Best WordPress Cache Plugins

Web cache is a temporary storage area for storing frequently accessed data to improve the performance of a webpage. When a visitor visits a webpage, a request is sent to the server, the request is processed by the server, and finally the data is sent to the user’s browser from the server. If that webpage is frequently visited by the visitor, it makes more sense to temporarily store the files in the user’s device so that it can be retrieved more quickly. If the needed file is not found in the local storage, then a new request will be sent to the server.

What does Cache Plugin do?

Cache plugin temporarily stores web data of webpage in the visitor’s device, which can be retrieved the next time the visitor tries to access through the browser. It speeds up the page loading because it does not have to make a new request to server and get the response from it.

Why do you need WordPress Cache Plugins?

Fast page load is really important for websites to decrease bounce rate, retain users in the site, and make conversions. BBC used to lose additional 10% of the users for every additional second taken to load the page so they focus intensely on keeping their website super-fast.

So, fast page is really important. No one keeps hanging in the loading page. It ultimately affects organic rankings on search engines.

WordPress Cache Plugins make your website load faster by:

1. Lowering Time to First Byte (TTFB).
2. Minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
3. delivering static pages to serve cached files.
4. optimizing images.
5. lazy load images.

Best WordPress Cache Plugins 2023

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is used by popular WordPress websites like Boredpanda, WPBeginner, blender, Wishpond, Techjunkie,etc.

When configured correctly, it increases the page load speed greatly. It has made extensive help documentation that covers everything related to the plugin.

Major features:

1. Mobile support
2. CDN support
3. Minification of databases and web files (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript)
4. Browser caching
5. Import/export settings

Pricing:

Free + paid plans. The pro version costs $99 for annual subscription.

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache generates static html files from dynamic WordPress website that is served to the visitors. A user without expert knowledge can use the simple mode. However, anybody who can edit PHP files can use expert mode.

Major features:

1. Simple caching.
2. Compress pages.
3. Don’t cache pages for known users.
4. Cache rebuild.
5. CDN support.
6. Extra homepage checks.

Pricing:

Free. 

WP Fastest Cache

The .htaccess file is automatically modified by WP Fastest Cache so you don’t need to manually modify it unlike in other plugins.

It uses Mod_Rewrite Apache module to deliver static pages to visitors to serve cached files bypassing PHP by modifying .htaccess file.

However, Kinsta stated on its blog that websites using Kinsta hosting had faced deterioration in performance so it’s not allowed in the websites using Kinsta hosting.

Major features:

1. Cache Timeout will delete cache files at the terminated time.
2. Cache Enable/Disable option for mobile devices and logged-in users.
3. Combine JS
4. Combine CSS.
5. Minify HTML and SS

Pricing:

Free plugin with one-time fee for premium plugin. The single site license costs $49.

Premium plugin includes mobile cache, widget cache, Convert image into WebP, database cleanup, lazy load, and more.

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a paid plugin with all the needed features in one package. It’s user friendly although WordPress developers have mentioned that preload bot can add unnecessary load to the site. Another weakness about  WP Rocket is that it does not optimize images as efficiently as other good cache plugins.

WPMl is used by WPML, TranslatePress, etc.

Major features:

1. GZIP Compression
2. Cache Preloading
3. eCommerce Optimization
4. Browser Caching
5. Database optimization
6. Minify and combine the CSS and JS files

Pricing:

$59 per year for a single site. No free version.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache plugin features server-level cache and automatic page caching. It also supports multisite.  Litespeed Cache plugin also stores mobile and AMP cache. It can now be made fully integrated with Cloudflare.

Major features:

1. CDN support
2. Import/export settings
3. Minify CSS, JavaScript, or HTML
4. CSS and JavaScript combination
5. Lazy Load images
6. Image optimization
7. Database Cleaner and Optimizer
8. Supports WebP image format

Pricing:

Free and Open Source but requires LiteSpeed Web Server for its built-in page cache features.

WP Optimize

WP Optimize plugin caches your pages, cleans the database, and optimizes the image. WP-Optimize plugin cleans the database by removing unnecessary post revisions in posts table, spam and unapproved comments, and overheads in database tables. The cache is stored on both desktop and mobile devices with the free version. The lazy load function is only available in premium plugin. Premium plugin also has a feature to remove images that are not being used in any page/post. WP-CLI in premium plugin allows you to run optimization commands from command line.

Major features:

1. Database optimization
2. Image compression
3. Page cache
4. Mobile specific cache
5. GZIP compression
6. Preload cache

Pricing:

Free version with premium annual paid plan. The starter license costs $49 for annual plan.

Conclusion

These are the best WordPress Cache plugins to speed up your WordPress website. If you know the configuration process well, every plugin we’ve listed makes your website super-fast. For beginners who don’t want to do extensive configuration, we recommend WP Super Cache, or WP Rocket.