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WP Rocket VS SG Optimizer

Mark Hendriksen | February 22, 2021 | 12 Comments
Disclosure Note: Sometimes, I include links in my articles that can earn me money. It won't cost you anything, but it helps me pay for coffee ☕ so I can make more helpful content.

The other day I got a question from a reader from my guide on how to speed up your website. The question was: do you still need WP Rocket if you are on SiteGround? If you are on SiteGround then you have access to their SG Optimizer plugin. This is a really good question. In the past, the SG Optimizer plugin only handled the caching but in a recent update, they have added many more features to this plugin.

So to see which one is the best for you I will be running a test.

I have created 2 identical sites on SiteGround. Both sites are built with Divi and I installed a couple of plugins:

  • Divi (with the TeleHealth pack)
  • WooComemmerce
  • Contact form 7
  • Yoast SEO

Test Before Optimization

Before I start with the optimization I will give you the results from GT metrix, Google Page Speed and Pingdom.

GT Metrix Score Results (Before Optimization):

GT Metrix test before optimization

Google Page Speed Desktop (Before Optimization):

Google page speed before optimization

Pingdom Results (Before Optimization):

Pingdom before optimization

SiteGround + WP Rocket

For the WP Rocket + SiteGround test I used the following settings in WP Rocket.

File Optimization

WP Rocket file optimization settings

Media

WP Rocket media settings

Preload

WP Rocket preload settings

SG Optimizer + SiteGround

If you are on a Growbig or bigger plan you can use the memcached feature.

Supercacher Settings

SG Optimizer supercacher settings

Frontend Optimization

SG Optimizer frontend optimization settings

Media Optimization

SG Optimizer media optimization settings

The Results After Optimization

GT Metrix (WP Rocket + SiteGround)

GT Metrix test after optimization with wp rocket

GT Metrix (SG Optimizer + SiteGround)

GT Metrix test after- optimization-with SG optimizer

Google Page Speed WP Rocket + SiteGround

Google page speed test after optimization WP rocket

Google Page Speed SG Optimizer + SiteGround

Google page speed test after optimization SG optimizer

Pingdom WP Rocket + SiteGround

Pingdom test after optimization WP rocket

Pingdom SG Optimizer + SiteGround

Pingdom test after optimization SG Optimizer

Conclusion

In my test, I got very similar results with both plugins. SG Optimizer gives me a little better performance in GT Metrix and WP Rocket gives me a better score on Google page speed mobile. There is one nice feature in WP Rocket that SG Optimizer does not have and that is link preloading. When a visitor hovers over a link then that page will already be starting to load in the background. This will result in almost instantly loading. However, this does not have any effect on your page speed scores.

If you are already on SiteGround then I would not use WP Rocket. You could consider a plugin like Perfmatters which also comes with a link preloading and a script manager option. A script manager can reduce your page size significantly and get better loading times.

Article by

Mark Hendriksen

I am the founder here at MarkHendriksen.com a blog website for Web design, WordPress, and Divi. Learn more about Mark

12 thoughts on “WP Rocket VS SG Optimizer”

  1. Hello,

    I have used SG Optimizer + SiteGround and Continue the problems I don’t now how to improve it. I have problem with speed on mobile and Computer.

    Thank you,
    Carlos

    Reply
  2. Great article but politely disagree with your conclusion. We also use SiteGround.

    We have determined that using all three plugins (SG Optimizer, WP Rocket, and Perfmatters) and a CDN (Cloudflare) yields the best results for TTFB, Total Loading Time, No. of Requests, and Page Weight.

    We have tested every imaginable plugin combination. The catch is making sure your selected plugin features do not overlap.

    For testing, we recommend webpagetest.org, lighthouse (same as pagespeedinsights), and gtmetrix.com

    SiteGround says website speeds are faster without WP Rocket, but never provide data to substantiate their claim. We have data proving otherwise.

