9 Best Caching Plugins For Superior Performance

Caching plugins are a guaranty of fast WordPress websites. Every WordPress website needs caching whether it’s a small or big website. Caching helps to improve core web vitals score and is good for user experience.

With WordPress, it’s very easy to enable caching. Like other features, it is possible with cache plugins. These plugins have different settings and features that help you to make your website faster and lighter.

What Is Caching?

Caching is a process when information is cached and saved on memory. On websites, the information is pages and posts. So, plugins save your pages and posts, and when visitors come to your website it shows them the cached, saved version of a page.

If you don’t have cache enabled, then every time a visitor comes, the request is sent to a server. It searches and finds all the files in the database and displays them on a browser. And this process needs time.

So, when you have cached pages, it doesn’t need to search for files in databases. Instead, it displays the cached version of a page. This means that the process is faster. Your page will load quicker which means a better user experience and a low bounce rate.

Various study shows, that slow page load time increases the bounce rate. This means that you lose traffic. And to prevent that from happening, you need to use caching plugins if you use WordPress.

How To Use Cache Plugins

WordPress caching plugins, like every other plugin, is very easy to use. You just install the plugin, activate features, and it does the job. Most of the plugins have the same features. But some cache plugins have more features.

But some features can have a bad impact on your website. It’s recommended to check the recommended settings for the particular plugin. Also, many themes recommend using a specific cache plugin.

Also Read: How To Make Website Faster

In general, there is a smaller chance for the cache plugin to break a website. You have to use a good plugin for well-known developers. But if a plugin has some advanced features, you should be careful and I recommend checking the plugin documentation.

WordPress caching plugins include various features and settings. So, before using one, you should know what they are and how these features work.

Here are the main features a good cache plugin has:

• Page Caching – A plugin creates a static HTML version of your pages and displays every time a visitor comes to your website. It decreases the pgae load time.
• Browser Caching – Some temporary information is stored on visitors devices. They don’t have to download various assets every time they visit your website.
• Gzip Comression – This means that pages and stylesheets are compressed before sending to browser. Files are much lighter and transfer time reduces.
• Minification – You can minify, compress, and combine your JavaScript and CSS files. The file size becomes smaller and loads faster. Sometimes this feature may break some sections of a website. You should use the recommended settings.

Almost every cache plugin has these features. Also, they might include additional features too. It’s different from plugin to plugin.

For most websites, a free caching plugin will be enough. But if you want to use all the power of a plugin, then you can use a pro version that will add advanced features and make your website faster.

Top WordPress Caching Plugins

Now let’s dive into the list and find out the best cache plugins for WordPress. These are very popular plugins with great features. Some offer more features than others. But all these plugins can do the job.

1. Hummingbird

Hummingbird is one of the best caching plugins for WordPress. Has it’s very easy to use, has awesome features, and makes your website really fast. It’s a premium plugin but a free version is quite enough for most websites.

It includes caching functions, Gzip compression, modification, etc. You can clean the database for unused files such as post revisions, trashed posts, and transients. Also, you can integrate it with Cloudflare for better caching.

Another great feature of Hummingbird is its performance test module. You can run it and see where your website requires improvement. Gives a speed score based on the Google Page Speed tool.

Hummingbird Features:

2. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is perhaps the most powerful caching plugin. But it’s a premium-only plugin. You have to buy it in case you want to use it on your website. And with a premium plugin, you get premium features. It’s straightforward to use and offers great performance.

WP Rocket has all the features you need to optimize your website for speed. It includes page caching, preloading, Gzip compression, browser caching, database optimization, and much more. Also, comes with its own CDN that will increase the website’s speed even further.

Another great thing is that all the main hosting, page builders, or themes are optimized for WP Rocket and are ready to use. It’s very compatible and there is a tiny chance that your WordPress website will ever break.

WP Rocket Features:

3. WP Optimize

Another excellent plugin for caching is WP-Optimize. Has some awesome features and really has a great impact on websites performance. It’s a kind of combination plugin where you get caching functions with database optimization.

WP-Optimize has image compression features and you can choose compression settings. Of course, has page caching features, preloading, Gzip compression, and minification for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. It has everything that cache should have.

