Darko G.

MegaOptim

<p><strong>Rapid Cache</strong> is a fork of <em>Comet Cache</em> that focuses on new features, stability and simplicity.</p>
<p>If you care about the speed of your site, Rapid Cache is one of those plugins that you absolutely MUST have installed! 🤓</p>
<p>Rapid Cache takes a real-time snapshot (building a cache) of every Page, Post, Category, Link, etc. These snapshots are then stored (cached) intuitively, so they can be referenced later, in order to save all of that processing time that has been dragging your site down and costing you money.</p>
<p>The plugin uses configuration options that you select from the options panel. See: <strong>Rapid Cache -› Options</strong> in your Dashboard. Once a file has been cached, Rapid Cache uses advanced techniques that allow it to recognize when it should and should not serve a cached version of the file.</p>
<p>By default, Rapid Cache does not serve cached pages to users who are logged in, or to users who have left comments recently. Rapid Cache also excludes administrative pages, login pages, POST/PUT/DELETE/GET(w/ query string) requests and/or CLI processes.</p>
<p>If you need more details, check our <a href="https://github.com/megaoptim/rapid-cache/wiki/" rel="nofollow ugc">Wiki</a></p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>SIMPLE and well-documented (just enable and you’re all set).</li>
<li>Options to control the automatic cache clearing behavior for Home and Posts Page, Author Page, Category, Tag, and Custom Term Archives, Custom Post Type Archives, RSS/RDF/ATOM Feeds, and XML Sitemaps.</li>
<li>URI exclusion patterns (now supporting wildcards too).</li>
<li>User-Agent exclusion patterns (now supporting wildcards too).</li>
<li>HTTP referrer exclusion patterns (now supporting wildcards too).</li>
<li>The ability to set an automatic expiration time for cache files.</li>
<li>Client-Side Caching (to allow double-caching in the client browser).</li>
<li>Caching for 404 requests to reduce the impact of those on the server.</li>
<li>Feed Caching (RSS, RDF, and Atom Feed caching).</li>
<li>Cache or ignore URLs that contain query strings (GET Requests).</li>
<li>Apache Optimizations to enable GZIP Compression.</li>
<li>WP-CLI Compatibility.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/megaoptim/rapid-cache/wiki/Developer-Hooks" rel="nofollow ugc">Actions/filters</a> and <a href="https://github.com/megaoptim/rapid-cache/wiki/Clearing-the-Cache-Dynamically" rel="nofollow ugc">PHP API</a> for developers</li>
</ul>
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<p>In addition to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/" rel="ugc">WordPress Requirements</a>, Rapid Cache requires the following minimum versions:</p>
<ul>
<li>At least PHP 5.4 (we recommend PHP 7.2+)</li>
<li>Web server (Apache, NGINX, Litespeed, other)</li>
</ul>
<h4>License</h4>
<p>Copyright © 2020 <a href="https://megaoptim.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">MegaOptim</a><br />
Copyright © 2016 WebSharks, Inc (coded in the USA)</p>
<p>Released under the terms of the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html" rel="nofollow ugc">GNU General Public License</a>.</p>


Rapid Cache

Disclaimer: I have a lifetime licence of Comet Cache, which actually when I bought the license it was called Zen Cache, or the name before that... So Comet Cache Pro out of the box, with very little fiddling makes my sites running on crappy Godaddy shared hosting from loading in 2-3 seconds time, to load almost instantly, to the point that people ask me if I'm using a VPS or a dedicated server... The only drawback that it has (and I tried this just once many years ago), the caching did not work on my WAMP localserver running on a Win. 7 Pro machine.

After downloading and installing Rapid Cache on the same localhost today, I was pleasantly surprised that it works on my localserver, not that I need to have such a plugin in this environment, but it will be good for testing, benchmarking, etc... Before this plugin was activated, my pageloads were 0.6 - 0.7 seconds, with a visible tiny "pause" between page loads. Once I activated and turned the caching on in this plugin, and without making ANY configuration changes, the page loads are almost instantaneous, with no more visible lagging. 

I did not do any live testing on a really slow server yet, but if the results are similar to my Comet Cache Pro plugin, this plugin would speed up any site that normally would load under 2-3 seconds to almost no lag time... hence my 5 star rating.

I don't really need this plugin, but it's REALLY nice to have an excellent replacement in case Comet Cache Pro goes away, or stops working for one reason or another...

The only thing missing from this plugin that exists in the Comet Cache plugin (that I can see right away), is the ability to import/export the settings. In my case, because I don't mess with too many of the settings, it's not the end of the world. In the past I have played with other cache plugin, that one will need a doctorate degree and 2 weeks of playing around just to make it sort of work - not the case here...

This is my honest review of the Rapid Cache plugin after using it for about 10 minutes or so !

Thank you.   

Good out of the box.

Rapid Cache is advanced WordPress caching plugin inspired by simplicity that will make your site blazing fast!

patrickposner

<p>Simply Static is a static site generator that converts your existing WordPress website to a static website that you can host on your server, a static hosting provider, or a CDN.</p>
<p>It drastically improves the performance of your website and minimizes security risks as it removes the connection between your traditional server and your static website.</p>
<p>Simply Static can also be used by local development tools like LocalWP or Lando to develop your website offline and push the static site online.</p>
<p>This reduces your hosting costs to zero (depending on your requirements and the used service/provider).</p>
<h4>Performance</h4>
<p>Converting your website to a static website can drastically improve your performance. Simply Static eliminates all requests to your database and by that reducing the first time to byte.</p>
<p>This is especially impactful for websites that use long pages with a lot of animations, graphs, and other load-heavy tools like sliders.</p>
<h4>Security</h4>
<p>Removing the connection to your database and traditional server reduces the risk of getting hacked.</p>
<p>This reduces the stress to keep your WordPress website up to date and keeps your data secure (locally or in a protected environment).</p>
<h4>Reduce hosting costs</h4>
<p>Using Simply Static to deploy your website to one of the static hosting providers, a CDN or an S3 bucket reduces the amount of money required for reliable web hosting.</p>
<p>With the right setup, you can even host your website completely for free (Cloudflare Pages and GitHub Pages for example).</p>
<h4>Local development</h4>
<p>Develop your site locally and only push the static exported website on a server. To ensure everything works as expected I created a list of development tools that are completely supported:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localwp.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">LocalWP</a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.lando.dev/" rel="nofollow ugc">lando</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I highly recommend not to use another tool for local development if you are not a programmer as in most cases manual package installation is required.</p>
<h4>Static Studio</h4>
<p>Static Studio is our all-in-one Static WordPress cloud hosting solution – here is why you want it:</p>
<ul>
<li>Secure WordPress hosting (locked-down WP, Firewall, NGINX-powered, 24/7 monitoring)</li>
<li>Fast static site hosting via BunnyCDN (global distribution, low TTFB, caching, minification)</li>
<li>Secure logins via SSO, 2FA protection and team management</li>
<li>Automated (and free) migration for all your existing sites</li>
<li>Backups, SSL, unlimited file storage and 1TB bandwidth per site</li>
<li>WP-CLI, SSH, SFTP and hands-on code support</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://simplystatic.com/simply-static-studio/" rel="nofollow ugc">Start your 7-day free trial</a></p>
<h3>Simply Static Pro</h3>
<p>The pro version of Simply Static enhances the plugin with various features.</p>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vml537IIwVc?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe></span>
<h4>GitHub Integration</h4>
<p>With the GitHub integration, you can completely automate your entire development process.</p>
<p>The only thing you need is a GitHub account, no knowledge of Git or GitHub itself is required, as Simply Static Pro handles the entire process for you and keeps your repository up to date.</p>
<p>This allows deploying your static website to:</p>
<ul>
<li>GitHub Pages</li>
<li>Cloudflare Pages</li>
<li>Netlify</li>
<li>Vercel</li>
</ul>
<h4>AWS S3 Integration</h4>
<p>Export directly to Amazon AWS S3 from Simply Static Pro. Connect your bucket and run your export.</p>
<h4>SFTP</h4>
<p>Export directly to a remote SFTP server. Connect your server and run your export.</p>
<h4>BunnyCDN Integration</h4>
<p>Export directly to BunnyCDN and get all the benefits of their CDN – including caching, file optimization and DNS management.</p>
<h4>Incremental-, Builds and Single Exports</h4>
<p>Use Incremental Exports to update only changes to your static website. No configuration needed, just choose Update and run the export.</p>
<p>Use Build Exports to quickly roll out global changes to your static website. Want to update your style.css file? Or a new plugin? Use a build export.</p>
<p>Use Single Exports to quickly publish new pages and posts to your static site. This also supports scheduled posts.</p>
<h4>Forms</h4>
<p>Create and use forms created with your favorite form plugin on your static website with Simply Static Pro. Supported plugins are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Contact Form 7</li>
<li>Gravity Forms</li>
<li>WP Forms</li>
<li>FluentForms</li>
<li>WS Forms</li>
</ul>
<p>You can decide if you want to use an external service like Zapier and IFTTT to offload the submission (webhook) or embed the form from your WordPress website via iFrame.</p>
<h4>Search</h4>
<p>Use a fully static search solution that does not rely on any Third-Party-Providers. It uses Fuse.js and creates an index of your whole website as a JSON file.</p>
<p>The search supports autosuggestion and fuzzy logic and is by default way more convenient than your default WordPress search.</p>
<h4>Comments</h4>
<p>Enable comments on your static website without the requirement of Third-Party-Providers. Use your original WordPress website to process the comment.</p>
<p>After a comment was submitted, Simply Static automatically exports a new static version of the post. You don’t have to do anything.</p>
<h4>Multilingual</h4>
<p>Use WPML, Polylang or TranslatePress and run static exports per language or all at once.</p>
<p>Simply Static Pro also supports configuring settings per language, using the available language switchers and more to export a your multilingual website as easy as possible.</p>
<h4>WP-CLI</h4>
<p>Simply Static Pro has a detailed and comprehensive integration with WP-CLI.</p>
<p>Control every option, run different kinds of exports and more with the WP-CLI integration.</p>
<h4>Minification</h4>
<p>Automatically minfiy HTML, CSS and JavaScript files on your static site.</p>
<p>We can even minify inline CSS & JavaScript.</p>
<h4>Image Optimization</h4>
<p>Automatically optimize images on your static website with our ShortPixel API integration.</p>
<h4>Optimization</h4>
<p>Replace default WordPress paths and completely hide that you are using WordPress behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Replace:</p>
<ul>
<li>wp-content</li>
<li>wp-includes</li>
<li>wp-content/plugins/</li>
<li>wp-content/themes/</li>
<li>wp-content/uploads/</li>
</ul>
<p>Hide & Disable:</p>
<p>Disabled unwanted features in WordPress before running an static export like:</p>
<ul>
<li>XML-RPC</li>
<li>REST API URLs</li>
<li>Emoji support</li>
<li>Shortlink support</li>
<li>WordPress version in HTML</li>
</ul>
<p>and much more.</p>
<h4>Get the Pro version</h4>
<p>You can get the pro version <a href="https://simplystatic.com/pricing/" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>.</p>
<h4>Simply Static Course</h4>
<p>We created an entire video course about Static WordPress with Simply Static – check out the first video:</p>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ei_w-Jcq4uQ?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe></span>
<p>You can watch the entire course entirely for free on YouTube here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcpe8_rNg8U5g1gCOa0Ge6T17f50nSvmg" rel="nofollow ugc">Simply Static Course</a></p>
<h4>Tutorials</h4>
<p>We also publish new tutorials on our blog every other week on how to work with Simply Static and other static site tools.</p>
<p>You can check the latest tutorials <a href="https://simplystatic.com/tutorials/" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></p>
<h4>Documentation</h4>
<p>We have a super extensive documentation that covers every aspect of Simply Static and Simply Static Pro.</p>
<p>You can check the documentation <a href="https://docs.simplystatic.com" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></p>


