Best W3 Total Cache Settings for WordPress: Ideal Setup to Pass Core Web Vitals [2025]

Are you looking for the best way to configure the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin? If so, keep reading this article. We will show you the ideal settings for the best performance.

By improving the speed of your website, you can reduce the bounce rate and improve the user experience. With the help of a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache, you can boost the website’s speed with minimal hassle. However, you must always have the best W3 Total Cache plugin settings to achieve the best results.

In this blog post, I will show you the best W3 Total Cache plugin settings to help you achieve the maximum performance score!

Before we get into the article’s core, let’s review W3 Total Cache and its features.

W3 Total Cache: An Introduction

W3 Total Cache is a freemium WordPress caching plugin developed by BoldGrid. More than a million websites are using the Lite version of W3 Total Cache to enhance their website’s speed.

The plugin will seamlessly work with any hosting environment, such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, or a dedicated server.

Besides the compatibility, some of the features of W3 Total Cache are:

• CDN integration
• Mobile cache support
• Minification
• AMP support
• SSL support
• Static file optimization
• WP-CLI support

And so on.

In a nutshell, W3 Total Cache offers the most unique caching techniques an online store or individual needs.

How to Install W3 Total Cache

You can install W3 Total Cache directly from the WordPress admin dashboard or by uploading the plugin .zip files.

On your WordPress admin panel, first, go to Plugins > Add New and search for W3 Total Cache, then install and activate it.

If you have the premium version of the W3 Total Cache plugin, install the premium plugin file manually and obtain the license from the BoldGrid account.

Best W3 Total Cache Settings for WordPress: The Ideal Setup to Pass Core Web Vitals

W3 Total Cache comes with some default settings.

You must change the default settings to ensure the plugin works seamlessly with the website, and you’ll get the full potential.

In this W3 Total Cache setup guide, I will show you how to tweak these options to achieve the best WordPress or WooCommerce performance scores.

However, the best settings will always be according to your server configuration. If you find any issues, enable debug mode in the settings.

• Dashboard
• Feature showcase
• General settings
• Page cache
• Minify
• Database cache
• Object cache
• Browser cache
• Cache groups
• CDN
• User experience

Let’s get started.

1. Dashboard

Here, you will see an overview of the plugin.

You will see information on the enabled modules, account details (free or premium), image-related data, etc.

You will not see any configuration options on this page, so skip it.

2. Feature Showcase

This section will show you all the available premium and free modules. This page does not have cache options or configuration settings.

3. General Settings

Under the General settings, you can see all the major customizations. Here is how you can tweak them for the best performance:

• Preview mode: Enable. When configuring the plugin, you should use the preview mode. This will help you try different options without breaking your website. When you finish the configuration, you can disable the preview mode.

• Page cache: Enable. This is the whole point of the caching plugin. Once you have enabled this option, the website’s page caching feature will be activated.
• Page cache method: It depends. You can choose a cache method based on your web hosting type. For example, if you use a shared hosting plan, any DISK cache methods are ideal. The Opcode cache method would be more environmentally feasible when using a VPS.

• Minify: Enable. Minification can help you optimize your static files. Enable this option to compress your CSS, JS, and HTML files. However, I will show you further minification optimizations later in this article.
• Minify mode: Auto. The auto mode is ideal for most websites. If it is causing issues, you can switch to manual mode.
• Minify cache method: Disk. Disk is the preferred cache minification cache method.
• HTML minifier: Minify (default). You do not need to change the method. By default, the plugin comes with the ideal option.
• JS minifier: JSMin (default). As we did with the HTML minifier, you do not need to switch to the JS minifier. The default option is the best one in most cases.
• CSS minifier: Minify (default). The default option is the best.

• Opcode cache: Opcode: Zend Opcache. If you can’t see this option, log in to your cPanel account and check the PHP extensions. Once you have enabled the Opcache extension, this option will be enabled.

• Database cache: Enable. To optimize the database queries, you should enable this option. We highly recommend optimizing the database query for maximum performance.
• Database cache method: It depends. Based on your preferences and hosting environments, test them individually and pick an option.

