10 Best Caching Plugins for WordPress for Speed

Is your WordPress website operating slowly? One of the best ways to increase your website speed is by using a caching plugin. Apart from keeping your audience from leaving the page, a faster speed also helps your site rank better on search engines. A caching plugin creates static HTML pages of your website and stores them on the server. So, when someone visits your website, the lighter HTML page is generated instead of the normal WordPress PHP scripts. In this article, we’ll give you the 10 best caching plugins from the hundreds of plugins available in the store.

What is a caching plugin?

A caching plugin is a WordPress plugin to speed up WordPress websites by generating and storing static copies of your web pages. And also, by applying additional features such as minification, unused resource removal, preloading, lazy loading, setting cache control headers, etc. based on the type of plugin you are using. Caching plugins can also be configured with a CDN to store the cached copies in the cloud to serve your websites with lightning-fast response times.

Why caching plugins are important?

The answer is simple. To speed up your websites and reduce server load. As we know, WordPress is dynamic. Each web page should be generated on the server upon user request. When hundreds of users simultaneously make requests to the primary server, it can easily take your website down.

In order to prevent this, unless your website is specific to each user, a caching functionality can be implemented. This runs on the principle that, serving static content takes significantly fewer resources compared to dynamic content fetch.

A caching plugin makes this implementation super-easy. Most of the popular caching plugins start working just by activating it. Additional functionalities to make the site load even faster can be configured in the settings. They also help improve Core Web Vitals which is a ranking factor.

What are the best caching plugins for WordPress?

Choosing a good caching plugin is vital for your WordPress website. It can ultimately decide how fast your website loads. Speed has been an important ranking factor for a while now. So, here are the best caching plugins for WordPress –

1. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the most popular caching plugin for WordPress. This is because the plugin is easier to configure and use when compared to other caching plugins. All you need to do is activate it, then the plugin begins to function. This premium plugin has several other features which include minifying HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files on your site, loading images only when visitors see them (Lazy Loading), and improving search engine indexing of your site.

WP Rocket also gives room for developers to extend its features. So, it can do much more than it was originally meant to do if you configure it. The pricing starts at $49 for a single site.

2. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache also has millions of active installs, because it is free unlike WP Rocket, and caches your entire site. Very famous companies such as AT&T, Mashable.com, and MattCutts.com have recommended this plugin. This plugin is not restricted to any site based on a hosting network or dedicated servers. W3 Total Cache supports Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL). It works just like other caching plugins, reducing the size of your HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and feeds. The developers claim that you can save up to 80% of bandwidth using this plugin.

3. WP Super Cache

With over a million installs, WP Super Cache is one of the most effective and popular caching plugins for WordPress sites. This plugin from WordPress.com allows you to generate static HTML files from your server. These static HTML files are created from the heavier WordPress PHP scripts. So, instead of bringing up the PHP files when a visitor goes to your site, lighter HTML files come up. This makes your page load much faster.

The Simple method of caching using this plugin does not require editing PHP files. It is the most recommended method providing the Expert and WP Super Caching. With the Expert method, you have to edit the .htaccess files to enable your site load super-fast.

4. WP-Optimize

You can install and use the WP-Optimize plugin for free, but you need to pay to gain access to some of the features. This freemium plugin has been used on over a million websites and is still being installed on new websites. How does this plugin speed up your site? It does so by compressing large images and clearing your database. Removing unnecessary data in the database allows your website to be faster and more efficient. The image compression feature allows your website pages to load faster. So, your users can gain access to your content within a few seconds.

5. Sucuri Firewall

Sucuri is a WordPress firewall and security plugin. Apart from the security features, it also comes with a built-in caching function. This plugin is a very good option because as a DNS-level firewall, it can serve cached content to your users before their request reaches the site. This makes your site incredibly fast.

6. SG Optimizer

SG Optimizer is free. You don’t have to pay a dime to access any of its features. This caching plugin by SiteGround only works if your website is hosted with SiteGround. So, if you use other hosts such as Bluehost and Digital Ocean, you can’t install the plugin on your site. Some of the features SG Optimizer offers are the ability to force HTTPS for your site, optimize your images either individually or in groups, provides the option to either enable or disable the minification of your CSS, HTML, and JS resources, and allows you to configure your dynamic caching and Memcached.

7. WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is one of the easiest plugins to use on the wordpress.org plugin store. It has only a few configuration settings, so you don’t have to learn much before it starts functioning on your site. Just like other caching plugins, WP Fastest Cache creates static HTML files from your heavier PHP files and stores them. It also reduces loading time for visitors by allowing you to disable emojis on your site, minifies HTML and CSS files, and combines many CSS files into one. This plugin has both free and premium versions. With the premium version, you can clean up your database, optimize images, and carry out mobile caching.

8. Comet Cache

Comet Cache is not as popular as many others on this list. It has over 60,000 active installations. This plugin is a must-have if you’re running an eCommerce or membership site. Comet Cache can cache logged-in users on your site. With this plugin, browser caching is enabled with the Apache server. This boosts page speed significantly by preventing multiple trips between the user’s browser and the site server. Also, it allows you to gain insight into the status of your cache by showing you cache statistics. This plugin is available in free and premium versions (a one-time fee of $39 per site).

9. Cache Enabler

Cache Enabler is a free caching plugin for WordPress sites with all the features you will need to make your site run faster. This lightweight plugin creates static HTML files of your site and shows them to your visitors. This plugin takes you through the process of caching your WordPress site by showing you well-detailed documentation, screenshots, and videos. Cache Enabler doesn’t work when you use mobile-specific themes or plugins that show different layouts to mobile and desktop users.

10. Hyper Cache

Hyper Cache is another free plugin that can be used with both cheap hosting and with high-end servers. Unlike Cache Enabler, Hyper Cache works on your site even though it uses mobile-specific themes and plugins. It has a mobile theme switch option that enables caching on different devices. Also, Hyper Cache allows you to enable or disable cached pages to comment authors.