Are you searching for such a plugin to speed up a website?
If you want to reduce your page loading times, you must add a WordPress speed optimization plugin in your WordPress site.
WordPress speed optimization plugins are used to make changes by providing so many features to the backend portion of your site to boost your site’s performance. This can be image optimization.
If your website is slow then you must look forward to a speed optimization plugin that can engage your site’s visitors in a large proportion.
In this article, we will introduce with you the top 10 plugins to speed up your website.
Why Do You Need Plugins for WordPress Speed Optimization?
One of the most important facts for being on the first page of the search engines is speeding up your website. It not only enhances user experience but also optimizes your website for search engines.
There are several WordPress plugins available to speed up websites. Aside from this, there are other ways to speed up your WordPress sites, like lazy loading and image optimization plugins. These functions are offered by many WordPress performance plugins, making it simple to speed up and improve the performance of your website.
The whole list of WordPress speed improvement plugins is available here.
10 best speed optimization plugins for your WordPress site
There are so many WordPress Speed Optimization plugins available. Each plugin has significant features and functions. For your website’s betterment, you must select the most efficient one among them. For this, you need to have some information about those plugins.
For your convenience, we have listed some WordPress plugins for the optimization process.
1. Next3 Offload
To speed up your website, offload your media to Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, or Google Cloud Storage. Offload your Existing Media Library to Cloud, then rewrite URLs. Here is the best solution that will assist you in getting your WordPress Media Library offloaded as quickly as possible to Cloud using Next3 Offload.
Using the Next3 offload, you can upload files, create buckets, directories, and upload different image sizes to Cloud. It also provides a significant effect on your page speed score, which implies that you’ll rank higher in search engines like Google.
Features:
- Offload wp-media files to the cloud.
- Monitor your offload process from the settings page.
- Automatically rewrites URLs.
- Cloud Providers: Amazon AWS, Google Cloud (Upcoming), DigitalOcean Spaces (Upcoming), Wasabi Cloud (Upcoming).
- Control pause and resume process.
- Display percentage(%) of Cloud Storage & Local Storage.
- You can select many files at once and select whether to copy them to cloud storage.
- Delete them from cloud storage, or copy them back from cloud storage to the server.
- Toggle options for move or copy files from the Media Library to the cloud.
- Multiple sizes (Depend on WordPress Media sizes) copy & move local between cloud storage.
- Removes all offloaded media files from the server in the background to clear up storage space.
- Monitor your removing process from the settings page.
- Control pause and resume process.
- Display percentage(%) of Offload files & Local files.
- “A single click” offloaded files loaded into WP Media Library.
- Display into WP Media & Select file for use anywhere into WordPress (Posts, Pages).
- Easily get your offloaded media from cloud.
- There is no need for scripts or the command line.
- Transfer files to a new storage location.
- Add media items that already exist in the cloud.
- Increase the speed with which CSS, JS, Fonts, and other assets are delivered.
- Optimize site speed. So your server is no longer required to serve files like images, zips, PDFs, videos, CSS, and JS.
- Users can use the drag and drop system to upload their most important files.
- The user can upload files via the AWS file management to any directory in WordPress.
Price : $49/Lifetime.
2. WP Rocket
The WP Rocket is one of the most effective WordPress performance plugins. Along with a number of capabilities you probably wouldn’t expect, you get all the caching functionality you’d want.
All of this is contained in the most user-friendly plugin interface I’ve ever seen.WP Rocket makes the setup procedure really simple in comparison to other caching plugins, which seem to require you to study an entire course to figure out how to use them.
It’s quite simple to use. As soon as you install and activate the plugin, 80% of web performance best practices are available. WP Rocket will begin using page caching, browser caching, GZIP compression, etc. in just a few clicks. There’s no need for complicated configuration!
To obtain all of these functions without WP Rocket, you would often need to install three to five additional plugins. The only thing it lacks out of the box is a CDN, but you can purchase RocketCDN, which is directly incorporated in the WP Rocket plugin, for an additional cost.
If you’re looking for a speed optimization plugin that does it all, WP Rocket is definitely worth looking into. I was able to remove three other plugins from one of my sites after installing WP Rocket.