And the additional feature WP-Optimize has is database optimization. It allows you to clean the database from post revisions, trashed & draft posts, and optimizes tables. Also, you can delete unused records from databases that are not used anymore.

WP-Optimize Features:

4. LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache has its own place among caching plugins. If you use the LiteSpeed server, then this is the plugin to use. Although it works with servers such as Apache or NGINX, it offers limited features. So, it’s best for LiteSpeed servers.

First of all, LiteSpeed Cache has a great dashboard where you can see all the statistics. And features you get with it are high-performance caching, browser and object caching, CDN option, image optimization, minification, and other useful features.

And like WP-Optimize, you can optimize database tables and delete various files such as post revisions, trashed posts, spam comments, etc. Also, it has a crawler option that makes sure that everything works properly.

LiteSpeed Cache Features:

5. WP Total Cache

WP Total Cache is one of the most famous WordPress caching plugins. It has over one million installations and has really cool features with many options. The settings of this plugin are huge and you can tweak almost everything. With it, your website will become faster and lighter.

WP Total Cache options include page and browse caching, file minification, object cache, and even database caching. Also, you can integrate various CDN platforms to improve speed and performance.

Options in each section are huge and you can tweak it as you wish. It’s free to use and the premium version offers advanced features such as SSL performance, more configuration, performance monitoring, and more.

WP Total Cache Features:

6. WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is one of my favorite caching plugins. It’s a very simple, lightweight, and powerful plugin. Very easy to set up and works really great and improves website speed. It’s free to use for caching and it’s best for small websites. Works well with page builders.

With a free version, you get features such as page caching, browser caching, minification, you can combine CSS and JavaScript files, Gzip compression, and you can disable emojis on your website. Options like render-blocking elimination and lazy loading are premium features.

Also, you can connect CDN with a free version. And other pro features include image optimization, database optimization, mobile caching, and more. It’s a simple plugin with really good features.

WP Fastest Cache Features:

7. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is definitely the most popular WordPress caching plugin. It has over two million installs. And not without a reason. It is really great plugin and is recommended by many WordPress theme developers. The plugin is developed by Automattic and is free to use.

WP Super Cache offers basic and advanced features. Of course, it has a page caching feature with various options to choose from, you can use CDN, and you can enable preload caching option. Also, you can choose specific pages to exclude from caching.

The plugin includes advanced caching options such as dynamic caching, file compression, 304 caching, cache expiry time, and garbage collection. Really great free plugin to make faster websites.

WP Super Cache Features:

8. Breeze

Breeze is a free caching plugin developed by Cloudways. Very simple and easy-to-use plugin with a lot of features. You don’t need to have Cloudways hosting to use this plugin. It works on every hosting perfectly. And this plugin has some great features.

You get basic caching options such as page caching, file minification, Gzip compression, browser caching, etc. You can use CDN with it and purge the Varnish cache. Advanced options include lazy loading, preloading, deferring JS, and more.

And like some other plugins have database optimization features. You can clear tables from post revisions, auto-draft content, spam comments, and transients. The Breeze will make your website faster and clean your databases.

9. Powered Cache

And last on this list is Powered Cache, one of the newest caching plugins. It has really cool interface and it’s easy to change settings. Offers really awesome features and is free to use. A pro version adds functions such as sitemap preloading, scheduled database cleanups, WP-CLI commands, etc.

The plugin offers mobile caching options, Gzip compression, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript minification, lazy loading, CDN integrations, etc. You can also enable preload caching and prefetch DNS options. Database cleanup includes post revisions, spam comments, draft posts, and more.

Powered Cache allows integrations for free with Cloudflare and Heartbeat. In the pro version, you can use varnish, Google Tracking, and Facebook Tracking.

Powered Cache Features:

Conclusion

Caching plugins are mandatory tools for every WordPress website. Without them, it’s hard to have a fast website. And website speed is critical not only for SEO and Google but for user experience. Slow websites tend to lose traffic.

So, you can choose any plugin from this list and use it on your website. Test them and see what impact it has on your website’s performance. Different plugins might work better for specific themes and hosting.