WP Rocket: Best WordPress Object Caching Plugin

In the increasingly demanding world of the web, the performance of a WordPress site has become a crucial issue, both for the user experience and for SEO. Among the many solutions available to optimize the performance of a WordPress site, WP Rocket has established itself as the benchmark in terms of object cache.

In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into WP Rocket’s capabilities, analyze its advanced features, and understand why it’s considered the best investment for optimizing your WordPress site’s performance.

What is Object Cache?

Before exploring the features of WP Rocket, it is essential to understand the concept of object cache and its importance in the WordPress ecosystem.

Object cache is a temporary storage technique that stores the results of database queries and other expensive operations in memory. Instead of running the same queries repeatedly, WordPress can retrieve this data directly from memory, significantly reducing page load times.

The advantages of the object cache are multiple:

• Significant reduction in server load
• Decrease database response time
• Improved the site's ability to handle traffic spikes
• Overall optimization of site performance

What is WP Rocket?

WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin, founded in 2013 by Jonathan Buttigieg and Jean-Baptiste Marchant-Arvier. These two webmasters, frustrated by the quality and user experience of available WordPress plugins, decided to create a powerful solution to improve the loading speed of websites.

Since its launch, WP Rocket has quickly gained popularity. By 2014, it was already acclaimed by experts and developers in the WordPress field, establishing itself as a reference tool for caching. Today, WP Rocket consists of:

• a team of 9 people spread across different countries (France, Canada, Serbia, Greece, United States, etc.),
• users in over 100 countries,
• nearly 1 websites optimized using this plugin,
• over 145 clients satisfied.

In France, many companies choose this plugin. Although it is paid, its effectiveness in improving page loading speed is indisputable. Among the many caching solutions available, our SEO agency has chosen WP Rocket to optimize the loading time of its pages. A slow site is often synonymous with low conversions.

There are many causes of slow loading. Often, it can be caused by hosting on a shared server rather than a dedicated server. Other times, the slowness can come from a WordPress theme that is too heavy or JavaScript and CSS files that need to be compressed. Sometimes, the problem can even be related to insufficient bandwidth on your connection.

WP Rocket Features

WP Rocket applies immediately 80% of best practices performance optimization. There is no need to configure it; as soon as you activate it, your website will instantly benefit from:

• A static cache for desktop and mobile, which is the static HTML version of your content;
• A browser cache (on Apache, if available on the server): this stores certain types of files on your visitors' local computer;
• Cross-Origin support for web fonts (on Apache);
• Detection and support of various third-party plugins, themes and hosting environments;
• The combination of online scripts and third-party scripts;
• WooCommerce Cart Fragments Cache.

WP Rocket takes care of all this automatically, so you won't need to touch any code to speed up your site. Just enjoy the immediate improvement in load time and better scores GTMetrix et Pagespeed !

At the same time, if you prefer to customize its settings and make the most of WP Rocket’s power, you have a wide range of advanced options to choose from: lazy loading for your images, pre-loading XML sitemaps, Google Fonts optimization, CSS and JS minification, lazy loading of JS files, database optimization, and much more.

To reduce the loading time of your pages, the extension intervenes on more than 20 parameters. Among them, we find:

• the Lazy Load,
• GZIP compression of CSS, HTML, JS files,
• optimizing the database,
• the ability to use a CDN (Cloud Delivery Network),
• reducing DNS resolution times,
• file caching and preloading,
• browser caching, etc.

With the many features that the caching tool offers, you are guaranteed to improve the performance of the sites on which you are going to integrate the plugin.

How much does this plugin cost?

To take advantage of all this, WP Rocket offers 3 pricing tiers to meet different business needs.

Simple – $59 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates. This license is ideal for small business sites or if you are just starting out.

More – $199 for 10 sites with 1 year of support and updates. This plan is best suited for growing businesses.

Infinite – $299 for 50 sites with 1 year of support and updates. This plan is perfect for freelancers, agencies, and smart business owners who have multiple projects.

There is a 14 day period risk-free where you can request a refund if you want to cancel your plan. This way, you can check the impact of WP Rocket on your site before deciding to adopt it permanently.

How to optimize your pages with WP Rocket?

The performance improvement is immediately noticeable because WP Rocket doesn’t just wait for user requests to start caching pages. It proactively starts crawling your website and preloading pages into the cache.

Step 1: Download WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a completely premium plugin, which means that you won’t be able to find it in the official WordPress plugin directory. To get this plugin, you need to go to the official website and purchase it. Once on the website, you will need to choose a subscription before you can download it. Purchasing the plugin also includes creating a WP Rocket account.

On the site, you will have a customer area where you can:

• Download the plugin.
• Change your personal information.
• View your invoices and update your payment information.
• Find and manage your licenses.
• Manage your sites.
• Contact support.

By clicking the plugin download button, you will receive a Zip file to install on the WordPress site of your choice.

Step 2: Configuring Caching Options in WP Rocket

To get started, head over to the page Settings »WP Rocket and click on the tab cache. WP Rocket already enables page caching by default, but you can adjust the settings to further improve your website speed.

