xSpeed Cache
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What is xSpeed Cache?

4 min read

xSpeed Cache is a caching and performance plugin for WordPress, built by WPDeveloper. It speeds up your site by saving your pages as ready-made files and serving them to visitors as fast as your server can.

What this does

When someone visits a normal WordPress page, the server has to run PHP and query the database to build that page from scratch every single time. That takes work, and work takes time.

xSpeed Cache removes most of that work. The first time a page is requested, xSpeed Cache builds it once and saves the finished HTML as a static file. Every visitor after that gets the saved copy instead of rebuilding the page.

On top of page caching, xSpeed Cache also trims your code, compresses files, defers images and fonts, and cleans up your database. You turn on what you need, and the settings save automatically.

How page caching works in xSpeed Cache

xSpeed Cache uses static-file serving for its fastest cache path. Here is the idea in plain terms.

  1. A visitor requests a page.
  2. xSpeed Cache saves the finished HTML to a static cache directory under wp-content/cache/xspeed-static.
  3. The next visitor’s request is matched by a rewrite rule your web server reads first.
  4. The server hands back the saved HTML file directly, before WordPress (and PHP) even loads.

Because PHP never runs on a cache hit, the response comes back in roughly 5 to 15 milliseconds instead of around 85 milliseconds for a PHP-served cache.

Note: The static-file path is set up automatically on Apache and LiteSpeed. On nginx and IIS, xSpeed Cache shows you a config snippet to paste into your server, because PHP cannot write those server configs.

When the static path is not available for a request (for example, a logged-in user, a page with a tracked cookie, or an nginx host without the snippet applied), xSpeed Cache falls back to a PHP-based cache drop-in. That is still faster than no cache at all.

What gets optimized

xSpeed Cache groups its work into a few areas. Here is what each one handles.

  • Page Cache — saves pages as static HTML and serves them before WordPress loads. Rebuilds itself when you publish or update content.
  • Minify — removes extra spaces, comments, and characters from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It can also combine files, defer or delay JavaScript, and load CSS without blocking the page.
  • GZIP Compression — makes files smaller before the server sends them, so browsers download them faster.
  • Lazy Load — loads images, iframes, and videos only when a visitor scrolls to them, with a fix to stop the layout from jumping.
  • Fonts — adds font-display: swap so text shows right away while fonts load, and can preload key font files.
  • Browser Cache — tells browsers to remember your images, CSS, and JavaScript so returning visitors load faster.
  • Object Cache — connects Redis or Memcached to speed up database-heavy sites.
  • CDN — rewrites static-asset URLs to a CDN, with a built-in Cloudflare connection.
  • Database — cleans out revisions, spam, trash, transients, and orphaned data, and can optimize your tables.
  • Disable Bloat — switches off WordPress features you may not use, like dashicons on the frontend, oEmbed, RSS feeds, and XML-RPC.

Why use it

Faster pages keep visitors around and can help your search rankings. A page that loads in milliseconds feels instant, while one that takes several seconds loses people.

xSpeed Cache is also built to stay out of trouble. It never caches logged-in users, admin pages, AJAX, or REST requests. If a minified file looks broken, it falls back to the original. You can turn any feature off on its own if something looks wrong.

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.0 or later
  • PHP 7.4 or later
  • Works on Apache, nginx, LiteSpeed, IIS, and standard PHP hosts

xSpeed Cache also supports WordPress Multisite. Each site in the network gets its own cache and settings.

Best practices

  • Run only one page-cache plugin at a time. If your host already runs LiteSpeed’s server-level cache, xSpeed Cache detects it and steps back to avoid conflicts.
  • On WooCommerce or other dynamic sites, exclude pages like /cart, /checkout, and /my-account from caching.
  • After enabling the cache, check that the static-rewrite path is active so you get the fastest response times.
  • Installing and Activating xSpeed Cache
  • The Setup Wizard
  • A Tour of the xSpeed Cache Dashboard
  • Free vs. Pro: What’s Included