.5 s	1.8 s
Speed Index	10.8 s	3.8 s
Time to Interactive	6.4 s	1.9 s
First Meaningful Paint	5.6 s	1.9 s
First CPU Idle	5.6 s	1.9 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

Screenshot of Google PageSpeed Insights — Baseline Mobile 36

Not the worst score, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement, especially on mobile.

But enough of all that, let’s get to the good part.

WordPress Cache Plugin Comparison

Contender #1: WP Super Cache

In this corner, we have the crowd favorite with 2+ million downloads, WP Super Cache.

WP Super Cache isn’t an all-in-one optimization solution, it’s more of a do one thing really well solution, and that one thing, is caching.

Caching

For the uninitiated, WordPress uses PHP to generate your site files when a visitor requests them. This process takes time because it takes time to retrieve all the necessary information from the database and assemble your webpage on the spot. It’s like inviting someone over for dinner, but not going to the grocery store to get your ingredients or cooking until they’re on your doorstep.

Caching, by contrast, is what happens if a second guest shows up once the meal is ready. That person doesn’t have to wait for you to get groceries and cook, because the time-consuming part has already been done. You can just assemble a plate for them and voilà! Your ~~dinner~~ page is served.

In WordPress, caching plugins serve up a static version of your page that has already been pre-processed in order to serve the page up faster.

WordPress Cache Plugin Review

So how did WP Super Cache do?

Well for one, there wasn’t really a big difference between the two tests. The plugin performed pretty much the same when we compared the default configuration to the configuration that had all recommended settings turned on. This is a pretty good thing for beginners because you don’t have to do much to get the best results.

Here are the results we got:

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	40	64
First Contentful Paint	5.5 s	1.8 s
Speed Index	8.3 s	2.7 s
Time to Interactive	6.4 s	1.8 s
First Meaningful Paint	5.6 s	1.8 s
First CPU Idle	5.6 s	1.8 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

So about 6 points higher for both mobile and desktop. If you want just a simple caching solution, WP Super Cache will help, but if you really want to optimize your site, it’s going to take a lot more.

Enter contender #2…

Contender #2: WP Rocket

Now we’re talking. WP Rocket is a full-featured optimization plugin, so there are a lot more than just caching.

After running Google PageSpeed Insights three times, these are our results.

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	35	58
First Contentful Paint	5.6 s	1.8 s
Speed Index	11.6 s	4.0 s
Time to Interactive	6.4 s	1.9 s
First Meaningful Paint	5.7 s	1.9 s
First CPU Idle	5.7 s	1.9 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

Not surprising. When you have a plugin with so many options, a lot of them aren’t enabled by default. This is a good thing because you can tweak the settings to suit your site.

One thing that we found odd when running the test, was the mobile version of the PageSpeed insights report was scoring 1 point lower without any plugin, regardless of the Enable caching for mobile devices option. Maybe it wasn’t hitting a cached version? Or I had to visit that page via a mobile device prior to running a score? Strange…

Anyway, after enabling everything related to optimization in WP Rocket, we were given various notices indicating the status of cache preloading, asset generation, etc. That’s a good thing. We waited for all these to complete before running another PageSpeed test.

We also made sure that both the mobile and desktop versions were cached.

After running 3 additional Google PageSpeed Insights scans, we got much better results:

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	92	98
First Contentful Paint	2.4 s	0.6 s
Speed Index	3.7 s	1.1 s
Time to Interactive	3.0 s	0.7 s
First Meaningful Paint	2.5 s	0.6 s
First CPU Idle	2.5 s	0.6 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

Although to be fair, one of the desktop tests was a 99.

That’s a hard act to follow. Will Hummingbird be able to beat it?

Contender #3: Hummingbird

Hummingbird is also a dense plugin with lots of powerful options for improving your site performance. Try it out for yourself and run your own test.

We expected Hummingbird to perform similarly out of the box, simply because a lot of options aren’t activated by default.

Our assumptions were spot on. Here are the results we got with the default settings:

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	36	58
First Contentful Paint	5.5 s	1.8 s
Speed Index	10.9 s	3.8 s
Time to Interactive	6.4 s	1.9 s
First Meaningful Paint	5.6 s	1.9 s
First CPU Idle	5.6 s	1.9 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

As you may recall these results are similar to our baseline.

Now for the fun part. Hummingbird has a lot of optimization modules so we turned them all on.

It took a while for the Hummingbird Optimization module to finish scanning all 178 assets, so if you’re going to do the same test, be patient. We then combined, minified and moved all assets to the footer.

We left jQuery and jQuery migrate in their original locations, which is similar to the compatibility option in WP Rocket.

After making sure mobile and desktop had a cached version like we did with WP Rocket, we ran Google PageSpeed Insights and BAM!

Hummingbird PageSpeed Scores

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	96	100
First Contentful Paint	1.7 s	0.5 s
Speed Index	2.2 s	0.7 s
Time to Interactive	3.4 s	0.9 s
First Meaningful Paint	1.7 s	0.5 s
First CPU Idle	3.4 s	0.9 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

Not only did Hummingbird best WP Rocket on the speed score for mobile and desktop, it also beat WP Rocket when it came to first contentful paint, speed index and first meaningful paint. Hummingbird delivers content faster than WP Rocket, although WP Rocket allows for faster interaction.

WP Rocket PageSpeed Scores (for comparison)

Metric	Mobile	Desktop
Speed Score	92	98
First Contentful Paint	2.4 s	0.6 s
Speed Index	3.7 s	1.1 s
Time to Interactive	3.0 s	0.7 s
First Meaningful Paint	2.5 s	0.6 s
First CPU Idle	2.5 s	0.6 s
Estimated Input Latency	10 ms	10 ms

We think the Hummingbird’s Asset Optimization module gave it an edge because it allows for a very detailed configuration. There is also an inline/defer option in Hummingbird that we didn’t activate because we didn’t need it. After reaching 100 on desktop it felt like an unnecessary flex.

I should also mention that while upgrading to Hummingbird Pro will give you access to all of Hummingbird’s features, such as the Hummingbird CDN, you can accomplish everything else with the free version of Hummingbird.

More Optimization Tips

If your site needs more optimization help, I suggest starting with images since they’re usually one of the worst offenders when it comes to slowing down your site.

This is especially true if they’re not being served correctly or are oversized. Check out our post on how to serve Retina images that don’t slow down WordPress.

Lazy loading your images will also improve performance.

And lastly, I suggest signing up for a free 30-day trial so you can try Hummingbird on your site. And while you’re at it, give Smush Pro a shot too since it’s included with a WPMU DEV membership. Smush Pro has awesome image optimization features. When you combine Hummingbird and Smush, your site will load so fast, it’s going to blow your mind.