1. Mobile Cache

You will notice that mobile caching is enabled by default. However, we recommend that you check the option Separate cache files for mobile devices.

This option allows WP Rocket to create separate cache files for mobile users. By enabling this option, you ensure that mobile users get a fully optimized experience.

2. User Cache

If your site requires users to log in to access certain features, it is essential to check this option.

For example, if you run a WooCommerce store or a membership site, the option User Cache will improve the experience for all logged in users.

3. Cache Lifespan

The cache lifetime is the period of time you want to keep cached files on your site. The default limit is set to 10 hours, which is suitable for most sites.

However, you can adjust it to a lower value if your site gets a lot of traffic, or to a higher value if you don’t update your site frequently. After this period expires, WP Rocket will delete the cached files and immediately start preloading the cache with updated content. Don’t forget to click the Save Changes to save your settings.

Step 3: Minifying Files with WP Rocket

WP Rocket allows you to minify static files such as JavaScript files and CSS stylesheets. Simply switch to the Minify tab File Optimization and check the boxes corresponding to the file types you want to minify.

Minifying static content helps reduce file sizes. In most cases, this difference is too small to have a significant impact on your website's performance. However, if you run a high-traffic site, it can have a significant impact on reducing your overall bandwidth consumption and saving on hosting costs.

It’s important to note that minifying files can also lead to unexpected consequences, such as files not loading or not working as expected. If you enable this option, be sure to thoroughly review your site’s pages to ensure everything is working properly.

Step 4: Using Lazy Media Loading

Images are often the second largest element on a page after videos. They take longer to load than text and increase the overall download size of the page. Most popular sites now use a technique called Loading lazy to delay downloading of images.

Instead of loading all your images at once, lazy loading only downloads the images that are visible on the user's screen. This not only makes your pages load faster, but also gives the impression of speed to the user.

WP Rocket has a built-in lazy loading feature. You can enable lazy loading for images by simply switching to the Media on the plugin settings page. You can also enable lazy loading for embeds like YouTube videos and iframes.

Step 5: Refining Preloading in WP Rocket

Next, you can review the preload settings in WP Rocket by navigating to the tab Preload. By default, the plugin will first crawl your homepage and follow the links it finds there to preload the cache. You also have the option to have the plugin use your XML sitemap to create the cache.

It is possible to disable the prefetching feature, but it is not recommended. By disabling prefetching, you are telling WordPress to only cache pages when they are requested by a user. This means that the first user to load a specific page may encounter a slow site.

Step 6: Configuring Advanced Caching Rules

WP Rocket gives you full control over caching. For example, you can go to the “Advanced Rules” tab in the settings page to exclude pages you don’t want to cache.

You also have the option to exclude certain cookies and user agents (browser and device types), as well as automatically rebuild the cache when you update specific pages or articles.

These settings are intended for developers and advanced users who have complex setup and require custom settings. If you are unsure about these options, the default settings are suitable for most websites.

Step 7: Clean the database with WP Rocket

WP Rocket also makes it easy to clean up your WordPress database. While this will have minimal impact on your site’s performance, you can still look into these options if you want.

To do this, go to the “ Database » on the plugin settings page. From there, you can delete post revisions, drafts, spam comments, and trash items.

We don’t recommend deleting post revisions, as they can be very useful for undoing changes to your WordPress posts and pages in the future. Also, there’s no need to delete spam and trash comments, as WordPress takes care of that automatically after 30 days.

Step 8: Configure your CDN to work with WP Rocket

If you are using a CDN service for your WordPress site, you can configure it to work with WP Rocket. To do this, simply go to the “CDN” tab.

A CDN, or content delivery network, allows you to serve static files from a network of servers located around the world.

This speeds up your website by allowing the user’s browser to download files from the server closest to their location. It also reduces the load on your hosting server and makes your site more responsive. For more information, check out our guide on the importance of a CDN service for your WordPress site.

For many years, we have been using Sucuri on WPBeginner. It is one of the best CDN services for WordPress beginners. Sucuri’s cloud-based firewall gives you a powerful CDN service to serve your static files.

We chose Cloudflare because its larger CDN allows us to deliver content to our global audience faster. We explain our reasons in detail in our guide on switching WPBeginner from Sucuri to Cloudflare. However, Cloudflare’s free CDN offers limited protection against DDoS attacks and has fewer features.

WP Rocket offers separate add-ons to easily set up Sucuri and Cloudflare on your site. We’ll talk more about them later.

Step 9: Reduce Heartbeat Activity in WordPress with WP Rocket

The Heartbeat API allows WordPress to send a periodic request to the hosting server in the background. This allows your site to perform scheduled tasks. For example, when writing blog posts, the editor uses the Heartbeat API to check for connectivity and changes to posts.

You can click on the tab “ Heartbeat API » in WP Rocket to control this feature and reduce the frequency of the Heartbeat API.

We do not recommend disabling the Heartbeat API, as it provides very useful functionality. However, reducing its frequency can improve performance, especially on larger sites.

