Are you looking for the best WordPress caching plugins to boost your site? Using a caching plugin comes with its perks.
You can significantly reduce your bounce rate and improve the user experience. Besides, the primary task of any caching plugin is to increase the speed of your site. With various caching plugins available on the market, it is challenging to pick one.
Therefore, we have done our research and penned our experience in this article to provide you with the best caching plugins by considering various crucial parameters such as speed and user interface.
In this article, we will describe the best WordPress caching plugins for your website. And we have covered various crucial things you need to know about each plugin, along with the importance of caching plugins.
At the end of this article, we conclude with our top picks so that you can enjoy hassle-free caching.
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Without taking more of your time, let us get into the details!
What is Caching? A Sneak Peek Into WordPress Caching Plugins
A caching is nothing but a collection of temporarily stored data for faster access when requested. Upon request, the computer needs to run various processes before the information is presented. This can be time-consuming and can result in slower loading times.
Therefore, a caching plugin comes into play in this situation. It instructs the server to store some of the files to RAM or disc, depending on the configuration.
A caching plugin processes the frequently used information and then stores it as temporary memory or storage. caching plugins come with various advantages that you will read about further on in the article.
However, there are different premium and free plugins which we’ll discuss, so you can pick the one that fits your needs. Caching saves time by reducing the amount of work needed to generate a pageview.
Similarly, it avoids going through the entire page generation process every time and directly makes a copy of the page after the first load. As a result, your website loads lightning-fast and directly from the caching.
Why WordPress Caching Plugins Are Beneficial for Your Website?
Once your site starts to grow, the addition of plugins and the publication of new content will slow your site down. This leads to a drop in the performance of your site and affects overall growth.
Therefore, it is vital to have a caching plugin that reduces the server load and gives you faster performance. Caching plugins come with plenty of perks. Some of them are:
- Increasing your site’s speed: caching plugins play a large role in enhancing your site’s speed. As we mentioned previously, a caching plugin significantly improves your page loading time by instructing the server to store some of the files to RAM or disc, depending on the configuration. And there is no need to explain why having a faster site is crucial. As a WordPress site owner, your priority should be having the fastest page loading times.
- Boosting SEO: The Google search engine takes page speed into consideration when ranking your content. If you need a good SEO ranking and generate more traffic, it is crucial to focus on speed. caching plugins subsequently increase the speed of your site and thereby increase your rankings.
- Improving user experience: When your site works faster, users will likely browse your site and stay a little longer than usual. This also helps in reducing the bounce rate and delivers a better user experience.
- Lowering your TTFB (time to the first byte): If you want to lower your TTFB, caching is the easiest way to do so. In most cases, caching plugins reduce strain by up to 90% and more.
- Reducing strain on the server: The caching plugin minimizes the stress on your server, which is crucial for highly dynamic sites and determining what can and cannot be served from the caching plugin.
The first and foremost goal of any caching plugin needs to be providing the fastest speed and delivering the best performance.
Now that you know the importance of caching plugins, it’s time to have a more in-depth look at the best WordPress caching plugins.
Related Reading: How to Speed Up WordPress Site
List of the 8 Best WordPress Caching Plugins in 2021
1. WP Rocket – Best WordPress Caching Plugins
Undoubtedly, WP Rocket is one of the most popular premium WordPress caching plugins available. It provides one of the most straightforward interfaces on the list, along with extreme beginner-friendliness.
It lets you set up and instantly caching your site with a single click of a button. Besides its beginner-friendliness, it also comes with some advanced settings making it suitable for developers and site owners with some technical knowledge.
The plugin comes with additional features such as CDN support, lazy loading times, minification, CDN, and more to improve the performance. Another unique feature of WP Rocket is that it helps optimize Google fonts.
Additionally, you get an automatic WordPress crawler that helps in the automatic building of a caching. You can also enhance the speed of your site with its Cloudflare compatibility.
WP Rocket is undoubtedly one of the best WordPress caching plugins. It comes with incredible features and outstanding capabilities and is hands-down one of the most straightforward caching plugins you will come across.
The only drawback of this robust plugin is that it does not come with a free or trial version. However, your premium version purchase is backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Pricing
The price for the plugin starts at $49 for a single site.
2. WP Fastest Caching Plugin (Free & Premium)
Even though WP Fastest caching sounds similar to any other plugin on the list, it comes with some unique features that make it a reliable and powerful plugin.
As the name says, WP Fastest caching is well-known for its blazing fast speed and performance. The plugin is updated regularly to ensure it works well with the latest versions of WordPress. The plugin comes with a free version.
However, you will be restricted from some of the features of the premium version. Therefore, it is best to go with the premium version.
The premium version comes with some incredible features to boost the speed of your site. Additionally, you can combine and minify JavaScript and CSS.
Another fantastic feature that WP Fastest caching comes with is that it lets you create caching specifically for mobile themes. You can also choose the option to not serve the desktop caching version to mobile users.
Additionally, the plugin comes with one of the most comfortable settings on the list. The settings page comes with a list of checkboxes with the information and functionality of each setting.
It also allows CDN configuration without much configuration. The only drawback of the plugin is that it does not provide any official documentation in one place.
However, there are various tutorials that you can find on their blog, and since the settings page is more accessible, you shouldn’t need much specific help anyway.
Pricing
A free version is available. The premium plans start at $49.99.
3. W3 Total Caching Plugin
W3 Total caching is one of the most popular best WordPress caching plugins with millions of installations globally. It comes with CDN integration capabilities and is well-known for its mobile-friendliness and ease of use.
The plugin comes with all the essential features that one needs to set up a WordPress caching. Additional features include HTTP compression, CDN support, page and object caching, limited minification, feed optimization, and more.
W3 Total caching works with any hosting type. You can use it for shared hosting, dedicated hosting, or any other type to ensure a fast loading site.
W3 Total caching proudly claims that the plugin is a useful companion for WordPress sites, making it perfect for any e-commerce site.
Additionally, the CDN works perfectly with the media library that lets you see how well your pictures are being optimized. It also provides support for object caching.
This comprehensive plugin comes with plenty of options, which might make it a bit overwhelming for beginners. Moreover, you won’t find good tutorials from the official plugin.
W3 Total caching is an ideal solution for web developers and users with experience. However, the plugin provides added customization and comes with plenty of features for advanced users.
Pricing
The plugin is free to use.
4. Hyper Caching Plugin
Hyper caching is another incredible and powerful caching plugin that works solely with PHP and works for all WordPress sites. The plugin is straightforward and does not require any complicated configuration.
This powerful plugin comes with separate caching for mobile and desktop, making it an ideal solution for every user. Moreover, it is an excellent solution if you are running a forum.
Another feature that we love about Hyper caching is that it runs efficiently even if your site has active users who are commenting and participating. By this, we mean that it does not affect your site even when the traffic is high.
The plugin plays a vital role in increasing the site speed by optimizing your bandwidth with compression caching. And the cherry on top is that it’s an open-source plugin.
One of the exciting features of Hyper caching is that it helps you create small backup files and save a lot of space. This means that when you finish backing up, it does not include the caching folders with backups.
The plugin will automatically move the caching file away, giving you plenty of space. There are various guides and information available to describe each setting’s functionality so that you can have the best user experience.
Pricing
The plugin is free to use.
5. WP Super Caching Plugin
If we had to pick one of the most powerful plugins in functionalities, we would select WP Super caching. The plugin is extremely popular with millions of installations. The main reason for choosing WP Super caching is due to its speed and ease of use.
The plugin comes with all the essential features such as advanced caching preload, page caching, CDN support, gzip compression, caching preloading, and more.
Additionally, WP Super caching comes with a massive settings section with a different tab for a quick and effortless setup. It works efficiently for any WordPress site by creating static HTML files and serving them rather than heavy WordPress PHP scripts.
This plugin is an excellent pick if you want to avoid slowing down sites due to heavy loading, as it maintains your site’s speed with its various caching powers.
One of the plugin’s unique features is that it does not clear caching whenever a comment is posted. Instead, it rebuilds the caching and serves it to other users. This feature is known as caching rebuilding.
If you are a beginner, you will love WP Super caching. The plugin’s back-end interface comes with different settings that you will find automatically filled most of the time. It is super easy to set up, configure, and get started.
Pricing
The plugin is free to use.
6. Comet Caching Plugin (Free & Premium)
Comet caching is a robust WordPress caching plugin that comes with a plug and play interface. It comes with one of the fastest speeds and page loading times on the list.
The plugin is easy to use and comes with a sleek interface. It comes with both a free and premium version. For advanced customization settings, you will have to upgrade to the premium version of the plugin.
One area in which it beats the other plugins on the list is its massive documentation. You can find plenty of guides and FAQs to help you with the plugin and caching in general.
Additionally, you can find various blogs and posts on their official website, guiding your every step. If you need extended customer support, you can pay additional fees and get the best team right by your side.
Comet caching even allows caching in posts, pages, or comments. With the premium version, you can enjoy automatic and intelligent caching clearing features.
You can set up your caching preference upon installation, and you won’t need to look at it again. You can enjoy the right plug and play plugin with the premium version. We recommend Comet caching for beginners as well as advanced users.
Pricing
You can get Comet caching premium for a one-time fee starting at $39.
