Disclosure: CyberNaira content is reader-supported. This means if you make purchases through our affiliate links, we may earned commission but at no additional cost to you.
A slow and unoptimized website is wrong for users, conversion, and, consequently, loss of sales and revenue. You will lose your customers and readers to your competitors if it takes more than 4 seconds for pages to load.
The good news is that there are several best cache plugins for WordPress users with one-click speed and performance optimization solutions to improve page speed effortlessly.
Some of these plugins are free, while others are premium only.
Depending on your situation, you might prefer the free options or premium plugins like WP Rocket and NitroPack.
These plugins offer more hands-on and advanced solutions and are easier for beginners to set up.
They provide cache functions, optimize website performance, and resolve speed issues, improving its Core Web Vitals scores and page experience.
Before diving into the six best WordPress caching plugins, let’s define cache in website performance.
Note: Use the table of contents link on the sidebar to jump to your desired section if you’re in a hurry. Alternatively, check out the WP Rocket Spring sale promotion for a 20% discount. It is a time-limited offer. So check it out now.
What is Cache?
A cache is a temporary, unique data storage space for storing static files that makes website contents, apps, devices, or browsers load content faster and more efficiently.
When you visit a website, you use an app or device for the first time, and the cache system stores a copy of the content to your web browser, app, or device.
The next time you visit the website or use the app and request the same content URL, the cached page/content is served instead of a live version of the URL.
This process makes retrieving and downloading the content faster and improves the user experience.
Why Does Cache Matter to WordPress Websites?
The same concept of caching described above is also used in WordPress websites to improve page speed and optimize performance.
By default, WordPress is a dynamic content management system that runs many steps to serve users the information they need from your WordPress website database.
The process WordPress runs to serve users your website content makes the loading of web pages slower, especially when many users request information simultaneously.
This is where a caching plugin comes in handy to help skip a lot of the process and make WordPress pages load extremely fast.
Instead of WordPress going through all the serving processes for every web page request, the caching plugin copies the web page after the first visit; it then serves the cached copy on every subsequent visit.
This reduces the load on your web host servers, significantly reduces page loading time, and improves user experience.
On top of that, faster web pages mean more search engine traffic, leads, low bounce rate, and, consequently, more revenue generation.
With that said, let’s explore some of the best cache plugins for WordPress blogs in 2023.
1. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the best cache plugin for WordPress blogs year after year. Also, it is one of the best cache plugins for woo-commerce websites.
Over 3.7 million WordPress blogs optimized page speed by WP Rocket; this is a number no other WordPress caching plugin comes close to.
Unlike many other caching plugins for WordPress, WP Rocket is beginner-friendly. You don’t need to be tech-savvy to configure the settings for maximum optimization of page speed.
Upon activation, WP Rocket automatically deploys the best WordPress caching settings like Gzip compression, browser cache, page cache, cross-origin supports for web fonts and cache-preloading.
WP Rocket also auto-disables WordPress emojis, optimizes Google font files, auto-detect, and supports third-party WordPress plugins.
While WP Rocket’s main feature is cache, it also includes file, codes, and image optimization features you can turn on/off at will.
These include CSS and Javascript minification, image lazy load, delayed JavaScript execution, CSS delivery optimization, and load JavaScript deferred.
You can A/B test WP Rocket to see how much of a difference it brings to your site speed.
You can do this by appending a query parameter (?nowprocket) to the end of an individual URL on your site. This will render the page without any cache optimization features, just a simple WordPress page.
Before running this experiment on your blog, run a website speed test with tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insight, etc.
This will help you to know if there is any significant improvement in loading speed and website performance after deploying WP Rocket on your website.
WP Rocket is a paid cache plugin for WordPress. No wonder it gives so much more than any other best WordPress cache plugin.
For a single website license with one year of support and updates, WP Rocket costs $59/yr. And for three website licenses with one-year updates and support, you’ll buy for $119/yr.
The Infinite plan, which gives you the license to use WP Rocket on unlimited websites with one year of support and plugin updates, costs $299 annually.
You can learn more about WP Rocket’s settings on this page. You can also check out my full WP Rocket review on this page.
2. NitroPack
NitroPack is another top WordPress speed optimization plugin that effectively improves speed and performance and passes Google Core Web vitals without much effort.
