The Ideal WP Fastest Cache Settings 2023 + CDN Instructions (Not Good For Web Vitals)

Wp fastest cache settings

WP Fastest Cache is an easy-to-setup cache plugin, and it’s free!

The biggest con is it hasn’t been updated for core web vitals and lacks many features. The changelog shows there hasn’t been significant updates for years and doesn’t list dates either.

After configuring the WP Fastest Cache settings, be prepared to install several extra plugins and make other optimizations if you want better results. You can use Perfmatters which addresses most of these, or switch to a better caching plugin that addresses web vitals (I use FlyingPress).

Otherwise, I’ll be covering the WP Fastest Cache settings, setting up Cloudflare and BunnyCDN (the CDN combination I would use), and workarounds for lacking features and core web vitals.

Remember to benchmark your core web vitals (I would also be testing your website in the GTmetrix Waterfall chart). Leave a comment if you have questions or see their support forum.

 

1. WP Fastest Cache Settings

Other than ticking a few settings, here are a few things to consider:

Preloading should ideally be set up as a cron job and WP Fastest Cache has additional settings to control how preloading works (which can also significantly impact CPU usage). You can test minifying files with WP Fastest Cache or Cloudflare to see which one gives you the best results, and combining files is usually not recommended for the majority of sites. Finally, you want to avoid clearing the entire cache too often or on too many pages or it can also cause CPU spikes.

Wp fastest cache settings

Recommended WP Fastest Cache Settings:

