Does WP Rocket work well with SiteGround hosting?

More and more users and companies are migrating their websites to SiteGround’s web hosting plans, either for features, support or implementation of new technologies.

On the other hand, one of the most used optimization and caching plugins is WP Rocket, as it offers a very good balance of file caching features and optimizations in order to provide a good experience in Core Web Vitals.

And since SiteGround has its own 3-level cache system and even its own optimization plugin, SG Optimizer, which also offers optimizations, there are many who ask if they are compatible, if SiteGround hosting, with its cache systems and optimizations plugin, is compatible with WP Rocket.

Are WP Rocket and SiteGround caches compatible?

SiteGround has been incorporating improvements in its services, such as the migration from cPanel to Site Tools or the use of the Google Cloud CDN network, all accompanied by 3 levels of caching (static, dynamic, Memcached).

For its part, WP Rocket, being a hosting-independent plugin, performs file system-based caching, as it cannot access the hosting memory systems.

With both systems active, if someone visits the site, first the NGINX server cache will be loaded, and if it is not available, then the WP Rocket file cache will be loaded.

But the reality is that if you have WP Rocket’s cache active, neither SiteGround’s dynamic cache nor Memcached will work, only the direct delivery of NGNIX statics.

This is because only a plugin can add its code to the advanced-cache.php and object-cache.php files to handle dynamic caching and Memcached.

In fact, if you activate the file cache of WP Rocket or any other plugin (WP Super Cache, Cache Enabler, etc.) the SiteGround SG Optimizer plugin automatically disables its dynamic cache and Memcached, even if you insist on activating it in the plugin settings or the Site Tools panel of the hosting.

Are WP Rocket and SiteGround optimizations compatible?

Another big problem when using WP Rocket in conjunction with SG Optimizer, SiteGround’s optimization plugin, is that both offer similar, overlapping optimizations that can ruin your website.

Repeated tools

These overlapping features are:

• GZIP compression (automatic in both plugins)
• Browser cache (automatic in both plugins)
• Minimized HTML, CSS and JS (manual)
• Defer loading of JavaScript that blocks the display (manual)
• Remove query strings from static resources (manual)
• Disable emojis (manual)
• Optimize Google fonts (manual)
• Lazy loading (manual)
• Heartbeat API control (manual)
• Preload external DNS (manual)
• Scheduled database optimization

Unique tools

However, both have characteristics that the other does not.

SG Optimizer

• PHP version change
• Force HTTPS
• Automatic image optimization
• Free CloudFlare integration
• Free WebP image creation
• Integrated PageSpeed test

WP Rocket

• Critical CSS creation
• Cache expiration
• Mobile caching
• Caching for logged in users
• Disable WP embeds
• Preloading cached links
• Optimizations for Facebook Pixel, Varnish and Cloudflare
• Show YouTube image on lazy loading

Can WP Rocket be used in SiteGround?

Of course it can, I myself have WP Rocket active on several client sites hosted on SiteGround.

What you have to keep in mind is that…

• Each website is different, and in one will work better alone SG Optimizer and its 3 levels of cache and in others the combination with WP Rocket, depending on the type of content and needs.
• You should never have overlapping optimizations active.
• WP Rocket’s minimization works best with lightweight themes like GeneratePress or Astra, SG Optimizer’s minimization is more effective with themes like Divi or layouts like Elementor.
• Always use SG Optimizer’s database optimization, not WP Rocket. Remember, you are on SiteGround.
• Disable caching for mobile devices and logged-in users in WP Rocket, because they can cause problems with SiteGround caches.

Do I really need WP Rocket in SiteGround?

I would not say you need it, but it does provide some tools that improve the functionality of SG Optimizer, such as ….

• Improvements in CSS delivery, by generating the critical CSS, something that SG Optimizer does not do yet, although it is already requested and it is possible that it will be included in future versions since generating the critical CSS manually or with other plugins is a complicated task or simply impossible, and WP Rocket does it great, not only in front page but in every type of content.
• If you use a theme with a heavy dependency on jQuery, WP Rocket’s minimization works great, while SG Optimizer’s minimization can break pages if you don’t add it as an exclusion.