10 Best WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins in 2023
Last Updated on 14th March 2023 by Ajmer Singh
Are you looking for the best WordPress speed optimization plugins for your site or ways to speed up your WordPress site?
Either way, we got you covered.
In this guide, we will share the best speed optimization plugins to speed up your WordPress site and boost performance.
Why is site speed so important?
Speed is a great deal when it comes to user experience and SEO.
Internet users tend to leave sites with a slow page load and this, in turn, leads to a high bounce rate, loss of traffic and sales to site owners.
In addition to this, page load speed is also a metric Google puts into consideration when ranking sites on SERPs.
This is because a good site speed equals a good user experience, and a poor site speed equals poor user experience respectively.
Typically if your web page loads under three seconds, we can say you are doing well, anything above that leads to a poor user experience.
So you would want to work on your page load speed and performance.
Having said all that, let’s take a look at the best speed optimization plugins.
Best Speed optimization plugins for WordPress!
1. WP rocket
WP rocket stands as the best speed optimization plugin of all time.
It is one of the easiest to use optimization plugins of all time. You do not need any caching knowledge to set it up.
The plugin comes with all the caching functionality you can expect from a speed optimization plugin.
In addition to this, the plugin comes with extra features such as lazy load of images, database optimization, CDN support, Google analytics integration, and much more.
With just one click, users can speed up and boost the performance of their sites and page.
The only downside of this plugin is that it only has a premium plan.
Features
- Page caching
- Browser caching
- Lazy load of images
- CDN integration
- Database optimization
- User-friendly interface
- Minification
Pricing
It starts at $49 yearly.
2. W3 total cache
W3 total cache plugin is one of the most popular speed optimization plugins for WordPress sites.
It has tons of features that you will need to set up your WordPress cache.
It is more complicated than all the plugins I will be listing here, hence, I do not recommend it for beginners.
But if you are an advanced user or a developer who is interested in every aspect of caching on your site, I recommend the W3 total cache plugin.
Features
- AMP support
- CDN support
- Minifying
- Database caching
- Browser caching
- SSL support
- Mobile support and much more
Pricing
It is free.
3. WP Super Cache
WP super cache is another caching plugin for WordPress.
It is simple, easy, and straightforward and has all the caching features needed to speed up your site and boost performance.
Also, the plugin has a separate tab for advanced settings which include Gzip compression, browser caching, and a lot more.
Pricing
It is 100% free.
4. Perfmatters
Perfmatters takes a different approach when it comes to optimizing your site’s speed and performance.
WordPress comes with some options that aren’t needed for most sites and this option slows down the site’s page load speed.
What perfmatters does is disable this option with a few clicks.
It has a powerful script manager that allows you to load JavaScript/CSS on specific pages, this, in turn, leads to an increase in page speed.
In addition to this, the perfmatters come with features for boosting site performance.
For example, the DNS prefetch, preconnect, and much more.
Features
- DNS prefetching
- Lazyload images
- Disable the heartbeat API option
- Limit post revision
- Disable comment and URL
- Database optimization
- Host Google analytics locally and much more.
Pricing
It cost $24.95 for a single site.
5. WP Fastest Cache
WP fastest cache is an easy-to-use plugin with tons of great features you can use to cache your WordPress site.
The plugin falls in the middle when it comes to how basic or advanced its setup is.
To set up the plugin, simply install, activate and walk through the entire settings of the plugin after which you click on ‘save’.
Features
- SSL support
- CDN support
- Minify CSS and HTML
- Easy configuration
- Database optimization
- Image optimization
- Browser caching
- Gzip compression and much more
Pricing
It is free, but it has a premium version that costs $49.99.
6. Smush
Smush is also one of the best speed optimization plugins that optimize images by removing unnecessary bytes from the image files.
One unique thing about Smush is that the quality of the image remains even after removing unnecessary bytes.
The downside of this plugin is that it is buggy, you will need to debug your site once you install this plugin.
7. WP-Optimize
The WP-Optimize is an all-in-one plugin with a variety of functionality.
It initially started out as a database optimization plugin before it fully became a speed optimization plugin for WordPress sites.
It functions by cleaning your database, caching your site, and compressing images.
Features
- Minify CSS and JavaScript
- Gzip compression
- Browser Cache
- Compress image
- Database optimization
- Image optimization
Pricing
It has a free version and a premium version starting at $49 per year.
8. Autoptimize
The Autoptimize plugin is a free plugin that is focused on optimizing your site’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
It minifies CSS, HTML, and JavaScript without affecting the functionality of your site’s code.
The plugin combines a variety of files into a single file, hence, reducing the number of requests on your site.
It also lazy loads images, async non aggregated Javascript, and much more.
If you are interested in page caching, Autoptimize isn’t the best option for you as they don’t have page caching features.
However, you can make use of any of the plugins listed in this post.
Pricing
Free
9. Lazy load by WP Rocket
When visitors visit your website and try to load a page, loading the entire page takes time due to the images present on the page.
In the real sense, you don’t need all of the pages to load.
What the lazy load plugin does is load only the elements needed this, in turn, reduces the number of HTTP request and improve page load time.
The plugin also allows you to easily replace YouTube iframes with a preview thumbnail and this, in turn, optimizes the speed of your site.
Pricing
It is free.
10. WP super minify
WP Super minify performs speed optimization by combining, minifying, and caching JavaScript and CSS files serving them to visitors as a single file
This plugin often has compatibility issues with some themes and plugins so be careful during the setup.
If there is any conflict issue, the plugin allows you to disable the compression of JavaScript and CSS
Features
- Combines, minify, caches, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML
- Ease of use
- Option to disable compression of Javascript/CSS
Circumspectly, there is more to WordPress performance than installing plugins.
This is because speed optimization plugins on the front-end of your site and that is not the end to speed optimization.
To enhance a better speed optimization of your site, you will need a very good hosting provider like cloudways.
Cloudways adopt the use of recent technology to boost the performance of sites hosted with them.
In addition to this, you will also need a fast-loading theme like Themify ultra for better performance of your site.
Conclusion
Choosing the best WordPress speed optimization plugins depends on your needs and how well any of these listed plugins meet your needs.
You shouldn’t install all the above-mentioned plugins, only install what you need.
If you want an easy-to-use plugin that has all the features needed for page optimization, WP rocket is what I recommend.
However, it comes only in the paid version.
In addition to this, if you want a free plugin that comes with important optimization techniques, the WP fastest cache is the best fit.
W3 total cache is a good option for advanced users and developers due to the complexity that comes with its configuration.
If you need a plugin that can optimize the script, you should use the Perfmatters and Autoptimize.
Finally, if you want a plugin that lazy loads, the lazy load plugin by WP rocket is the best fit for you.
I achieved 95+ scores in Gtmetrix, Pingdom and google page speed insights using the combination of,
I hope you have been able to pick the best speed optimization plugin for your WordPress site.
Remember your need is equivalent to your choice of the plugin.
Thanks for reading, please do not forget to share.