Page load time and Core Web Vitals metrics are now both a ranking algorithm and caching is an essential part of WordPress page speed optimization.
With a good amount of caching plugins available, how can you define who is the best? A recent tool created using Google Core Web Vitals field data might help.
By using Google data we have the approximate of what are the best caching plugins. Other ranks only test plugins with a single run analysis in speed testing tools such as Gtmetrix. In this case, you get synthetic data, which is just a set of conditions of a device and connection settings that tries to simulate a real end-user.
Top WordPress caching plugins rank
On the leaderboard of the top Wordpress caching plugins, Nitropack ranks above all other cache plugins, as it has not only cache features but an integrated CDN that affects the rank.
Wp Rocket which doesn’t have an integrated CDN on its product ranks slightly above with Wp Fastest Cache completing the top 3.
What is caching (cache) and how check if Wordpress is using
In computing, caching refers to the act of storing a subset of data, generally in fast-access hardware, so that future requests for that data are served up faster than is possible by accessing the data’s primary storage location. Caching allows you to efficiently reuse previously retrieved or computed data.
Font: https://aws.amazon.com/caching
When using caching on Wordpress, your visitor will have a better user experience after first navigating your website and subsequently having a cached version that will load faster. Depending on the cache solution you’re using the loading will be faster.
Before choosing a cache plugin, consider checking if the plugin is compatible with your hosting provider and/or fully compatible with all your currently installed plugins.
How to check if your Wordpress is using caching?
Run a Pagespeed test, if your result comes with the warning “serve static assets with an efficient cache policy” for files from your domain, you need to check if the cache is set up correctly or set it up. Run the seositecheckup Page Cache test tool for quick testing.
1. Cloudflare APO
Cloudflare currently offers Automatic Platform Optimizations (APO) for $5/month, and it caches the HTML of your WordPress website. This is possible due to Cloudflare Workers that cache dynamic content.
According to Cloudflare, their Automatic Platform Optimization plugin optimized their client’s Web Vitals and Core Web Vitals metrics:
“Automatic Platform Optimization consistently demonstrated better aggregate performance among sites we analyzed in TTFB, First Paint, FCP, and LCP metrics. Even more impressive are improvements on both desktop and phone form factors.”
- TTFB (Time to First Byte): Improvements of 72%
- FCP (First Contentful Paint): Improvements of 23%
- Speed Index: Improvements of 13%
Cloudflare APO is compatible with WP Rocket* and many other plugins.
*Cloudflare APO cache needs to be manually purged on every Wp Rocket change.
2. Nitropack
Nitropack is a plugin offering freemium services and a paid version, that aims to improve the Pagespeed of your Wordpress website.
Nitropack WordPress solution offers integrated CDN and an all-in-one plugin for increasing or improving Pagespeed and speed score. We take a depth look at Nitropack features and summarize some of its initial setup, including all 5 Nitropack optimization levels.️
Nitropack offers 5 optimization levels, one of them which is manual, allowing you to set up manually all of the Nitropack options The other settings are automated options to speed up using more aggressive optimizations. Nitropack’s main features are as follows:
- Delay JS until user-interaction
- CDN
- Critical CSS
- Cloudflare integration
- Lazyload + Image Optimization + WebP
- HTML/CSS/JS minification & compression
- DNS prefetching, preloading
- Remove unused CSS
Pricing:
- Nitropack 50.000 pageviews/mo limit(25GB max bandwidth): $199/year*
- Nitropack 200.000 pageviews/mo limit(100GB max bandwidth): $485/year*
- Nitropack 1.000.000 pageviews/mo limit(500GB max bandwidth): $1672/year*
*Exclusive 5% Nitropack discount for Wpalpha readers.
Nitropack is fully compatible with Woocommerce. Nitropack currently doesn’t offer Database Optimization.
3. Wp Rocket
Leader in cache performance, Wp Rocket has lots of new features released to help improve Core Web Vitals, including Remove Unused CSS and delaying all Javascript but not essential ones by default. Other Wp Rocket features:
- Delay JS until user-interaction
- CDN: Bunny
- Critical CSS
- Cloudflare integration
- Database Optimization
- Lazyload + Image Optimization + WebP
- HTML/CSS/JS minification & compression
- DNS prefetching, preloading
Wp Rocket is compatible with most e-commerce plugins, including WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Easy Digital Download, iThemes Exchange, Jigoshop, and WP-Shop.
- WP Rocket 1 website license: $59
- WP Rocket 3 websites license: $119
- WP Rocket Unlimited website license: $299
4. WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache detaches itself as being the top caching plugin by performance with a free version. In its paid version, WP Fastest Premium offers
- Mobile and widget caching
- Minify HTML/Minify CSS Plus and Minify JS
- Combine JS Plus
- Defer Javascript
- Images Optimization and WebP
- Database Cleanup, Google Fonts Async loading, and Lazy Load.
The pricing for Wp Fastest Premium starts at $50 for 1 website license to $175 for 5 websites license.
5. Autoptimize
A free plugin offering a range of optimization features including basic and advanced features:
- Minify Javascript and CSS.
- Compress and Combine Javascript and CSS.
- Cache.
- Preload and preconnect.
6. Wp Optimize
Wp Optimize is a plugin alternative to free cache plugins, and also a strong competitor for paid WordPress performance and cache plugins.
On the free version, Wp Optimize offers unique features that directly improve the Pagespeed such as loading css asynchronously and better Google fonts/Font Awesome loading, alongside so popular as CSS/JS minification, combination, and others.
It also offers Mobile-specific cache, Database Optimization, and Image Optimization which are features most seen on paid cache/performance plugins, on the free version.
Wp Optimize Premium features
The main features of Wp Optimize premium are lazy loading and image compressing. Another feature labeled as premium of Wp Optimize is “Preload key requests”, which allows the preload of any asset. The remaining features of Wp optimize premium are as follows:
- Multisite support
- Preload key requests
- Optimize individual tables
- Optimization Scheduling
- Enhanced logging and reporting
- Multilingual and multi-currency compatible caching
- Geolocation and tax country for WooCommerce stores
- Cloudflare support
Get your WordPress Core Web Vitals optimized and your pages faster!