  • Cache System: ON – enables filed-based caching. You can clear cache on specific pages in your “pages” menu in WordPress which consumes less CPU than clearing the entire cache.
  • Widget Cache System: premium feature – caches widgets but this also requires the Classic Widgets plugin. While there are much better paid solutions than WP Fastest Cache Premium, you can turn it ON when using it. It also lets you exclude this on specific posts.
  • Preload: ON – artificially fills the cache so by the time users visit your website, they are more likely to get a cache HIT. While great for speed, it can increase CPU usage in many cases. The best method is to use a cron job in your host or with WP Crontrol. I also recommend only preloading key pages like the homepage, pages, posts, and categories. Finally, you can enter the following URL to see the preloading status (replace yourwebsite.com): https://yourwebsite.com/?action=wpfastestcache&type=preload
    • Page Per Minute: 4-6 (shared hosting) or 10-12 (VPS hosting). This is recommended by WP Fastest Cache since VPS hosting is more powerful with the capacity to preload pages faster. If you’re getting CPU spikes, you can lower the number even more or change the preload interval using a cron job (which is defaulted to every 5 minutes).
    • Restart After Completed: ON – reduces CPU usage by creating cache in a controlled way rather than clearing the entire cache and creating it again. Preload will create cache and overwrite the existing cache file. But it can also delay new changes to appear, so test this carefully or search the forums for topics related to the setting.
  • Logged-in Users: ON – you don’t want to show the cached version to logged-in users unless you run a membership site (or similar) where users need their own cached version.
  • Mobile: OFF – responsive websites should leave this off. This is only used if your website isn’t responsive, you use a dedicated mobile theme and need a separate mobile cache, or when you have mobile-specific elements and are having issues showing them on mobile.
  • Mobile Theme: premium feature – leave OFF unless you have a dedicated mobile theme.
  • New Post: OFF – the documentation says to leave off if “restart after completed” is on in the preload settings. Normally, this clears the cache when a new page or post is published.
  • Update Post: ON – clears the cache files when a post or page is updated (learn more).
  • Minify HTML: ON – removes unnecessary characters from HTML including inline JS/CSS.
  • Minify HTML Plus: premium feature – theoretically a more powerful CSS minification. Cloudflare and minify plugins do this for free so there’s no need to pay for this. Leave OFF.
  • Minify CSS: ON – same concept as minify HTML only for CSS files. If minifying CSS or JS breaks your website, find the problematic files and exclude them in the Exclude settings.
  • Minify CSS Plus: premium feature – theoretically a more powerful CSS minification. Again, Cloudflare and minify plugins can minify CSS for free, so don’t pay and leave OFF.
  • Combine CSS: OFF – there are several reasons why you shouldn’t combine CSS/JS like slower load times and potential issues with HTTP/2 + HTTP/3. Which means you should leave all combine settings off. The only exception is websites with very small CSS/JS files (i.e. under 10KB which you can see in GTmetrix Waterfall), but most sites aren’t that small.
  • Minify JS: premium feature – again, Cloudflare and minify plugins minify JS, leave OFF.
  • Combine JS: OFF – same reason you shouldn’t combine CSS, it can help more than hurt.
  • Combine JS Plus: premium feature – combines JavaScript files in the footer, leave OFF.
  • Gzip: ON – compresses pages, but Brotli is faster. The catch is that your host needs to support Brotli and activated in your hosting account. Cloudflare has a Brotli setting too.
  • Browser Caching: ON – stores your website’s common files in the visitor’s browser so when they visit your website again (or click through pages), these files will load faster.
  • Disable Emojis: ON – removes a JavaScript file needed to convert emojis into images. If you need emojis, keep them disabled in WordPress and try using Unicode emojis instead.
  • Render Blocking JS: premium featureAsync JavaScript is a free plugin that defers JavaScript which fixes render-blocking resources. There should be no need to pay for it.
  • Google Fonts: premium feature – loads Google Fonts asynchronously to fix render-blocking resources. However, the better method is to host fonts locally using OMGF, Elementor, or do it manually. Once fonts are served from your website instead of fonts.gstatic.com, you can preload all fonts loading above the fold or mentioned in CSS files. Lastly, use font-display: swap to ensure text remains visible during webfont load.
  • Lazy Load: premium feature – lazy loading images is built-in to WordPress 5.5, then you can use WP YouTube Lyte to do this for videos. I don’t know any cache plugin that makes you pay for this, so leave OFF. Just make sure above the fold images are excluded from lazy load and preloaded (including your LCP image) or it will increase LCP. I’d personally use a different solution such as Perfmatters which lets you exclude leading images and replace YouTube iframes with a preview image, and do a better job than native lazy load. Other cache plugins like FlyingPress + WP Rocket let you lazy load background images too.
Wp fastest cache preload settings
Preload Settings
Wp fastest cache update post settings
Update Post Settings
Wp fastest cache cron job
Use a cron job to control preloading (view sample code below)
wget -O - "https://yourwebsite.com/?action=wpfastestcache&type=preload" >/dev/null 2>&1
Wp fastest cache preload status
Check WP Fastest Cache’s preload status at yourwebsite.com?action=wpfastestcache&type=preload
Cloudflare minify javascript css html
If you use Cloudflare to minify files, disable them in WP Fastest Cache
Async javascript
The Async JavaScript plugin can defer JavaScript for free to fix render-blocking JS

 

2. Delete Cache

Delete cache and minified CSS/JS when you’re done configuring the WP Fastest Cache settings. Cache statistics are included with WP Fastest Cache premium (arguably its most useful feature).

Wp fastest cache delete cache settings

 

3. Image Optimization

The image optimization in WP Fastest Cache Premium only compresses images and serves them in WebP, but there are 2 big issues.

First, there’s more to optimizing images than compression/WebP (see list below). The other reason is that even if you buy WP Fastest Cache, it only comes with 1000 credits when each optimization uses 1 credit. Eventually, you may find yourself buying more credits on top of paying for WP Fastest Cache Premium. The cost of this just isn’t worth the value in my opinion.

CDNs and dedicated image optimization plugins do a much better job with this. CDNs usually cost money (i.e. Cloudflare Mirage + Polish or Bunny Optimizer) but are easier and optimize images on the fly. Otherwise, ShortPixel and Smush are popular image optimization plugins.

Wp fastest cache image optimization

Lacking Features

  • Serve smaller images to mobile
  • Preload above the fold images
  • Add missing image dimensions
  • Serve lower quality images on slow connections
  • Remove EXIF data

 

4. WP Fastest Cache Premium

If you look at WP Fastest Cache free vs. Premium on their website, you’ll see a table comparing it to W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

However, premium plugins like FlyingPress (or WP Rocket) are significantly better than WP Fastest Cache Premium which still lacks many optimizations you will find in core web vitals.

