Starting this month, we’re rolling out a new series of posts called the ‘SUMO Heavy Developer’s Toolbox’.
Each post will feature one of our favorite tools, apps, plugins, modules and extensions.
Our first Developer’s Toolbox post features the WordPress Plugin ‘Quick Cache’ and it’s by far our favorite caching plugin.
What It Does
Quick 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 processing time (which ultimately slows your site down).
Features
• Multiple options that allow you to customize every aspect of the caching – including the expiration time of the cached object
• Multiple gzip settings
• Fully configurable (via Control Panel)
Cost
FREE
Summary
Quick Cache is a must-have for every WordPress-powered site. Just install the plugin, activate, then enable the caching on the options page. That’s it! Once you turn it on, the cache will be served up immediately. The reduction of stress on the server is really, really noticable in some cases. There’s no downside to running the plugin. The FAQ on Quick Cache’s page says it best:
“What is the down side to running Quick Cache? We really can’t think of any site running WordPress that would want to be without it. To put it another way, the WordPress software itself comes with a built in action reference for an advanced-cache.php file, because WordPress developers realize the importance of such as plugin. The /wp-content/advanced-cache.php file is named as such, because the WordPress developers expect it to be there when caching is enabled by a plugin. If you don’t have the /wp-content/advanced-cache.php file yet, it is because you have not enabled Quick Cache from the options panel yet.”
With that said, give it a download and try it out. You won’t regret it!
Sean Kennedy is SUMO Heavy’s resident Web Slinger.
Follow Sean on Twitter or send him some love at sean@sumoheavy.com.
About Sean Kennedy
Sean is your friendly neighborhood web developer, navigating the tubes of the internet so others don't have to. When he's not busy eating PHP for breakfast, he can be found playing games or reading books – generally geeky ones.