Features:
- User-friendly interface
- Minimal tweaking required for speed improvements
- Minify CSS, HTML and Javascript
- Page caching
- Browser caching
- Gzip compression
- Image lazy loading
- Advanced caching rules
- Database optimization
- CDN integration
- Direct Cloudflare integration
- Google Analytics integration to load the code from your server
- Settings import and export
- Version rollback
- Cloudflare integration
Price: Starts From $49.
3. Perfmatters
Compared to the other WordPress speed optimization plugins on our list, Perfmatters is unique. The plugin disables superfluous WordPress settings that are enabled by default because they can make your site run slowly. So, with the aid of this plugin, you may effortlessly disable utilizing buttons.
You can lower the number of HTTP requests sent to your site by using the plugin, too. They contribute to the slowdown of your website in addition to other things. In addition, it offers a built-in scripts manager tool that enables you to disable scripts individually for each post or page. In order to reduce bot scraping, you also have the option of changing the login URL for your website.
Additionally, you can benefit from performance-improving functions like DNS prefetching, pre-connecting, hosting a local Google Analytics script, and more.
Therefore, you should utilize Perfmatters even if you have a WordPress caching plugin installed
Features:
- Works with your existing caching plugin
- Disable WordPress options that are slowing your site down
- Disable scripts on per page/post basis
- Supports advanced performance-boosting functionality such as DNS prefetch and reconnect
- REST API control
- Lightweight and compatible with other caching plugins
- Optimize your database by cleaning up and deleting unwanted data
- Option to change autosave interval to keep fewer auto-drafts
- Allows you to host Google Analytics locally
Price: Starts from $24.95/year.
4. WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache is one of the top WordPress plugins for speed optimization that focuses on caching. It has amazing features that are balanced with usability.
One of the top WordPress plugins for speed optimization that focuses on caching is WP Fastest Cache. There are a ton of additional features that make this plugin even better. It also offers a straightforward user interface. You have the authority as an admin to remove all cached files, stop or enable caching for logged-in users, block caching for particular posts or pages, and more.
It includes a great assortment of features that are weighed against usability. This plugin’s developer undoubtedly found the ideal balance between some plugins that are really basic and others that are overly advanced. It also provides a simple user interface.
Features:
- Easy to access.
- Minify CSS and HTML
- Set posts/pages to exclude.
- Allows to set expiration times for all posts/pages or certain URL strings
- CDN integration
- Premium version available with extra features
- Offers image optimization and database optimization features
- Setting cache expiration times for URL strings
- Option to exclude certain user/content from caching
- Option for disabling emoji
Price: Free.
5. LiteSpeed Cache
Another WordPress plugin for improving page speed is LiteSpeed Cache, which has a special server-level cache. It supports many sites and offers a variety of optimization capabilities. Additionally, it works with well-known plugins like bbPress, Yoast SEO, and WooCommerce.
It also provides automatic page caching and private caching facilities for logged-in users. Separate caching is also offered for the desktop and mobile displays at the same time. Additionally, LiteSpeed Cache is compatible with the vast majority of widely used themes and plugins.
Features:
- automatic caching of pages.
- There is an API system for simple cache integration.
- There is a crawler with smart preload.
- SEO-friendly sitemap.
Price: Free
6. WP Super Cache
One of the most popular caching plugins for WordPress is WP Super Cache. WP Super Cache is the plugin for you if you’re new to caching or want a straightforward solution. Your WordPress site generates static HTML files, which are smaller and load quicker. And the majority of your users receive these files. Users are those visitors to your website who are not registered or who have not yet posted a comment.
Although it’s simple to set up, skilled users can use various settings to get more out of it.
Features:
- Support for multiple caching types (Mod_Rewrite, PHP, and Legacy)
- Serve static HTML files
- Cache preload
- Enable the “Preload Mode” option to preload your posts.
- Option to disable browser caching for known users on your site.
- Advanced functions such as GZIP compression and browser caching
- To have your material load more quickly, join a CDN.
Price: Free.
7. W3 Total Cache
Another widely used speed-enhancing plugin is W3 Total Cache. W3 Total Cache has a lot of capabilities that can be used to enhance the functionality of your website.