WP Fastest Cache WP Rocket FlyingPress
Minify JS Premium
Defer JavaScript Premium
Database optimization Premium
Lazy load images Premium
Image compression Premium x via FlyingCDN
WebP Premium x via FlyingCDN
Lazy load iframes + videos x
Delay JavaScript x
Remove unused CSS x Inline Separate file
Critical CSS x
Preload links x
Optimize Google Fonts x
Preload critical images x x
Lazy render HTML elements x x
Lazy load background images x Inline Helper class
Exclude images from lazy load x By URL By Number
Preview image for YouTube iframe x
Self-host YouTube placeholder x x
Add missing image dimensions x
Documented APO compatibility x x

Plugins To Use With WP Fastest Cache To Address Lacking Features:

  • OMGF
  • ShortPixel
  • Flying Script
  • Flying Pages
  • WP Youtube Lyte
  • Pre* Party Resource Hints

Wp fastest cache premium

 

5. Exclude

This is used to exclude certain things from the cache.

The main reason to use this is if minify CSS or minify JS breaks your site and you want to exclude it. In that case, you will need to view your source code, find the problematic file, click “add new rule,” and paste the URL. This way, the rest of your CSS/JS files can still be minified.

For WooCommerce and other eCommerce sites, WP Fastest Cache excludes cart, my account and checkout pages automatically as well as YITH WooCommerce Wishlist. Carts updated via Ajax are compatible with the cache, but cart widgets using PHP to update the cart must exclude the woocommerce_items_in_cart cookie.

The support forums also have common ways people are using the exclude settings.

Wp fastest cache exclude settings

 

6. CDN Settings

The first thing you should decide is which CDN you want to use (it should only be used if you have visitors far away from your origin server).

I’m a fan of the Cloudflare + BunnyCDN combination which is also recommended by Gijo from WP Speed Matters. Better cache hit ratio, better routing, and BunnyCDN’s geo-replication are all good reasons to use both. BunnyCDN is also faster, more reliable, and cheaper than most other CDNs like StackPath + KeyCDN. StackPath had issues and was even removed from cdnperf.com.

This section shows you how to setup Cloudflare (first) and BunnyCDN (second) with helpful tips along the way.

Cloudflare with bunnycdn
Gijo explains why Cloudflare + BunnyCDN is a solid combination

Cloudflare Instructions

Step 1: Sign up for Cloudflare through their website. Some hosts have an option to activate Cloudflare in your hosting account, but they only give you limited settings. The only exception I’d make is if you’re using Cloudflare Enterprise which you can get on Cloudways or Rocket.net. I use Cloudflare Enterprise on Cloudways and can tell you it makes a big difference in your speed.

Step 2: Add your website to Cloudflare and select a plan (free plan is fine for most sites, but Cloudflare Pro has APO, image optimization via Mirage + Polish, and other speed/security features). They will scan DNS records, click “continue,” and they will assign you 2 nameservers.

Cloudflare change namesevers

Step 3: Login to your domain registrar and change nameservers to Cloudflare’s.

Change nameservers to cloudflare

Step 4: In your Cloudflare Profile, go to API Tokens → Create Token → Use WordPress Template → Continue To Summary → Create Token. This is the token you will need for WP Fastest Cache.

Create cloudflare api token

Cloudflare wordpress template

Cloudflare api wordpress token

Step 5: In WP Fastest Cache, click “CDN by Cloudflare” in the CDN settings. Add your API token. WPFC will walk you through a few pages and automatically configure a few Cloudflare settings.

Wp fastest cache cloudflare api key

By default, WP Fastest Cache will disable auto minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML in Cloudflare. You can change this when you’re done setting up Cloudflare in your Cloudflare settings under Speed → Optimization, and test whether minifying files in Cloudflare or WP Fastest Cache gives you better results (especially considering the WPFC free version doesn’t minify JavaScript files).

