Easy Critical CSS
Easy Critical CSS is a lightweight WordPress plugin that lets you add Critical CSS to any page on your site to improve loading speed and performance. Features: – Easily add Critical CSS and Secondary CSS to any page – Secondary CSS removes unused CSS rules and stylesheets, ensuring only a single optimized CSS file loads – Supports posts, pages, archives, and taxonomy pages – Fully compatible with caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, etc.) – Customizable settings for individual pages – Stores Critical CSS in your choice of the database or as static files – Optional API service (API key required) for automated Critical and Secondary CSS generation via CriticalCSS.net – Background processing to generate CSS without blocking page loads or admin actions Why Use Critical CSS? Critical CSS ensures above-the-fold content loads first by reducing render-blocking CSS. This helps you boost Core Web Vitals, improve page speed scores, and deliver a better experience to your visitors. Want to try it out first? You can generate free one-off Critical CSS at CriticalCSS.net and manually apply it to your site using the plugin settings. External services This plugin interacts with external third-party services in order to provide its functionality. Below is a detailed breakdown of these interactions: Critical CSS API (api.criticalcss.net) This service generates critical and secondary CSS used to optimize your site’s CSS delivery and improve page load times. Data Sent: The URL, CSS generation preferences, generation status, and HTML content of pages from your website. When: Data is transmitted only if you have explicitly enabled the Auto generation mode, and occurs whenever Critical CSS or Secondary CSS needs to be generated or regenerated. Links: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy. Cloudflare API (api.cloudflare.com) This service is used to automatically clear your Cloudflare cache after new critical CSS is generated, ensuring your visitors see updated styles immediately. Data Sent: Authentication credentials (Cloudflare email, API key, and zone ID) and instructions for purging the cache. When: Data is sent only if CLOUDFLARE_EMAIL, CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY, and CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID are defined in your site’s configuration. Links: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy. Kinsta Cache Clear (localhost) If your site is hosted on Kinsta, this plugin can trigger a cache clear after generating new critical CSS, ensuring immediate availability of updated styles. Data Sent: A cache-clear request to your site’s local server endpoint provided by Kinsta. No sensitive or identifying information is transmitted beyond the local environment. When: Data is sent only when your site detects that it’s running on Kinsta infrastructure (KINSTA_CACHE_ZONE environment variable is present). Links: Kinsta Terms of Service, Kinsta Privacy Policy. Freemius API (api.freemius.com and wp.freemius.com) Used to manage licensing, validate API keys, and handle plugin updates and account management. Data Sent: Freemius sends and receives licensing information and plugin activation status, including your site’s URL, plugin version, API key, and licensing details. When: Data is transmitted only after explicitly opting in through the plugin’s settings page or upon activation of a purchased API key. By default, the plugin does not send any data to Freemius until you explicitly opt in. Links: Freemius Terms of Service, Freemius Privacy Policy.
Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL)
Easily improve site security with WordPress Hardening, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Login Protection, Vulnerability Detection and SSL certificate. Really simple, Effective and Performant WordPress Security Really Simple Security is the most lightweight and easy-to-use security plugin for WordPress. It secures your WordPress website with SSL certificate generation, including proper 301 https redirection and SSL enforcement, scanning for possible vulnerabilities, Login Protection and implementing essential WordPress hardening features. We believe that security should have the absolute minimum effect on website performance, user experience and maintainability. Therefore, Really Simple Security is: Lightweight: Every security feature is developed with a modular approach and with performance in mind. Disabled features won’t load any redundant code. Easy-to-use: 1-minute configuration with short onboarding setup. Security Features Easy SSL Migration Migrates your website to HTTPS and enforces SSL in just one click. 301 redirect via PHP or .htaccess Secure cookies Let’s Encrypt: Install an SSL Certificate if your hosting provider supports manual installation. Server Health Check: Your server configuration is every bit as important for your website security. WordPress Hardening Tweak your configuration and keep WordPress fortified and safe by tackling potential weaknesses. Prevent code execution in the uploads folder Prevent login feedback and disable user enumeration Disable XML-RPC Disable directory browsing Username restrictions (block ‘admin’ and public names) and much more.. Vulnerability Detection Get notified when plugins, themes or WP core contain vulnerabilities and need appropriate action. Login Protection Allow or enforce Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific user roles. Users receive a two-factor code via Email. Improve Security with Really Simple Security Pro Protect your site with all essential security features by upgrading to Really Simple Security Pro. Advanced SSL enforcement Mixed Content Scan & Fixer. Detect files that are requested over HTTP and fix them to HTTPS, both Front- and Back-end. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security and configure your site for the HSTS Preload list. Firewall Really Simple Security Pro includes a performant and efficient WordPress firewall, to stop bots, crawlers and bad actors with IP and username blocks. 404 blocking – Blocks crawlers as they trigger unusual numbers of 404 errors. Region blocking – Only allow/block access to your site from specific regions. Automated and customisable Firewall rules. IP blocklist and allowlist. Security Headers Security headers protect your site visitors against the risk of clickjacking, cross-site-forgery attacks, stealing login credentials and malware. Independent of your Server Configuration, works on Apache, LiteSpeed, NGINX, etc. Protect your website visitors with X-XSS Protection, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, a Referrer Policy and CORS headers. Automatically generate your WordPress-tailored Content Security Policy. Vulnerability Measures When a vulnerability is detected in a plugin, theme or WordPress core you will get notified accordingly. With Vulnerability Measures, you can configure simple but effective measures to make sure that a critical vulnerability won’t remain unattended. Force update: An update process will be tried multiple times until it can be assumed development of a theme or plugin is abandoned. You will be notified during these steps. Quarantine: When a plugin or theme can’t be updated to solve a vulnerability, Really Simple Security can quarantine the plugin. Advanced Site Hardening Choose a custom login URL Automated File Permissions check and fixer Rename and randomize your database prefix Change the debug.log file location to a non-public folder Disable application passwords Control admin creation Disable HTTP methods, reducing HTTP requests Login Protection Secure your website’s login process and user accounts with powerful security measures. Two-Step verification (Email login) 2FA (two factor authentication) with TOTP Passwordless login with passkey login Enforce strong passwords and frequent password change Limit Login Attempts With Limit Login Attempts you can configure a threshold to temporarily or permanently block IP addresses or (non-existing) usernames. You can also throw a CAPTCHA after a failed login (hCaptcha or Google reCaptcha) Access Control Restrict access to your site for specific regions. Add specific IP addresses or IP ranges to the Blocklist or Allowlist. Useful Links Documentation Security Definitions Translate Really Simple Security Issues & pull requests Feature requests Love Really Simple Security? If you want to support the continuing development of this plugin, please consider buying Really Simple Security Pro, which includes some excellent security features and premium support. About Really Simple Plugins Our mission is to make complex WordPress requirements really easy. Really Simple Security is developed by Really Simple Plugins. For generating SSL certificates, Really Simple Security uses the le acme2 PHP Let’s Encrypt client library, thanks to ‘fbett’ for providing it. Vulnerability Detection uses WP Vulnerability, an open-source initiative by Javier Casares. Want to join as a collaborator? We’re on GitHub as well!
