PlugoSpeed vs Varnish/Nginx Proxy Caching

PlugoSpeed is a WordPress performance plugin that combines page caching, asset optimization, and Core Web Vitals improvements in a single lightweight package. It generates static HTML cache files served directly from disk via Apache — bypassing PHP and WordPress on cached requests. In testing on a standard VPS, this approach achieves sub-50ms TTFB and PageSpeed scores of 95/100 on desktop. A React 18 dashboard provides real-time cache hit rates, bandwidth saved, and PageSpeed score tracking — no jQuery required. Core Features (Free) Static HTML Cache Pages are stored as static .html files on disk. Apache serves them directly — no PHP, no database, no WordPress bootstrap. Cache TTL is configurable (default: 24 hours). HTML Minification Removes unnecessary whitespace and comments from the final HTML output, reducing page size without affecting content or functionality. CSS Minification Minifies stylesheet files inline, reducing transfer size. Combine is intentionally disabled by default for HTTP/2 compatibility. JavaScript Defer Adds defer to non-critical scripts, improving Time to Interactive (TTI) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) scores on mobile. Image Lazy Loading Adds native loading="lazy" to images and iframes below the fold. Injects explicit width and height attributes to reduce Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Database Cleanup Scheduled cleanup of post revisions, auto-drafts, spam comments, and expired transients. Configurable schedule: daily, weekly, or monthly. Cache Preloading After purge, PlugoSpeed re-warms the cache automatically by walking your XML sitemap. Rate-limited to avoid server overload. Auto Cache Purge Cache is invalidated on post save, theme change, plugin activation, and WooCommerce stock/price updates. PageSpeed Dashboard Tracks your Google PageSpeed Insights score over time with a 30-day graph. Shows live cache hit/miss ratio, bandwidth saved, and page count. Pro Features Remove Unused CSS (RUCSS) Generates a per-page stylesheet containing only the CSS rules that are actually used. Eliminates render-blocking CSS from page builders and plugin stylesheets. Requires a PlugoPress API key. Critical CSS Inlines the above-the-fold CSS directly in , eliminating render-blocking for a faster LCP. Requires a PlugoPress API key. WebP Image Serving Automatically serves .webp versions of images to supported browsers, reducing image payload by 25–35% without quality loss. Upgrade to Pro → plugopress.com/plugospeed/ Compatibility PlugoSpeed is tested and verified compatible with: Page Builders: Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Oxygen, WPBakery Themes: Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, Hello Elementor, OceanWP, Blocksy, Neve, Flatsome E-Commerce: WooCommerce (cart exclusion, stock purge, vary by currency) Multilingual: WPML, Polylang (vary cache by language) SEO: Rank Math, Yoast SEO, All in One SEO CDN: Cloudflare (Pro: API purge integration) Technical Highlights Apache .htaccess rules serve cached HTML at low TTFB — before PHP loads advanced-cache.php drop-in captures misses and writes cache files Optimizer pipeline: Image → JS → CSS → HTML (order matters for correctness) WooCommerce cart/checkout pages are automatically excluded from cache Logged-in users never receive cached pages (preserves nonces and personalisation) Action Scheduler handles background jobs (preload, cleanup, RUCSS generation) REST API powers the dashboard — all actions are nonce-protected with manage_options capability checks Links Plugin Page Documentation Changelog Support External Services This plugin connects to the following external services: Google PageSpeed Insights API Purpose: Measures your site’s performance score and Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FID) When it is called: Only when viewing the PlugoSpeed dashboard or when a manual refresh is triggered by the site administrator Data transmitted: Your site’s public URL — no personal data is sent Terms of Service: https://developers.google.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy PlugoPress Cloud API (api.plugopress.com) Purpose: Powers Pro features: Remove Unused CSS (RUCSS) and Critical CSS generation When it is called: Only when a valid API key is configured by the site administrator AND the corresponding Pro feature is enabled Data transmitted: The page URL and rendered HTML of the requested page, used solely for CSS analysis Terms of Service: https://plugopress.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://plugopress.com/privacy-policy PlugoPress Badge Service (plugopress.com) Purpose: Displays a performance badge in the PlugoSpeed dashboard When it is called: When the dashboard is viewed and a PageSpeed score is available Data transmitted: Only the numeric PageSpeed score is included in the image URL — no personal data is sent Terms of Service: https://plugopress.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://plugopress.com/privacy-policy

Complete WordPress Varnish Cache 3.x/4.x/5.x and Nginx Proxy Cache integration. This plugin handles all integration with Varnish Cache and Nginx Proxy Cache. It was designed for high traffic websites. Main features admin interface, see screenshots console for manual purges, supports regular expressions so you can purge an entire folder or just a single file supports every type of Varnish Cache implementation, see screenshots for examples unlimited number of Varnish Cache servers use of custom headers when communicating with Varnish Cache does not interfere with other caching plugins, cloudflare, etc Varnish Cache configuration generator purge key method so you don’t need to setup ACLs debugging actively maintained You can control the following from the Varnish Caching admin panel : Enable/Disable caching Homepage cache TTL Cache TTL (for every other page) IPs/Hosts to clear cache to support every type of Varnish Cache implementation Override default TTL in posts/pages Purge key based PURGE Logged in cookie Debugging option console for precise manual purges This plugin also auto purges Varnish Cache / Nginx Proxy Cache when your site is modified. Varnish Caching sends a PURGE request to Varnish Cache / Nginx Proxy Cache when a page or post is modified. This occurs when editing, publishing, commenting or deleting an item, and when changing themes. Not all pages are purged every time, depending on your Varnish / Nginx Proxy Cache configuration. When a post, page, or custom post type is edited, or a new comment is added, only the following pages will purge: The front page The post/page edited Any categories or tags associated with the page Varnish Cache / Nginx Proxy Cache is a web application accelerator also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy. You install it in front of any server that speaks HTTP and configure it to cache the contents. This plugin does not install Varnish/Nginx for you, nor does it configure Varnish/Nginx for WordPress. It’s expected you already did that on your own using the provided config files. Inspired from the following : https://wordpress.org/plugins/varnish-http-purge/ https://github.com/dreamhost/varnish-vcl-collection/