It’s an all-in-one website performance optimization solution that includes image optimization, built-in CDN, cache, HTML optimization, etc.
The free version allows you up to 5,000 monthly pageviews of resource usage and a maximum of 1GB CDN bandwidth. This is ideal for small or low-traffic websites. You need a NitroPack premium plan if you drive more monthly website traffic and want to use NitroPack.
Without additional settings upon activation, the plugin activates the image lazy loading, CSS, HTML, JS optimization, cache pre-warm up, lazy load for iframe, global CDN, critical CSS, and more.
Moreover, NitroPack optimizes ad scripts on your site, providing optimized performance for third-party codes. It also lets you exclude files and URLs from optimization and minify, giving you control over what pages and resources to optimize.
NitroPack top features include:
- Advanced cache system ( smart cache, device and cookie cache, browser and session-aware cache, and more)
- Complete image optimization, including lazy loading, adaptive image resizing, and WebP conversion.
- Built-in global CDN powered by Cloudflare.
- HTML, CSS, and JavaScript optimization (minification, delay, render blocking, etc.)
- Defer loading of JS files.
- And more.
Check out my NitroPack review for more information on the plugin’s extensive features and optimization capability.
The NitroPack plan costs $17.50 monthly, allowing up to 50k pageviews, 25GB CDN bandwidth, 3 team members, and one website.
The Growth Plan costs $42.50 for month-to-month billing, allows 200k monthly pageviews, 100GB CDN bandwidth, plus up to 10 additional team members.
The Sacle Plan, which allows up to 1 million page views per month for resource usage, 500GB CDN monthly bandwidth, and unlimited team members, costs $147.67 monthly.
NitroPack Growth and Scale Plans include adaptive image resizing features.
3. W3 Total Cache
One of the popular free WordPress plugins is W3 Total Cache, a comprehensive cache plugin with lots of settings to play with created by BoldGrid.
However, configuring the W3 Total cache can be a bit confusing for beginners. It includes most of the features you’ll expect from a free WordPress caching plugin.
W3 Total cache-free features include page cache, object cache, browser cache, and limited support for CDN (content delivery networks).
While W3 Total Cache is a free cache plugin, you can enjoy limited features in the free version.
If you upgrade to W3 Total Cache Pro, you’ll get cache and performance features for your money.
In the W3 Total Cache pro version, cache and performance features include:
- Fragments cache
- Full site delivery via CDN
- WordPress rest API caching
- Eliminating render-blocking CSS
- AMP supports
- Genesis framework support
- Tickets support
- WPLM extension
You can find the W3 Total Cache Pro features on this page.
Upgrading to W3 Total Cache Pro does not automatically enable the pro features; it only unlocks the elements in the plugin.
It does not auto-configure each cache and performance feature like WP Rocket.
You still have to configure each cache and performance feature manually. If you can’t do it yourself, the W3 Total cache support team will do it for you.
It costs $99/yr for the W3 total cache pro license key.
You’ll have to purchase a separate license key for each website if you need to use the W3 total cache on multiple websites. In a WordPress multi-site, you can use a single website license on all websites.
4. WP Fastest Cache
With over 1,000,000 active installs, WP Fastest Cache is one of WordPress blogs’ most popular cache plugins.
Unlike many other cache plugins in this list, WP Fastest cache has fewer configuration settings. This makes it one of the best WP cache plugins for beginner WordPress users.
You can combine and minify CSS and JavaScript files into one file to reduce the number of HTTP requests on your site.
WP Fastest cache is rated five stars on the WordPress.org plugin directory. It is frequently updated, too. WP Fastest cache has a free version anyone can use.
The pro version offers lots more than just a primary cache function.
Pricing starts at $49.99 per 1 website license. This is the bronze plan. The Silver plan license allows you to use the WP Fastest cache on three websites. And it costs $125 for a one-time fee.
If you want to use WP Fastest cache on up to 5 websites, the product costs $175.
WP’s Fastest cache pricing advantage is that you only pay a one-time fee and use it forever. There is no yearly renewal fee like other plugins on this list. Check out the WP Fastest cache here.