Wp fastest cache cloudflare disable auto minify

Rocket Loader will also be disabled to ensure better compatibility.

Wp fastest cache cloudflare disable rocket loader

Browser cache expiration will be set to 6 months.

Wp fastest cache cloudflare browser cache expiration

All done with Cloudflare!

Wp fastest cache cloudflare ready to go

Free Features To Consider In Your Cloudflare Dashboard

  • TLS 1.3 – fastest TLS protocol (I recommend setting min. TLS version to 1.2).
  • Bot Fight Mode – block spam bots which are logged into your firewall events.
  • Early Hints – early preload/preconnect hints which improves server wait time.
  • Crawler Hints – tells crawlers if content is updated to prevent wasteful crawls.
  • Page Rules – here’s a screenshot of 3 common page rules for WordPress sites.
  • Firewall Rules – another screenshot of 4 common firewall rules for WordPress.
  • HTTP/3 With QUIC – delivers website from faster HTTP/3 (use a HTTP/3 test).
  • Hotlink Protection – stops websites from copying images and using bandwidth.
  • Zaraz – offloads third-party scripts to Cloudflare (Google Analytics, Ads, others).
  • SXGs – prefetches content so it loads faster when your site is clicked in Google.

They also have paid add-ons like APO, Mirage and Polish, Argo Tiered Cache, rate limiting, and many others. You can read more about Cloudflare settings I recommend.

BunnyCDN Instructions

Step 1: Sign up for BunnyCDN. They have 90+ PoPs and it costs $0.01/GB – $0.06/GB which is one of the cheaper (but better) CDNs. It also comes highly recommended in Facebook Groups.

Bunnycdn network

Step 2: Add my code OMM5 to your BunnyCDN Billing section if you want $5 in free credits.

Bunnycdn promo code

Step 3: In your BunnyCDN dashboard, go to Pull Zones → Add Pull Zone. For name, enter your domain name as-is (no HTTPS, WWW, or .com). For origin URL, add your actual domain name. Then select the regions you want to use. Some are more expensive than others so if you don’t have users in South Africa, consider disabling that region. At the bottom, click “Add Pull Zone.”

Bunnycdn add pull zone

Step 4: BunnyCDN will show your pull zone name + CDN Domain. You’ll need both of them.

Bunnycdn wordpress setup instructions

Step 5: In WP Fastest Cache, click “Other CDN Providers” in the CDN settings. Add your CDN URL and original URL from BunnyCDN. You can set up a custom hostname like cdn.yourwebsite.com if you don’t want .b-cdn.net in your CDN URL, but you should do that before continuing further.

Wp fastest cache cdn url

Step 6: Choose the files you want served from BunnyCDN. I left everything enabled.

Wp fastest cache cdn file types

Step 7: Specify sources if you only want some served from BunnyCDN (instead of all them), or exclude sources. These are based on keywords, but I left them blank. Then keep clicking “next.”

Wp fastest cache cdn specify sources

Wp fastest cache cdn exclude sources

Wp fastest cache cloudflare ready to go

Step 8: If you set up both Cloudflare and BunnyCDN, you’ll see the green checkmarks.

Wp fastest cache cdn settings

Step 9: Install the BunnyCDN plugin and add your pull zone name from step #4. This can help make sure more files are served from BunnyCDN. When I only set up BunnyCDN through my cache plugin, I noticed some CSS/JS files weren’t being served from it. This is what BunnyCDN support recommended to me which solved it, but I would test it carefully and check your files.

Bunnycdn plugin

Step 10: Check your website for errors and make sure the right files are being served.

Bunnycdn source code

If you’re interested in using geo-replication or Bunny Optimizer, see my BunnyCDN guide.

 

7. Database

No need to buy WP Fastest Cache Premium for database cleanups when you have WP-Optimize.

Wp fastest cache database settings

It also does a better job of cleaning your database because it removes more junk and you can schedule ongoing database cleanups (while also keeping a specified amount of post revisions).

