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10 great free WordPress performance plugins

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Website speed matters. It’s the key to boosting your conversions, SEO, and customer satisfaction — and that is just the start.

Today, we will focus specifically on performance optimization for WordPress. There are plenty of useful tips to speed up your WordPress website in 2019 but a special role belongs to installing and using the special WordPress performance plugins.

Useful WordPress performance plugins

Here is our selection of free WordPress plugins that are meant to boost your website by approaching it from different angles. Let’s get acquainted with them.

1. WP Fastest Cache

The WP Fastest Cache performance plugin has over one million active installations. It creates static HTML files that are served to your next users, so there is no need to render them again. The plugin is a nice example of numerous WordPress plugins that focus on caching.

Key features of WP Fastest Cache plugin:

  • Admin interface
  • Cache timeout
  • Cache blocking for particular pages
  • Cache on/off for mobile devices
  • Cache on/off for logged-in users
  • SSL (single sign-on) support
  • CDN (content delivery network) support
  • Cloudflare support

fastest cache wordpress performance plugin

2. Smush Image Compression and Optimization

Here is another performance plugin that has won the trust of over one million site owners. It approaches another aspect of website speed — image optimization. The Smush Image Compression and Optimization plugin uses compression, minification, and other techniques.

Key features of Smush plugin:

  • Lossless image compression
  • Image lazy loading
  • Automated optimization
  • Bulk optimization
  • Detection of incorrect image sizes
  • Integration with new WordPress’s Gutenberg editor blocks
  • Multisite Compatibility
  • Optimization of images in Media Library

smush image compression and optimization wordpress performance plugin

3. a3 Lazy Load

The a3 Lazy Load is one of WordPress performance tools that rely on the lazy loading technique. According to it, the page elements (images, videos, and more) are only loaded when they get to the user’s viewport.

Key features of a3 Lazy Load plugin:

  • Admin panel to turn lazy loading on and off
  • The option to turn on and off for posts, pages, gravatars, thumbnails, and more
  • Lazy loading for videos
  • Lazy loading for iFrames
  • Post embedding
  • AMP support
  • Compatibility with WooCommerce
  • Fade-in and spinner effects

a3 lazy load wordpress performance plugin

4. WP-Optimize

The WP-Optimize plugin approaches your WordPress performance improvement from the point of view of your database cleanliness. It automatically cleans it of trash, content revisions, stale data, and so on. This helps your site database run fast and efficiently.

Key features of WP-Optimize plugin:

  • Detailed control and reports
  • Scheduled cleanups
  • Automatic pre-optimize backups
  • Database statistics
  • Image compression
  • Translated to many languages
  • Mobile friendliness

wp optimize wordpress performance plugin

5. AMP for WP

The AMP for WP plugin brings the power of the Google AMP technology to your WordPress website and makes it load instantly on mobile devices. It also has a number of extensions like AMP Adsense Support, Email Opt-in Support, and so on.

Key features of AMP for WP plugin:

  • Automatic AMP integration
  • On and off for posts and pages
  • Native AMP search
  • WooCommerce support
  • Gutenberg editor support
  • GDPR compliance
  • Support for Contact Form 7, Gravity Form, Caldera Form, Ninja Form etc.
  • Support for AMP Infinity Scroll
  • Translation panel with RTL support
  • Social media integration

amp for wp wordpress performance plugin

6. Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster

The Asset CleanUp plugin allows you to selectively remove the styles and scripts that are not needed on your website. It finds all assets and displays them on the dashboard where you can select the unnecessary ones.

Key features of Asset CleanUp plugin:

  • Useless asset unloading
  • CSS/JavaScript file minifying/combining
  • Removal of potential plugin conflicts
  • HTML code reduction
  • Removal of unnecessary links, tags, and comments

wp asset cleanup wordpress performance plugin

7. WP Speed of Light

The WP Speed of Light is a multi-purpose performance tool that combines such techniques as caching, Gzip compression, htaccess optimization, database cleanup, and others. It also includes a speed loading test and a database query test.

Key features of WP Speed of Light plugin:

  • Static cache generation
  • Browser cache
  • HTML, CSS, and JavaScript minification
  • CDN integration
  • Automatic cache clearing
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Multisite support
  • Compatibility with page builders

wp speed of light wordpress performance plugin

8. Hummingbird

Meet another WordPress performance optimization plugin called Hummingbird. It boosts your WordPress website performance by relying on file compression, minification, as well as caching. With it, you can scan your pages and instantly apply fixes.

Key features of Hummingbird plugin:

  • Complete caching suite
  • Reports on website speed
  • Fast GZIP compression
  • File positioning, minifying, and combining

hummingbird wordpress performance plugin

9. CDN Enabler

The CDN Enabler plugin is meant to improve your site performance by integrating a CDN. A CDN, or content delivery network, is known as a distributed network of servers that speeds up your content delivery to users.

Key features of CDN Enabler plugin:

  • Content linking to CDN URLs
  • The option to include directories
  • The option to exclude directories or extensions
  • The HTTPS on/off feature
  • Bedrock support

cdn enabler wordpress performance plugin

10. CAOS for Webfonts

Here is another tool created with performance in mind — the CAOS. Using the Google Fonts Helper API, it automatically downloads external fonts in the WordPress folder and generates a stylesheet for them.

Key features of CAOS for Webfonts:

  • Easy to find and download the fonts
  • The generated stylesheet is automatically added to the header
  • Caching path change to reach better compatibility
  • Font performance control

Speed up your WordPress website now

The above mentioned WordPress plugins are definitely useful. But still more important are expert WordPress developers who can use them properly.

They can select, install, and configure the right plugins according to their compatibility and your website’s needs. And, of course, plugins work best in combination with other means to improve WordPress website performance.

Precious seconds are leaking away. While you were reading this sentence, a few potential customers have left your site without a conversion. It’s time to fix this — so contact our WordPress support team, and let us speed up your website.