WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache plug-ins [2025] 💥
WP-ROCKET vs W3 TOTAL CACHE
We'll be testing WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache on their loading time and extra features. These are 2 of the best and fastest Wordpress caching plugins. Both plugins have a very good rating and are very widely used. But which of the 2 is worth the most?
WP-ROCKET (WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache)
We'll start in this W3 Total Cache vs WP-Rocket comparison with WP-ROCKET which does not automatically mean it would be better. I want to start by saying in this WP-Rocket review that there are a lot of decent cache plug-ins available that basically all do their job well. A number such as W3 Total Cache are very time-consuming in their settings, it takes quite a while. WP-Rocket shows that to offer the fastest plug-in no cumbersome settings are needed at all.
This plug-in is faster than any other and also has settings that a complete layman will understand well. Most cache plugins have both a free and premium version. Wp-Rocket only has a premium version, so it has to be paid for in any case. WP-Rocket has now been installed on 1.2 million websites.
Having a lightning-fast website ensures more visitors who are also more satisfied with your site. Furthermore, it has a very beneficial effect on conversion and SERP, or better results in Google searches. I don't think it necessary to say that this is well worth paying $ 49 for it.
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WP-ROCKET SPEEDTESTS
Below I show you 2 speed test where it can clearly be seen that especially the loading time improves enormously by using the WP-Rocket cache plug-in. The improvement concerns no less than 70%. This is no guarantee from me that this will be the case for every site, but at least 40-50% will always be the case.
EASY TO USE
The developers of WP-Rocket have done their best to keep the plug-in as simple as possible and it worked out very well. Everyone is able to configure this plug-in as best they can. Most things work out-of-the-box after installing WP-Rocket. The rest is beautifully divided into chapters and checking the boxes here and there is enough to set everything up optimally.
If there are things that you do not immediately understand, just consult the videos that explain everything in scents and colors. These videos are accessible from the dashboard in the plugin as well as dozens of articles.
As can be seen above: a wonderful feature is to be able to chat with the WP-Rocket helpdesk from the dashboard of the plug-in. There is no need to go to their site.
DOES MORE THAN OTHER PLUG-INS
WP-Rocket offers a maximum of functions, while everything remains very easy to operate.
WP-ROCKET REVIEW CACHE
WP-Rocket already has cache good by default, but here you have additional settings for caching on mobile devices, the expiration time of the cache. Cache files older than the set lifetime are deleted and re-cached. The plug-in even offers User Cache with which you can set cache for logged in visitors.
WP-ROCKET OPTIMIZE FILES
The chapter "optimizing files" is quite large. You can set everything here for combining (concatenation) and minifying css and javascript files. I'm trying to keep this WP-Rocket review concise, if you don't know what minifying or concatenation is, click on these links.
The option "load javascript deferred" is something most competitor plugins do not have and something very important to Google. JS files are thus only loaded at the end after the rest of the page is already visible. See here what defer means.
WP-ROCKET LAZY-LOAD & WEBP
Lazy load means that images are loaded blurry and then become sharper. Also, images that are not displayed on the page are loaded later. In this way, images appear almost immediately, which makes visitors happy.
WebP is a type of image file which is 30% smaller than jpeg. Be sure to activate this if you are not using Imagify. Imagify optimizes images for you, I'll get to this later.
WP-ROCKET DATABASE
If desired, WP-Rocket immediately cleans your website of excess ballast. This ensures an optimized database which makes your site slightly faster. Aside from revisions, trash posts, and drafts as seen below, WP-Rocket also removes the following for you: spam comments, comments you deleted, and temporary files. It also optimizes the tables in your database for you. You can indicate a time at which this will happen with the planner.
WP-ROCKET PLUG-IN REVIEW: CDN
Through WP-Rocket you can choose to use their own CDN for a fee of $ 8 per month. In the chapter "Add-ons" you can use Cloudflare for free. Since WP-Rocket is prepared for this, the installation of both CDNs is very easy.
WP-ROCKET ADD-ONS
WP-Rocket also works perfectly with Facebook, Google Analytics (Statistics for visitors), Varnish (Server cache-program), Sucuri (Website Security), and like said before Cloudflare (CDN). In this WP-Rocket plug-in review we have to give full marks for this.
OPTIMIZE IMAGES
Here you can find another add-on: Imagify. Imagify is perfect for optimizing your images. Even if you already did that yourself, Imagify makes everything even smaller. Among other things, by replacing all images with WEBP images. Imagify can be used for free up to so many images but it doesn't cost too much anyway. This saves you a lot of work and ensures a better SERP ranking as it makes your site a lot faster.