Wordpress database cleanup settings wp optimize

Just as importantly, it lets you remove tables left behind by old plugins and see which plugins/modules add the most overhead.

Wp optimize unused database tables

 

8. Hosting

In 2019, I moved from SiteGround to Cloudways Vultr HF and posted my results. In 2022, I moved to Rocket.net with Cloudflare Enterprise which landed me a <100ms global TTFB in KeyCDN. They’re the fastest host I’ve used in 12 years and are blowing up in Facebook groups.

If you have a poor TTFB, you need to rethink your host/CDN since those are the 2 main TTFB factors (which is also 40% of LCP). After writing bad reviews of SiteGround, Hostinger, Kinsta, and EIG, I think we can agree most hosting reviews are garbage. A good place to get unbiased feedback is the WP Speed Matters Group (run by Gijo from FlyingPress). Rocket.net doesn’t do aggressive marketing so not as many people know about them, but results are all I care about.

Keycdn global ttfb
My KeyCDN report (you can also check my GTmetrix / PSI report or click through my site)

Good hosting plans:

FastComet FastCloud Extra NameHero Turbo Cloud Cloudways Vultr HF (2GB) Servebolt Pro Rocket.net Starter
Type Shared Shared Cloud Cloud Cloud
Server LiteSpeed LiteSpeed Apache + Nginx Apache + Nginx Apache + Nginx
Cores/RAM 6 cores/3GB 3 cores/3GB 1 core/2GB Unmetered 32 cores/128GB
Storage 35GB / SATA Unlimited NVMe 64GB / NVMe 4GB / NVMe 10GB / NVMe
CDN QUIC.cloud QUIC.cloud Cloudflare Enterprise ($5/mo) Cloudflare Enterprise ($299/mo) Cloudflare Enterprise (free)
CDN PoPs 80 80 285 285 285
Full page caching
CDN image optimization via QUIC via QUIC Mirage/Polish Mirage/Polish Mirage/Polish
DNS Use QUIC Use QUIC DNS Made Easy ($5/mo) x Cloudflare
Cache plugin LiteSpeed Cache LiteSpeed Cache x Servebolt plugin x
Object cache Memcached Redis Redis Pro x Redis
PHP processor LiteSpeed LiteSpeed FPM Apache 2 ITK MPM LiteSpeed
Database MySQL MariaDB MariaDB MariaDB MariaDB
Bandwidth or monthly visits 92GB + 100k (est.) 50k (est.) 2TB 1M dynamic requests 50GB + 250k visits/mo
Control panel cPanel cPanel Custom Custom Custom
Email hosting x x x
Major incidents 2022 DDoS attack 2011 2-day node outage None None None
Migrations 3 free 1 free 1 free + $25/site Unlimited free Unlimited free
TrustPilot rating 4.9/5 4.6/5 4.5/5 4.5/5 4.9/5
Monthly price $5.49 (1-3 years) $9.98 (3 years) $30 $99 $25 (1 year)

