This week in caching: choosing and configuring a WP page-cache plugin

This week in caching: choosing and configuring a WP page-cache plugin

A decision checklist, not a popularity contest. Gold for WP folks on shared or VPS hosting.

— Match cache to server — disk cache for shared hosting, Redis/Memcached page cache if you control the box; don't pay for a feature you can't enable.
— Turn on cache preloading — generate the cache from your sitemap so the first visitor never eats a cold miss.
— Exclude the dynamic paths — cart, account, AJAX endpoints, and any nonce-bearing page must bypass full-page cache.
— Set logged-in behavior explicitly — either don't cache logged-in users or cache per-role; the default rarely matches your intent.
— Tie purge to events — flush only the affected post + its archive/home on publish, not the whole cache.

Credit to the WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache docs for the preload-from-sitemap approach.

Bookmark: the WordPress.org caching handbook page — vendor-neutral baseline.