TOOLS
In the chapter "Tools" you will find the possibilities to export and import the complete settings of the plug-in. If you have several websites, you can simply take over the settings and you do not have to set anything at all. It is also possible to undo this after upgrading the plug-in.
WP-ROCKET REVIEW CONCLUSION
It will have become clear to you that WP-Rocket is the cream of the crop when it comes to cache plug-ins. It works perfectly with all other known tools for Wordpress. Setting up the plugin is extremely easy and it is also the fastest plugin you can find. WP-Rocket is well worth the $ 49 charged for it.
W3 TOTAL CACHE (WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache)
Okay, we've had WP-Rocket. We now continue with W3 Total Cache in this WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache comparison. In this W3 Total Cache review we will discuss what both the free and PRO version can do for your Wordpress website. With more than a million active installations, W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular and well-known cache plug-ins for Wordpress. Also the average rating on Wordpress.org where the plugin is free for download, is pretty good.
Install W3 Total Cache (Free version)
W3 Total Cache is a free plug-in that can simply be installed via "New plugin" in Wordpress as shown below. W3 Total Cache is one of the fastest and most complete free WordPress performance optimization plugins. W3 Total Cache improves your site's user experience by improving server performance, caching every aspect of your site, reducing download times and offering a content delivery network (CDN). Immediately after we activate the installation, we can continue with the plug-in settings. Make sure you have removed any other cache plugins beforehand.
Before you start, we strongly recommend that you check your site's performance using Google Pagespeed Insights, GT-Metrix and Pingdom Tools. This will give you a comparison before and after the installation of W3 Total Cache.
If you want to be done quickly you can download a file here what you can import into W3 Total Cache (unpack first), all settings will then be taken over in 1x. If you'd rather learn about your cache plug-in and set everything up yourself, just read on. I must also say for those who do import the optimal settings that if the website shows problems, certain settings must be undone, such as minifying javascript and css for example.
W3 Total Cache settings
Okay, let's see what W3 Total Cache has to offer.
Page Cache
The Page Cache must of course be "enabled", and under normal circumstances "Disk Enhanced" as shown below.
Minifying
Minifying should be used as much as possible, as long as no problems arise on your website (design). This is especially true when combining css or js files. Problems can arise here and in that case you have to restore it. Standard good settings are shown below.
Other cache types
I'm not going to bore you in this W3 Total Cache review with pictures of all different cache types, it more or less goes without saying. Everything can be turned on practically: Opcode cache, Database cache, Object cache, and Browser cache.
CDN Network
In this W3 Total Cache review we are impressed by the large amount of CDN networks that W3 Total Cache works perfectly with. The best choice is for me Stackpath CDN or Cloudflare which is free. As soon as you start paying (PRO) Stackpath is the cheaper choice. Both services are practically equally good when it comes to the premium version.
Lazy Load
Lazy Load has a huge positive influence on the loading time of your page and should therefore be on. Images are loaded blurry and become sharper and "beath the fold" images are loaded later.
Import & Export
All versions offer the import and export options with which you can export the settings of W3 Toal Cache to your PC and then upload them to another site of yours. This way you have much less work if you have multiple sites.
What does the Premium Version offer extra?
With the PRO version, you have monitoring in your dashboard, you can connect W3 Total Cache to Google Pagespeed, Disk Optimizing (database). You also have Fragment caching, Lazy Load for Google Maps, Full site caching for CDN, Render Blocking remove CSS (important), suitable for use with WPML, optimized to work with Genesis Framework (60% faster) and of course full ticket support.
W3 Total Cache review conclusion
My personal experience with this plug-in is good, although I find the settings too cumbersome and do not seem optimal for beginners. An easier and also better plug-in to achieve fast loading times is WP-Rocket. Also WP-Optimize is a good alternative. The Premium version of W3 Total Cache costs a whopping $ 99 a year, double WP-Rocket and has no multi-site discounts. So this plugin is outrageously expensive.
WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache comparison final conclusion
First of all, thank you for reading this WP-Rocket vs W3 Total Cache comparison to the end. First, let's talk about prices. WP-Rocket does not have a free version and costs $ 49 per year. W3 Total Cache Premium costs $ 99 per year, which is double that. We leave the free W3 version aside for a moment because free can never be compared with premium.
Both plugins have practically the same to offer and do their job very well. The fact is that WP-Rocket is just a bit faster, so WP-Rocket wins in this area too. As a final point, we should definitely take into account that WP-Rocket makes your site super fast just by installing it, is very clear and super easy to set up. Nothing just about W3 Total Cache, but it simply cannot match the quality of WP-Rocket overall and is therefore even more expensive. Winner = WP-Rocket.
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