Best WordPress Cache Plugin - (Updated Review for 2024)
What is the speed of your website?
You may think that your website is fast - but how fast is fast enough? You may be surprised to learn that 47% of internet users expect web pages to load in two seconds or less, and they mean it: 40% of people will abandon websites that do not load in three seconds.
That's right. One second could cost you 40% of your website traffic. And out of the 40% of visitors who abandon your site, 80% will not come back.
Let's say your website receives 1,000 unique visitors per week. You have a conversion rate of 5%, and the average value of your orders is $100.
This translates to $5,000 per week and $260,000 per year. Not bad, right?
But if your website took more than 3 seconds to load, you would lose 40% of that traffic, and you would actually earn $104,000 less than that.
In the end: Slow loading times can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Fortunately, there is a way to speed up the loading time of your website. What is the solution? Caching.
What is caching?
Let's start with the basics. A request to your server is necessary every time someone visits a page on your site. The server sends these results to the user's web browser.
From the user's perspective, they consider your website as the end product. Your website is complete with elements such as headers, menus, images, videos, blog content, and everything that makes your site unique.
The server must process each request before delivering the final page to the user. Depending on the complexity of your website, this can sometimes take a long time.
This is where caching comes into play. Caching stores recently accessed content, such as a web page, so that server requests will not be as deep.
Here is a visual representation of what caching looks like.
In simple terms, caching means that the pages to be viewed on your website require less work. Therefore, your site will load much faster.
Why do you need a caching plugin for WordPress?
Without a WordPress caching plugin, requests for each element of your website must be made to the server every time someone visits your site, even if they have already seen the content before.
A caching plugin will do it:
Speed up your website
Improve user experience
Reduce your server load
Improve SEO
Lower your TTFB (Time to First Byte)
Cache plugins will generate a static HTML page of your site, which will be saved on your server. Every time someone visits your site, the plugin will display the lighter HTML version as opposed to heavy PHP scripts.
There are tons of caching plugins that claim to speed up your website. How can you know which one to install? In reality, it's almost impossible to determine which plugin is the fastest. Depending on the website content, what works for one site may not work as well for another. That being said, some caching plugins stand out from the rest. I have taken the time to identify the best WordPress caching plugins for you to consider.
The 5 best WordPress cache plugins
After reviewing dozens of WordPress cache plugins, I have narrowed down the list to the top five. They are:
W3 Cache total
WP Rocket
WP Super Cache
Hyper Cache
Cache of the comet
Check out our in-depth analyses below to learn more about each of them.
1. W3 Cache total
With over a million active installations, W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular WordPress cache plugins on the market.
W3 Total Cache is an open-source plugin, the use of which is completely free. A free installation gives you access to all the features, and you will not have to deal with any upselling later on.
I have included it in my list of the best WordPress cache plugins because it offers minifications that help save bandwidth, HTTP compression, and flow optimization.
This plugin works equally well for both the mobile version and the desktop version of your website. W3 Total Cache integrates with your website's CDN. It is also beneficial for websites with SSL certificates, making it a top choice for e-commerce sites.
You should keep in mind that W3 Total Cache can be a bit complex to use. Even though it is a popular choice, it may not be the best option for WordPress beginners. There are 16 pages in the settings section of this plugin, for example. However, you won't have to manually configure all of these options. The default settings work very well right out of the box. So unless you are a developer with a lot of experience with these options, I recommend sticking to the default settings.
If you want this type of additional customization, there is a separate setting for each type of caching. You can have different settings for things like:
Object caching
Caching pages
Browser caching
Database caching
The list is long. It is difficult to find this type of in-depth customization for free on other WordPress cache plugins.
2. Rocket WP
That said, WP Rocket also has advanced settings that can be customized by developers or site owners who have a bit more technical knowledge.
Prices start at $49 per year for a website. WP Rocket also offers a growth plan at $249 per year for an unlimited number of sites.
I know what some of you are thinking: why should I pay for this when there are so many free WordPress cache plugins available?