There are several settings available, and different caching techniques are supported.
Advanced support is available for CDN services like Cloudflare.
But in actuality, it’s not the simplest to set up because there are so many possibilities. Furthermore, you risk damaging something if you don’t know what you’re doing. For this reason, I suggest this plugin to experienced users.
It’s also important to note that removing this plugin might be challenging; doing so requires more than simply deactivating and deleting it. It is compatible with database caching, page caching, and browser caching, among others. Additionally, it increases the fundamentals of the web, SEO, and overall website user experience.
Features:
- Database caching and browser caching
- object caching
- compatible with virtual private servers and shared hosting
- Integration of a transparent CDN to speed up your site’s loading
- Support for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
- Maximizes server scaling and supports reverse proxy
Price: Free.
8. WP-Optimize
WP-Optimize is a feature-rich, all-in-one WordPress speed optimization plugin. It focuses on improving the WordPress database and caching your website. Therefore, you may swiftly purge the extra data that is clogging up your database. Additionally, you may acquire the premium version to add extra features like optimization preview, preload key request, slow loading, and so on. You can also compress your photos.
The plugin also makes it possible to asynchronize and minify CSS and JavaScript. The server’s size and the number of requests are decreased due to the built-in minification function, which adds another level of optimization. Additionally, you can cache nearly anything with its powerful cache exclusion rules.
Features:
- Automatic database cleanups
- Caching for individual devices
- There are options for cache preloading, browser caches, and device-specific caches.
- EXIF data-keeping to retain image information is after the image compression.
Price: Free or $49/Year
9. Smush
Smush is a well-rated plugin for WordPress speed optimization that mostly concentrates on image optimization. It mostly works to optimize photos and reduce excess bytes from image files.
Smush employs lossless formats, unlike most programs, thus there won’t be any noticeable differences in quality. Most tools use “lossy” formats, which reduce quality.
It activates the lazy load for images, resizes, compresses, and significantly speeds up the website. The plugin makes sure that the quality of the photographs is never compromised while optimizing the images.
It’s interesting to note that the plugin can simultaneously optimize and compress 50 photos. Similar to this, you can choose a limited width and height to reduce the size of the large photographs while compressing. Additionally, there are no monthly restrictions on the plugin’s ability to optimize the photographs, and it is completely free.
Features:
- Removes any unused color from pictures.
- Removes meta information from JPEGs (this is not required).
- Optimizing the JPEG compression.
- Includes the Smush. It is API integration.
- Select to let the plugin process already-existing photos.
- Automated optimization option
- There are options for both global and personal multi-site configurations.
- Block integration in Gutenberg.
Price: Free.
10. LazyLoad by WP Rocket
The majority of the time, the full page loads when a visitor accesses your website and tries to load a page.
Your loading times may dramatically increase if the website is lengthy and contains a large number of photos.
The truth is that, especially for graphics, which typically take the longest to load, you don’t need the entire page to load at once.
According to the concept of “lazy loading,” certain elements are only loaded when they are required.
WP Rocket developed the WordPress plugin Lazy Load for picture optimization. When users scroll down a page, this plugin only shows images and iframes there. You don’t need to install this plugin if you currently use the WP Rocket plugin;
The Lazy Load plugin is already included in WP Rocket, so if you already use it, there is no need to install it separately.
You may lazy load all of the thumbnails, widget pictures, text, and avatars with the plugin. Additionally, you have the choice to replace YouTube iframes with a preview thumbnail to shorten the time it takes for your website to load.
Features:
- Replaces post thumbnails, photos, etc.
- Because jQuery and Javascript are not used, it is quite lightweight.
- Preview thumbnails can take the place of YouTube iFrames.
- Pages and pictures have the option to deactivate lazy loading.
- The script is under 10 KB in size.
- Automatically lazy load the background images.
Price: Free.
Conclusion
Every successful website needs to improve its speed or performance. If you access a WordPress site, you should quickly enlist the assistance of performance optimization plugins.
All we have to say about the top WordPress performance plugins is that. Therefore, you can pick the plugins based on what your site needs. Don’t worry if you’re still uncertain about which plugins to choose.
