LiteSpeed Cache vs Native Image Lazy Loading

LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) is an all-in-one site acceleration plugin, featuring an exclusive server-level cache and a collection of optimization features. LSCWP supports WordPress Multisite and is compatible with most popular plugins, including WooCommerce, bbPress, and Yoast SEO. LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress is compatible with ClassicPress. Requirements General Features may be used by anyone with any web server (LiteSpeed, Apache, NGINX, etc.). LiteSpeed Exclusive Features require one of the following: OpenLiteSpeed, commercial LiteSpeed products, LiteSpeed-powered hosting, or QUIC.cloud CDN. Why? Plugin Features General Features Free QUIC.cloud CDN Cache Object Cache (Memcached/LSMCD/Redis) Support+ Image Optimization (Lossless/Lossy) Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML Minify inline & external CSS/JS Combine CSS/JS Automatically generate Critical CSS Lazy-load images/iframes Responsive Image Placeholders Multiple CDN Support+ Load CSS Asynchronously Defer/delay JS loading Browser Cache Support+ Database Cleaner and Optimizer PageSpeed score (including Core Web Vitals) optimization OPcode Cache Support+ HTTP/2 Push for CSS/JS (on web servers that support it) DNS Prefetch Cloudflare API Single Site and Multisite (Network) support Import/Export settings Attractive, easy-to-understand interface AVIF/WebP image format support Heartbeat control + This service is not provided by the LSCache plugin, nor is it guaranteed to be installed by your service provider. However, the plugin is compatible with the service if it is in use on your site. LiteSpeed Exclusive Features Automatic page caching to greatly improve site performance Automatic purge of related pages based on certain events Private cache for logged-in users Caching of WordPress REST API calls Separate caching of desktop and mobile views Ability to schedule purge for specified URLs WooCommerce and bbPress support WordPress CLI commands API system for easy cache integration Exclude from cache by URI, Category, Tag, Cookie, User Agent Smart preload crawler with support for SEO-friendly sitemap Multiple crawlers for cache varies HTTP/2 support HTTP/3 & QUIC support ESI (Edge Side Includes) support* Widgets and Shortcodes as ESI blocks* (requires Classic Widgets plugin for WP 5.8+) * Feature not available in OpenLiteSpeed LSCWP Resources Join our Slack community to connect with other LiteSpeed users. Ask a question on our support forum. View detailed documentation. Read about LSCWP and WordPress on our blog. Help translate LSCWP. Contribute to the LSCWP GitHub repo. Third Party Compatibility The vast majority of plugins and themes are compatible with LSCache. Our API is available for those that are not. Use the API to customize smart purging, customize cache rules, create cache varies, and make WP nonce cacheable, among other things. Privacy This plugin includes some suggested text that you can add to your site’s Privacy Policy via the Guide in the WordPress Privacy settings. For your own information: LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress potentially stores a duplicate copy of every web page on display on your site. The pages are stored locally on the system where LiteSpeed server software is installed and are not transferred to or accessed by LiteSpeed employees in any way, except as necessary in providing routine technical support if you request it. All cache files are temporary, and may easily be purged before their natural expiration, if necessary, via a Purge All command. It is up to individual site administrators to come up with their own cache expiration rules. In addition to caching, our WordPress plugin has online features provided by QUIC.cloud for Image Optimization and Page Optimization services. When one of these optimizations is requested, data is transmitted to a remote QUIC.cloud server, processed, and then transmitted back for use on your site. QUIC.cloud keeps copies of that data for up to 7 days and then permanently deletes it. Similarly, the WordPress plugin has a Reporting feature whereby a site owner can transmit an environment report to LiteSpeed so that we may better provide technical support. None of these features collects any visitor data. Only server and site data are involved. QUIC.cloud CDN, if enabled, uses LSCache technology to access your site, and serve your content from remote global nodes. Your data is not accessed by QUIC.cloud employees in any way, except as necessary in providing maintenance or technical support. Please see the QUIC.cloud Privacy Policy for our complete Privacy/GDPR statement.

This plugin adds the loading attribute to IMG tags found when filtering the_content() to support native image lazy loading. For more information about lazy loading images using this new native browser image attribute, check out this article: https://addyosmani.com/blog/lazy-loading/ and for a little more depth into what we’re doing here, check out our explainer post. Historically, to limit the impact offscreen images have on page load times, developers have needed to use a JavaScript library (like LazySizes or Vanilla-LazyLoad) in order to defer fetching these images until a user scrolls near them. What if the browser could avoid loading these offscreen images for you? The loading attribute instructs a browser to defer loading offscreen images until users scroll near them. It comes in three flavors: eager, auto, and lazy. Install this plugin and you can set the first image’s loading attribute and the loading attribute for all the subsequent images sent through the_content() in the plugin’s settings page. Simple is Beautiful There is no JavaScript or CSS included in the plugin. It just works in browsers that support the new loading image attribute. For browsers that don’t support this new image loading attribute, that’s ok. You can still use whatever JavaScript-based image lazy loader you want as a fallback until browser support becomes a little more mainstream.