Step 10: Using WP Rocket Add-ons

WP Rocket also offers several ready-to-deploy features available as add-ons. Let’s take a look at the currently available add-ons in this list.

1. Google Analytics Add-on
   The Google Analytics add-on for WP Rocket allows you to host the Google Analytics code on your own server. This doesn’t provide a significant performance improvement, but some users do it to get a 100% page speed score.
   This feature is compatible with popular Google Analytics plugins like MonsterInsights and ExactMetrics.
2. pixel Facebook
   If you are using the Facebook pixel for user tracking, this module will host the pixels locally on your server. This will again improve your page speed score, but may not have any real impact on site speed.
3. Varnish Add-on
   If your WordPress hosting company uses Varnish cache, you should enable this module. This will ensure that the Varnish cache is cleared when WP Rocket clears its cache.
4. Cloudflare
   If you are using Cloudflare CDN, this add-on is required to make it work in tandem with WP Rocket. Simply enable the add-on and click the “Edit Options” button.

Next, you need to enter your Cloudflare account credentials. This will link WP Rocket to your Cloudflare account.

Step 11: Managing your WP Rocket cache

WP Rocket also makes it easy for admins to manage and clean WordPress cache. All you need to do is head over to the plugin’s settings page, where you’ll find the option to clear WP Rocket cache in the Dashboard.

You can also run a preload sequence to rebuild the cache on demand.

The plugin also makes importing and exporting settings easy. You can switch to tools to easily import and export plugin settings. This is especially useful when transferring WordPress from a local server to a live site or when moving WordPress to a new domain.

Below you will find the option to downgrade the plugin to an earlier version. This can be very useful if a WP Rocket update didn’t work as expected.

Article to read: Rank Math: Best SEO plugin

Comparison with alternatives

WP Rocket vs W3 Total Cache

Having worked with both of these plugins on hundreds of WordPress sites, I've found that W3 Total Cache offers impressive flexibility with its many configuration options, but that is also its weakness. Its interface is confusing even for experienced developers, and a wrong setting can easily break a site. I've spent countless hours debugging problematic configurations, especially with JavaScript minifications and CDN integrations.

WP Rocket, on the other hand, takes an “it just works” approach. Activating it brings immediate performance gains without any complex configuration. For example, on a recent WooCommerce e-commerce site, the loading time went from 3.2s to 1.8s right after activation, without any additional adjustments.

The highlights of WP Rocket that I particularly like:

• Smart cache management of e-commerce pages (no problems with the shopping cart)
• On-the-fly image optimization that actually works well
• Native compatibility with major plugins and themes
• Cache preloading that avoids slowdowns for the first visitor

W3 Total Cache nevertheless retains some advantages:

• He's free
• It allows very fine control for experts who need it
• Its minification features are more configurable

For most sites, I recommend WP Rocket despite its cost. The time saved in setup and maintenance more than makes up for the investment. I've even migrated several clients from W3 Total Cache to WP Rocket after recurring cache issues.

W3 Total Cache remains relevant for developers who need full control and the time to configure the tool properly. But to get optimal performance quickly and without the hassle, WP Rocket is clearly the better choice.

WP Rocket vs WP Super Cache

As an expert who has deployed both of these solutions on many WordPress projects, I really have to say. WP Super Cache is the free option The most popular one, created by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com). Its main advantage is its simplicity: it generates static HTML files and serves them directly. For a simple blog or a small showcase site, this is often sufficient.

However, its limitations quickly become apparent on more ambitious projects. In particular, I encountered difficulties with:

• Cache management for logged in users
• Resource optimization (CSS/JS)
• Lack of advanced features like lazy loading of images

WP Rocket, although paid, offers considerable added value:

• Minification and concatenation of files are much more reliable
• Lazy loading of images and iframes is natively integrated
• Cache preloading is intelligent and avoids server load spikes
• CDN integration is simplified and robust
• Compatibility with WooCommerce is excellent

A concrete example: on a news site with 50K monthly visitors, WP Super Cache was capped at a loading time of 2.8s. After migrating to WP Rocket we went down to 1.5s with a server load reduced by 40%.

In conclusion, WP Super Cache is perfectly suited for modest sites with basic caching needs. WP Rocket is the professional choice for any site that generates revenue or requires optimal performance. The cost of WP Rocket (€59/year) quickly pays for itself through performance gains and time saved on maintenance. It is a wise investment as soon as your site becomes strategic for your business.

Conclusion

WP Rocket stands out as the most complete and powerful object caching solution for WordPress. Its balanced approach between ease of use and powerful features makes it an essential tool for any serious WordPress site. The initial investment is largely offset by the gains in performance, SEO and user experience.

Future Prospects

The continued development of WP Rocket promises:

• Support for the latest web technologies
• Continuous performance improvement
• New optimization features
• Integration of future WordPress developments

With web performance becoming an increasingly crucial factor for online success, WP Rocket will certainly continue to play a central role in optimizing WordPress sites.