  • Shared LiteSpeed HostingFastCloud Extra, Turbo Cloud, and ChemiCloud’s WordPress Turbo plan are all shared LiteSpeed hosting with cPanel and good alternatives to SiteGround & Hostinger. NameHero and ChemiCloud have less cores/RAM but use NVMe (faster than SATA), Redis (faster than Memcached), and MariaDB (faster than MySQL). NameHero’s data centers are only in US & EU, and NameHero/ChemiCloud make you sign up for 3 years to get their cheapest intro price (FastComet is 1-3 years). With either of these, you’ll use the free LiteSpeed Cache plugin and QUIC.cloud’s CDN (great setup). For cloud VPS, Scala is a solid host and doesn’t charge for the LiteSpeed license separately like other VPS hosts. Imunify360 is used as a security suite on FastComet, NameHero, and Rocket.net.
  • Cloudways Vultr HF – good starting point for cloud hosting with more storage + bandwidth than Rocket.net, but their Cloudflare Enterprise needs APO and serves too many challenge pages. They were acquired by DigitalOcean who raised prices, and support could be better. Still very fast between Vultr HF, NVMe, Redis Object Cache Pro, and MariaDB. Even without APO, Cloudflare Enterprise is a powerhouse for reducing TTFB with Argo Smart Routing and prioritizing routing. Mirage/Polish optimize images better than most plugins and doesn’t tax your server. Cloudflare Enterprise can also mean 3 less plugins between image, CDN, and security plugins.
  • Servebolt – incredibly fast servers, but Cloudflare Enterprise costs $299/mo via accelerated domains, so you’ll probably just add APO using the Cloudflare plugin. However, this is a disadvantage (specifically for WooCommerce sites) because you don’t get Argo Smart Routing, and Redis is only available on the Business plan and up (Rocket.net includes both). This and low storage are the main cons but they’re much faster than Kinsta + WP Engine. They also have a Servebolt Optimizer plugin.
  • Rocket.net – only host I know that averages a <100ms global TTFB. Both their hosting and Cloudflare Enterprise have better specs. For hosting, you get more CPU cores/RAM, LiteSpeed’s PHP, NVMe, Redis, and MariaDB. For their Cloudflare Enterprise, it’s free with APO, Argo, prioritized routing, Mirage/Polish, Brotli, early hints, and Enterprise WAF. Support is also A+ (talk to Ben Gabler and his team) or watch the interview I did with him. Unlike Kinsta and WP Engine, they don’t limit PHP workers, have a 1GB memory limit, and use Redis Object Cache Pro on their business plan and up with 10x more monthly visits and unlimited free migrations. The main con is only 50GB bandwidth on the Starter plan with 10GB NVMe storage. Search their TrustPilot reviews for “TTFB” or search Facebook Groups for feedback about them. You can get $1 your first month when you checkout using code OMM1

Siteground to rocket. Net
452% LCP improvement

Rocket. Net trustpilot review

Kinsta to rocket. Net migration

Moved to rocket. Net vs siteground

Rocket. Net positive review

Litespeed cache litespeed server

Rocket. Net woocommerce elementor
Cloudflare Enterprise significantly reduces TTFB

Rocket. Net vs cloudways vultr hf trustpilot review

Rocket. Net facebook review 1

Rocket. Net vs kinsta

Kinsta to rocket. Net ttfb redis

Namehero vs siteground feedback

Bad hosting plans (and bad hosts in general):

SiteGround GrowBig Hostinger Business WP Bluehost Choice Plus WP Engine Startup Kinsta Starter
Type Shared Shared Shared Cloud Cloud
Server Apache + Nginx LiteSpeed Apache + Nginx Apache + Nginx Apache + Nginx
Cores/RAM Not listed 2 cores/1.5GB Not listed Not listed 12 cores/8GB
Storage 20GB / SATA 200GB / SATA 40GB / SATA 10GB / SATA 10GB / SATA
CDN Google Cloud QUIC.cloud Cloudflare free Cloudflare free + Polish Cloudflare APO + firewall rules
CDN PoPs 176 80 285 285 285
Full page caching via CDN via QUIC x x
CDN image optimization Very limited via QUIC x Polish only x
DNS Blocked by Google for 4 days Use QUIC Internal Internal Amazon Route 53
Cache plugin SG Optimizer LSC x x x
Object cache Memcached Memcached x Memcached Redis ($100/mo)
PHP processor FastCGI LiteSpeed FastCGI Not listed FastCGI
Database MySQL MySQL MySQL Not listed MySQL
Resource limits CPU limits are common Low resources Low resources Low PHP workers + 25k visits/mo 2 PHP workers + 25k visits/mo
Inodes 400k 600k 50k Unlimited Unlimited
Control panel Site Tools hPanel cPanel User Portal MyKinsta
Email storage 10GB 1GB Adjustable x x
Major incidents Denies issues with TTFB, DNS, CPU, others Scam reports, fake reviews, 2019 breach Claims of hosting terrorist sites 2015 breach None
Migrations $30/site Unlimited (but screws it up) Free on qualified accounts only Paid (quoted) Free on select hosts + 1 free
TrustPilot rating 4.6/5 4.6/5 (fake) 3.7/5 4.5/5 4.2/5
Monthly price $3.99 (1 year) $3.99 (2 years) $5.45 (1 year) $20 (1 year) $29 (1 year)
Renewals $24.99/mo $14.99/mo $19.99/mo $25/mo $29/mo

