DietPress vs WPSpeed – WordPress Speed, Cache & Performance Optimization (Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed 100)

DietPress is a free WordPress speed optimization plugin with a built-in page cache. Page caching, browser caching, GZIP and Brotli compression, deferred JavaScript, critical CSS, image loading attributes, preloading, locally hosted Google Fonts and selective asset loading, all in one plugin and all free. And it goes further than a caching plugin: it also puts WordPress itself on a diet, switching off the features your site never uses. It pairs that with a clean, risk-based interface. Everything is configurable, the optimizations are already on by default, and nothing is hidden behind a paid tier. Activate it and your site is faster, or open the settings and tune every detail. By default WordPress loads functions, services and scripts that most sites do not need. They slow down loading times and consume hosting resources. DietPress lets you trim that fat and apply battle-tested performance tweaks, with a clear description of what each option does and what might break, organized by risk level so you always know what is safe. WHY CHOOSE DIETPRESS Page caching, for free. Serve anonymous visitors a copy stored on disk instead of building the page again. The feature people buy WP Rocket or a NitroPack subscription for, with no licence and no monthly fee. No drop-in, no changes to wp-config.php. Unlike WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache, DietPress installs no advanced-cache.php and never edits wp-config.php. Switching it off leaves your site exactly as it was, with nothing orphaned behind. It tells you why. Most cache plugins leave you guessing when nothing is cached. DietPress reports its own status, tests itself against your home page, and names the exact reason a page was skipped. WooCommerce-safe by design. Carts, checkout, my account and any visitor carrying a cart cookie always get the live site, so nobody ever sees somebody else’s basket. Diet as well as speed. Where Perfmatters focuses on disabling scripts, DietPress covers that ground and adds page caching, critical CSS, local Google Fonts and a dashboard, admin and email cleanup, in one plugin. Light on your server. No account, no external service, no telemetry, no upsell nags. Everything runs on your own hosting. WHAT THE PAGE CACHE DOES TO YOUR RESPONSE TIME Measured on a WordPress 7.0 install with GeneratePress, WooCommerce and a 76 product catalogue, PHP 8.5, taking the median of 15 requests per URL. Your own hosting will give different figures, but the shape of the result will not change. Server response time, the same pages with the page cache off and on: Home page – 52.7 ms without, 15.1 ms with, 71% faster WooCommerce shop – 45.4 ms without, 14.8 ms with, 67% faster A 110 KB article – 43.0 ms without, 15.1 ms with, 65% faster A 98 KB page – 41.0 ms without, 14.9 ms with, 64% faster A product category – 41.3 ms without, 15.1 ms with, 63% faster The interesting part is not the percentage, it is that the cached figure barely moves. Serving a stored file costs the same whether the page was cheap or expensive to build, so the saving grows with the size of your site rather than with the power of your server. The heaviest page in the test is the one that gained most. It also changes how much traffic your hosting can take at once. In the same test the server went from serving about 40 visits a second to more than 210, five times as many, on exactly the same plan. That is what keeps a small site standing up when one of your posts does well. TWO THINGS IN ONE PLUGIN 1. Performance optimizations (on by default) Automatic Critical CSS inlined in the head (optional experimental deferral of non-critical CSS) JavaScript defer parsing with smart dependency handling Image loading attributes safety net: lazy loading, decoding=async and fetchpriority for images that bypass core Automatic image dimensions for better CLS scores (including picture elements) Resource hints: preconnect and DNS prefetch for common third-party origins Theme stylesheet, critical fonts and logo preloading for a faster LCP Google Fonts display=swap Google Fonts local hosting: serve the fonts your theme uses from your own server, GDPR-friendly with a silent fallback to the Google CDN (opt-in) Selective third-party loading: WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, block library, Slider Revolution, TablePress, Smash Balloon, Formidable Forms and Everest Forms assets only load where they are used (opt-in) RSS feed optimization (cache headers and item limit) Server rules in .htaccess: browser caching with a configurable lifetime for media, for styles and scripts and for fonts, GZIP and Brotli compression, immutable cache headers, CORS for fonts and keep-alive (master switch plus per-feature toggles) Database maintenance: daily expired-transient cleanup and safe query optimizations Page cache: store each page on disk and serve it to anonymous visitors without building it again, with automatic purging, gzip precompression and a status panel that says whether it is working (opt-in, in its own tab) 2. Put WordPress on a diet (risk-based, opt-in) Light (safe for any site): emojis, RSD/WLW tags, shortlinks, self-pingbacks, comment pagination, and more