Varnish/Nginx Proxy Caching vs WP Optimizer – The All-In-One real Performance-Boosting Plugin

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/

Are you frustrated by a slow website? WP Optimizer brings performance, maintenance, diagnostics and site-management tools into one modular WordPress plugin. WPcOptimizer is a free, all-in-one performance plugin that can replace the 3–5 separate speed plugins most sites run today — page caching, script minification, image lazy loading, LCP preloading, WebP delivery and more — to help you pass Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) and Interaction to Next Paint (INP). It runs on Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed and OpenLiteSpeed, and it is fully WooCommerce-aware. One cache plugin, one dashboard, no premium upsells for core features, and everithing run on your server, no external tool or subscription is required. And uf you prefer to keep your current cache plugin? Turn off the modules that overlap and use only the tools you want (see the FAQ). Core Features Static Page Cache: Store complete HTML responses on disk and serve eligible cached pages before WordPress loads through server-specific rules. Configure lifetimes, URL rules, query-string handling, user scope, status-code groups, cookie and user-agent exclusions, automatic content-aware purging and per-rule hit, miss and disk-usage reports. Query & Object Caching: Cache selected WP_Query results and database queries with independent lifetimes, rules and targeted invalidation when related content changes. An optional WordPress object-cache drop-in can use Redis or Memcached when a supported PHP extension and service are available. HTML, CSS & JavaScript Minification: Minify rendered HTML, inline CSS and inline JavaScript, plus local stylesheet and script files. Generated assets are cached on disk, already-minified URLs are skipped, relative CSS paths are preserved and sensitive page-builder assets and markup bypass transformation. Compression & Browser Caching: Generate server directives for GZIP or Brotli compression and configurable browser-cache headers for CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts, archives and other static resources, including optional immutable, stale-if-error and stale-while-revalidate policies where supported. Lazy Loading & Layout Stability: Add native lazy loading to images and iframes, prevent videos from preloading data before they are needed and add missing image width and height attributes when WordPress attachment metadata is available. LCP, Font & Navigation Hints: Detect an image reported as the Largest Contentful Paint element and add a high-priority image preload, enforce font-display: swap, optionally defer font stylesheets and prefetch eligible same-origin links on hover or touch intent. Local Image Optimization & WebP: Compress existing media-library images and generated thumbnails locally with Imagick or GD, optionally resize oversized files, preserve EXIF data when requested and convert supported images to WebP. New uploads and large library scans can be processed automatically in background batches. Media Cleaner: Scan the media library or a selected uploads path for files that are not referenced by WordPress content, then review, ignore or delete the reported items from the dashboard. Four-Stage Page Test: Compare a signed baseline request with WP Optimizer bypassed against the current warmed configuration. The report measures response time, TTFB, peak memory and response size, while diagnostic warmup data highlights slow or repeated queries, expensive hooks and callback samples. Performance Monitor: Record sampled request history and cache hit/miss metrics, identify slow SQL and profile the load time, callback time, SQL time, memory use and query count attributable to WordPress core, the active theme and installed plugins. Capture scope, sampling rates and slow-request thresholds are configurable. Database Cleanup, Backups & Autoload Health: Remove revisions, auto-drafts, trashed posts, spam comments, transients and orphaned metadata, optimize selected tables, create and restore SQL backups and inspect the size and autoload status of wp_options rows before disabling autoload or deleting an option. Cron & Heartbeat Management: Schedule automatic database and media optimization, reduce front-end cron checks, set the wp-admin Heartbeat interval and inspect, create, edit, run or delete WordPress cron events and custom schedules. WordPress Cleanup & Admin Controls: Independently disable unused WordPress output and features such as emojis, XML-RPC, feeds, oEmbed/REST access, shortlinks, relational links, the core sitemap, jQuery Migrate, Dashicons, Global Styles, widgets, comments and selected Block Editor features. Dashboard panels, Admin Bar items and non-admin dashboard access can also be controlled. Activity Log & Suspicious Request Monitoring: Record selected user, post, term, attachment, option and plugin actions with optional IP, user-agent and request data. Optional request rules detect and log patterns associated with XSS, SQL injection, path traversal, command injection, sensitive-file probes and custom regular expressions. WordPress & Server Security Hardening: Generate environment-aware rules that can disable directory listings and HTTP TRACE, protect configuration files, add HSTS, MIME-sniffing, referrer and frame protections, reduce WordPress and server version disclosure, block basic user enumeration and disable the built-in file editor. Cloudflare Cache Purging: Test a Cloudflare API token and Zone ID from the dashboard, purge by host, cache tag or the complete zone and automatically clear the configured Cloudflare edge cache when WP Optimizer clears its local page cache. SMTP & Mail Logging: Override WordPress PHPMailer connection settings with a configurable SMTP server, authentication, encryption and timeout, and optionally record outgoing email with automatic cleanup of older log entries. WordPress Update Controls: Disable WordPress core or plugin update checks, the general automatic updater, update notices, the Updates admin page and update notification emails. WP Optimizer retains its own twice-daily manual update check when general plugin update checks are disabled. Configuration Backups & Recovery: Create throttled configuration snapshots before settings changes, retain the latest 50 backups and provide restore, import, export, per-module reset and full-reset tools. If WP Optimizer or one of its managed cache drop-ins causes a fatal error, the recovery service can try a saved configuration or perform a controlled plugin reset. System, Server & Compatibility Tools: Review WordPress, PHP, database, web-server, filesystem and storage details from one screen. Server rules are generated for Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed Enterprise or OpenLiteSpeed, while WooCommerce transactions and supported page-builder edit or preview requests automatically bypass incompatible cache and output transformations. Configuration backups and recovery WP Optimizer creates a configuration backup before its main settings are updated. To avoid duplicate snapshots during rapid auto saves, it reuses a backup created within the previous 15 minutes and retains the newest 50 backups. From the Settings module, administrators can review or delete backups, restore a previous configuration, import or export settings and reset individual modules. Restoring settings runs the normal configuration lifecycle so modules, managed cache drop-ins and generated server rules stay synchronized. If a fatal error comes from WP Optimizer or a plugin-managed object-cache.php or db.php drop-in, the recovery service can try saved configurations or perform a controlled factory reset. A reset can remove plugin-managed drop-ins, generated server rules, static cache data, minified resources, direct-cache files and scheduled optimization tasks. Recovery does not reset unrelated themes, plugins or server configuration. Server, WooCommerce and page-builder compatibility WP Optimizer supports WordPress Multisite and detects Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed Enterprise and OpenLiteSpeed. Apache and LiteSpeed Enterprise use managed rules in the local .htaccess file. Nginx uses a generated configuration file that must be included in the website server block before Nginx is reloaded. OpenLiteSpeed receives compatible rewrite rules for direct cache delivery, redirects and rewrite-based security controls. Enable Auto Load from .htaccess for the virtual host. Configure compression, response headers, MIME types and other non-rewrite options in WebAdmin, then restart OpenLiteSpeed after rewrite changes. A Free Alternative to Premium Performance Plugins WP Optimizer is a free alternative to paid performance plugins such as WP Rocket, FlyingPress and many others. Static page caching with optional direct delivery, WP_Query and database caching, Redis or Memcached object caching, HTML/CSS/JavaScript minification, GZIP and Brotli compression, browser caching, lazy loading, LCP and font optimizations, local image compression and WebP conversion, Cloudflare purging, database cleanup, cron management, Page Test and Performance Monitor are included without premium-locked modules or feature upsells. Use it as a modular all-in-one toolkit or enable only the tools that complement your existing setup, but never let two plugins manage the same optimization layer—especially page cache, object or database cache, minification or generated server rules. Recommended setup For an existing or production site: Review the environment using WP Info module. Enable browser caching, supported compression and image optimization. Enable WP-Optimizer schedule to allow auto image and database optimization. Create a database backup before cleanup. Enable the standard page cache and test dynamic pages. Activate HTML, CSS and JavaScript optimization separately. Clear generated caches after important setting changes. Test forms, search, login, account and checkout flows. Use Page Test and Performance Monitor to verify the result.