5. Comet Cache
Comet cache is one of the best free WordPress caching plugins on this list. It is the successor cache plugin to Zen cache by the same WordPress developers – WP Sharks.
Comet cache is more beginner-friendly than any other cache plugin here. Fully plug and play. You only need to install and activate the plugin; no rigorous or complicated configuration is required.
Comet cache is one of the most popular WordPress caching plugins in the WordPress plugin repository. The cache plugin is popular among WordPress users, with over 60,000 active installs and 4.5 average ratings.
Comet cache takes a real-time snapshot of your WordPress pages, posts, links, tags, and category pages.
It stored these snapshots for faster retrieval at each request. This helps to save WordPress all the data processing steps. It improves the user experience, reduces server load, and serves static pages faster.
The free version of Comet cache comes fully packed with features you’d expect from any other cache plugin. All cache features include:
- Page cache
- client-side cache
- 404 cache
- automatic cache expiration time
- RSS and Atom feed caching
- And lots more you can find on the WordPress download page
Comet Cache Pro has more advanced cache features and settings if you need more cache and performance features.
For a single WordPress site license, Comet Cache Pro costs $39. Comet cache three WordPress site licenses cost $99, while an unlimited WordPress site license costs $139.
All Comet cache pro license is a one-time payment. You only need to pay once and use the products forever.
Your purchase of Comet Cache only covers up to 3 years of support, lifetime uses of the plugin, and updates. Comet cache pro comes with lots of advanced features such as:
- CDN supports
- Ajax clear cache button
- HTML compression button
- Option to cache logged-in users
- Automatic updates
- Auto cache engine (cache preloading)
- GZIP Compression
- WP-CLI compatibility
- Translation compatibility
- Leverage browser caching
- User-based role explicit cache permission
- Domain Sharding/multiple CDN host
- Server load monitor
- WordPress multi-site.
6. WP Super Cache
2+ million active installations?
Yes!
WP Super cache is arguably one of the best free WordPress cache plugins. It is brought to you by the same people who gave you WordPress- Automattic.
Like any other WordPress caching plugin, WP super cache generates static HTML files of your dynamic WordPress pages.
When a user requests the server, your web server will generate static HTML files instead of WordPress processing PHP database requests.
This significantly speeds up page load time, reduces latency, and serves cached pages thousands of times to your site’s visitors.
By default, users without leaving comments on your blog do not have to view password-protected pages. Users who are not logged in will be served the static-generated HTML pages.
WP Super cache is not beginners friendly. Configuring the plugins to work with your site requires a few tech skills.
The plugin works in 3 ways to serve users the cached file or pages and by speed:
- Expert
- Simple
- WP-cache caching
The expert mode uses the Apache mod_rewrite. Or a similar module your web server uses to serve “static” HTML files.
This is the fastest and completely bypasses the PHP database call. However, editing the h.access file is required.
You could break your site altogether if you don’t know what you’re doing here. The Simple mode is the recommended way to use the plugin. It doesn’t modify the h.access file.
Like the expert mode, it requires a custom permalink, and a portion of your WordPress pages is served dynamically.
WP-Cache caches pages for logged-in users, registered comments authors, or URLs with parameters.
If super caching is disabled in the WP Super cache, WP-cache also caches pages for unknown users. It is the most flexible cache option but is a bit slower than the expert and simple modes.
WP super cache is an utterly free-to-use plugin. But this does not take away its quality as a dependable free WordPress cache plugin.
The plugin integrates the OSSDL CDN off-linker to support most CDN services.
Conclusion…
While several caching plugins exist in the WordPress directory, your website needs only one.
I intend to help you simplify the search process for the best WordPress cache plugins.
Although there are still a handful of good cache plugins for WordPress blogs like Autotomize, many of these plugins’ functions do not cache.
Many of these plugins focus on file minification, image optimization, etc.
The 6 WordPress caching plugins listed here are suitable for every WordPress blog. I’ll advise you to go for WP Rocket if you want my recommendation.
WP Rocket offers more for page speed improvement and performance as a premium WordPress plugin than any other cache plugin in the market.
If you have any questions regarding the caching plugins listed here, please reach out via the comment box below.
