Page loading time is an essential component of user experience. Your website visitors will leave if the page takes too long to load. Website owners use plugins like LiteSpeed Cache and WP Rocket to make this possible. If you compare LiteSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket, how does each of them work?
Both plugins are essential for website owners, especially if you want a cache plugin to improve your site’s speed and performance. Speed affects your bottom line; therefore, you must choose the right tool.
So how can LiteSpeed Cache and WP Rocket help you avoid such scenarios? We’ll compare the features, performance, ease of use, compatibility, pricing, pros, and cons to help you pick the right plugin.
LightSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket: Overview
LightSpeed Cache
Image source: LiteSpeed Cache
LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) is a free, all-in-one acceleration solution that reduces page load times. In addition, this plugin has multiple optimization features and advanced cache management tools for WordPress sites. Therefore, this tool provides an exceptional user experience and achieves a high PageSpeed score.
Besides having various features, LightSpeed Cache is compatible with top plugins, including Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, Jetpack, NinjaForms, WPML, and Avada. Furthermore, since it’s designed as s server-lever caching plugin, it works well with the LiteSpeed server.
WP Rocket
Image Source: WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a powerful WordPress caching plugin launched in 2013. It optimizes the site’s Core Web Vitals and boosts the PageSpeed score. This plugin is designed for WordPress and constantly updates to align with the latest web performance needs.
Currently, the plugin is used by more than 2 million websites to speed up website loading time, improve overall website performance and address vital PageSpeed insights recommendations. WP Rocket is known for its excellent results; therefore, it can be used by different professionals, from bloggers to freelancers, agencies, and e-commerce business owners.
Apart from having the best optimization options, WP Rocket is also compatible with popular plugins and themes such as WooCommerce, Pressable, Elementor, Jetpack, MultilingualPress, Yoast SEO, Imagify, WP Engine, GoDaddy, and more. Furthermore, it’s accepted by the top Managed WordPress hostings.
What are the Differences Between LightSpeed Cache and WP Rocket?
Here are the key areas where these two cache plugins differ.
1. Caching
LightSpeed Cache and WP Rocket offer full-page caching. Instead of waiting for PHP to process and fetch data from a database after each request, these plugins can deliver the content much faster. However, the two are slightly different because LightSpeed Cache uses server-level caching.
Instead of handling the caching, the LiteSpeed web server cache deals with the process. Therefore, the plugin makes it easy for WordPress to communicate with the cache engine. Additionally, the files are not stored in the WordPress file structure. As a result, this server-level caching is faster than WP Rocket’s file-based caching.
Image source: LiteSpeed Cache
WP Rocket uses rewrite rules to direct the server where to find the cached content. All the pages are placed in a file system for caching. This plugin can confirm if a page is cached by ensuring the available files. In addition, it can also tell if the cached page is already expired. Although caching may not directly boost the PageSpeed scores, you’ll notice an improvement.
Image source: WP Rocket
2. Image Optimization
WP Rocket has add-on features for image optimization and compression. However, if you want to optimize your images, you have to buy plugins like Cloudflare or Imagify, which means you have to spend more on your budget.
However, LightSpeed Cache has these optimization features, making it ideal for your WordPress site. With this plugin, you can reduce the size of your images to improve the load times. You can also revert the individual images to their original formats. Additionally, LightSpeed Cache makes using the WebP file format easy if you have small image files.
3. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Your website content is stored on multiple servers in a content delivery network (CDN). When a user requests information, the CDN confirms the IP address and loads the website from the nearest server.
LightSpeed Cache provides QUIC.cloud CDN. This CDN includes a QUIC dashboard; therefore, it’s easy to configure the settings, and you can adjust it according to your needs. In addition, users can choose between the free and standard plans. Both plans work like Cloudflare because they use HTML caching.
On the other hand, WP Rocket offers Rocket CDN, which serves files from another partner, StackPath. Unlike QUIC.cloud, Rocket CDN does not have a dashboard; therefore, users don’t have much room for configuration. In addition, although Rocket CDN offers unlimited bandwidth for $7.99 per month, there are customer reports that it cuts users off when they use too much bandwidth.
QUIC.cloud has an advantage because they offer free monthly credits, and its pricing is regional-based, depending on your chosen region.
4. File Optimization
WP Rocket has many optimization features, such as Remove Unused CSS, Delay JS Execution, and Critical Path CSS. These features come in handy if you want to address the Google PageSpeed recommendations or improve Core Web Vitals. As a result, your website will achieve better performance scores, which boosts user experience.
LiteSpeed Cache has features like Remove Unused Files, CSS optimization, CSS and JavaScript Combination, Crawler, and minification of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files. These file optimization tools play a role in improving the overall website speed.
5. Edge Side Includes (ESI)
ESI is defined as a markup language that web developers use to designate parts of the web page as sections to be processed separately. ESI makes it easy to deliver pages more quickly and accurately using caching. In addition, it reduces the distance data travels, the traffic, and the volume of data. Therefore, thanks to ESI, the web page can be broken into different sections and reassembled before the browser delivery.
WP Rocket does not have ESI, but LightSpeed Cache has this feature. Therefore, if you have an e-commerce page, ESI allows you to cache pages that contain shopping cart data and any other private content. This is one of the reasons why LightsSpeed Cache is ideal for large WooCommerce sites.
LightSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket: Ease of Use
The latter is easier to use if you compare LightSpeed Cache and WP Rocket. To set up an account with WP Rocket takes less than five minutes. This plugin was developed to ensure WordPress newbies with technical skills can use it. The WP Rocket interface is user-friendly and includes different options to help you cache your website.
To start with WP Rocket, you must pick a plan and fill in your details. Once you fill in this information, download the plugin and activate it. After that, you can optimize your website directly from the dashboard. Fortunately, WP Rocket provides video tutorials on the WordPress dashboard if you need more information about all the features. Therefore, if you are a new user, utilize these tutorials to get started.
Image source: WP Rocket
In addition, you can get more details on the settings page to guide you on how the tool operates. Furthermore, this plugin automatically applies about 80% of the web performance practices; therefore, you don’t have to apply them manually. The advantage of WP Rocket is that it’s not confusing; you can use it even if you don’t have coding skills.
LightSpeed Cache could be more user-friendly. New users get overwhelmed with this tool because configuring settings is more complicated. The setup process can also take a long time, which can be stressful and overwhelming for most users. However, this can be an advantage for most developers because it allows them to configure everything.
Image source: LiteSpeed Cache
LightSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket: Customer Support
LiteSpeed Cache has official documentation that users can use to get explanations about the plugin. However, if your issue is not addressed in the documentation, you can get extra help by posting the problem on the plugin’s WordPress support forum. However, remember that the issues take time to resolve because LightSpeed Cache is a free plugin.
Image source: LiteSpeed Cache
Additionally, if you want dedicated support from the team, you have to pay $39 per issue, which is quite costly if you are a startup.
On the other hand, WP Rocket has a friendly support team. They assist customers in different time zones for every type of license. Additionally, the plugin has documentation on the website that you can refer to if you have any questions about the tool. You can also check the FAQ section for more information.
Image source: WP Rocket
Thanks to the services, WP Rocket has a 4.9 out of 5 stars rating on Trustpilot. Customers enjoy the customer support and quality of optimization tools.
LightSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket: Pricing
WP Rocket has three pricing plans.
- Single at $59 per year
- Plus, at $119 per year
- Infinite at $299 per year
When you get the single license, you can get product updates and support for one website. The Plus option covers product updates and support for three websites. The Infinite option comes with product updates and an unlimited number of websites. Therefore, if you have several websites, Infinite is the best option, although it’s more costly. This pricing does not include features like CDN and image optimization.
Image source: WP Rocket
WP Rocket also has a 100% money-back guarantee if you request it within 14 days of purchasing the plugin. You can upgrade your plan to a more premium subscription to add more sites.
LightSpeed Cache is 100% free. So you don’t need to spend any cash to use this WordPress tool. However, you’ll need the LiteSpeed web server to use the server-level cache, which comes at a fee. The license price for this functionality is free for site owners with one website and costs $96 per month if you have a large-scale hosting business.
LightSpeed Cache: Pros and Cons
If you are considering LightSpeed Cache for your business, you need to know the pros and cons.
Pros
- LightSpeed Cache is a server-level cache
- It has better caching features
- The plugin has image optimization features
- It has multiple powerful features such as ESI, file, and image optimization.
Cons
- This plugin is complicated to use, especially for newbies
- It requires a lot of configuration
- The CDN requires a LiteSpeed server
WP Rocket Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy to set up and use
- Excellent customer support
- Users don’t need technical skills to configure
- E-commerce compatibility
- Offers multiple advanced features
Cons
- WP Rocket only has paid versions, while other plugins have a free version
- CDN and image optimizations are add-ons
- The plugin is exclusive to WordPress
What Factors to Consider When Choosing a Cache Plugin
Here are the key elements to consider when choosing a cache plugin for your website.
- Ease of use: the plugin should have an interface that’s easy to use and configure
- Speed: Once you activate caching, your website speed should improve. Ensure that you measure this before and after installing the plugin.
- Compatibility: You should pick a tool compatible with your existing WordPress plugins and themes.
- CDN support: The plugin should support the CDN you use without issues.
- Updates: You should opt for a plugin with more frequent updates.
- Price: If you pay for premium plans, ensure the plugin meets all your needs.
FAQs
Is LiteSpeed Cache Good?
LiteSpeed Cache is a good plugin if you are looking for an affordable solution; it’s free. It also has better caching features and offers excellent image optimization features.
Should I Use WP Rocket?
WP Rocket is ideal for beginners because it does need a lot of configuration. However, you should have a budget for the plugin.
Conclusion
LightSpeed Cache and WP Rocket are ideal cache plugins to improve your page loading time. However, when comparing LightSpeed Cache vs. WP Rocket, you’ll realize that WP Rocket is paid, while the other option is free.
If you are a new user, you should choose WP Rocket because it does not require a lot of configuration. However, if you are adventurous, LightSpeed Cache will work because you must set up most settings.