Moderate (evaluate first): oEmbed, jQuery Migrate, Dashicons on the frontend, Global Styles and Duotone, remote block patterns, avatars and Gravatar, comment threading, and more Strict (site-specific): granular RSS feed control, Heartbeat API mode, post revisions and autosave, disable comments, XML sitemap, native lazy loading/fetchpriority, content types, selective loading for WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, block assets, Slider Revolution, TablePress, Smash Balloon, Formidable Forms and Everest Forms, and more Widgets: dashboard widgets (including third-party ones from Yoast, WooCommerce, Elementor, Jetpack, Wordfence, Rank Math, Gravity Forms), classic sidebar widgets, block-editor widgets and the Customizer Emails: silence the automatic emails WordPress sends on its own, grouped by area: auto-update results for core, plugins and themes (plus the new-version notice), comment moderation and new-comment notices, and new user, password and email-change notices, plus toggles for the admin email verification prompt and post-by-email. Every option is off by default, and critical notices such as a failed core update are always kept SCALE, PROFILES AND ANALYZER Savings indicator: HTTP requests removed, CSS/JS saved and active optimizations at a glance Quick profiles: Personal Blog, WooCommerce Store, Landing Page and Maximum Cleanup Site analyzer: personalized recommendations based on your active plugins and content, page cache included Import and export your whole configuration as a JSON file COMPATIBILITY AND EXTENSIBILITY The plugin includes filters for developers: dietpress_critical_css – Customize the inline critical CSS dietpress_critical_css_handles – Define which CSS handles are critical dietpress_skip_defer_script_handles – Opt scripts out of the JavaScript defer dietpress_skip_defer_style_handles – Opt stylesheets out of the CSS deferral dietpress_preconnect_hints – Customize preconnect origins dietpress_dns_prefetch_domains – Customize DNS prefetch domains dietpress_critical_fonts – Define critical fonts to preload dietpress_exclude_local_fonts – Exclude Google Fonts stylesheets from local hosting dietpress_selective_{module}_has_content – Mark a page as showing the content of a selective loading module, so its assets are kept. The module is wc, cf7, formidable, everest_forms or revslider dietpress_selective_{module}_styles / dietpress_selective_{module}_scripts – Adjust the handles removed by each module dietpress_selective_page_hides_content – Mark a page as rendering content the content scan cannot reach, so no module removes anything (this is what handles Elementor) dietpress_selective_is_wc_page – Override the WooCommerce page detection of selective loading dietpress_selective_wc_keep_cart_fragments – Keep the cart fragments script when your theme has a hand-coded mini-cart dietpress_selective_cf7_has_form – Mark pages that load a Contact Form 7 form dynamically dietpress_selective_blocks_dequeue – Override the block library dequeue decision dietpress_selective_everest_forms_dequeue_dashicons – Keep Dashicons when another plugin enqueues it directly dietpress_native_sitemap_in_use – Tell DietPress your plugin builds on the native WordPress sitemap, so the option that removes it becomes unavailable dietpress_cache_bypass – Keep the current page out of the page cache dietpress_cache_bypass_cookies – Adjust the cookie name prefixes that make a visitor uncacheable dietpress_cache_ignored_params – Adjust the query parameters that do not change the page dietpress_cache_exclude_urls – Adjust the excluded URL patterns dietpress_cache_post_urls – Adjust the URLs purged along with a post Compatible with: Well-coded themes and page builders (Divi, Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks Gutenberg) Cache plugins (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, etc.). The one exception is the optional page cache module, which will not run beside another page cache and says so; everything else in DietPress works alongside them as it always has Security plugins (DietPress focuses on performance and deliberately leaves security to them; we recommend our free Vigilant) CDNs (Cloudflare, StackPath, KeyCDN, etc.) thanks to CORS and Vary headers WordPress Multisite (except the optional page cache module, which does not support it yet) HOW TO VERIFY THE OPTIMIZATIONS Cache rules: check your .htaccess for a block marked # BEGIN DietPress with immutable Cache-Control headers Logo preload: view page source and look for pointing to your logo Critical CSS: view source and look for in the head Compression: test at giftofspeed.com/gzip-test Always measure with tools like Google PageSpeed, GTMetrix or WebPageTest, and run each test at least twice to account for caching. Support Need private support or custom development? Do you need one-on-one help, priority troubleshooting, or a custom feature, integration, or tweak built specifically for your site? I offer private support and custom development. Just contact me and tell me what you need. Need help or have suggestions? Official website WordPress support forum YouTube channel Documentation and tutorials Love the plugin? Please leave us a 5-star review and help spread the word! About AyudaWP We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.

WPSpeed is a powerful and complete WordPress performance plugin, built to achieve the highest Google PageSpeed scores — including 100 on mobile — while improving Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) and dramatically reducing loading times. Using an innovative system that generates lightweight HTML copies of your pages and bypasses WordPress execution, WPSpeed delivers static, cached output for maximum speed. Combined with automatic optimization, image compression, lazy loading, minification, and advanced resource control, WPSpeed becomes an all-in-one solution that can fully replace multiple optimization plugins. 👉 Unlike traditional caching plugins, WPSpeed generates lightweight static HTML versions that bypass WordPress execution entirely reducing TTFB to near-zero. WPSpeed is the easiest plugin to speed up your WordPress website being capable to find the optimal configuration automatically and integrating the Google PageSpeed test. WPSpeed is ideal for users searching for: fast WordPress plugin to improve front-end and back-end performance improve TTFB WordPress (reduce Time To First Byte) reduce server load on shared hosting or high-traffic sites fix INP (Interaction to Next Paint) and other Core Web Vitals issues optimize Elementor performance and reduce heavy builder scripts WordPress performance optimization cache plugin with static HTML caching mobile speed optimization (reach 100/100 PageSpeed) image optimization with WebP/AVIF minify and combine JavaScript/CSS lazy load images, iframes and heavy HTML elements You can watch the impressive video and check the demo site: 🚀 Try WPSpeed Live on WordPress Playground 🚀 🚀 GET THE PRO VERSION 🚀 FREE vs PRO ⚠️ FREE version limitations: – Only the homepage is optimized – Only 1 page can use full optimization Upgrade to the PRO version to: Optimize all pages Enable static HTML caching (.htaccess caching) Boost TTFB dramatically Unlock full image optimization rules Remove all limitations Receive expert on-site support Purchase a PRO license: GET THE PRO VERSION VISIT PRODUCT PAGE Interested in our WordPress Speed Performance Service? Contact us now at [email protected] by providing an admin account to our expertise team for a free test installation on your website and performance optimization. 🚀 Key Features 🔥 Adaptive Contents™ Generate a lightweight version of your website that dramatically increases PageSpeed scores while preserving full functionality. ⚡ Instant Page™ Ultra-fast navigation using just-in-time preloading. Loads the next page before the user even clicks. 🧠 Auto Configuration + Integrated PageSpeed Test WPSpeed finds optimal settings automatically and integrates Google PageSpeed Insights directly in the plugin. 🏎 Static HTML Cache Serve pages as static HTML and bypass WordPress execution for maximum performance and extremely low TTFB. 🧹 Minify JS, CSS & HTML Reduce file size, remove whitespace, optimize delivery and combine multiple assets into fewer requests. 🎯 Above-the-Fold CSS Extraction Extract critical CSS and load the rest asynchronously to eliminate render-blocking resources. 📦 Defer / Async / Preload Advanced control of CSS, JS and Web Fonts to improve LCP and reduce blocking time. 🖼 Image Optimization (WebP / AVIF / Lossless) Resize, compress and optimize large images Convert images to next-gen formats (WebP + AVIF) Create srcset automatically Optimize background images 💤 Lazy Load (Images, Iframes, HTML Elements) Load heavy content only when necessary to fix LCP and improve scroll performance. 🗂 Resource Control Remove unused CSS, JS and fonts. Rewrite URLs to CDN automatically. 🔧 Htaccess Optimization Apply browser caching, compression and more via automatic rules. 🧱 DOM Reduction Remove unnecessary DOM elements and load heavy blocks asynchronously. 🌐 HTTP/2 Optimizations Support for server push and resource preload. 🛡 Conflict Management Full exclusions system for scripts and styles to resolve issues easily. WPSpeed functionalities include: •Scripts minification: Javascript can be minified to reduce the total scripts size and save bandwidth •Stylesheets minification: CSS can be minified to reduce the total CSS size, save bandwidth and extract the ‘Above-the-fold’ CSS •HTML minification: The HTML source code can be minified to reduce the total page size and save bandwidth •Combine multiple JS and CSS files: Javascript and CSS can be combined in single files to minimize the HTTP request overhead •Adaptive Contents™: this technology makes it possible to generate a lightweight version of the website to raise up the page speed score without losing website functionalities •Instant Page technology™: Instant Page uses just-in-time preloading. This feature, compatible with both desktop and mobile devices, preloads a page right before a user clicks on it •Auto configuration and integrated Google PageSpeed: WPSpeed is capable to find the optimal configuration automatically and integrates the Google PageSpeed test •Page cache: Integrated and optimized technology for page caching to avoid heavy requests to your server and database. The PRO version supports the .htaccess page caching so that pages are served up as static HTML completely bypassing the execution of WordPress and dramatically increases performance and reducing the TTFB •Defer and preload of assets: CSS, JS and Web Fonts can be loaded in defer, async or preload mode •Lazy-load images: Images and iframes that are out of view can be lazy-loaded only when the user scrolls down the page to display them •Lazy-load HTML elements: Heavy HTML elements that slow down the LCP can be easily lazy-loaded •Images optimization: Large images can be rescaled, resized and optimized on the fly to dramatically reduce the page size and bandwidth •Optimization of background images: WPSpeed is capable to optimize also images that are set as a background through HTML and CSS styles •Lossless optimization: Large images in PNG and JPG format can be optimized on the fly using a lossless algorithm •Srcset creation for images: WPSpeed is capable to automatically create an image srcset using up to 4 differently-sized images for various resolutions •Images conversion to WebP and AVIF: Images can be converted in realtime to the WebP and AVIF next generation format •Assets removal: It’s possible to remove CSS/JS files and Fonts to avoid the loading of unnecessary resources •Htaccess optimization: A series of optimizations can be applied to the htaccess file in order to leverage the browser caching •CSS extraction: WPSpeed is capable to extract basic CSS styles and load them above the fold to avoid render blocking resources •DOM tree reduction: Excessive DOM elements can be automatically removed and loaded asynchronously •Combine images: It’s possible to generate a single container image for multiple backgrounds applied through CSS •HTTP/2 optimizations: WPSpeed works with HTTP/2 compatible servers to enable server push •CDN support: Links for all assets can be automatically rewritten to point to your CDN domain •Fix conflicts easily: WPSpeed integrates a powerful exclusions system to fix conflicts due to minification of scripts Documentation Download and read the PDF documentation or visit our FAQ page on the main plugin site for more information on how the plugin works and how to configure it to improve your scores for Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. If you have a license for the PRO version you can contact us for on site support at [email protected] Advanced Features and Premium Support If you need assistance on your website by our expertise team to find optmimal settings of WPSpeed and reach the maximum score, please purchase a license and contact us at [email protected] to get on site service.