WordPress released an official plugin called Performance Lab that helps speed up websites.
The plugin was developed by the WordPress performance team with the primary purpose of improving the site’s performance within the WordPress core. Publishers can test the beta version of this plugin.
Publishers testing and feedback will allow iterating towards adding future performance optimizations in WordPress core.
The WordPress performance team began work on it in November 2021, with some of the team members developers from Google and Yoast.
The new features in the plugin are intended to eventually make it into a future release of WordPress.
Most of these new performance features will eventually be merged into WordPress core.
Currently, The new Performance Lab plugin has four standalone performance modules such as WebP uploads, WebP support, persistent object cache health check, and audit enqueued assets.
Performance Lab Plugin
You can download it or install it directly from your WordPress dashboard.
The Performance Lab plugin exists for an entirely different purpose: It is a collection of performance-related “feature projects” for WordPress core.
The Performance Lab plugin should be considered a beta-testing plugin.
WordPress releases new features early through a plugin that they can receive feedback on any potential issues.
Based on feedback and improved development, new features are normally released as separate plugins.
Should You Download the Plugin?
WordPress plugin download page states that the plugin has been tested and should be okay to be used on a live production site.
“Per the primary purpose of the plugin, it can mostly be considered a beta testing plugin for the various performance modules it includes. However, unless a module is explicitly marked as “experimental”, it has been tested and established to a degree where it should be okay to use in production. Still, as with every plugin, you are doing so at your own risk.”
“While at least three of modules are not labeled experimental and all of them are considered stable and probably won’t break a site, the main purpose of the plugin is to provide publishers with the opportunity to provide feedback about the modules before they are integrated directly into the WordPress core.”
The Best WordPress Plugins To Speed Up Websites
LiteSpeed Cache
All-in-one site acceleration plugin, featuring an exclusive server-level cache and a collection of optimization features. Features include browser cache support, database cleaner and optimizer, minify CSS, JavaScript, & HTML, WebP image format support, lazy-load images/iframes, and more.
WebP Converter for Media
This plugin lets you speed up your website by serving WebP and AVIF images. You can optimize images such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats with WebP and AVIF formats, it save over a half of the image size without losing quality.
NitroPack
NitroPack is a WordPress performance plugin that completes a speed optimization platform. It combines everything you need for a lightning-fast website.
Autoptimize
It helps aggregate, minify and cache scripts and styles. Some features are lazy-load images, optimize Google Fonts, async non-aggregated JavaScript, remove WordPress core emoji cruft, and more.
W3 Total Cache
Want to improve in search engine rankings. W3 Total Cache helps you at least 10x improvement in overall site performance. It has tons of features for free.
WP-Optimize
WP-Optimize provides features to clean up and optimize databases and images so they run better.
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