Install Clarification on Caching and Optimization for Wordpress

Hi,

I am sorry but there is so much material on caching and performance its getting confusing. I want to make sure I have a clear picture of what is going on. I am currently trying to optimize for wordpress.

Goal: All things equal which combination would be fastest for Small Business Website(lets say a local landscaping business)

Test Criteria(nginx + Ngx_pagespeed will be default)
1. fastcgi + WP Rocket
2. fastcgi + Cache Enabler
3. fastcgi + W3 Super Cache

Does fastcgi stay on? does it work on top of redis cache?(edit)

4. Redis Cache + Redis Object Cache
Should I test all the three wordpress plugins above with this setup as well or is it over doing it?

Anyone have suggestions for additional criteria? Am I wrong somewhere or missing anything?

One thing I like about wp rocket is that it does full page caching and it forces browser to cache static resources. I am not sure if other plugin perform the same task.

File based caching
1. Fastcgi
2. Redis Cache
3. WP Rocket/Cache Enabler(Full page cache)

Object/Memory Caching
1. Redis Object Cache
2. Memcached

Other Optimization and Caching Tools(?)
W3 Total Cache
-GZIP compression to optimize web browser rendering.
-Minification and concatenation of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files.
- CDN Support

Wp Super Cache
- Page compression and dynamic caching.(What is dynamic caching?)
- CDN Support

Wp Rocket
- browser cache, guidelines so that the browser caches static resources of the site (CSS files, images, and JavaScript)
- creates a static HTML page to avoid any PHP processing.

Cache Enabler
-Efficient and fast disk cache engine for faster caching
-Display of the actual cache size in your dashboard
-Minification of HTML and inline JavaScript
-HTTP/2 focused

Ngx_pagespeed
-optimising static css, js and image page elements

 

If you do not mind can you use please explain the different software and plugins and explain what they are caching and how(disk? ram?). It would help me(may others) understand how we can combine them for the best effect.

 

I tested wp rocket vs cache enabler and I do not find any consistent difference between the 2. I will be running some of these test on different vps providers and I will provide an update.

 

I didnt follow the testing criteria as I had originally planned as eva told me what to expect from such a test. So I focused more on just general usability.

Vultr(2gb NJ)
-Theme Responsive CyberChimps.com
first load
.94
second
.38
.3
.23

-Avada Architecture theme Fully loaded with pictures
1st 2.28
2nd .4

-Pingdom
954ms
-Gtmetrix
2.7s
-Monitus
2.4s
-Uptrends
916ms

Linode(4gb NJ)
-Theme Responsive CyberChimps.com
first load
.84
second
.22
.23
.21

-Avada Architecture
1st 2.18
2nd .33

-Pingdom
783ms
-Gtmetrix
2.4s
-Monitus
3.78ms
-Uptrends
1067ms

Ramnode(2gb NYC)
-Theme Responsive CyberChimps.com
first load
1.4
second(interesting)
.11
.9
.10

-Avada Architecture
2.16
.38

-Pingdom
795ms
-Gtmetrix
1.8s
-Monitus
4.12
-Uptrends
761ms

In general my observation is all the provider are very good and fairly close. You do get the best overall value with linode. In terms of network speed, I feel vultr is better connected(faster to EU) and offers better throughput out of the box 1gbs outbound on their lowest tier box. Ramnode has some very interesting results, I'm not sure what to make of it yet. Even when I tested their disk speed they were clocking at 1.1 GBs(vs 500/600MBs for vultr/linode). I'd be curios to see how ramnode perform with a website that has a lot of I/O operations.

 

I added the plans and locations. Some people may wonder why I am comparing a linode 4gb plan with a 2gb plan. The answer is, I am comparing plans based on price point not hardware specs which I feel is fair. Also, I made a typo in one of the linode results, fixed that.