02 Jan 5 Best WordPress Caching Plugins of 2021 Comparison

The only reason you won’t be needing anything to do in order to speed up your WordPress website is when you use the default theme and don’t add up any extra plugins. But, that’s not the reason you opted for self-hosted WordPress option, right?

So, in order to cheer up your blog once again so that it can open up as quickly as it can, without increasing additional cost at the server, you need to look for the best WordPress caching plugins.

Caching is a technique that is mainly performed because of a compatible browser and a caching algorithm. The reason it makes your website load faster is because it loads up and save the static content of a website within the browser. Now, every next time when you will reload that website or revisit it, and then all static content will load up from the browser itself.

Now, since loading data from the browser doesn’t require any travel, so, it will decrease the overall page load time. This is a basic explanation of how this technique works, but it isn’t the complete one. The whole process is little tricky, and we shouldn’t go that path unless we both move into the development.

We just want to speed up our website, right? So, we just need to look for a plugin that is perfect in doing caching and good enough to decrease the average page load time.

Important – If you are not experiencing better results, particularly the one you expected, then you need to upgrade the hosting account. Choose VPS or at least try using CDN network. But, I will recommend you going that pricier path only if your website is receiving huge traffic. I mean in thousands of numbers on the daily basis.

Best WordPress Caching Plugins

For your ease, I’ve arranged the best cache plugin options we have in ascending order according to their popularity and performance. So, here I start with the best WordPress caching plugins you can use.

#1 WP Super Cache

If any theme or plugin or anything is recommended by WordPress core developer team, then we have no doubt using it, right? Well, that’s the story with our first choice named WP Super Cache. It is recommended in the WordPress codex, and it works just like it promises to.

Installing it is pretty simple, and you get a bunch of tools to enable and disable, thus, setting the caching technology at its higher possible level. A lot of tools within the plugin are technical and you shouldn’t ON/OFF them without doing prior research and gaining related knowledge.

The caching option is clearly visible, and you need to enable it at the very first moment. All related settings will be found under Easy tab itself. As I said, you will also find certain advanced tabs over there.

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#2 W3 Total Cache

The second plugin of my choice is W3 Total Cache, and it comes with certain handy tools that can make your website feel flying. It can optimize not only static pages but also certain dynamic content that is probably written in JavaScript and other related web programming languages.

Adding it up and enabling the cache mechanism is a piece of cake but I won’t recommend you to go along the Advance options without prior knowledge. Thankfully, there are details available regarding every setting you wish to check and use.

If you just wish to enable basic things, then there is one single option that can be clicked and whoa, the best caching features will be live at your website, thus, reducing the page load time by half (approximately). You should try it out!

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#3 WP Rocket (Paid)

In case if you love only the paid solutions and never trust the free ones, then WP Rocket is the one for you. For a single website, you need to pay $49 to use it, and it comes with simple and more like same interface as of above two options we have discussed.

Because of being a paid plugin, it offers certain advanced features like CDN integration, DNS prefetching, etc. But, the basic tool is itself good enough to reduce the page load time by 50% straight. Yes, it does come with proper support.

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#4 Borlabs Cache

For the sake of change, have a look at our next option that comes with fragmented caching capabilities. Once enabled, it works like a champ. It certainly still has the advanced options that were there in every above case, and it does the job it was built for.

The other unique features of Borlabs Cache include security headers with XSS-protection, view cache pages and get stats about them page, cache preloading, and cache presets with different settings for every type of website.

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#5 WordPress Cache Enabler

WordPress Cache Enabler is a great caching plugin for WordPress users looking to speed up their sites without bogging down their performance by installing bulky plugins. This lightweight caching plugin from KeyCDN creates static HTML files and stores them on the servers disk, meaning your site will load and operate faster than ever before. 

The company not only offers this plugin, but also offers full-blown CDN services at very low rates, helping users take speed to an entirely new level. If you’re looking to speed up your site, definitely take this resource for a test drive.

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Over to You

Most of them will have CDN feature enabled within, which will not be activated by default unless you purchase a CDN plan. But, it is better to have an inbuilt option for that extra technical gimmick to increase the speed of your website, right?

I hope it is all clear that which plugin you need to choose and how you can install and activate them. Make sure that you are downloading the plugin package from the links I have added (because they are all from official developer websites) or install them directly within Dashboard (move into Plugins > Add New, and now search for the name.

Do let me know which one you are finally using. One important thing that you need to check before clicking the ‘install’ button is whether or not the plugin is compatible with the WordPress version your blog is running on.

In case of any assistance, write to us in the discussion section and we will do our best to come up with a related solution. Peace.

*last updated 01/02/2021