In a previous speed test on Ancient Greek Keyboard, Pingdom.com graded W3 Total Cache poorly for JavaScript combination & minification. Because of this, a different caching plugin (WP-Rocket, with default settings) was tested against a control (Siteground’s Static Cache running in the background).
Methods
Each test was performed using Pingdom.com’s Website Speed Test. The San Jose, California location option was used initially. (For the second half of the tests, Pingdom.com changed its system & the San Francisco, California location was the only similar option). Each test was conducted with the HTTP URL rather than the HTTPS URL.
In all, 9 tests were run each day for 4 days. Load time results were recorded, and averaged at the end of the study.
Results
The following HTML tables were generated by the Tableizer Excel to HTML conversion site:
Page Load Speed with WP-Rocket
Date | Time | Load Time of Control (sec) | Load Time with WP-Rocket (sec) |
---|---|---|---|
9/16/2018 | 16:45 | 1.230 | 0.873 |
1.490 | 0.914 | ||
1.240 | 0.970 | ||
18:30 | 1.240 | 0.907 | |
1.510 | 1.150 | ||
1.240 | 1.210 | ||
20:52 | 1.420 | 1.120 | |
1.220 | 0.910 | ||
1.190 | 1.110 | ||
9/17/2018 | 15:45 | 1.200 | 1.140 |
1.440 | 1.150 | ||
1.480 | 0.886 | ||
17:50 | 1.240 | 0.931 | |
1.490 | 0.932 | ||
1.190 | 1.130 | ||
20:06 | 1.500 | 1.100 | |
1.490 | 1.200 | ||
1.440 | 1.010 | ||
9/18/2018 | 10:45 | 1.480 | 1.360 |
1.520 | 1.250 | ||
1.410 | 1.360 | ||
13:46 | 1.410 | 1.260 | |
1.520 | 1.330 | ||
1.630 | 1.250 | ||
16:12 | 1.610 | 1.320 | |
1.490 | 1.420 | ||
1.390 | 1.270 | ||
9/19/2018 | 12:01 | 1.680 | 1.330 |
1.390 | 1.430 | ||
1.450 | 1.370 | ||
14:18 | 2.160 | 1.220 | |
1.630 | 1.580 | ||
1.780 | 1.480 | ||
17:52 | 1.460 | 1.240 | |
1.530 | 1.340 | ||
1.530 | 1.390 | ||
n | 36 | 36 | |
Average | 1.453 | 1.190 | |
Std Dev | 0.191 | 0.189 |
Results
WP-Rocket improved page load speed by 0.263 seconds over the control (1.190 sec vs. 1.453 sec).
Conclusions
An alternative to W3 Total Cache was sought because this plugin did not minify Javascript well. WP-Rocket was therefore chosen and speed tested with its default settings, yielding a page load speed of 1.190 seconds.
This result seems unimpressive, since W3 Total Cache was previously found to increase page load speed to 1.046 seconds. However, it should be noted that the two speeds are not really comparable: W3 Total Cache’s speed was recorded under conditions in which it broke CSS styles. (The two plugin speeds can only be compared under conditions in which they both leave CSS styles unbroken).
WP-Rocket speeds will be further tested over the next few weeks with settings adjusted beyond the default settings.
Other posts in this series:
- Siteground Speed Test (With & Without Static Caching)
- Speed Test of Swift Performance Lite plugin
- Caching Plugin Speed Tests: Swift Performance Lite vs. W3 Total Cache
- Speed Test: W3 Total Cache With Autoptimize
- Speed Test of WP-Rocket plugin (default settings)
- Speed Test of WP-Rocket plugin (additional settings)
- WP Rocket Speed Test (with & without SiteGround Static Caching)