• Object cache: It depends. You can enable or disable the caching of objects based on your preferences. Sometimes, this can slow down the website, so you must test it before enabling it.
• Object cache method: It depends. If you can enable the Object cache feature, choose a caching method based on the hosting environment.

• Browser cache: Enable. Browser cache will help you serve the web pages quickly by storing the files in the visitor’s browser. So, this should be enabled. From here, you can change the browser caching behavior, cache control policy, etc.

• CDN: It depends. You should enable this function using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) with a custom CDN URL.
• CDN type: Optional. Choose the type of CDN here (if you are using any).

• Enable reverse proxy caching via Varnish: It depends. When you are using Varnish, add the Varnish IP addresses here.

• Lazy load images: Enable. When you use W3 Total Cache to lazy load images, you do not need to use a dedicated plugin for lazy loading of images.
• Disable emoji: Enable. Emojis can slow down your website, so disable them and use Unicode instead. Unicode is optimized for speed and performance.
• Disable wp-embed script: It depends. You can disable the wp-embed script if you do not embed YouTube videos into articles or pages.
• Disable jquery-migrate on the front end: It depends. You should test it to see the impact. Based on the results, enable or disable the feature.

• License: Optional. If you have purchased the premium version of the W3 Total Cache plugin, you can enter the license key here to unlock every feature.

• Verify rewrite rules: Enable. This feature is enabled by default. It will notify you if there is a server configuration error.
• Enable file locking: Disable. This feature is not required.
• Optimize disk-enhanced page and Minify disk caching for NFS: Disable. Do not need this one either.
• Fix document root path: Disable. This needs no attention. Leave it disabled.
• Anonymously tracking usage to improve product quality: It depends. Sharing usage helps developers in enhancing features and fixing bugs, but this may slightly raise your server’s CPU usage.

• Enable the WebP converter extension: Disable. Better use a dedicated plugin to convert WebP images, like EWWW or ShortPixel. Read our detailed guide on WordPress Image Optimization.

• Import/export settings: Don’t use. Use this for importing or exporting W3TC settings between websites, but it’s unnecessary for configuration.

4. Page Cache

You can ensure the website loads quickly with the proper page cache settings. There are several basic page cache and advanced page caching options available, which will help you build up the cache with max potential.

Here are the steps to the page cache settings I recommend:

4.1 General

• Cache posts page: Enabled. You should enable this if you use a separate page for your blog posts.
• Don’t cache the front page: Disabled. Do not enable this. You need to cache your homepage always.
• Cache feeds: sites, categories, tags, comments: Enabled. It is recommended that you enable this function.
• Handle XML mime type: Optional. You should test it before enabling or disabling it.
• Cache SSL requests: Enabled. Enable the cache SSL option when using the HTTPS protocol on the website. This will cache SSL pages on your website, which is ideal for HTTPS protocol users.
• Cache URIs with query string variables: Disabled. By default, you do not need to activate cache URIs with the query string option.
• Cache 404 pages: Optional. You should test the HTTP response code before turning this option on or off.
• Don’t cache pages for logged-in users: Enabled.

• Cache Alias Hostnames: Disabled. You do not need this feature when accessing the content from the same website.

4.2 Cache Preload

• Automatically Prime the Page Cache: It depends. This can increase CPU usage, so test whether it’s good for your website.
• Update interval: 1200. This is the wait time for the plugin to create the next set of cached pages.
• Pages per interval: 10. The number of pages to create during the process. 10 is ideal.
• Sitemap URL: Custom. You should enter your sitemap URL in this place.
• Preload cache upon publishing a post: Enable. When you enable this, the plugin will preload the cache after you publish a blog post.
• Preload cache upon updating a post: Enable. You should enable this function too.

4.3 Purge Policy: Page Cache

Here are the things you need to enable:

• Front page
• Posts page
• Post page
• Blog feed

Besides these, you should also select the rss2 feed type. You do not need to change any other settings.

Once you are done with these, you can move forward.

4.4 REST API

It is a premium feature. However, you do not need to cache the REST API. So, you can leave it as it is.

4.5 Advanced

These additional settings are specific to individual sites. So, I don’t have recommended settings, but here’s what works on most websites:

• Late initialization: Premium feature.
• Late caching: Premium feature.
• Compatibility mode: it depends. If you have started to experience any conflicts on the website after using W3 Total Cache, enable this function.
• Charset: It depends. It will not be a huge problem, so you can configure it as you like.
• Reject HEAD requests: Premium feature.
• Maximum lifetime of cache objects: 3600.

