After spending almost the entire year testing the top caching plug-in for WordPress to speed up this blog; I came up with the conclusion that the best caching plug-in for WordPress in 2011 is “Quick Cache”.
My criteria for this decision:
1.) Ease of installation
2.) Ease of configuration
3.) Ease of maintenance after installation
3.) Upgrade compatibility issues
4.) Blog resulting speed, Page Speed
For the basis of comparison, I will compare my real experience dealing with the other top caching plug-in (W3 Total Cache and Wp-Supercache) vs. Quick cache for each of the above criteria.
Ease of Installation and Configuration
I first used WP-Super cache as the caching plug-in and I find the installation a bit technical to do. Well I am not afraid of technical things but I am writing for the majority of clueless WordPress beginning users.Wp-Supercache lets you mess with .htaccess, edit it, modify, etc. and even told you to edit a portion of the PHP scripts if you want it to stay dynamic. There are two versions of caching, which is powered by PHP and .htaccess. Well this choice alone can confuse non-technical users. Why? Which one is recommended? It states that .htaccess method is faster than PHP but beginning users are advised to use PHP. So if users want faster options they opt for slower PHP method? Is this “slow” still means “fast” caching? If users are confused they tend to select wrong settings. So they start to select htaccess/mod rewrite method because it’s faster, and then time comes when they want some areas of their blog to stay dynamic. Bang! There it goes, they meet some hard to deal issues. It is because Wp-supercache has some syntax to stay dynamic which can lead to wrong syntax implementation by beginning users. The mclude, etc; can confuse beginners or non-PHP programmers.
Nevertheless I have been running with Wp-supercache for more than 6 months but there are some issues which I will raise up later on. But my experience with W3-total cache is very sad. I DID NOT EVEN MANAGE TO GET THIS WORKING. This is due to the SUPER-COMPLEX installation procedures. After installation and some not-user friendly configuration my blog went blank, did not have any clue why. I am very puzzled how to get this working; I do not have all the time and resources to STUDY this plug-in. I want simple solutions so I simply UNINSTALL the plug-in without regrets.
There comes Quick Cache, wow very easy to install, upload –activate- done. Cache created no problem. My php scripts are still working well as planned, no issues. YOU DO NOT NEED TO CONFIGURE OR MESS WITH ANYTHING; ALL ARE PRESET AND WILL OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG SPEED TO THE MAX.
WINNER: QUICK CACHE PLUGIN!
Ease of Maintenance and Compatibility Issues
The true loser here is W3 total cache it’s because there nothing to maintained, I did not manage to install it successfully SO there is nothing to maintain and upgrade. Let’s talked about Wp-Supercache; actually this is a highly performing plugin (Kudos to the Author). But I ran into EXTREMELY COMPLEX ISSUES after upgrading to the latest version of WP-Super cache and do not know why. My blog sidebar never loads at all. I spend 30 minutes troubleshooting, still cannot find a clue. Switch between PHP and Mod-rewrite/.htaccess method, still not working. I did not do any custom coding on the plug-in or the anywhere in the WordPress core. Until I lost patience, I simply uninstall the plug-in finally after 8 months of use.
There comes Quick cache, the installation is straightforward. The upgrade is straightforward; no maintenance needed except to simply click the “CLEAR CACHE” to reset cache; so there is NO SILLY configuration.
WINNER: QUICK CACHE PLUGIN!
Blog Page Speed
I am happy that the blog now loads very fast. I do not know in your end but I am sure that after Quick cache, I have data that it now loads less than 5 seconds compared before (in GWT). I know (2x) the site contains a lot of ads, but it still loads pretty fast which is good. What is more interesting is the php-developer.org Google page speed, see below:
php-developer.org got a handsome score of 95/100 in Google Page Speed using Quick cache plug-in. And the homepage has a lot of JavaScript elements like Ads, etc and lots of text. Some great blogs using W3 Total cache and their homepage Page Speed Score:
mattcutss.com = 86/100
yoast.com = 91/100
davidwalsh.name =82/100
johnchow.com =90/100
WINNER: Quick Cache!
Some commonly asked few questions
1.) Why you do not include features as + factor in selecting cache plug-in? Answer: Features? Huh, I simply need a cache plug-in that “cache” and that’s it. That’s all I need.
2.) Why do you not include CPU usage and memory? It boils down the end result which is speed isn’t it? So why not just study speed.
3.) Maybe you do not know how to use W3 Total cache and Wp-supercache? Answer: Probably, I am no guru on those plug-in. I just need a simple plug-in THAT works nothing else. My NEED could be true to 90%+ of non-technical WordPress blog owners; Quick Cache just fits the bill.
4.) You are using plug-in that is not TRUSTED by many or even authority sites and gurus? Answer: I don’t care; again I just need a simple plug-in that works and nothing else.
5.) I do not have problems with other plug-ins like W3 total cache because I have full support from techs and dedicated hosting support. Answer: I do not need to spend money to pay for the extra support or having so called “experts” to tweak the plug-in.
I just tried Quick Cache and was impressed with the results – easy to setup. I came across your blog post when looking for what other people had to say.
Quick Cache is severely underrated. But I have to say that I tried all caching plugins; this one is the simplest to install and maintain.
Agreed with all you say about Quick Cache. I am new to wordpress and want plugins that work out of the box and are easy to understand and that do not require code changes. Also the Quick Cache documentation is excellent.
Quick Cache is the simplest to install and maintain. Yes you are right.
I am using W3 Total Cache and was able to make all the options work (CDN also) on shared hosting account.This helped me in increasing my page speed score to 95.
I have not tried Quick Cache but definitely give it a try.
Great to know its working well. Good luck!