Recently Swift Performance plugin is very popular. Although born late, the plugin received many positive reviews in the WordPress community.
This is not just a pure cache plugin but a comprehensive acceleration solution for WordPress websites.
When learning more about the plugin, I was really surprised with its features. The plugin converges almost all the current WordPress acceleration features.
In today’s article you will know the valuable features of this plugin. Besides, the article also provides a quick user guide as well as many resources related to optimizing this plugin.
Here we are.
Contents
Why you should use Swift Performance plugin
There are many plugins to speed up WordPress such as cache plugin, image optimizer plugin, static resource optimization plugin like CSS and JS, or database optimizer plugin.
There really aren’t many accelerators that have all of these features. As a result, you often have to install at least 2 or more plugins to speed up WordPress.
Take your case for example. Before, I had to install a lot of plugins to help improve website speed such as Autoptimize, Cache Enabler, Disable Emojis, Disable XML-RPC, Nginx Gravatar Cache, EWWW Image Optimizer.
Now buying the pro version of the Swift plugin, I have released all the above plugins.
The arrival of Swift Performance really changed the game. Now with just one plugin you have the entire WordPress acceleration solution.
Here are just a few salient features of the product:
Cache feature
Swift supports page caching, browser caching, and proxy caching. In which proxy caching is a feature only available in this plugin. Extremely useful feature if your website is on Cloudflare yellow cloud.
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 Swift stores in the Warmup Table and displays it right in the Dashboard.
I really like this feature. 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 plugins Swift also combines and streamlines static files like CSS and JS.
But not stopping there, their programmers also add more advanced features.
For example, in the CSS optimization stage, the plugin also generates Critical CSS for each page automatically. These are the critical CSS needed to make the page responsive during the initial page load phase. So the website doesn’t have to wait for the entire CSS to load to finish displaying.
Or optimizing Javascript plugin with Asynce Execute Javascripts feature also helps to reduce page load time.
Database Optimization
The plugin also has a database optimization tool that helps you to clean the database.
Plugin Organizer
Plugins are often the culprit that slows down your website. This tool in Swift makes it possible to disable the plugin on some pages and only have it run when it is needed.
For example, the contact form plugin should only run on pages that use forms.
Image optimization
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.
Usually you have to spend extra money to buy an image compression plugin because free plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer are not very effective.
Even buying a paid light compression plugin is problematic. Usually this plugin is charged according to the number of images you compress or in a package like ShortPixel .
Among the cheapest light compression plugins is Optimius. For me, this plugin often generates errors when compressing multiple images at the same time.
My experience with Swift’s image compression tool is very impressive. There aren’t any limits. Compress as much as you like. No extra fees.
On , 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 have used.
Especially in the image optimization part, I was surprised that Swift supports creating WebP images and displaying this image.
Previously, to take advantage of this feature, I had to use image compression plugins that support WebP like ShortPixel or Optimus. Then you have to look for a cache plugin that supports displaying images like Cache Enabler. As 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, things are much simpler when the plugin just creates WebP images and supports display.
Preset feature
With plugins with so many features and options like Swift it would be difficult to configure right?
Luckily the plugin author has a quick installation feature and 5 pre-configured scenarios suitable for any website.
Therefore, I rate this plugin as very user-friendly. If you are not technical, just choose the automatic installation method, the website speed will also improve a lot.
For those of you who like to play, the plugin’s documentation is also full for you to learn more deeply.
Above are just a few outstanding features of the plugin. Click the button below to discover more about this plugin.
Swift Performance plugin price
The developer of this plugin is very fond of providing both free and paid versions.
With the paid version, I think the price is very good. Compared to the WP Rocket plugin, the price is much better, but the features are more.
Anyway this plugin is still new so its cheaper price is obvious.
Personally, I’m using Swift’s Multi package. This plan costs the same as WP Rocket’s Plus plan, but uses it on 4 websites compared to Rocket’s 3.
I don’t know about WP Rocket, but Swift also offers a discount when renewing. 30% off when renewing for one year. Or 40% when you choose to renew 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 show you how to install and configure this plugin automatically.
You should choose this way. Later, if you like, you can edit more depending on your technical ability.
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. Copy the key and paste it here. Get Save to continue.
Next you choose Autoconfig.
A message tells you that running Autoconfig will reset all settings to default. Since this is our first time running the autoconfiguration, you just need to click the Start button to get started.
The plugin starts scanning the parameters of the website and configures it accordingly.
Click Next to continue. Now your website speed has improved.
The next task is to optimize the image. You click the button to optimize the image. Or play around with plugin configuration
There are several documents to help you easily optimize the plugin configuration
Official documentation from Swift Performance
Optimal configuration when combined with Cloudflare and CDN
A pretty nice Swift config from author Thol
To evaluate website speed you need to make sure the page you test is 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 word hit means the page is already cached. And if it is a miss, the page is not optimized.
Epilogue
Swift Performance is a latecomer to many WordPress acceleration plugins. However, the developer did a great job providing a comprehensive solution in improving website speed.
Rich features are its biggest advantage. Plugins will definitely help you minimize the number of WordPress accelerators.
This also helps you optimize website operating costs when you don’t have to buy additional plugins such as image compression plugins.
As for the disadvantages of this plugin:
I see Swift Performance building in the direction of actively building cache. This ensures optimal speed even when the page is accessed for the first time.
This idea is good but the build cache (prebuild cache) process takes up quite a lot of resources. This sometimes causes the server to be overloaded, causing the speed to slow down.
So if you let 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 comments section below.