You do not need to change anything else. The default values are great for the website.

5. Minify

Minification will remove all the unwanted spaces and comments from CSS files and other static files.

To compress the static files for the best performance, configure the caching mechanism like this:

• Rewrite URL Structure: On. You should always enable this function.
• Disable minify for logged-in users: Disabled. You can enable or disable caching based on user roles. Minified files aren’t needed for logged-in users, but for a dynamic website like membership sites, you should enable this for better performance and faster page load times.
• Minify error notification: Admin notifications. If there are any modification errors, you will get a notification. You can also enable email notifications if you are running a huge website.

• HTML minify settings: Enable.
  • Inline CSS modification: Enable.
  • Inline JS modification: Enable.
  • Don’t minify feeds: Enable.
  • Line break removal: I suggest you test this optional optimization to find the ideal setting for your site. It removes line breaks from CSS files to optimize them.
  • Ignored Comment stems: Optional. You should enter all your HTML tags, which don’t need any modification. You should enter one tag per line.

• JS Minify settings: Enabled. You should optimize the JavaScript files for better performance.
  • Minify method: Minify only.
  • Minify engine settings: Depends. You should test both options to find the ideal optimization for your website.
  • Preserved comment removal: Enabled. This option lets you remove comments from your CSS files, speeding up the loading process.
  • Line break removal: Disabled. It is not recommended, but you can test it on your website.
  • HTTP/2 push: Depends. Test to see if it has any impact on the website’s speed.

• CSS minify settings: Enabled. CSS minify settings will allow you to optimize the CSS files on your website. The minified version of CSS files will help you get maximum performance.
  • Minify method: Minify only. This is the ideal minification method for you.
  • Minify engine settings: Depends. You can choose the correct configuration to choose the JS minification method here.
  • @import handling: Process. Processing is the ideal option in this situation.
  • HTTP/2 push: Depends. You must test this option to see the impact and choose the optimal settings.

Scroll down for advanced minify options. You should only use these advanced settings to troubleshoot if any configuration breaks your website.

6. Database Cache

You do not need to modify the database caching. The basic settings are enough to optimize the server resources for the best database caching.

7. Object Cache

You do not need to modify the object cache settings like the database cache settings. Settings like garbage collection interval and, default lifetime of the cache can be seen here.

Since you do not need to change this section, let’s move to the next section.

8. Browser Cache

The browser cache configuration page will display all the browser caching functions, and from here, you can tweak all the browser caching behavior.

Next, I will show you the optimal browser cache settings, which will help you choose the right cache behavior. Follow these steps:

• Set Last-Modified header: Enabled. The developer recommends enabling the last-modified header.
• Set expires header: Enabled. Enable this for everything other than HTML and XML.
• Set cache control header: Enabled. This will tell the browser to cache files.
• Set entity tag (ETag): Enabled. By enabling this option, you can save bandwidth.
• Set W3 Total Cache header: Enabled. To identify the optimized files, you should enable this option.
• Enable gzip or Brotli compression: It depends. If you can use Brotli, use that. It is better than gzip. Read our complete guide on Gzip / Brotil optimization. Conduct a Gzip test to know if your site is already configured for it or not.

• Prevent caching of objects after settings change: Enabled. It is recommended that you keep this enabled to ensure the browser reloads assets with new cache files.
• Remove query strings from static resources: Disabled. Disable this query string option to ensure the files are being delivered correctly. Removing query strings is also recommended if you’re not serving any dynamic content.
• Prevent caching exception list: It depends. Add the list here to prevent it from query string caching (if you have one).
• Don’t set cookies for static files: Enabled. It is ideal for optimizing the uncompressed traffic.
• Do not process 404 errors for static objects with WordPress: Disabled. Enabling this can increase the server load. So, we do not need this static object option enabled.
• 404 error exception list: It depends. You can leave this blank. Or keep the default options.
• Rewrite URL structure of objects: Disabled. You do not need to use it.

From there, you can also configure a few settings related to the security headers.

9. Cache Groups

You can use the User Agent Groups to display a mobile theme for mobile users. Similarly, you can also customize the site version for different referrers.

The three main options available are:

• User Agent Groups
• Referrer Groups
• Cookie Groups

If you need to create individual caching buckets, you can use this feature. These are for advanced users, so I would suggest you leave them.

This would work on most servers, including dedicated servers.

10. CDN

If you use a CDN provider (different from Cloudflare) like Bunny.net, you must configure this section in W3 Total Cache settings.

The CDN option will only appear if you check the General Settings section.

Select your CDN type, then set up a custom domain. Now, enter your hostname in the CDN settings.

If you use the Bunny CDN, you should also use their in-house plugin. The CDN settings have several configuration options that you can customize.

Customize preferences and clear both the plugin’s cache and pull zone. Validate file delivery from the CDN using Google PageSpeed Insights to check site speed.

You can also use other site speed testing tools to measure the performance.

11. User Experience

The final setting you have is user experience. Here are the steps on how you can configure it:

• Process HTML image tags: Enbled. You should always enable this.
• Process background images: Enabled. Enable this one, too.
• Exclude words: Depends. To improve the performance, you should avoid the above-the-fold images from lazy loading. So, add the words here.
• Threshold: Optional. Use this function to offer a smooth, lazy loading experience. A 100 would be ideal.
• Script embed method: Async. This is the default option, and it is okay.

Available Extensions for W3 Total Cache

To enhance the plugin’s features, look into the extensions available. Here are some of the popular extensions you can use with W3 Total Cache:

• Fragment Cache
• Cloudflare
• AMP
• Genesis Framework
• WPML
• Yoast SEO
• New Relic

W3 Total Cache Documentation

If you need help with setting up the plugin or understanding a specific feature, you can check the W3 Total Cache documentation.

The development team has arranged the docs into multiple sub-sections, such as:

• Dashboard
• Page cache
• Minify
• opCode cache

And so on.

Most guides can be found there. However, contact customer support if you can’t see a unique article or configuration. They would be happy to help you with the task.

W3 Total Cache Pro Pricing

Upgrade to a premium plan if you need more features and enhance the caching ability.

Here are the plans available for W3 Total Cache Premium.

• 1 Website License – $99 a year
• 5 Website License – $350 a year
• 10 Website License – $500 a year
• Bulk Licenses – Custom Pricing

What are the Alternatives to W3 Total Cache Plugin?

• WP Super Cache: A popular and beginner-friendly caching plugin that generates static HTML files to serve cached versions of your website, reducing server load and improving load times.
• FlyingPress: FlyingPress is a robust caching plugin that enhances website performance. It offers an array of features including CSS/JS minification, HTML compression, and lazy loading to improve load times. It can also delay JavaScript execution, boosting speed further.
• Perfmatters: Perfmatters is a lightweight tool designed to boost performance by disabling non-essential WordPress features and managing scripts to load only on specific pages. While not a traditional caching plugin, it complements caching solutions like W3 Total Cache, enhancing site speed and efficiency through fine-tuning.
• WP Rocket: Known for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features, WP Rocket offers caching, image optimization, and various performance enhancements to speed up your WordPress site.
• LiteSpeed Cache: Designed to work exclusively with the LiteSpeed web server, this plugin provides advanced caching options and optimization features, including image optimization and database cleaning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now, let’s look at some frequently asked questions regarding this topic and the cache features offered by W3 Total Cache.

W3 Total Cache Best Settings – Conclusion

Proper W3 Total Cache plugin settings can boost your website’s speed. In this guide, I have shown you the ideal settings, which will help you improve the caching process and get better loading times.

Following this guide, you can easily score better on Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, etc. Plus, since Google is using website speed as one of the search engine ranking factors, you should always focus on improving the site’s loading performance and reducing the server load.

With the help of cache preload, you can crawl through the sitemap and update the cache with the latest content from the blog feed, and publish events without overloading the server. The cache preloading would come in handy, the cache preloading benefits are top-notch.

You should also try using the Perfmatters plugin and W3 Total Cache. This combo will help you get a better loading speed for your website.

How else would you optimize your website’s performance?

Let us know in the comments.