Recently, the Swift Performance plugin has been very popular. Although born late, the plugin has received many positive reviews in the WordPress community.
This is not just a pure cache plugin but a comprehensive acceleration solution for WordPress website.
When digging deeper into the plugin, I was really surprised with its features. The plugin brings together nearly all of the current WordPress acceleration features.
In today's article you will learn the valuable features of this plugin. Besides, the article also provides quick user guides as well as many resources related to optimizing this plugin.
Come on we are.
Why you should use the Swift Performance plugin
Currently there are many plugins to help speed up WordPress such as cache plugin, image optimization plugin, static resource plugin like CSS and JS, or database optimization plugin.
There are really not many accelerating plugins that converge on those features. As a result, you usually have to install at least 2 or more plugins to speed up WordPress.
For example his case. Previously, I had to install a lot of plugins to improve website speed such as: Autoptimize, Cache Enabler, Disable Emojis, Disable XML-RPC, Nginx Gravatar Cache, EWWW Image Optimizer.
Now buying the Swift plugin pro version I have freed all the above plugins.
The appearance of Swift Performance really changed the game. Now with just one plugin, you have all the WordPress acceleration solutions in your hand.
Here are just a few of the salient features of the product:
Cache feature
Swift supports page cache, browser caching and proxy caching. In that proxy caching is a feature unique to this plugin. Extremely useful feature if your website is turning on the yellow cloud of Cloudflare.
Unlike many other cache plugins, Swift also allows you to look deeper into the cache data. Specifically you will know how many pages are cached.
You can actively cache and clear cache for each URL. This information is stored in the Warmup Table and displayed in the Dashboard.
I like this feature very much. Because of using other cache plugins, I don't know how many pages in the website have been cached.
Optimize CSS and Javascript
Like many other plugins Swift also combines and streamlines static files like CSS and JS.
But it does not stop there, their programmers also add more advanced features.
For example, in the process of optimizing CSS, the plugin also generates Critical CSS for each page automatically. These are important CSS needed to respond to the page during the initial page load phase. Thus the website does not need to wait for the entire CSS to load to display.
Or optimizing Javascript plugin with Asynce Execute Javascripts feature also helps reduce page load time.
Database optimization
The plugin also has a database optimization tool that helps you clean the database.
Plugin Organizer
Plugins are often the culprit that makes websites slow. This tool in Swift makes it possible to turn off the plugin on some sites and just let it run when needed.
For example, the contact form creation plugin should only run on pages that use the form.
Optimize images
In my opinion, this is the most expensive feature in the Swift Performance plugin. And this is also the only cache plugin with this feature.
Normally, you have to spend more money to buy image compression plugin because some free plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer are not very effective.
Even buying a premium paid plugin has problems. Usually this plugin charges according to the number of images you compress or in packages such as ShortPixel.
Among the cheapest luster compression plugin, Optimius is included. For me this plugin often generates errors when compressing multiple images at once.
Experience with image compression tool of Swift I feel very impressed. There are no restrictions. Compress as much as you like. There is no additional charge.
On Thuthuatwp I have compressed nearly 60,000 images. The image compression process is fast and error-free when compared to the ShortPixel or Optimus plugins that I've used.
Especially in the image optimization section, I'm surprised that Swift supports WebP image creation and display this image.
Previously to take advantage of this feature, I had to use image compression plugins that support WebP such as ShortPixel or Optimus. Then you have to search for cache plugin that supports image display like Cache Enabler. Because you also know the WebP format is not supported by all browsers.
In short, there are not many options to use this feature. Now with Swift everything is much simpler when the plugin has just created a WebP image and display support.
Preset feature
With plugins that have many features and options like Swift, it will be difficult to configure, right?
Luckily, the plugin author has a quick installation feature and 5 pre-configured scripts that suit every website.
So I rate this plugin very user friendly. If you do not know the technique, just select the automatic installation method, the website speed will be much improved as well.
And if you like to dabble, the plugin's documentation is also full for you to dig deeper.
The above only do a few outstanding features of the plugin. Click the button below to discover more about this plugin.
Price for Swift Performance plugin
Test results with the Swift Performance plugin for thuthuatwp
The developer of this plugin is very fond of providing both free and paid versions.
With the premium version I evaluate the price very well. Compared to the WP Rocket plugin, it costs much more and features more.
Anyway, this plugin is still new so its price is cheaper.
Personally, I'm using the Multi package of Swift. This package is the same price as the Plus package of WP Rocket but used on 4 websites compared to 3 of Rocket.
Don't know how the WP Rocket but Swift also discounted when renewed. 30% off for one year extension. Or 40% when you choose to extend for 2 years.
Instructions for using the Swift Performance plugin
Before using this plugin, you should remove all WordPress acceleration plugins you are using such as cache plugin, image compression, CSS and Javascript optimization.
Here I am using the Pro version. I will guide how to install and configure this pluign automatically.
You should choose this way. Later, if you like you can edit more depending on your technical capabilities.
After purchasing the plugin, you will receive an email containing login information including username and password.
You use this information to access your account page on the Swift website.
Here you download the zip file containing the plugin. You will also see the plugin key.
Now you proceed to install the plugin as a zip file like other WordPress plugins.
After activating the plugin, the purchase key input screen appears. You copy the key and paste it here. Get Save to continue.
Next you choose Autoconfig.
A message telling you if running Autoconfig will return all settings to default. Since this is the first time we're running automatic configuration, you just need to click the Start button to get started.
The plugin starts scanning the parameters of the website and configuring it accordingly.
Click Next to continue. Now your website has improved speed.
The next task is to optimize the image. You click the button to optimize the image. Or dab more plugin configuration
There are a few documents to help you easily configure the plugin Official documentation from Swift Performance Optimal configuration when combined with Cloudflare and CDN A pretty good Swift configuration from author Thol
To evaluate website speed you need to make sure the page you checked has been cached by Swift. You check the URL in the warmup table in the dashboard.
Or check the response header information in the swift-performance field if the hit word means that the page is already cached. If it is miss, the page is not optimal.
Epilogue
Swift Performance is a late release plugin compared to many WordPress acceleration plugins. However the developer has done a good job of providing a comprehensive solution to improve website speed.
Feature richness is its greatest advantage. Plugins will definitely help you minimize the number of WordPress accelerated plugins.
This also helps you optimize website operating costs when not having to buy other plugins such as image compression plugin.
Also talk about the disadvantages of this plugin:
I see Swift Performance built towards proactive build cache. This ensures optimal speed even when the page is first accessed.
The idea is good, but the build cache (prebuild cache) takes up a lot of resources. This sometimes causes the server to experience an overload that slows down the speed.
So if you want to prebuild cache automatically, you should set the speed to suit your host. Besides, you also limit the active thread of the plugin.
What do you think about this plugin. Please share your review in the comment section below.
Nguyen Manh Cuong is the author and founder of the vmwareplayerfree blog. With over 14 years of experience in Online Marketing, he now runs a number of successful websites, and occasionally shares his experience & knowledge on this blog.
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