Hey SHAMSUDEEN ,
Awesome post with fabulous work. Glad to say that you have shortlisted the best cache plugins for WordPress users and to boost the site speed. You have introduced each plugins impressively along with their features and every necessary details that are true enough to understand. Yes cache plugins are so important to boost the site speed and also it provides good advantages. While scrolling through your post i have noticed that you have also discussed about cache and its importance in website performance that are also providing a good understanding. Your each listed plugins are effective to use but according to me WP Rocket, W3 total cache, WP super cache & WP fastest cache are good options to use and favorite of mine among the list. Using these plugins will helps a lot and will effectively boost the site speed & performance as well. Every WordPress-user should have a cache plugin.
After going through this complete guide i got ideas and am sure that this post will surely help lots of people, readers and especially WordPress-users who are looking for the best cache plugins to use. This is a perfect post to know about various WordPress cache plugins. Fantastic work and keep sharing more similar post.
Eventually thanks for sharing your knowledge and such an informative post.
Regards
-Aadarsh
Hi, Aadarsh,
Thanks for adding your voice to this post.
As you rightly said, WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, and WP Fastest Cache are top on the list for many WordPress users.
Having a good cache plugin for your WordPress blog is not an option anymore, it’s now a necessity and something every WordPress blog owner should take seriously.
Thanks for reading through, Aadarsh.
Shamsudeen,
I have been using WPRocket premium – it really makes difference in optimizing the WordPress sites for greater speed and performance. Anyways, great list of WordPress caching plug-ins here!
Hi, Jenna,
Glad to read WP Rocket made the difference in improving page speed and boost performance for your site. Thanks for reading through, Jenna.
Hi Shamsudeen!
I’ve been familiar with these plugins for a while now, but I always like reading over articles like these to see if anything’s changed, or if I can learn something new. This time I did!
When I picked a caching plugin several years ago, WP Rocket was around and recommended by just about everyone, however it scored lower in speed tests than WP Fastest Cache (which is what I ended up going with.) WP Rocket still might have been the most recommended, but it was pretty universally agreed in marketing circles that this was only because of their generous affiliate program and not because it was actually the best plugin out there.
Out of curiosity I looked for updated data after reading this post and independent tests are now placing WP Rocket above the others in speed test comparisons. I’m glad to see that they’ve continued investing in it and it actually may be the best caching plugin now!
– James McAllister
Hey, James,
Good to have you around here once again and many thanks for providing an unbias “short” review of WP Rocket and WP Fastest Cache.
Yes, a few years ago when WP Rocket was launched, it wasn’t the best cache plugin out there for speed and performance. Over the years, the WP Media team had done greats works improving the WP Rocket plugin for speed and performance. I think that has paid off well.
Now I see many big outlets, mainstream media houses, blogs, and many top digital marketers using and recommending WP Rocket above other cache plugins.
These are not affiliates, and of course, not in the position to receive incentives for endorsing a product.
Thanks, James, glad you find this helpful.
Wp Rocket is a great product with great customer support. I have been using it for the last two years and is the best plugin I have found for caching.
Hi, Nardi,
As an only premium Cache plugin, one could only expect nothing less than the best from WP Rocket. Thanks for your time here, Nardi.
Shamsudeen,
I have been using WP Super Cache. I loved it!
Hi, Sai,
WP Super Cache is good, too. Glad to read you loved it.
Hii,
Amazing article!
Wp Rocket is a great cach plugin with great customer support. I have been using it for the last 6 months and is the best plugin I have found for caching.
Thanks.
Hi,Ashwdeep,
Glad you find WPRocket a great caching plugin for WordPress blogs. Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you around some other time.
Hi Shamsudeen.
My compliments on an excellent post highlighting WP cache plugins.
Ive been ussing WP Rocket in combination with autoptimize to try and obtain the the elusive “page loads in 1 second” mark.
Hopefully this target will eventually be obtained
Hi, Mark,
The combination you chose is a good one – WP Rocket with Autoptiize – let me know how it helps improve overall site speed and performance.
Thanks, Mark.
Wonderful article!
With excellent customer support, WP Rocket is a fantastic caching plugin. For the past six months, I have been using it, and it is the greatest caching plugin I have found.
Thank you.
Hi, James,
Glad you find WP Rocket helpful. Thanks for sharing your experience.