Are you worried that your website isn’t loading as fast as it used to? Maybe it’s time you get a good cache plugin to improve your site’s performance and up its load time.
Caching plugins basically help in cutting your website’s load times as your website gets thicker with the publication of new content and the installation of new plugins.
So if you’re still struggling with the website speed, we’re here to help you choose the best caching plugin for your website and run it like a flash.
List of the best caching plugins
While there are many cache plugins available but these WordPress caching plugins (freemium) offer a lot of benefits to your website, like:
- Minify CSS and JS files
- Speed up your website
- Garbage collection and clearance
- Improve your SEO
- Reduce page load times for repeat visitors
- Generate a static HTML page of your site
- Lower the TTFB (time to first byte)
For this comparison, we looked for the caching plugins that were easy to set up, are not much expensive, and/or come with the free versions.
So now let’s look into each caching plugin and see what else they can do for your website.
1. WP Rocket
Starting with WP Rocket, it is a premium plugin that stands out in terms of its interface and quick setup. With over 100,000 active users, it has managed to score the best rankings for cutting the load time and improving the speed of a website considerably.
Like the name “Rocket”, this caching plugin runs smoothly with your websites, whether it’s an eCommerce, a blog, or a social platform.
Although this is a premium plugin, the list of features it offers is quite lengthy, the noticeable ones being:
- Database optimization
- Google Fonts optimization
- Cloudflare compatibility
- Multilingual plugins integration
- CDN integration
- Cache preloading
- Multisite compatibility
- Minification and concatenation
- Browser caching
- GZIP compression
- Defer JavaScript loading
- DNS prefetching
Price:
The basic plan comes at $49 for one website. They also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee to the users.
2. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is a popular cache plugin with more than 2 million active users worldwide. It is developed by Automattic, the same company that has built WordPress.
This free and simple plugin creates static HTML files and serves them instead of comparatively heavier WordPress PHP scripts to the repetitive visitors.
This cached file is served in three ways as ranked by their speeds: Expert, Simple, and WP-Cache Caching. Simple mode is the simplest one, as understood by its name, while the WP-Cache mode is recommended for advanced developers.
The features are incredibly vast:
- Garbage collection to clear old files from the cache
- Cache Rebuilding
- Exclude certain users from seeing cached
- Compress pages
- Extra homepage checks
- Control caching for mobile devices
- Exclude specific content from being cached
- Integrate with a CDN
- Cache preloading functionality
Price:
WP Super Cache is available for free.
3. SG Optimizer
SG Optimizer is an inbuilt caching plugin offered by SiteGround with its managed WordPress hosting plans. That means you get this plugin for free if you host with SiteGround.
With more than 900,000 active users, this inbuilt caching plugin is easy to install and activate. It reduces your website’s load time considerably to give faster results.
Let’s look at the features it comes with:
- Enable SuperCacher
- Enable/disable automatic cache purge
- Exclude URLs from the cache
- Gzip Compression
- Browser Caching
- Switch between different PHP Versions
- Minification of HTML, JS, and CSS
- Enable or disable image optimization
- Plugin compatibility
- Multisite Options
Price:
SG Optimizer comes inbuilt with SiteGround hosting plans.
4. WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache sounds similar to other plugins but with its active user base of more than 1 million worldwide, it has ensured that it offers unique features with both of its plans- free and premium.
The interface is so simple that you just need to check the box for the features you want.
The free version comes with impressive features, and the premium one comes with their advanced and extended functionalities.
These features include:
- Combine and minify CSS and JavaScript
- CDN integration
- Image optimization
- Enable/Disable cache option for mobile devices
- GZIP compression
- Browser caching
- Cache preloading
- Cache Timeout deletes all cached at a fixed time
- SSL support
- Cloudflare support
Price:
The premium version starts at $49.99 for one website and comes with advanced features we described above.
5. Cache Enabler
Cache Enabler is probably the simplest cache plugin you’ll find anywhere. With more than 90,000 active users, this free plugin has managed to stand strong in the plugin market.
Developed by KeyCDN, this plugin creates static HTML files and delivers them to avoid the time consuming and intensive backend processes.
The features include:
- Automated and/or manual clearing of the cache
- Cache expiration settings
- Minification of HTML and inline JavaScript
- WordPress multisite support
- Content exclusion from caching
- Disk cache engine
- WP CLI cache clearing
- Display actual cache size
- Custom Post Type support
- Serves WebP media through Optimus
- Works with Autoptimize
Price:
Cache Enabler is available for free.
Final Thoughts
That’s it with our list of super amazing caching plugins for WordPress. Every website is different and has different needs. Every individual setup requires a different variety of caching.
So, which plugin is best for you? Let’s see:
WP Super Cache is free and quite easy to set up which makes it good for beginners.
WP Rocket is a premium plugin with a huge number of users, which means it is trusted and worth investing in, especially if you’re an online business owner.
WP Fastest Cache is user friendly in its set up and interface. Go for it to gain some extended functionalities for your website. Similarly, Cache Enabler is also simple and comes free.
The decision is yours which plugin to go with. We suggest you test your page load times and check how effective that caching plugin has been for you.
Drop your comments below for any other questions or doubts. Tell us which caching plugins did you like the most and why.