In other words, you get value for your money. For $50 a year, I prefer to have a plugin with easy installation and a smooth interface. Furthermore, WP Rocket has additional features that you won't find in free cache plugins. It indexes your website on search engines to help improve your SEO ranking, and all JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files are minimized to increase page loading speed. Another advantage of this plugin is the "lazy load" feature. This means that images are only loaded when they are visible on the screen. So, if you have pages with a lot of images deeper in the scroll, they will not be loaded initially. This significantly improves your loading time. This plugin also optimizes your Google fonts, which is not the
Overall, WP Rocket is one of the best WordPress cache plugins, both for beginners and experienced developers.
3. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache has over two million active installations. I'm not saying you should always follow what others are doing, but such high numbers are usually a pretty good indication of quality.
This plugin is also completely free. So it's a good option if you're hesitant to spend money on a WordPress plugin.
WP Super Cache creates static HTML files and displays them instead of heavier PHP scripts. The plugin offers three different caching modes
Basic
Specialist
Caching with WP-cache
Most of you can get by using the simple mode. You will need a custom permalink, but this option is much easier to set up and does not require you to modify your .htaccess file. The majority of web pages will always be dynamic in simple cache mode.
As you may have guessed, the expert mode is a bit more complex. Unless you have experience in coding and web development, I do not recommend this setting. It requires an Apache mod_rewrite module as well as modifications to your .htaccess file. If you don't know what you're doing, incorrect modifications to these files can be harmful to your website.
The WP cache mode is used to cache the content of known visitors to the website. It is ideal for those of you who have users who are logged in, who leave comments, or who need to see personalized content.
If you don't want things to get too complicated, you can always stick to the simple mode, but the fact that WP Super Cache has so many other options makes it one of the best caching plugins for WordPress.
4. Hyper Cache
Hyper Cache was designed with WordPress blogs in mind. It will work on all blogs, without any complex configuration. Hyper Cache optimizes your bandwidth and ultimately increases the loading speed of pages on your WordPress blog.
You can easily install Hyper Cache and the process is very quick. I would say it is one of the best WordPress cache plugins for users who are beginners and do not want to deal with tons of different cache settings. With this plugin, you can implement the "set it and forget it" mentality. So, once it is installed, you don't have to do much after the initial setup.
You will notice that some of the settings may have strange names that you are not familiar with, but Hyper Cache provides you with recommendations and detailed information on the settings that need to be activated and the impact of each setting on your website.
Like some of the other options on our list, Hyper Cache is free. It offers CDN support and also has caching suitable for mobile phones. It is a great tool for those of you who have blogs with a lot of comments.
One thing I found interesting about Hyper Cache is the way this plugin complements website backups. The cache folders are not included in your backups, which means that backup files will be smaller and save you space.
If this plugin should be a top consideration for WordPress bloggers, I would not recommend it for more complex sites, such as e-commerce platforms. If you belong to this category, it would be better to use a more advanced plugin from this list.
5. Comet cache
Comet Cache has a quick and easy installation process. Once installed, you will find that navigating the dashboard is extremely user-friendly.
I love this plugin because it is very informative. You will find tons of resources that will tell you everything there is to know about caching. It will help you configure the settings to optimize the performance of your own WordPress site.
You will have many caching options with Comet Cache:
Pages
`English` : Posts
Tags
Categories
If you are looking for a simple customization, this plugin is definitely one you should consider. The ability to cache logged-in users makes Comet Cache a top option for membership websites.
Comet Cache has a free version and a paid version. Most of you can probably get by with the free WordPress plugin, but the paid updates offer better features. If you update your plugin, you will have the ability to clear your cache automatically and intelligently. This feature allows you to configure all your settings from the start, and then take a "hands-free" approach for the future.
Conclusion
Installing a WordPress cache plugin will increase the speed of your website and improve the user experience. Now that we have established why cache plugins are important, the question becomes: What is the best WordPress cache plugin?
It depends on what you are looking for. Some plugins are designed for e-commerce sites, while others are intended for WordPress blogs. Some cache plugins are designed for beginners, while others have more complex settings for advanced developers.
Do you want a free WordPress caching plugin? Or are you looking for a paid version?
Based on all this information, I have narrowed down my list to the top five options to consider. There is something for everyone in this list, depending on the type of website you have, your technical experience, and the type of settings you want to apply. Use this guide as a reference to help you find the best WordPress cache plugin for your website.