Conclusion
If you have a low traffic site like mine, WP Super Cache is a clear winner. It is very easy to set up and maintain.
W3 Total Cache, on the other hand, is very difficult to set up and doubly difficult to set up if you use MaxCDN. These two tools are probably overkill for light traffic sites and might actually slow down your site.
Furthermore, in order to gain speed from W3 Total Cache, you will probably need to spend hours fiddling with the settings. If you want to add a CDN, plan on even more hours, unless, of course, you already know how to do it. W3 Total Cache will configure the plugin for you for around $150. Not a bad price if your time is worth anything. Since I did not buy the service, I can’t say whether it would help or not. One final word on W3 Total Cache: The plugin has not been updated in over a year and I suspect that there are some bugs or incompatibilities with WordPress 3.4.2. That might explain why I had such a difficult time getting the configuration set so I could get a speed improvement. The developer, Frederick Townes, claims there is a new version coming any day. I can’t wait to try it out.
Robin @ dailytut says
Hi, i thought to get some idea about wp super cache to use it in one of my client website. thanks a lot for your honest review on this.
i am using w3 total cache on one of my website but sometimes it slows down the site than helping it to run faster. anyway let me give this a shot.
Robin.
krishnaTORQUE says
I used w3 total cache and as you told its really give you good score for google and yshow but pages are not get good loading speed.
i change my host to bluehost now w3 total cache creating a problem with my url, its changing the url with main domain to temporary domain. i disable it and thinking to install wp total cache.
thank you for this article.