WP Rocket vs other caching methods

In context of Wordpress caching for centmin.sh menu option 22 wordpress auto installer for Centmin Mod 123.09beta01 and newer, you have 3 offered wordpress caching options:

1. Redis Nginx Level Caching - centmin.sh menu option 22 will auto install redis if not detected if you choose this in centmin.sh menu option 22 setup. Otherwise, need to install redis yourself.
2. KeyCDN Cache Enabler for full page static html caching (safest choice for balance of performance and reliability) but best combined with Autoptimize WP plugin
3. WP Super Cache for full page static html caching but best combined with Autoptimize WP plugin

1. redis caching at nginx level can be fastest but needs fine tuning and deep understanding of your web app and it's plugins to get right i.e. woocommerce etc. So can be problematic too. Most caching is are for guest caching only.

2. keycdn cache enabler wp plugin - better version of wp super cache for full page static caching of wordpress. Least problematic and closest to set and forget with maybe some tuning needed depending on wp plugins and site configuration. Config is for guest caching only.

And regardless of caching method, having right server(s) hardware and configuration and LEMP stack and system TCP level configurations to handle the traffic is a must otherwise regardless of caching used, it won't scale. So you would want non-OpenVZ based VPS like KVM or dedicated. Choosing OpenVZ VPS will limit your scalability.

FYI, all caching methods = generally higher memory consumption and sometimes higher cache related cpu consumption. The goal of caching in context of wordpress is usually to lessen the load placed on php/php-fpm as that is the weakest part of any LEMP/LAMP setup in terms of scalability. So sometimes caching isn't necessary faster just scales better in high concurrent traffic environments.

You can see centmin.sh menu option 22 wordpress installed demo and benchmarks on my Wordpress7 demo site.

Alot of factors come into play when benchmarking and doing comparison results - and like @BamaStangGuy stated alot of the results in favour of WP Rocket also serve up paid affiliate links to WP Rocket. Though that could also be because WP Rocket for them was the best regardless - similar to what I'd do with VPS/web host affiliate links I share - I only do that for web hosts I use and deem worthy of recommendation due to performance etc.

 

FYI, alot of wordpress sites like to use pingdom page speed testing tool but it's not that accurate at all. For one thing it emulates Chrome 39 browser which doesn't support HTTP/2 HTTPS !

You should only use webpagetest.org and it's included google lighthouse tool for page speed testing. As it uses and allows you to test a variety of web browsers and mobile device browser and speed profiles. See my how to at WebPerf - PageSpeed - How to use webpagetest.org for page load speed testing

 

True to an extent. Though KeyCDN Cache Enabler plugin is free and is developed by KeyCDN folks so it won't be going away anytime soon see Wordpress - Revisiting Wordpress Cache Enabler + Autoptimize Plugins For Page Load Speed Optimization

 

Ah yes that is one option missing. Maybe a feature request for Cache Enabler folks Caching for logged in users ? · Issue #19 · keycdn/cache-enabler