10 May 2024
WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket Comparison 2024: Which Is Better?
Need help to choose between WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket for your WordPress performance needs?
As you know, WP Rocket is the most popular WordPress caching & performance plugin.
However, it’s not without flaws. WP Rocket, for example, does not offer image optimization features aside from lazy loading.
But it is a default WordPress feature.
WP-Optimize does. Among other features, it is an excellent option for WordPress performance optimization.
However, WP-Optimize is not perfect either.
So, how do you choose?
If you’re wondering which of these tools is best for you, this WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket comparison can help. Here, we will try to help you make the decision.
What to Choose If You’re In A Rush
- Choose WP Rocket if you want a WordPress plugin that focuses on caching and speed optimization. It also has better file minification, CDN support, and user interface.
- Choose WP-Optimize if you want a WordPress plugin that offers an array of optimization features, such as database cleanup and media optimization.
What Are Caching Plugins?
Caching plugins are tools specifically designed to improve the speed of your website. They work by storing temporary copies of your website’s files and data, allowing them to be served much faster to returning visitors.
Think of it like a busy restaurant. Every time a customer walks in, the kitchen has to prepare everything from scratch. This can be slow and inefficient. But with a caching plugin, it’s like having pre-made dishes ready to go. The kitchen (your server) can focus on new orders while repeat customers (visitors who have seen the page before) get their food (content) much quicker.
Caching plugins can improve your site speed with features like browser caching, cache preloading, GZIP compression, and other features.
WP-Optimize and WP Rocket do way more, though.
WP-Optimize Quick Overview
WP-Optimize is a popular caching plugin built to optimize the speed and performance of WordPress websites.
With over 1 million installations, it offers a range of features beyond caching, including database cleanup, image compression, and recently introduced minification features.
It’s an all-around great tool.
However, it has some drawbacks, too.
WP-Optimize does not support third-party CDNs and has subpar caching and minification capabilities.
WP Rocket Quick Overview
WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin for WordPress. With over 4 million installations, it’s the most powerful solution to improve your loading time, boost your PageSpeed performance score, and optimize your Core Web Vitals.
However, WP Rocket falls short where WP-Optimize shines.
For example, WP Rocket lacks an image compression feature. This is a downside, especially since WP Rocket is a paid plugin. When you spend $59 for an optimization plugin, you expect more than just lazy loading of images.
Especially since most other WP Rocket alternatives offer image optimization in their free versions.
Furthermore, the database cleanup tool is also not as good as WP-Optimize.
Aside from that, WP Rocket is the clear winner in most of the categories. They provide more caching and modification possibilities.
They also have more advanced site optimization features, plus other extra stuff like critical CSS and third-party integrations.
WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket: Features Showdown
WP Rocket and WP-Optimize offer a lot of the same features.
WP Rocket contains somewhat more features. At least more features that you’ll use on a daily basis.
However, this doesn’t mean that it is an instant winner.
It is important to look at each feature separately to figure out which tool can help which site.
For example, WP-Optimize is the only one that can compress images. However, if you already have a separate plugin for that, it won’t be very useful.
1. Caching
Both WP-Optimize and WP Rocket have solid caching support.
They both have good browser caching: they can cache pages, preload them, use GZIP compression, and allow you to exclude pages from caching.
It’s a useful caching system. GZIP compression, in particular, significantly improves your site’s performance.
Additionally, cache preloading is an excellent tool to have.
Cache preloading “warms up” your website pages by caching them even when they do not get any traffic. This way, when they are visited by real people, they will not have to wait too long for the website to load.
Both solutions also allow for separate mobile caching.
If you only need caching, WP Rocket and WP-Optimize are viable options.
To be fair, WP Rocket did a little better.
2. File Optimization
CSS and JavaScript file minification is the most important part of web speed optimization.
At least most of the time, the problems you encounter need proper modification:
WP-Optimize’s toolset recently added CSS, HTML, and JavaScript minification and concatenation.
And they’re good at it. WP-Optimize even provides additional customization options for minification, such as file exclusion.
However, it does not compare to WP Rocket’s minification toolset.
WP Rocket performs everything WP-Optimize does, but:
- It performs somewhat better.
- It has extra tools for CSS minification and can improve CSS delivery.
- It may load JavaScript deferred rather than asynchronously.
WP Rocket, for instance, can generate critical CSS. It includes a beta function to eliminate unneeded CSS:
This is very useful for common performance issues.
For nine out of ten websites, the primary issues to resolve will be related to file optimization.
And WP Rocket just excels at it.
Even though WP-Optimize offers better options for optimizing Google fonts and seemingly the same CSS minification options.
As a result, WP Rocket wins this category by a wide margin.
However, you should not rule out WP-Optimize right away. It can still perform some file optimization, and it has better tools than WP Rocket’s.
