This week in caching: WP transients vs a persistent object cache

This week in caching: WP transients vs a persistent object cache

A WordPress-specific comparison that quietly decides your DB load:

— Transients without a persistent object cache store in the wp_options table — so your 'cache' is extra DB rows, and autoloaded options bloat every page load. The opposite of fast.
— Drop in Redis/Memcached as a persistent object cache and transients (plus all of WP's internal wp_cache_* calls) move to RAM — that's the actual win, not the page cache.
— The order people get wrong: they add a page-cache plugin and skip object cache, so logged-in users (who bypass page cache) still hammer MySQL.

For any membership/WooCommerce site where logged-in traffic matters, persistent object cache beats page cache for the users that count.

Bookmark: the Redis Object Cache plugin readme + WP's Transients API docs, read side by side.