Commonly used Caching Plugins & Features for Wordpress in 2021

Nobody likes to visit a site taking too long to open or is slow. Even these get low rankings in SEO. Therefore, you have to figure a way to optimize your WordPress website and the most effortless approach to do it is through WordPress caching extensions.

There are quite a few other methods too but caching has a great impact as this stores the website's static data. Browsers don't need to fetch data from the server each time whenever there is a user on the site cutting burden time essentially. Visitors can get to your site from anywhere. It very well may be a mile away from your web server or can be most of the way over the world from it. Second, your WordPress will contact the site's database where it is installed.

Lets understand Caching first.

Caching

Caching is referred to as the process of recycling the data or information which has been just fetched to accelerate your WordPress sites. It limits the information flow between the user and the database.

It resolves the issue by processing the oftenly used data and storing it in a temporary memory. This allows it to access it quickly from there. It decreases the no. of requests, which in turn diminishes site load time.

Same concept is employed by Wordpress to improve its performance and load time.

In WordPress caching doesn’t go through multiple steps. Instead of going through the entire page every single time, your caching plugin (one you choose) module makes a duplicate of the page after the first load and presents the cached copy to its users.

Types of caching

1) Client Side Caching:

It is the point at which the web browser keeps a cache of all files. This incorporates HTML files, images, Java scripts, and CSS files. You must add caching rules on your website. Setting Cache rules will permit your internet browser to guarantee that there are no progressions made to the data since it was last saved before utilizing the cached copy.

Client side caching is particularly useful with static images as they scarcely change after you have published content, in turn reducing the load time of the website.

2) Server Side Caching:

Server side caching is the data stored by your Wordpress server or your WordPress Caching Plugin will do this job if you are already integrated. This plugin creates a cache of HTML pages that saves all the different elements and components of your site including the header, body content, footer, sidebar, etc. These components will at that point be served to numerous clients through cache.

What's more, your WordPress creates a cache of MySQL database with the goal that it doesn't restore a similar post or article on various occasions. Another feature is Opcode. Earlier all PHP pages were compiled in a single code and opcode saved this compilation which removes the burden on the server and increases the response time.

Importance/ why you need it?

We must have got the idea what caching does to our website. Just generalizing it again

· Caching reduces workload on server

· Enhances Speed and performance of your website.

· Helps save memory and operations

· Improves SERP’s

· Reduce bounce rate and increase average session rate.

Now what Caching plugin does? It generates static HTML pages of your site and saves it to your server and serves this lighter HTML page when requested by the user and it colossally improves your page loading time.

Summing up with the most popular and widely used Plugins :

WP Rocket:

It is the most popular premium caching plugin for WordPress. Ease of configuration is what that sets this apart from others. It is the simplest and beginner friendly plugin, if you don’t understand the technical terms. Your job is done once you install it, automatically initiating the caching with one-click.

This plugin activates WordPress Caching settings page caching, cache- re loading and gzip compression. This also includes other optional features CDN support, DNS prefetching etc.

Currently being installed on 100,000 websites and consistently scores well when compared to other plans.

Features:

• Easy and intuitive setup
• Ultra fast Page caching
• Static file compression through minification
• Image loading on Request which improves loading loading time
• Developer friendly with scalability
• Integrates seamlessly with CloudFlare.
• Google Fonts Optimization minimizes HTTP requests.

W3 Total Cache

This plugin is also one of the most commonly used Plugins. It is a complete WordPress caching plugin with a huge amount of options available which may cause it to seem a bit intimidating for learners. You need to properly set up Wordpress including page caching, gzip compression, limited minification support, CDN support, and more.

If you are thinking of increasing conversion rate and traffic to our site, it's indeed the best choice. It additionally bolsters Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Secure Socket Layer (SSL), including caching of database objects and fragmented disk or memory.

It is trusted by millions of developers, publishers and web hosts for its Web Performance Optimization.

Features

• Improves SEO and user experience
• GZIP compression to optimize web browser rendering.
• Instant browser caching
• Minification and concatenation of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files.
• Support Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to reduce load time and increase performance
• Compatible with CloudFlare.
• Various security features to help ensure website safety

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a standout amongst the other caching plugins which is accessible for WordPress. It makes you work on specific static HTML files by generating from dynamic WordPress blogs. Usually most of the users are served with static HTML pages and nobody is able to see it or even realize.

You can customize your cache settings for better performance and the best part is it's still compatible with the latest versions of Wordpress. Its free caching solution is available which is easy to understand and operate. WorPress hosting companies highly recommend this.

It provides 3 options for decreasing loading time like serving static pages using PHP, Use command mod_rewrite to deliver static pages or use legacy caching mode.

Features

• Separate tab for easy setup and installation
• Page compression and dynamic caching.
• Caching for users via a cell phone.
• Support for Content Delivery Networks (CDN).
• Caching for visitors using a mobile device.
• Scheduler to manage deletion and re-caching at given intervals.

WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is like numerous other caching , however with less customization options simpler for its users to get to hold with. It works similar to WP Supercache generating static HTML pages based on your dynamic WP blog ,saving it into cache. To create these static HTML pages, the plugin uses mod_rewrite. It focuses on easy installation and delivers what it says.

It's updated frequently and is evaluated 4.8 out of 5 stars on the WordPress Plugin Directory.

The premium version of the plugin accompanies a great deal of one of a kind highlights to speed up, similar to image optimization, database cleanup, mobile caching, and a lot more.

Features

• Minify HTML files, CSS, JS
• Mod_Rewrite is utilized
• Optimize images for faster loading
• Automatically deletes cache files when a post or page is published
• Supports CDN and SSL
• Enable/Disable cache option for mobile devices and logged-in users
• Block cache for specific page or post with Short Code

Cosmet Cache

This almost has above 50,000 installations all over the globe. It’s a great deal if you own an ecommerce site or any other which requires users to register as it comes with the ability to cache logged in users too.

Every post, category or link is cached by taking real time snapshots. This plugin uses advanced techniques to determine when it ought to send a cached version and when it shouldn’t

Its successor is a plugin to ZenCache. Install, activate and all set work. It offers caching configuration to customize and other advanced features if opted for the premium version.

Features:

• Simple easy configuration
• A Dynamic Version Salt (customize the caching engine).
• Options to control the automatic cache clearing behavior for Home and Posts Page, Author Page, Category, Tag, and Custom Term Archives, Custom Post Type Archives, RSS/RDF/ATOM Feeds, and XML Sitemaps.
• The ability to cache or ignore URLs that contain query strings (GET Requests).
• Apache Optimizations to enable GZIP Compression.
• WP-CLI Compatibility.
• User agent, HTTP, URI referrer exclusion patterns.
• Set automatic expiration times for cache files.

Cache Enabler

It’s a lightweight caching plugin which requires minimal configuration and comes with all necessary features that you might be needing. It creates static HTML pages just like others but serves its users only upon request.

This plugin enables its users to serve WebP pictures without JavaScript. When a file is requested, the server delivers a static HTML file while avoiding all backend processes. It drastically speeds up, brings about lower page load times and improves performance of your WordPress installation.

Features

• Effective and fast disk cache engine for faster caching
• Displays real cache sizes over dashboard
• Minification of HTML and JS
• WebP Support (when it is combined with Optimus)
• HTTP/2 focused