  • SiteGround – $25/mo for a shared GrowBig plan is a ripoff. Top it off with a poor cache plugin, inferior CDN than Cloudflare APO, CPU limits, and a support team that constantly lies about their issues… means you’re getting ripped off. If your LCP is high, I bet you use SiteGround Optimizer which does a poor job with web vitals, plus they’ve have TTFB issues. Their CDN requires you to use SiteGround’s DNS which was blocked by Google for 4 days. To cover up their mess, they deny everything and use Facebook group admins (who run several groups) to promote SiteGround on their behalf and act like support agents. They have “good reviews” only because of affiliates and legal threats. Check this thread about Hristo’s AMA.
  • Hostinger – only cheap because they lack resources like cores, RAM, and email storage. Everyone gets drawn to their cheap prices and LiteSpeed, but have you read their scam reports and fake reviews? I would never trust them with my site. Support is horrendous and will screw up migrations, suspend your account, and pretty sure they outsource it to an ice cream truck in Lithuania. The CEO admitted to fake reviews, they’re banned from Facebook groups for voting for themselves in polls, and hired brand ambassadors who pretend to be customers. Check this poll.
  • Bluehost – another host that grew from “how to start a blog” affiliates and pays WordPress to be “officially” recommended. Use a shared LiteSpeed host instead.
  • WPX – no redundancy system which already lead to a global outage they blamed on a dead CEO. Ticking time bomb, overpriced shared hosting, and not the fastest WordPress host like Matthew said (but now he lists Kinsta #1)? Marketing gimmick.
  • WP Engine – I reached out to them about their specs, but they don’t give them out. When a host doesn’t list basic things like cores/RAM, I assume it’s not good. From my experience, they’re similar to Kinsta but even worse with pricey overages.
  • Kinsta – great option if you want to go bankrupt with paid add-ons that should be free. Compared to Rocket.net, you get 16x less RAM, 10x less monthly visits, brutal PHP worker limits, and a very low memory limit of 256MB. What are you paying so much for? Slower SATA SSDs, a premium DNS that’s slower than Cloudflare’s, and staging sites that get 1 CPU core? Madness! No wonder their TrustPilot rating sunk.

Avoid siteground

Siteground to cloudways dns issue

Hostinger is the worst

Godaddy mention

Siteground slow ttfb leave

Siteground renewal prices

Hostinger banned from facebook groups

Bluehost hostgator godaddy worst choices

I agree:

Namehero cloudways rocket. Net
NameHero for shared LiteSpeed, Cloudways Vultr HF for cloud, Rocket.net outperforms both

Final Thoughts

Even though WP Fastest Cache lacks quite a few features, it’s still free and actually has great reviews. It does require quite a bit of configuration to get the most out of it even if the settings look easy. But I’ve written guides on nearly every cache plugin and am sticking with FlyingPress.

Cheers,
Tom

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126 Comments...

  1. Thanks for this great guide. Question – how do you integrate the Enterprise Cloudfare CDN in FyingPress or WP Fatstes Cache plugins since I dont see an option to get an API key within my Cloudways > Cloudfare dashboard?

    Reply
  2. I’ve got notification about persistent object cache and it’s recommendation from WordPress, do you know how to solve it?

    WordPress said that I must use plugin cache from redis to optimize it but, is it okay to use 2 plugin cache at the same time???

    Reply
    • Redis is a different layer of caching for your database so yes, it’s OK.

      You need to use a host that supports Redis or Memcached (Google it to see if they do). Your host should have instructions for installing it which is usually pretty easy. Enable it in your hosting account, then use a plugin to connect. Your host should tell you which method/plugin to use. For example in cPanel, you can enable Redis in the PHP Extensions menu. Then connect it through a plugin, for example, Redis Object Cache or WP Redis.

