Best WordPress Caching Plugin

You can improve your website’s performance, SEO, user experience, and conversions by installing a cache plugin. Learn why you need caching plugin and see which WordPress caching plugins are the best.

You know that caching plugins are a mainstay technique for reducing your site’s page load time if you’ve read our post on how to speed up WordPress.

What is Cache?

The cache is a collection of temporarily stored files that can be accessed quickly. In computers, information is usually stored on a hard disk. In order to display information, a computer runs several processes.

Through caching, the frequently requested information can be processed and then stored in a temporary memory. This allows computers to access the file quickly.

Why is Caching Important?

Caching Plugin focuses on populating the static HTML pages of the site and offloading it to the visitor’s server and then using it back on the next visit. This tremendously improves the site loading time.

Not just restricted to boosting the speed, the caching plugin specializes in boosting SEO rankings as well. Site loading time has a direct impact on SEO.

When speed gets better with SEO ranking, consequently the user experience reaches its peak. These have a positive impact on the conversion rate, too.

Top WordPress Cache Plugin

Now that we know how useful, and essential too, are these caching plugin, it’s time to dig into some of the best WordPress caching plugin of 2024:

1. WP Rocket Caching Plugin

The most popular premium Cache Plugin that doesn’t have a free version at WordPress.org, but is still the most trending owing to its user-friendly interface and a bunch of easy-on-tips features. Most of the users choose WP Rocket knowingly that it is paid, whereas one can get cache plugins free of cost too. Despite that, they do so, because they know WP Rocket is more convenient than the entire process to do sole handily. For them, it’s better to pay for convenience. It costs $49 for each site.

Let’s check out some benefits of WP Rocket:

• SEO Rankings get improved.
• To reduce the site load time, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files are compressed.
• Lazy loading of images, i.e, media files are loaded only when the visitor opens the site.
• Convenient for developers to add features as it comes with numerous hooks.

2. WP-Optimize Caching Plugin

WP-Optimize is yet another top-rated cache plugin with a record of over one million successful installations. Apart from caching the web pages, it also helps clean up the database and compressing the images, which enhances the speed of the site.

One can compose the plugin configurations in such a way that it instructs the client browser to retrieve the cached resources and compress HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. It also minifies and defers CSS and JavaScript to shrink the size and reduce the number of requests to one’s server.

3. WP Super Cache Plugin

With over two million active installations, it’s one of the most downloaded free cache plugins from the WordPress directory. This, too, helps to generate static HTML files from the dynamic WordPress blog. It processes the heavier PHP scripts on the site and then serves the static HTML file to the subsequent visitors.

Caching by WP Super Cache is done in 3 ways:

• Simple: This is the most opted method of file caching, owing to its simplicity. Here one doesn’t have to edit PHP files, and configuration isn’t required for the .htaccess file.
• Expert: It is the fastest method among the three. It modifies the .htaccess files and serves the super cached HTML files to the users.
• WP Super Caching: This caching procedure is used where there are users who have their ids on the site or have left some comments at some point of time. It’s comparatively a slower process, but it is definitely the most flexible one.

4. W3 Total Cache Plugin

A very popular cache plugin amongst the developers, it has a record of more than a million installations. This free cache plugin not only reduces the load time of the site but along with that what it also does is improves the overall site performance and delivers CDN ingredients.

It’s been successfully used by some big cats in the market like AT&T, MattCutts.com, Mashable.com, and many more. Be it a shared hosting network or a dedicated server, this plugin improves the server performance and the site load time. As of now, it is the only cache plugin that supports all hosting networks or servers.

Some functionalities offered by W3TC Plugin are:

• Improves the overall site performance 10 times.
• Offers CDN integration.
• Improvement in web server performance.
• Successful in high traffic times.

5. WP Fastest Cache- Highest rated cache plugin

WP Fasted Cache comparatively has fewer configurations making it one of the most user-friendly cache plugins. Like all other cache plugins, this too creates static HTML files from a dynamic WP site. It also minifies HTML and CSS files and disables emojis on the site. 

WP Fastest Cache plugin has a premium version too, which has even more interesting features like image, optimization, database cleanup, mobile caching, and much more. It can be purchased from the WordPress dashboard after installing the free version of it.

An overview of the WP Fastest Cache plugin:

• Has admin control over deleted cache files.
• Option is available whether to enable/disable cache option for mobile devices and logged-in users.
• SSL and CDN support
• Preload cache and WP-CLI cache clearing
• Takes initiative in making codes cleaner and web pages leaner.

6. LiteSpeed Cache- All in one website speed up plugin

LiteSpeed Cache plugin is a free high-rated server-level cache that does plenty of site optimization to speed up the site page load. Here one can import/export the configurations from other cache plugins.

Here are some major highlights of the LiteSpeed cache plugin:

• Lazyload and media compression.
• Dual or multiple CDN support.
• PageSpeed score optimization.
• Single as well as multi-site network support.

7. Cache Enabler- Best Lightweight Cache plugin

Cache Enabler plugin is quite simple and requires minimum configuration. It comes with all essential features that are required by caching plugins. The users can configure it to expire the cached files after some time, keep clearing the site cache in case the content has been changed, pre-compressing of cache pages using GZIP, and also, shrink the HTML in cached pages.

Multisite networks are also supported. Although in comparison to other plugins, it has limited functionalities. This plugin too lists a descriptive page about the features for beginners. It also has some screenshots for better understanding. 

Cache Enabler features:

• Efficient Cache Engine.
• Quick caching ability.
• Regular cache clearing manually.
• WP-CLI cache clearing.
• Can work with third-party plugins as well.

8. Autoptimize Cache Plugin – Most Compatible Plugin

Known to be a cache plugin, this optimizer, goes to the extent of compressing your image, combining files, minifying HTML, CSS, JS, and more. It can be easily used by beginners to core technical teams. Anyone who is hosting with SiteGround or anyone who is looking out for a host for the WP site.

Check out some interesting ways to improve the site’s performance using SG Optimizer:

• Allows configuration of dynamic caching and Memcached. One can enable or disable the cache purge and remove URLs from that cache. One can also test the web page to check whether the pages are systematically cached or not. 
• Allows forcing HTTPS on the site and switching between various PHP versions. One can always enable or disable Gzip compression and browser caching rules of the site.
• Also, one can decide whether to minify HTML, JS, and CSS resources. The emoji support and query strings can also be removed from the static resources. 
• Optimization of the media or images can be done, solely or even in bulk.

9. SG Optimizer Cache Plugin

Known to be a cache plugin, this optimizer, goes to the extent of compressing your image, combining files, minifying HTML, CSS, JS, and more. It can be easily used by beginners to core technical teams. Anyone who is hosting with SiteGround or anyone who is looking out for a host for the WP site.

Check out some interesting ways to improve the site’s performance using SG Optimizer:

• Allows configuration of dynamic caching and Memcached. One can enable or disable the cache purge and remove URLs from that cache. One can also test the web page to check whether the pages are systematically cached or not. 
• Allows forcing HTTPS on the site and switching between various PHP versions. One can always enable or disable Gzip compression and browser caching rules of the site.
• Also, one can decide whether to minify HTML, JS, and CSS resources. The emoji support and query strings can also be removed from the static resources. 
• Optimization of the media or images can be done, solely or even in bulk.

WordPress caching plugins can help you boost your WordPress website’s performance and speed without breaking a sweat. You already know this. You would have to manually do everything without cache plugins, which would probably fry your brain.

We hope our post helped you pick the best WordPress caching plugin. Have we missed any of your favorite caching plugin? Tell us about them in the comments!