3. Database Optimization
Database optimization is another excellent feature included in WP-Optimize and WP Rocket.
However, this is where WP-Optimize beats WP Rocket.
WP-Optimize allows you to clean up the backend of your WordPress website by eliminating post revisions, auto-draft posts, comments, and so on.
This makes it easy to detect what’s bloating your database and remove it without too much trouble.
There are also “power tweaks” to speed up WooCommerce sites and shrink the post meta table.
Another advantage of WP-Optimize is that it works with UpdraftPlus, which does automatic backups of your site.
This can keep your site from failing as you optimize the database.
WP Rocket allows you to easily remove revisions, auto drafts, comments, and transitory data.
You may also optimize database tables and schedule automatic cleaning.
However, they are not as comprehensive as WP-Optimize.
So, if you have a large database, WP-Optimize is worth considering.
4. Media Optimization
Media optimization is where WP-Optimize is strong as a performance optimization plugin.
This is because it has free built-in image compression provided by reSmush.it.
You can set it to automatically compress newly added images or compress images in bulk.
WP-Optimize also provides WebP conversion, which is significantly better for website speed.
If you buy the pro version of WP-Optimize, you also get tools to enable lazy loading and deleting unused images.
WP Rocket does not meet this expectation.
WP Rocket only offers lazy loading for images.
That’s not a lot. WordPress has included lazy loading as a default feature since version 5.5.
Sure, it’s strange that WP-Optimize has a premium version.
However, WP Rocket does not significantly help you optimize your media.
The only way to compress and resize images with WP Rocket is to spend extra money for Imagify.
Again, this is something that WP-Optimize offers for free.
WP Rocket’s basic plan costs at least $59/year. There is also an extra $9.99 per month for Imagify.
This isn’t simply an issue when comparing WP Rocket vs WP-Optimize.
It is a general disadvantage of WP Rocket.
When you spend $59/year for a cache plugin, you would expect it to include image compression.
5. Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is not a standard feature of caching plugins.
However, support for integration with different CDNs is relatively common.
As a result, WP-Optimize’s lack of compatibility with other CDNs is a significant disadvantage.
WP Rocket offers an excellent integration with different CDNs:
If you use Cloudflare, you can easily combine their full suite with WP Rocket.
It’s not the end of the world if WP-Optimize doesn’t support CDN.
You’ll have to set it up through your hosting provider. There are WordPress plugins that enable it for you.
However, using WP Rocket makes things easier.
And you ensure that WP Rocket and your CDN do not mess with one other. A caching plugin and a CDN can occasionally overlap.
Not to mention that fewer plugins typically means faster loading times.
So, a good integration, such as WP Rocket’s, will help you avoid compatibility issues.
6. Integrations
Integrations are additional tools or services that work together with these tools.
WP-Optimize integrates with Updraft to do backups and works with Cloudflare.
WP Rocket combines with a few other tools, like Sucuri, to improve WordPress security. It’s also fully compatible with server-based caching hosts, such as Varnish cache.
WP Rocket vs WP-Optimize: Pricing
The pricing for these plugins is quite similar.
For example, WP Rocket is a paid plugin, but WP-Optimize has a free version.
If you want to go with WP Rocket, its plans start from $59/year.
However, some WordPress users may want simple caching and performance optimization.
In such a case, WP-Optimize may be a better option, and you may upgrade later if you need the extra boost.
WP-Optimize premium plans start from $49/year. This also includes a license for two sites, one more than WP Rocket’s entry plan.
WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket: Support
Downloading and installing caching plugins on your WordPress website can be easy and fast.
However, it can also be a headache if you run into problems, especially if you’re not that tech-savvy.
So support is pretty important.
WP-Optimize offers limited free support through their WordPress forum. This can be a good option for basic questions or troubleshooting common issues. However, response times might be slower.
If you’re using the WP-Optimize premium version, you get access to dedicated email and ticket support. This provides a faster and more personalized experience for resolving technical issues.
On the other hand, WP Rocket offers a ticketing system for technical support inquiries. This ensures a faster response time and dedicated assistance.
Conclusion: WP Rocket vs WP-Optimize
This ends our in-depth comparison of WP-Optimize vs WP Rocket.
We highly suggest both WP Rocket and WP-Optimize. They’re both excellent caching plugins with a lot of extras.
However, WP Rocket comes ahead.
Thanks to its advanced file optimization, page-level caching, and CDN support, it’s the winner of our cache plugin comparison.
But that doesn’t mean that WP-Optimize is worthless. It performs better than WP Rocket in terms of image optimization and database cleaning.
If that’s what you’re looking for, give it a try.
For more, check out these other helpful resources:
- NitroPack vs WP Rocket: Which Offers Better Site Speed?
- Is Perfmatters Worth It? In-Depth Review
- WP Rocket Review: Is It Really Worth Paying?
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