WordPress Optimization

Comparison among wp-rocket , wp super cache , wp fastest cache, autoptimize , w3 total cache, wp-optimize .

WP-Optimize

Whenever WP-Optimize is mentioned, it’s three key aspects usually come to mind – cache, clean, and compress. As one the the leader all-in-one WordPress performance-boosting plugins, WP-Optimize helps to efficiently cache your website, clean it’s database, and compress the images. 

WP-Optimize currently has more than one million active installations, with users from all over the world. It’s impressive reputation, coupled with its all-in-one nature makes it the obvious choice for any WordPress site owner. 

The following are the primary functions of WP-Optimize. .  

Database cleaning 

Nothing slows down your website like redundant files. These can include transients, unnecessary drafts, unpalatable comments, and revision files. Your website needs an effective plugin that will automatically remove this unneeded content without tampering with the integrity of your website. WP-Optimize is about the only plugin that removes trackbacks and pingbacks. 

Image compression

Beyond just compressing the images on your site, you get to determine the degree to which they are compressed. The image optimization feature in WP-Optimize is a cutting edge and leading image optimization platform that works well and it’s easily the best in the WordPress market. One of the best ways you can improve the speed of your site via WP-Optimize is by optimizing your images. This process, which is commonly known as ‘smush’ or ‘smushing’ allows users to optimize, compress and resize all the images on a website, potentially saving many MB per image and improving loading speeds. This feature is available on both the free and premium versions of WP-Optimize.

Lazy Loading

Simply put, lazy load describes the process where a website delays the initialization of components until such a time where they are necessary. This is done to boost the performance of the website and efficiently utilize the system resources. WP-Optimize Premium features this lazy load option and it’s arguably the best one available in the WordPress market. 

Page caching

This feature allows your website to produce a separate batch of files for mobile and generate a separate cache for logged in visitors. Using page caching, WP-Optimize improves the speed and overall performance of the website. 

WP Super Cache

Created by Automattic, WP Super Cache is used primarily to cache a WordPress website. It does this by generating static HTML files that your server displays to people visiting your website. Many developers consider this to be a faster option than processing WordPress PHP scripts. 

The following are some features for this plugin: 

Suited for CDN (Content Delivery Network)

WP Super Cache works perfectly with CDN Networks. CDN allows your WordPress website to be stored on multiple servers all over the world so it can be downloaded from cache by visitors. In turn, this makes your website super fast, even if visitors are far from the origin server. 

Pricing

WP Super Cache only has a free version and can be downloaded from their WP.Org. All its features, as you have seen, are somewhat limited as they are only available on a free version. There is no option for users to upgrade when more features and tools are required.

WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is also a highly popular WordPress caching plugin that is mostly known for its simplicity. Although it also has a free version available for download, the major features most users may require – such as Mobile Cache, Widget Cache, Minify HTML Plus, Minify CSS Plus, Minify JS, Combine JS Plus, Defer Javascript, Optimize Images, Convert WebP, Database Cleanup, Google Fonts Async, and Lazy Load are only available in the premium version. 

The free version is fine to use if you just want to make some quick gains in the loading times for your WordPress site. However, as someone that wants to fully optimize your site, ‘fine’ isn’t the greatest accolade when other plugins can do so much more.

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is another optimization plugin that allows you to speed up your website in a few steps. It ranks among the most functional WordPress website performance plugins in the world. Like most optimization plugins (including WP-Optimize), WP Rocket can help to cut down your load time and boost your Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores. 

W3 Total Cache (W3TC)

Like WP-Optimize, the W3TC plugin also has more than one million active installations. It comes in just behind WP-Optimize in both popularity and has a user review score of 4.5 stars. 

The following are some of its features: 

Minifying

While this often causes some problems for WordPress sites (in which case you have to perform a restore), it can be useful, especially if you are combining JS and CSS files.

Page cache

Although not as effective as WP-Optimize, W3TC also offers page caching when you enable it on your site. Others caching options include Opcode cache, Database cache, Object cache and Browser cache. 

Import & export

Both the free and the premium versions of W3 Total Cache feature import and export options. This option allows you to export your primary settings to your computer and then upload them to other WordPress sites. This can be a very useful feature for businesses with multiple websites. 

Robust feature set

While W3TC has an extensive set of features, this can lead to some confusion for less experienced WordPress users as the menus and multiple options can often be unclear and difficult to understand. 

Autoptimize

Autoptimize is another popular plugin for optimizing your WordPress website. Like WP-Optimize it works by aggregation and caching scripts and styles. Autoptimize will input CSS into the page head by default, as well as inline critical CSS. It will then defer the already aggregated full CSS, move the scripts to the footer and minify HTML. 

It features Google Fonts and image optimization, including Lazy Load with support for Web and AVIF formats. Autoptimize can be a good plugin to install if you want to improve your website’s performance. Like WP-Optimize, Autoptimize also has more than 1 million active Installations but has a lower 4.5 star rating.