Simply Static – The Static Site Generator

Straight forward site conversion.

I was able to "freeze" my disused subdomains and store them in a new directory on my webserver with minimal fuss.

Perfect for sending a site into retirement


I've been a happy user for quite a while now. It does what you expect, generates a nice static site that I can upload to cheap static hosting. 



I upgraded to pro as I like the automatic publishing options via GitHub, which saves me a few minutes from manually uploading it to my host. 



Support responses have been fast and top-notch. Thanks to Patrick for building a great tool. 


A must for sites that don't need to be dynamic.


Thanks to this plugin, I have saved myself lots of time. Instead of converting my WordPress theme to one of the static site generators (Gatsby, Hugo ..etc), this plugin just did exactly the same but also I kept the powerful editing experience of WordPress. Thanks for making this. 


Worked perfectly


I had to archive some old  wp websites to static and had no problem doing so thanks to this incredible plugin.


works perfectly.


This plugin is supreme. As an experiment, I achieved a 100% free personal site with custom domain and SSL thanks to Simply Static and GitHub. I run WordPress locally with MAMP, generate static site files in a local repo then push to remote for GitHub Pages to serve. Bob's my uncle!



You can buy Pro too, you know. It's easier.


Thanks for helping make my personal site 100% free


I use this to export my local wordpress site to cloudflare pages - free hosting for life (or until cloudflare decides to charge for it).



Works like a charm.


Goodbye expensive hosting


Simply Static is a genius product, able to create static exports of even the largest sites. The user interface is modern, clean, and intuitive.  It's also developer-friendly, with hooks and filters galore.



But it's the support that is blowing my mind: responsive both in terms of responding to issues, but also getting improvements into the code and deployed. Above and beyond on all fronts. 💯


Top-tier Plugin and Support

Create a static website directly from your WordPress website with Simply Static.

Rapid Cache vs Simply Static – The Static Site Generator