5 Cherry-picked WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins to Level up your Website

Tired of your slow loading WordPress website and not-so-good ranking in search engines? Here we are to provide you 5 best WordPress speed optimization plugins to improve your ranking and loading time.

Now if you are a newbie you might be wondering what WordPress actually is?

Here is a quick answer. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) which helps the users to build websites. It contains build-in architecture and template designs allowing customization of the website, blog or online store. Powerful platform and flexible features make it easy to use. Almost 43% of the web is built on WordPress which makes it the world’s most popular website builder.

The actual question arises here, why do you need WordPress speed optimization plugins?

Well, multimedia including photos, videos etc. make a website heavier to load and affect the overall user experience. For this purpose, WordPress speed optimization plugins are used which combine and compress the data for quicker delivery. They help to reduce the loading time, improve search engine optimization (SEO) and increase overall efficiency.

Here is the list of 10 cherry-picked WordPress speed optimization plugins for your website to stand out;

01. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress speed optimization plugin with highly efficient performance. All of the caching functionality and plethora of other features are offered by it. Few performance optimization techniques include Gzip compression, page and browser caching.

It also provides some unique features. For instance, you get image lazy loading, database optimization, and the ability to host Google Analytics code on your own website. Hence, no need to add extra plugins for these functions, WP Rocket has it all covered for you.

This user-friendly platform is a perfect choice for beginners as it is simple and easy to use. Plus, it also minimizes compatibility issues by offering all-in-one plugin. Below are some of the features of WP Rocket;

• Cache pre-load
• Minification
• Advanced caching rules
• Database optimization
• CDN integration
• Cloudflare integration
• Host tracking scripts locally 
• Delay JavaScript execution time
• Version rollback

Price Range: Starting from $49

02. Perfmatters

Perfmatters is a unique plugin that works by disabling unnecessary scripts that slow down a site. It helps you disable a lot of automatic settings in WordPress that are not necessarily required and slows the speed. This light-weight platform provides a minimal dashboard with one-click toggles, means no admin menu clutter. No need to be tech-savvy to use it, goes well for beginners as well as professionals.

It works by reducing HTTP requests, stripping out code and optimizing your database. Some of the performance boosting features like DNS prefetch, preconnect, local Google Analytics script hosting etc. can also be accessed via Perfmatters. It also work wonders with some other caching plugin showing no compatibility issues.

Below are some of the features of Perfmatters;

• Disable scripts on per page or per post basis
• Disable extra WordPress options
• Advanced performance boosting functionality
• DNS prefetching and preconnecting
• Host analytics locally 
• Lazy load images
• REST API control
• Heartbeat control

Price Range: Starting from $24.95

03. NitroPack

NitroPack is one of the best speed solution optimizing thousands of websites. It has an advanced caching mechanism that simplifies the process of speeding up sites.

You just have to add the website and install the connector plugin. Rest will be handled by NitroPack. It starts optimizing the site automatically by applying Minification, compression, DNS prefetch, global CDN, deferring JavaScript. All of these changes can improve time to first byte (TTFB), minimize main-thread work, and improve your Web Core Vitals.

Here are some of the features of NitroPack;

• Page, browser and other caching types
• Complete image optimization stack
• Advanced lazy loading, preemptive image sizing
• Built-in global CDN
• CSS minification and compression
• JS minification and compression
• HTML minification and compression
• DNS prefetching and preloading

Price Range: Free plan (adds ‘powered by’ watermark in the website footer) Paid Plan (remove the badge offering more features)

04. WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is one of the best-rated and free of cost WordPress speed optimization plugins. It is the most popular plugin at WordPress.org. The main focus of this platform is caching and it is super easy to get started within minutes.

Here are some of the features of WP Fastest Cache;

• Browser caching
• Gzip compression
• Minify CSS & HTML
• CDN integration
• Premium version has some extra features like;
• Database optimization
• Image optimization
• Mobile & Widget cache
• Advanced minification
• Render blocking JS
• Cache statistics
• Google fonts Async
• Lazy load

Price Range: Free (Premium version starting from $59)

05. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is yet another handy plugin to optimize speed of your website. It is created by ‘Automattic’, the owner and operator of WordPress. The top feature of this WordPress speed optimization plugin is that it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy.

This plugin generates static HTML files from the webpage or a blog. After that, your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier WordPress PHP scripts.

Some of its features are mentioned below;

• Support multiple cache types
• Serve static HTML files
• Cache preload
• Gzip compression
• CDN support

Price Range: Totally Free

All set to choose the best plugin!

After getting the overview of the best WordPress speed optimization plugins, now you are in a position to make a choice. You can select any one of these that suits your website requirement and budget. It will definitely enhance the loading speed and help to upgrade your site, blog, online brand or shop.

As a final word, I would say that WP Rocket and Perfmatters are for sure the best plugins and will cover up each and everything for you. Keeping in mind that all comfort comes with a price you can go for these.

Anyhow if you find them a bit expensive, then WP fastest Cache is a great choice especially for beginners.