7. Cachify Plugin
Cachify is a renowned caching plugin that works well with any WordPress site. It comes with some of the most top-notch caching features and provides automatic caching management.
The plugin uses various caching methods and provides blazing fast performance for your site. You get automatic reset options along with some incredible caching features.
If you like to control everything by yourself, it also offers manual caching reset options. To get started with Cachify, you do not need any prior experience or technical knowledge.
It comes with an extremely easy-to-use interface and installation process to get going quickly.
Cachify works incredibly with custom posts and decreases the page loading time for your site. The drawback of Cachify is that it does not provide any personal customer support.
If you need any help, you can go through the WordPress community forums. However, since the plugin and interface are user friendly, you likely won’t need personal assistance.
Overall, Cachify is a great pick for any beginner or an advanced user who needs a simple caching solution for their site with minimal settings options.
Pricing
The plugin is free.
8. Simple Caching Plugin
Simple caching is yet another easy-to-use caching plugin. It comes with a simple interface and lets you get started without any complicated configuration processes.
Moreover, it comes with a one-click installation to ease the pain of the installation of caching plugins. This beginner-friendly plugin comes with two settings: on and off.
If you are not satisfied with the plugin’s performance, it lets you easily remove the plugin without breaking or affecting your site in any way.
The main aim of Simple caching is to reduce the page loading time and continuously improve the overall experience. The minimal settings are great options for users who are new to the WordPress world and need an essential caching plugin to get started.
The plugin ensures that it can be conveniently accessed by users from various parts of the world. Therefore, it comes with multilingual capabilities and provides a more straightforward setup and access to any user.
For complete documentation and additional support, you can refer to Github. Additionally, it comes with gzip compression and delivers decent performance, making it a reliable WordPress caching plugin.
Pricing
It is a freemium plugin.
Built-in Caching Plugins From Web Hosting Providers
As we have seen, caching helps increase your site’s speed; most managed web hosting providers offer a built-in caching solution.
If you are hosting your site with any of the given hosting providers below, you can take advantage of their built-in caching solutions.
1. Bluehost Caching
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting providers with over two million installations. The hosting provider is also officially recommended by WordPress and serves as a reliable hosting provider.
BlueHost’s plan comes with a built-in caching solution that you can enable right from your dashboard in a few steps. Check out our in-depth BlueHost review to get detailed insights into it.
All you need to do is log in to your hosting account and click on the ‘sites’ option. Now select your site and click on the ‘performance’ option.
From this tab, you can quickly turn your caching on or off. Moreover, you can also enable and change various advanced caching settings from here.
2. SiteGround Caching
SiteGround is another popular and reliable web hosting provider. SiteGround has an excellent reputation in the world of WordPress and provides top-notch hosting solutions for every website.
It provides a caching solution with all their web hosting plans. This built-in caching solution is called Supercaching.
You can enable caching from your dashboard. Check out our in-depth SiteGround Review to get detailed insights into SiteGround.
Once you have enabled the caching, you can install an SG optimizer plugin that lets you manage the SiteGround caching settings effortlessly from your WordPress admin area.
This saves you time and allows you to manage everything in one place.
3. WP Engine Caching
WP Engine is one of the dedicated WordPress hosting providers that specialize in providing managed hosting. WP Engine is best known for its excellent performance and speed. You get plenty of incredible features with this hosting provider.
Additionally, it comes with a built-in caching solution and performance optimizer. Check out our WP Engine coupon to get an exclusive discount offer on WP Engine now.
It lets you clear and manage the caching from your WordPress admin area. To do that, all you need to do is click on the WP Engine caching menu, and you can manage caching settings under the general settings tab.
It also comes with a plugin called WP Advanced caching plugin with more advanced caching options. This plugin comes with additional control to efficiently manage the WP Engine caching settings on your WordPress site.
Final Verdict: What Are the Best WordPress Caching Plugins?
caching plugins play a vital role in your site’s performance, as we have seen above. There is no doubt that a caching plugin directly affects your site’s speed and enhances the user experience.
The above list of caching plugins will help you run your site effortlessly.
If you are still wondering which plugin might be right for you, we recommend going with WP Rocket. WP Rocket is one of the best all-in-one caching solutions with incredible speed and excellent features.
If you do not want to spend anything on a caching plugin, we recommend going with W3 Total caching or WP Fastest caching.
However, if you do not want to handle everything on your own, you can also pick one of the managed hosting providers that come with built-in caching solutions, as we mentioned above.
No matter which plugin you pick from our list, you are bound to get the best performance and an essential boost in your site’s speed. All you need to do is install the plugin you want and get started immediately!
We hope you found our article helpful and that you were able to understand the functionalities of various caching plugins. Over to you now, which caching plugin are you picking? Let us know in the comments below.
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