Believe it or not, 40 percent of visitors will leave if your website loading speed is more than 3 seconds. Even if you have rich content with good SEO, your visitors pass over you as quick as they came. Luckily there are enough ways to capitalize on this missing piece of the puzzle. This article was written to show the tools WordPress offers that actually work and their features.

Website loading speed Tools for 2019.

Important Points to Note

• It is impossible to mention quicker loading times without considering a good host. When it comes to loading speed, it’s no guesswork that we recommend SiteGround as one of the most reliable hosting companies.
• Choosing a lightweight theme can significantly reduce site loading times. It is always best to choose developers who build with speed in mind.

After reading this article you will be able to choose the best WordPress setup according to what you’re looking for. You can jump to the section that best suits your needs.

Let’s begin.

1. WP Fastest Cache

This Plugin is easy to set up out of the box, this plugin creates static HTML files for your dynamic website which it then serves to multiple users visiting your website at a time.

Features:

1. Mod_Rewrite which is the fastest method is used in this plugin
2. Automatic and manual cache deletion by Admin from the options page.
3. Admin can delete minified CSS and js files from the options page as well as block cache for specific page or post with Short Code.
4. All cached files are deleted at the determined time with the added option of Cache Timeout for specific pages.
5. Enable/Disable cache option for both mobile and logged in users
6. Minify Html– Decreases the size of the page.
7. Enable Gzip Compression– Reduces the size of files sent from your server so that they are transferred to your browser faster.
8. Leverage Browser Caching– Reduces page load times for repeat visitors
9. Combine CSS– Reduce the number of HTTP round-trips by combining multiple CSS resources into one.
10. Combine JS.
11. Disable Emoji– You can remove the emoji inline CSS and wp-emoji-release.min.js.
12. SSL support
13. CDN support
14. Cloudflare support

You can compare between the free vs premium version here

2. W3 Total Cache

W3 total cache improves SEO and performance of your website when fully configured. Despite being a little difficult to configure for beginners, it can make your site’s performance jump up to 10x than the regular. The plugin is not maintained as much as the others on this list and that can cause some sites to break. It is recommended to do a backup before implementing this plugin.

The best things to achieve unbeatable performance is a combination of SiteGround+W3 Total Cache+Cloudflare+StackPath’s CDN.

Features:

1. Browser Caching
2. At least 10x improvement in overall site performance.
3. Improvements in conversion rates.
4. Improvements in search engine rankings.
5. Up to 80 percent bandwidth savings.
6. SSL support
7. CDN support
8. Cloudflare support

Here’s an in-depth tutorial on how to set up W3 Total Cache

3. WP Rocket

If this is your choice for a caching plugin then you have made the best choice.

This tool is way easier to configure than W3 Total Cache and is updated regularly for improvements. It starts at just $49, while simultaneously giving immeasurable value.

There also thorough documentation for referencing tutorials, configuration and problem-solving.

Features:

1. Quick Set Up – No programming knowledge required.
2. Automatic page Caching
3. Preloads all the URLs in your XML sitemap
4. Cache Preloading
5. GZip Compression
6. Browser Caching
7. Cleans up your database and reduces its size
8. Uses Google fonts optimization for fewer Http Requests = Faster loading speed
9. Removes Query string from your CSS/JS file
10. Lazy load
11. Html Javascript and CSS minification
12. Let’s javascript files load at the end of your page rendering
13. CloudFlare Compatible
14. Support for most CDN services
15. Preloading DNS
16. Mobile detection
17. Multisite Compatible
18. Automatic exclusion or cart and checkout in eCommerce sites
19. Multilingual Compatibility
20. Offer connected users features in one click
21. Saves time with import/export tools
22. Clean code that enables advanced developer customization

Plugins that Reduce Image Size

1. WP Smush

This plugin has definitely got the tools to justify its 1.1 million downloads. This plugin has a free version and a 30-day premium trial. While it does compress your images, it, unfortunately, doesn’t offer many options to customize. EWWW Image Optimizer offers more options and can be a good alternative.

Features:

1. Bulk Compression
2. Intelligent Lossy compression
3. Lossless compression
4. Set Max width and height of images on upload
5. Stores backup if you want to restore original files
6. Automatic Compression
7. Keeps EXIF Data
8. Converts PNG to Lossy JPG
9. Compresses up to 35MB files
10. Pro Compression is 200% faster than free
11. Set custom directories to be optimized outside of media library
12. Optimize Amazon Cloud-Based Library
13. Serves Images From 40Tbps CDN.
14. Detects Wrong Size Images and Automatically serve the right size

 2. EWWW Image Optimizer

This plugin is known for its unlimited file size uploads and optimization of images created by any plugin. This plugin ships with automatic compression upon upload. It allows you to choose between “Pixel Perfect Compression” or High Compression options that are visually lossless.

