KeyCDN WordPress Plugins
With the addition of the Cache Enabler plugin, KeyCDN now offers three official WordPress plugins to help increase website performance while keeping simplicity and ease of use in mind. Each plugin has a specific task and is meant to simply "plug and play" thus requiring minimal configuration. This article will focus on each of the KeyCDN WordPress plugins individually as well as how they can all work together to help supercharge your website.
Optimus
Optimus is a powerful and affordable image optimization plugin which has the ability to optimize images using smart compression, convert them to WebP format, and much more. The plugin's settings page is straightforward, easy to understand, and does not overwhelm the user with functionality options.
Users can simply enable/disable certain features by checking the boxes shown in the above screenshot. Optimus users also have the ability to:
- Optimize an unlimited amount of images
- Optimize images up to 5 MB in size
- Optimize PNG and JPEGs
- Single image / bulk optimization
Optimus can compress existing PNG and JPEG images significantly, however Optimus also allows for WebP conversion. This new image format is much smaller in size (reductions of up to 80% can be achieved) and can easily be enabled from the Optimus settings page by selecting the "Creating of WebP Files" checkbox.
For users who already optimized their images and later decided that they would like to re-optimize with WebP enabled, can now do so since version 1.4.2. This means you can easily reduce the overall size of your site by simply enabling the WebP option and bulk optimizing the images in your media library again.
Optimus image optimizer is also priced quite competitively compared to other alternatives. The freemium model allows users to access almost all of the same features as HQ users, however are limited to 100 KB file sizes and do not have the WebP conversion option. The Optimus HQ plan is priced at $39/year and unlocks the WebP feature as well as increases the file size limit to 5 MB. This plan is for personal projects only, however the HQ PRO plan can be used on an unlimited amount of client sites.
Interested in learning more? Read our detailed article about Optimus and image compression.
Price: $0 - $169
CDN Enabler
The CDN Enabler plugin is a lightweight, easy to use plugin that allows you to quickly integrate a CDN with your WordPress website. Similar to all KeyCDN WordPress plugins, there is minimal configuration options allowing the user to quickly set up the plugin and get their website running smoothly. That being said, there are a few features and configuration options that the CDN Enabler comes with.
The first item in the CDN Enabler's settings page is the most important as this is where your CDN URL will be added. This will differ for users based on whether or not they use http:// or https:// as well as whether they have configured a Zone Alias or not. A few examples of what your CDN URL might look like from KeyCDN include:
- http://example-hexid.kxcdn.com
- https://example-hexid.kxcdn.com
- http://cdn.lorem.com
- https://cdn.lorem.com
The other configuration options within CDN Enabler consist of:
- Include Directories: Allows you to select which WordPress directories should be delivered by the CDN
- Excluded Extensions: Allows you to specify which extensions should not be delivered by the CDN
- Relative Paths: Ability to enable/disable the CDN for relative paths
- HTTPS CDN: Ability to enable/disable the CDN for HTTPS connections
This easy to use, lightweight plugin has the specific task of integrating a CDN with your WordPress website. With this plugin it can be done in a matter of minutes and you don't have to worry about the plugin bloating your system and coming with additional features that are not necessary for the average user.
Price: Free
Cache Enabler
The Cache Enabler is the last of the three KeyCDN WordPress Plugins and is producing impressive results. As the name implies, this is a caching plugin that caches static HTML files to the origin server in order to deliver website content to visitors faster. The Cache Enabler's settings page is once again minimalistic and easy to use.
Within this settings page you have the ability to:
- Set the cache expiry time in hours
- Enable/Disable the clearing of the complete cache when a new post is published
- Enable/Disable the clearing of cache when a new comment is posted
- Create an additional cache file for WebP images (more on this below)
- Exclude the caching or certain pages or posts
- Minify the cached HTML or HTML / inline JS
As mentioned, the Cache Enabler plugin has the ability to cache a static file to include the WebP images generated by Optimus. It does this by parsing all the PNG and JPG images within the wp-content/uploads folder to see if there is an equivalent WebP image. If there is, then these images are included in the WebP cached HTML file.
Additionally, for those who are running a website with unoptimized PHP code, an advanced Apache or Nginx snippet can be added to your server in order to bypass the PHP needed to retrieve the cached files. This allows for the static HTML files to be served directly, thus potentially increasing your website's load time even more.
See our detailed WordPress Cache Enabler Plugin post for more information.
Price: Free
How the KeyCDN WordPress plugins all work together
Together, these three plugins can help greatly increase the speed of your WordPress site. KeyCDN constantly aims to help improve your website's speed by offering performance solutions that are easy to use and affordable.
Optimus helps reduce the size of the images on your website with the use of lossless and lossy compression as well as WebP conversion. CDN Enabler helps you to easily integrate a CDN with your website which has been shown time and time again to drastically speed up the deliver of static assets such as CSS, JS, image files, etc. Finally, Cache Enabler not only creates static HTML files on your web server to bypass resource intensive processes but also works closely with Optimus in the delivery of WebP.
While each plugin has their own specific duty, together the collection of KeyCDN WordPress Plugins are able to quickly and easily supercharge your website.
Download each of the KeyCDN WordPress plugins here: