10 Plugins for WordPress Speed & Security
You’ve got a brilliant idea and have turned it into a website with stunning responsive design on a great hosting service. However, that’s not enough. If your website isn’t fast enough you’re going to lose traffic. You can know all about WordPress speed tips, but plugins can make them easier to implement. Let’s check out some of the best plugins to boost the speed of your WordPress website:
WordPress Speed Plugins
1. WP Fastest Cache – With its numerous amazing features, WP Fastest Cache deserves to be one of the most popular WordPress plugins. Page caching loads your website quickly on your user’s traffic and this plugin helps you enable that with a click. Apart from that the free version of the plugin also offers you other features like:
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Removing redundant data from your HTML and CSS code
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File compression in the GZIP format
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Allows you to disable emojis
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Helps you integrate with Content Delivery Networks and more
For advanced features like database and image optimization, lazy loading, Javascript minification, and more, you can subscribe to the premium version of the plugin.
2. WP Rocket – This powerful plugin is the jack of all trades and does everything flawlessly. If you’re a novice to WordPress speed tips and optimization, you’re in luck. As soon as you install this plugin for your website, it automatically performs some basic optimizations. It enables browser and page caching along with GZIP compression. The user interface is very intuitive with a flat learning curve. When you move the cursor on different options it also shows you a brief explanation of its functionality.
You can learn and implement optimizations as you want. However, there is no free version of this plugin. The upside is that it has all sorts of advanced optimizations like:
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Minification
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Lazy Loading
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Combining files
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Cloudflare integration
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CDN integrations and more
It’s a one-stop solution that keeps things simple and streamlined.
3. Perfmatters – If you have a favorite page caching plugin for your website and want advanced features to pair with it, have a look at Perfmatters. This plugin lets you optimize small parts of the website that can collectively bring a great impact on the overall speed. You can disable unnecessary clutter like Dashicoins, emoji font, WordPress version number, and more such small settings that pile up your HTTP requests.
You can also manage scripts so that CSS and Javascript load when certain conditions are met. That means you can prevent feedback and contact plugins from loading throughout the website. The plugin also allows you to do other tweaks like host analytics, CDN integration, disable heartbeat API, and more. If you’re subscribed to a caching plugin or pay your host to do it for you, then you can save a lot of money by opting for this plugin instead of a full-fledged speed plugin that has more features than you need.
4. Autoptimize – Another amazing plugin that can take care of numerous optimizations for your website if you have sorted out caching already. Moreover, it doesn’t cost you a dime. Optimizing backend code is one of the pillars of WordPress speed tips. This plugin achieves that by working on your website’s HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It concatenates multiple files into one so that you get fewer HTTP requests and also does minification to shrink down the code of your website without messing with the functionality.
Apart from that it also helps you optimize other small parts of the website. It can help you to:
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Lazy load images
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Async Javascript
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Prevent certain scripts from loading on certain pages
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Remove emojis and much more.
5. ShortPixel – Images account for more than half the files on your website. If you can shrink them down without a drastic deterioration in quality, you can also increase your website’s load speed. ShortPixel is one of the best plugins for that purpose. When you install ShortPixel on your website, you can choose the maximum dimensions for your images and also the algorithm for shrinking the images. You can choose to drastically reduce size with some loss in quality or have lossless compression with the image files shrunk to moderate levels.
Moreover, this plugin lets you convert your images from next-gen formats like WebP to legacy formats like JPG and PNG for browsers that don’t support it. The adaptive images plugin of ShortPixel offers even more versatility. It delivers images to users via a CDN according to their needs. For instance, it delivers a smaller image size to those who are browsing from their smartphone while a larger image size to those who are browsing from a 4K monitor.
WordPress Security plugins
Now that you have optimized the speed of your website let’s check out how you can tighten its security to protect from malicious attacks. These plugins deserve a mention in all articles that talk about advanced WordPress security tips.
1. iThemes Security Pro – A WordPress user can’t live without themes and plugins. Backup Buddy is one such popular plugin you may be familiar with. iThemes Security Pro has the same creators behind it and is a stunning security plugin you may want to install on your website. Like BackupBuddy it has a user-friendly interface that lets you protect your website from brute force security attacks and other such security threats. Among its premier features includes password enforcement, two-factor authentication for an additional layer of security, 404 detections along with plugin scans, and more.
Apart from that this plugin also lets you conduct WordPress backups on a set routine so that you can recover everything in case of an attack. If certain entities are targeting your website for vulnerabilities, this plugin can detect them and block their IPs so that they can’t gain access. You also get notified by email if any malicious files are uploaded to your website. There’s also the option to deter login attempts and scan for malware.
2. Sucuri – Sucuri is undoubtedly one of the best security plugins in the market. It comes in a free version and if you want extra functionalities you can also subscribe to the Pro version for an annual fee. One of its best features is probably malware cleanup. The plugin does it for you if your website gets infected by malware. The setup is also easy and you can access the most important features of the plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
A key tip in advanced WordPress security tips is to track all the changes that happen on your website. Everything from failed login attempts to file changes. This plugin does that for you. The Pro version also gives you advanced DDoS protection which is a necessity in modern times due to the increased frequency of cyberattacks.
3. WPScan – This easy-to-use security plugin has been around for almost a decade and takes care of your website’s security on the backend. It maintains a catalog of various threats and lets you know which ones matter so that you can stay protected. As its name suggests, the plugin scans for security issues in your WordPress site and checks them with its regularly updated database of vulnerabilities.
Since the database is powered by reputed security specialists and a large growing community, almost nothing goes past this plugin. However, its greatest strength is in its pricing. While the premium version of other plugins will put you back hundreds of dollars on the annual plan, this one costs a fraction of that.
4. Jetpack – Jetpack is another all-in-one security plugin like Sucuri. With over 5 million active installs it is one of the most popular plugins in its category. The ace feature of this plugin is real-time backups. Every file change and font resizing gets backed up by the plugin in real-time so that you can recover everything if your website’s security is compromised. While advanced WordPress security tips are always welcome, being able to restore everything with a single click should put you at ease. Other features include:
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Activity log
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Decentralized malware scanning
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Protection against brute force attack and malware and more
5. All In One WP Security & Firewall – If you have just started your online business with your website and are tight on budget, All In One WP Security & Firewall is the plugin to go for. While it provides basic WordPress security features like IP filtering, login lockdowns, user account monitoring, and website-level firewall, it’s all free. There is no need to spend a single dime when you’re trying things out. The plugin also lets you monitor locked users and unlock them with a few clicks if there’s been a mistake.
Now that you know about some of the best plugins for WordPress speed and security it’s time to implement them on your website. However, it may be overwhelming to make the right choice given the numerous options and the tier of plans that suits your needs. You can leave all that complicated website management tasks to Design Cavern so that you can use your energy where it’s needed most.