      Reply
  3. Thank you for this great resource!

    An edit may need to be made as to the recommended pages per minutes within the preload setting. It seemingly contradicts the WP Fasted Cash recommendations stating, “It depends on the power of the server. If you have a ordinary hosting package, you should not set more than 4-6. But if you have a VPS, you can set 10-12.”

    Reply
  4. You should include a settings recommendation for those that have the premium versus of WP Fastest Cache. I’ve begun testing with most all options enabled (except Google Fonts asynchronous and lazy load) and initial results are showing slightly better scores then using your recommendations without having to add additional plugins.

    Reply
    • I’ll try to add premium settings soon.

      The problem with WP Fastest Cache is that it really does lack a lot of optimizations like removing unused CSS, delaying JavaScript, hosting files locally, preloading LCP images, the list goes on. You may be able to get OK results on a small site without a lot of CSS/JavaScript, but once you add more, you’ll need extra plugins to optimize the code and address those lacking features.

      Reply
  5. I am also not one to usually comment on blogs but this article was pure GOLD! Our website went from D on GMetrix to B in a few seconds. Your guide was so easy to follow! Thank you so much!

    Reply
    • That’s awesome! I am about to launch my new site and completely rewrote many articles, including this one. You should see it soon.

      Reply
  6. Hi-nice work on this comprehensive article.

    In general, when you have a cache plugin and a CDN network linked to your site, it’s not recommended to minify HTML, JS & CSS on BOTH the plugin and the CDN, right? It’s better to rely on the CDN to run the minification and disable it from the plugin?

    Thank you in advance.

    Reply
  7. Worst plugin ever.

    Just ran through all the settings, updated Cloudflare and ran new tests. My site speed dropped from 1.1 seconds with Autoptimize and Cache Enable to 11.3 seconds with WP Fastest Cache.

    Immediately deleted. Garbage.

    Reply
  8. I pretty much agree with everything you’ve put out here but this informative post needs to be updated. Cloudfare has changed now and charges to have your DNS moved from Siteground (or other hosts) to theirs. If you choose not to pay for that (given my love/hate relationship with Cloudfare – I don’t) you need to add a txt file in your Siteground (or other host’s) DNS settings to verify your Cloudfare account.

    Also, I love StackPath even though they have a limited amount of servers throughout the globe. Their customer service is first-rate compared to Cloudfare, which has always sucked and their MVPs on their forum frequently give out bad information.

    That being said – there is an issue with Googlebot being able to read files served up by StackPath. It’s so bad – that I started generating 50 error mobile pages a day until my entire site was delisted. I went to StackPath support and over the course of 2 days working with them to correct the issue. It took a long time because they didn’t quite understand the issue and how it affected my search results i.e., SEO.

    Ultimately, they found a workaround on their end but it isn’t quite that good as Google was still having difficulty seeing some pages and it took several verifications to get it corrected. I couldn’t wait and sadly returned to Cloudfare.

    If you don’t have a global audience and are based in the U.S. then StackPath IS a solid choice. I’m hopeful they’ll come up with a more satisfactory solution besides their workaround because it affects their business as most webmasters are aware of the importance of SEO and Googlebot being able to read every file on your site.

    This has been a harrowing week of working with them and then switching back to Cloudfare. I’ve finally got everything working to my satisfaction but it’s been a nightmare.

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  9. Thank you for this article! It is a very complete article and very useful. My page speed went from 8 seconds to 2! Your article and instructions are also very easy to follow.

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  10. Im not one to usually commment on website posts, but this one id well deserved of some feed back!

    I was cared to use w3 total cache, as wp rocket messed my site up before. I was just using auto optimise.

    I had good gt metrix, but poor google page speed.

    Followed this guide step by step, took about half an hour all together, and my site is 99-100 in google page speed!!!

    Ridiculous! Really appreciate this guide! Done it all with 0 problems! I was going to pay a guy on fiverr to do this for me too lol!

    Follow the instructions, and this plug in will suit all of your needs

    Reply

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