EWWW Image Optimizer features

1. Unlimited file size uploads with automatic background optimization and parallel optimization
2. Pixel perfect optimization with progressive rendering tools
3. Lossy options available
4. Compatible with JPG, PNG, PDF, and GIF
5. Free core Plugin and paid for API that charges based on compression and not annual billing
6. Image Optimization beyond WordPress library
7. Image backups for original images
8. Images can be optimized on EWWWO servers for free
9. Exact CDN support for automatic image re-sizing
10. Optimize everything on a single page using Bulk Scanner
11. Optimize everything on your website by configuring the folders.
12. WordPress command line interface to run bulk optimization without the use of the web interface. Reference Here for more information.
13. Multiple Image Gallery Support
14. Multilingual Support
15. Imsanity

Imsanity automatically resizes huge uploads, with a max width max height and quality settings. Bulk resize settings can be applied to selectively previously uploaded images and customize them accordingly. The plugin is Ideal for beginner users who do not know or want to scale images before uploads.

Features

1. Automatically scales large image uploads
2. Bulk-resize to selectively resize existing images
3. Allows configuration of max width/height and jpg quality
4. Optionally converts BMP files to JPG
5. Once enabled, Imsanity requires no actions on the part of the user
6. Uses WordPress built-in image scaling functions

Ideal Free CDNs

What is a CDN and why is it important?

CDN is an abbreviation for Content Delivery Network.
It’s remarkable the way these networks distribute cached websites to the users depending on geographic location.
By far this alone can boost your website speeds without the weight of plugins, given that you use a host like SiteGround that are built with speed in mind.

The Best FREE CDN Recommendations

1. CloudFlare
2. Incapsula
3. Datapath
4. Netlify
5. Js Deliverer

CloudFlare

If this is your choice then you’ve chosen a secure platform that has over 40 million internet assets. They offer a plugin but it is highly recommended to apply via the website simply for better support.
CloudFlare is Definitely a safe bet so you don’t have to worry about your site’s loading speed at all.

Sites That Use CloudFlare

• Yelp
• Feedly
• Mozilla
• DigitalOcean
• Udacity
• CodeGuard
• Zopim
• StackOverflow
• Reddit

Incapsula

Incapsula’s FREE plan is ideal for blogs and personal websites. The global CDN access from its 44 Data Centers makes it accessible to all and their users on different continents.

FREE Features

• Global CDN – On All continents
• Caching, Compression, Minification, Image Optimization – All without additional plugins
• Spambot protection, CAPTCHA security, comment spam protection – Ideal for blogs and personal websites
• IPV6 support
• Real-time statistics, uptime monitoring, weekly report, traffic stats

Sites that Use Incapsula

• Moz
• WIX
• XOOM
• Siemens
• IATA
• GoEast
• T-Mobile

Datapath

Here Are Some of the FREE Features Of Datapath

• One elastic IP
• Latency optimization
• Traffic monitoring
• 500GB per month traffic

Netlify

Netlify is a not a typical CDN company, they let you access their your hosting for your Static or Dynamic Website for FREE.

FREE Features

• Redirect rules
• Continuous Deployment
• Let’s encrypt certificate, HTTP/2
• Custom domain
• Global CDN, Ultra-fast DNS
• Rollbacks
• Prerendering, Cache invalidation
• DDoS protection
• Git integration
• Custom HTTP Headers

JS Delivr

Here you can find a CDN Provider that offloads JavaScript libraries, jQuery, fonts, and CSS + additional features to serve lower your website loading speed.

Some Sponsors of Js Deliver

Why SiteGround is the #1 Recommended Hosting Provider for a faster website

SiteGround gets more praise than its being given for proving time and time again on several different polls against top EIG  companies which are a constant source of complaints. With Updated SSD and PHP versions, SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress. SiteGround also offers FREE website migrations. You can purchase any of their packages here with this affiliate link.* Yes, we affiliate with SiteGround and want to be totally transparent going forward if you choose to accept this great service.

You can choose other hosts if you want.

Here are 5 Different Facebook Polls that verify SiteGround’s Competence

I like SiteGround Because….

• They will Migrate your Site for free (30-day money back guaranteed)
• Free SSL Certificates (EIG Companies Charge for this)
• They Have One Click CloudFlare Integration
• Automatic Daily Backups and WordPress Updates
• They Use PHP 7.3
• They use HTTP/2 Servers
• Weekly Security Email Notifications
• 27/7 support
• They’re Recommended by WordPress
• Instant Speed Improvements
• SG Optimizer plugin keeps your PHP up to date

What are the Recommended Themes for a Fast WordPress Site?

You only need the theme that’s closest to your needs on WordPress’s Vast library but I personally recommend StudioPress Themes. This is not an affiliate link they just design their themes with Speed and SEO in mind. It’s no surprise that Yoast and Matt Cutts from Google uses these themes.

Please Leave a comment to let me know what other speed suggestions you use and the ones you find useful in this article.