Description
This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
The static html files will be served to the vast majority of your users:
- Users who are not logged in.
- Users who have not left a comment on your blog.
- Or users who have not viewed a password protected post.
99% of your visitors will be served static html files. One cached file can be served thousands of times. Other visitors will be served custom cached files tailored to their visit. If they are logged in, or have left comments those details will be displayed and cached for them.
The plugin serves cached files in 3 ways (ranked by speed):
- Expert. The fastest method is by using Apache mod_rewrite (or whatever similar module your web server supports) to serve “supercached” static html files. This completely bypasses PHP and is extremely quick. If your server is hit by a deluge of traffic it is more likely to cope as the requests are “lighter”. This does require the Apache mod_rewrite module (which is probably installed if you have custom permalinks) and a modification of your .htaccess file which is risky and may take down your site if modified incorrectly.
- Simple. Supercached static files can be served by PHP and this is the recommended way of using the plugin. The plugin will serve a “supercached” file if it exists and it’s almost as fast as the mod_rewrite method. It’s easier to configure as the .htaccess file doesn’t need to be changed. You still need a custom permalink. You can keep portions of your page dynamic in this caching mode.
- WP-Cache caching. This is mainly used to cache pages for known users, URLs with parameters and feeds. Known users are logged in users, visitors who leave comment... [truncated]
Installation
Install like any other plugin, directly from your plugins page but make sure you have custom permalinks enabled. Go to the plugin settings page at Settings->WP Super Cache and enable caching.
How to uninstall WP Super Cache
Almost all you have to do is deactivate the plugin on the plugins page. The plugin should clean up most of the files it created and modified, but it doesn’t as yet remove the mod_rewrite rules from the .htaccess file. Look for the section in that file marked by SuperCache BEGIN and END tags. The plugin doesn’t remove those because some people add the WordPress rules in that block too.
To manually uninstall:
- Turn off caching on the plugin settings page and clear the cache.
- Deactivate the plugin on the plugins page.
- Remove the WP_CACHE define from wp-config.php. It looks like
define( 'WP_CACHE', true ); - Remove the Super Cache mod_rewrite rules from your .htaccess file.
- Remove the files wp-content/advanced-cache.php and wp-content/wp-cache-config.php
- Remove the directory wp-content/cache/
- Remove the directory wp-super-cache from your plugins directory.
If all else fails and your site is broken
- Remove the WP_CACHE define from wp-config.php. It looks like
define( 'WP_CACHE', true ); - Remove the rules (see above) that the plugin wrote to the .htaccess file in your root directory.
- Delete the wp-super-cache folder in the plugins folder.
- Optionally delete advanced-cache.php, wp-cache-config.php and the cache folder in wp-content/.
wp plugin install wp-super-cache --activateFrequently Asked Questions
Go to Settings -> WP Super Cache and look for the “Cache Tester” form on the easy settings page. Click “Test Cache” and the plugin will request the front page of the site twice, comparing a timestamp on each to make sure they match.
If you want to do it manually, enable debugging in the plugin settings page and load the log file in a new browser tab. Then view your blog while logged in and logged out. You should see activity in the log. View the source of any page on your site. When a page is first created, you’ll see the text “Dynamic page generated in XXXX seconds.” and “Cached page generated by WP-Super-Cache on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS” at the end of the source code. On reload, a cached page will show the same timestamp so wait a few seconds before checking.
If Supercaching is disabled and you have c... [truncated]
Changelog
3.0.1 – 2025-08-05
Added
- Caching: Ignore Yandex parameters so those visitors are served from the cache.
Changed
- Update package dependencies.