Overview
This article describes the various caching options that are available on your DreamPress site and how to manage them.
Background
DreamPress includes built-in server caching, which speeds up your site significantly. Since caching creates static versions of your site, the server needs fewer resources when a customer visits your site. This allows your site to not only load faster but also helps manage larger amounts of traffic. However, when caching is not working, your site will typically run slower, and your resource usage will increase.
DreamPress caching options
The Nginx Help Plugin is available on all DreamPress plans. On DreamPress Pro plans, both options are preconfigured to work together.
- Nginx Helper Plugin — manages the Nginx server cache, which covers pages for logged-out users. For optimal performance, make sure the version of the Nginx Helper plugin is always up to date, as it provides helpful tools to manage your DreamPress site's cache.
- Redis Cache (DreamPress Pro only) — manages the Redis server cache. Redis is a service that only runs on DreamPress Pro accounts (due to the extra memory that it requires), which caches common queries to make load times faster for uncached pages and logged-in users.
Other caching plugins
Many guides recommend caching plugins such as WP Super Cache on WordPress sites. However, since DreamPress comes with built-in caching, third-party caching plugins are not necessary and could even conflict with the built-in DreamPress cache.
Why you should purge your cache
When you make changes to your site, such as customizing or creating new content, the new changes may not show live because your site's old version is cached. Purging your cache can help push your changes live so visitors see the most recent version of your site. See the following articles for details on how to purge your cache: