I’ve been a WordPress user for over a decade and back at the beginning of my first WP blog (around 2010), I did a comparison between at the time most popular WordPress Caching plugins, and various caching methods: APC, XCache, and eAccelerator.
Most of those plugins are long dead but some of their functions still live in the Caching plugins that We use even today.
In this post, I will test the most popular WordPress Caching Plugins and try to make the comparison comprehensive. Before starting I would like to emphasize that besides speed you should concentrate more on UX design and relevant content.
The test environment:
VPS specifications:
- 4 GB RAM
- 4 CPU cores @3.20GHz
- 10GB Disk Space – 24 MB/s Disk IO & 3000 IOPS
- 500 Mbps upload /500 Mbps download
How the tests will be run?
I purchase a small VPS, then install and configured cPanel on it. Added a domain name demo.wpxss.com and install WordPress on it. Set the default theme and install dummy data using the FakerPress plugin. Then install WP Caching plugins one by one and measure their response time using loader.io (250 clients, 1-min duration, and 10-sec timeout). After each test, the website is restored from a backup so that no database optimization or any code inside .htaccess is leftover from the previous plugin.
I will be running tests on a small WordPress blog, these plugins may have different results on Shops or other types of websites.
The results!
WordPress Caching Plugins Comparisons
These results are quite interesting and actually shocked me a little bit. I’ve considered the LiteSpeed Cache plugin to be the best and even use it on all my websites. But turns out that even though it is still one of the best WordPress caching plugins, for blogs WP Fastest Cache plugin is outperforming him.
| Caching Plugin | Avg Response Time |
|---|---|
| WP Fastest Cache | 240 ms |
| LiteSpeed Cache | 242 ms |
| WP-Optimize | 248 ms |
| Breeze | 252 ms |
| WP Super Cache | 336 ms |
| WP Rocket | 358 ms |
| 10Web Booster | 365 ms |
| Perfmaters | 388 ms |
| FlyPress | 408 ms |
| Autoptimize | 424 ms |
| W3 Total Cache | 438 ms |
| SiteGround Optimizer | 449 ms |
Free WordPress Caching Plugins
At this time I will only test the top 10 most used WordPress Caching Plugins. New plugins might be added later to the list.
LiteSpeed Cache Plugin
Min 242 / Max 622 ms – Average response time was 242 ms
LiteSpeed plugin had a big spike in the beginning but the average time is better and less data is
Plugin settings:
Autoptimize Cache Plugin
Min 366 / Max 528 ms – Average response time was 424 ms
Every option is enabled, including Shortpixel global CDN
Plugin Settings:
W3 Total Cache
Min 363 / Max 705 ms – Average response time was 438 ms
Every option is enabled, including Memcached
Plugin Settings:
WP Fastest Cache
Min 220 / Max 562 ms – Average response time was 240 ms
All options enabled, including Cloudflare CDN
WP-Optimize
Min 227 / Max 541 ms – Average response time was 248 ms
SiteGround Optimizer
Min 380 / Max 529 ms – Average response time was 449 ms
Some features could not be activated because they work only on Siteground hosting.
Breeze
Min 231 / Max 550 ms – Average response time was 252 ms
Breeze is another caching plugin that was built by a hosting company – Cloudways and as such not all options can be used on other hosting providers. All options except Varnish and CDN are active.
10Web Booster
Min 337 / Max 724 ms – Average response time was 365 ms
All available plugin settings are active
WP Super Cache
Min 275 ms / Max 588 ms – Average response time was 336 ms
Premium WordPress Cache Plugins
- WP Rocket
- FlyPress
- Perfmaters
WP Rocket
Min 332 ms / Max 554 ms – Average response time was 358 ms
FlyPress
Min 408 ms / Max 511 ms – Average response time was 408 ms
Perfmaters
Min 343 ms / Max 494 ms – Average response time was 388 ms
