After optimizing nearly 5,000 WordPress websites, we’ve tested just about every caching and speed optimization plugin out there. In this post, we’re sharing the two WordPress caching plugins we actually use and recommend to our clients — and explaining why you need one even if your host already offers built-in caching.
Watch the full video walkthrough below, or keep reading for our breakdown.
Table of Contents
What Is Caching & What Does a Caching Plugin Do?
Every time someone visits your WordPress site, the server has to do a lot of work — querying the database, running PHP code, assembling the page, loading all your plugins and theme files. This happens on every single page load for every single visitor. That’s a lot of repeated work.
Caching solves this by saving a static version of your pages so the server doesn’t have to rebuild everything from scratch each time. Instead of going through the entire WordPress process, it just serves up the pre-built page. The result? Dramatically faster load times and a much lighter load on your server.
But a good WordPress caching plugin does much more than just page caching. The best ones also handle:
- CSS & JavaScript minification and combination — Reducing file sizes and the number of requests
- Lazy loading of images and iframes — Only loading media when visitors scroll to it
- Critical CSS generation — Inlining the CSS needed for above-the-fold content
- Preloading and prefetching — Anticipating what resources will be needed next
- Database optimization — Cleaning up post revisions, transients, and other bloat
- CDN integration — Serving your static assets from servers closer to your visitors
These optimizations are what move your Core Web Vitals scores from red to green, and what make the real-world difference between a site that feels sluggish and one that loads instantly.
Our #1 Pick: WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the caching plugin we use on the majority of client sites, and it’s the one we recommend most often. It’s the most well-known premium caching plugin for WordPress, and for good reason — it just works.
What makes WP Rocket stand out is how much it does right out of the box. As soon as you activate it, you’ll see an improvement in your page load times without touching a single setting. It automatically enables page caching, cache preloading, and GZIP compression.
But where WP Rocket really shines is in its advanced optimization features:
- Remove Unused CSS — Strips out CSS that isn’t needed on each page, significantly reducing file sizes
- Delay JavaScript Execution — Prevents JS from running until user interaction, dramatically improving initial load
- Lazy Load Images & Iframes — Built-in lazy loading that works reliably
- Database Optimization — Clean up revisions, drafts, spam comments, and transients on a schedule
- CDN Integration — Easy setup with any CDN provider
- Rocket Insights — Built-in performance monitoring that tracks your PageSpeed scores over time
WP Rocket is a premium plugin (no free version), but the investment is well worth it. Their support team is excellent, the plugin is regularly updated, and it’s compatible with virtually every theme and plugin combination we’ve encountered across thousands of optimizations.
If you want to see exactly how we configure WP Rocket for maximum performance, check out our WP Rocket Settings Guide.
Our #2 Pick: FlyingPress
FlyingPress is the newer kid on the block, but it has quickly become one of our go-to recommendations — especially for sites where we want a lightweight, performance-focused solution.
FlyingPress is built by Gijo Varghese, who is deeply embedded in the WordPress performance community. The plugin takes a more streamlined approach compared to WP Rocket — it focuses on doing the core performance optimizations exceptionally well without a lot of bloat.
Key features of FlyingPress include:
- Page Caching — Fast, reliable page caching with smart cache preloading
- Remove Unused CSS — Aggressively strips unused CSS for leaner pages
- Minify & Defer JavaScript — Smart JS optimization with delay options
- Critical CSS — Automatically generates and inlines critical CSS
- Image Optimization — Built-in image optimization and self-hosted CDN
- Font Optimization — Self-hosts Google Fonts and preloads them for faster rendering
- Bloat Removal — Removes WordPress bloat like emojis, embeds, and unnecessary scripts
One of the things we really appreciate about FlyingPress is how clean and straightforward the interface is. There’s no guesswork — the settings are logical, well-organized, and the defaults are sensible. It’s also very actively developed, with new features and improvements shipping regularly.
FlyingPress offers a 14-day free trial, so you can test it on your site before committing.
Why You Still Need a Caching Plugin Even If Your Host Has Built-In Caching
This is one of the most common questions we get: “My host already has caching — do I really need a plugin too?”
The short answer is yes.
Most managed WordPress hosts (like Cloudways, Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, etc.) do include server-level caching. This is great — it handles the basic page caching layer. But that’s typically all it does.
A proper caching plugin like WP Rocket or FlyingPress handles all the other critical optimizations that your host’s caching doesn’t touch:
- CSS and JavaScript minification and optimization
- Removing unused CSS
- Delaying JavaScript execution
- Lazy loading images and iframes
- Critical CSS generation
- Font optimization
- Preloading and prefetching
- Database cleanup
These are the optimizations that actually move the needle on your Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed scores. Server-level caching gets you part of the way there, but you need a plugin to handle the front-end optimization side of things.
In many cases, when using a host with built-in caching, you can disable the page caching feature in your plugin (since the host is handling that) and just use the plugin for all the other optimizations. Both WP Rocket and FlyingPress work great in this configuration.
Where Cloudflare Fits Into This
Cloudflare is another tool that often comes up in the conversation around WordPress caching and speed optimization. But it’s important to understand that Cloudflare is not a replacement for a caching plugin — it’s a complementary layer.
Cloudflare is a CDN and security provider that sits between your visitors and your server. It can cache your static assets (images, CSS, JS files) on their global edge network, so those files load faster for visitors around the world. It also provides DDoS protection, a web application firewall, and SSL.
With Cloudflare’s APO (Automatic Platform Optimization) for WordPress, it can even cache your full HTML pages on their edge network, which can dramatically speed up TTFB (Time to First Byte) for visitors who are geographically far from your server.
However, Cloudflare does not handle the on-page optimizations that a plugin like WP Rocket or FlyingPress does — things like removing unused CSS, delaying JavaScript, lazy loading, critical CSS generation, etc.
The ideal setup for most WordPress sites is:
- A quality hosting provider with server-level caching
- A caching/optimization plugin like WP Rocket or FlyingPress for front-end optimization
- Cloudflare (free or Pro plan) as a CDN and security layer
This three-layer approach is what we use on the vast majority of the sites we optimize, and it consistently delivers excellent results.
Which Plugin Should You Choose?
Both WP Rocket and FlyingPress are excellent choices. Here’s a quick guide:
- Choose WP Rocket if you want the most established, widely-supported option with a proven track record and excellent support.
- Choose FlyingPress if you want a lightweight, developer-friendly option that’s laser-focused on performance with built-in image optimization.
Either way, you’ll be in great hands. We use both across our client sites depending on the specific needs and setup of each project.
Need Help Optimizing Your WordPress Site?
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