WP Super Cache versus W3 Total Cache

WP Super Cache versus W3 Total Cache is a difficult topic to discuss. There are many supporters of both these nice free WordPress Cache plugins.

Previously we used WP Super Cache for all our WordPress websites, we are now testing W3 Total Cache in Daily Medico to see the difference in performance between these two popular WordPress Cache Plugins.

WP Super Cache versus W3 Total Cache : Why we need to use these WordPress Cache Plugins?

If you care about page loading speed, page loading time, you will consider using these WordPress Cache Plugins. In one sentence, these plugins helps to deliver a “ready-made static” HTML page.

Factors for better performance with WordPress Cache Plugins : applicable to both WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache

• You need a good server, no Cache Plugin can help you with a server which has look up time of 500 Milli Seconds or more.
• The quality of the hardware part of the server, many  < $ 3 / month shared servers uses old rejected servers those were once used as dedicated servers. Actually, Preload function of WP Super Cache can make the situation worse.
• You need to understand the basics of Apache .htaccess file; at anytime you may have to edit them manually through FTP (very rare case).
• You should have the Apache mod mime and mod rewrite modules installed and WordPress custom permalinks enabled to get all the functions working.

Personal overall experience with WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache

We used

Overall, we saw a bit better performance on WebPageTest when we used W3 Total Cache : it reduced the page loading time by 0.8 second. The reason behind this better performance is W3 Total Cache has own CSS Javascript minify option which works nicely, whereas we use WP minify with default settings with WP Super Cache.

Overall comparison of W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache

• WebPageTest recommends W3 Total Cache, they might have tested with the best Server and CDN combination, which are out of our reach still now.
• WP Super Cache needs a bit tweaking by installing other Plugins, where as W3 Total Cache works as a package itself.
• Both has good support.

Conclusion

• If you are using WP Super Cache in a blog with >1000 posts, think cautiously before the switching, as with any advanced plugins, it needs time to get used with W3 Total Cache. Do not use a busy blog to test, use relatively light blog.
• If WP Super Cache is working nicely with your configuration, there is no need to change.
• If you are new to use WordPress Cache Plugins, install in your offline test blog to understand the functions of both of them.
• Our verdict is favored towards W3 Total Cache.