    And yes, Perfmatters is awesome. It has additional web performance features that SG Optimizer and WP Rocket do no have.

    By following the above, our website speed is 1-3 seconds faster than using SG Optimizer alone.

    Side Note: A website’s theme will also play a key role in determining website speed. For example, we use Avada. It performs well on desktop, but is atrocious on mobile or tablet. Avada is already working on refactoring their code. Details: https://theme-fusion.com/feature-voting/

    Cheers!

    Reply
    • Thank you very much for your in-depth comment.

      Excellent point in overlapping features. This can for sure crush your scores.

      Out of curiosity, did you also enabled Memcache in SiteGround?

      Reply
      • Yes, we have Memcached activated on our account.

        One key finding and solution:

        Many users complain that when using both SG Optimizer and WP Rocket, they always get the infamous X-Proxy-Cache = MISS when performing a HTTP Header check using one of the following online checkers:

        https://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php
        https://securityheaders.com
        https://tools.keycdn.com/curl
        https://httpstatus.io

        To solve the above issue, simply do the following:

        (1) Install and activate the plugin, Code Snippets

        (2) Add the following snippet to your functions.php file or via Code Snippets (preferred):

        function remove_htaccess_html_expire( $rules ) {

        $rules = preg_replace( ‘@\s*#\s*Your document html@’, ”, $rules );
        $rules = preg_replace( ‘@\s*ExpiresByType text/html\s*”access plus \d+ (seconds|minutes|hour|week|month|year)”@’, ”, $rules );

        return $rules;
        }

        add_filter(‘rocket_htaccess_mod_expires’, __NAMESPACE__ . ‘\remove_htaccess_html_expire’);

        add_filter(‘rocket_htaccess_mod_expires’, ‘__return_false’);

        (3) Deactivate then Activate WP Rocket

        (4) Clear all of your cache (Theme Cache, WP Rocket Cache and OpCache, SG Optimizer Cache, and CDN Cache) Make sure SG Optimizer’s cache is cleared from SG’s Site Tools (not within WordPress) and clear your CDN from withing the CDN’s dashboard (not within WordPress).

        If the above does not fix the issue (it should!), then review the useful tips provided by WP Rocket (updated recently) as noted below. Just make sure you always deactivate and reactivate WP Rocket and flush all cache after making any changes.

        https://docs.wp-rocket.me/article/1362-x-cache-miss-when-wp-rocket-is-activated

        Result: A faster, less heavier website.

        I hope this helps. If you haven’t already, you’re welcome to re-run your test with the above tips in mind.

        Cheers!

        Reply
        • Update: (Important)

          Both SG Optimizer and WP Rocket now automatically activate Browser Caching and GZIP Compression — with no option to turn them off or on manually.

          Since we don’t want duplicated settings when using these plugins, you can eliminate this conflict as follows:

          (1) Disregard the snippet provided above.

          (2) Use the following snippet to deactivate both Browser Caching and GZIP Compression in WP Rocket:

          // Remove Browser Caching (Duplicated in SG Optimizer)
          add_filter(‘rocket_htaccess_mod_expires’, ‘__return_false’);

          // Remove GZIP Compression (Duplicated in SG Optimizer)
          add_filter(‘rocket_htaccess_mod_deflate’, ‘__return_false’);

          (3) Deactivate then Activate WP Rocket.

          (4) Clear all cache as stated above.

          Hope this helps everyone reading this.

          Cheers!

    • Wow, would be great to have a amateur user cheat sheet for which functions to turn out with each piece… I’d like to use both + perfmatters but no clue which options to make it most effective. Care to share? 🙂

      Reply
  3. I have a question. I use Divi and have a site on SiteGround. If I use the SiteGround settings you have here, would I disable these settings in Divi theme options:

    Minify And Combine Javascript Files
    Minify And Combine CSS Files
    Static CSS File Generation

    Thank you so much!

    Reply

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