Is Autoptimize a Worthwhile Plugin?

[jmrallen]

I've recently learned of a plugin called Autoptimize that describes itself as somewhat of a catch-all optimizer and minifier to use in tandem with a caching plugin. However, Genesis is pretty optimized to begin with. Does anyone have any experience with Autoptimize? Is it a useful plugin for those of us running Genesis, or is it redundant and just "extra plugin weight"?

[Victor Font]

I started using it to improve my page load speed. It consolidates and minimizes Javascript and CSS to reduce the number of server calls. I saw an immediate improvement in my page load speeds.

Regards,

Victor
Author of:
The Ultimate Guide to the SDLC &
Winning With WordPress Basics

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Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[jmrallen]

Thanks, Victor. I've heard of some people using W3 Total Cache along with Autoptimize. Have you experienced whether you can use both at once? If so, are there any special configurations necessary?

[Victor Font]

I have not used both together. I've also heard good things about WP Rocket. I'm starting to take a look at that now. http://wp-rocket.me/

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Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[jmrallen]

Interesting find, Victor. It doesn't sound like Autoptimize and W3 Total Cache play nicely together. I'm now trying to decide whether I stick with W3TC as an all-in-one solution or deactivate it and go instead with a combo of WP Super Cache and Autoptimize.

[coralseait]

We've had the absolute best results with various configs of W3 Total Cache. However, the underlying components available need to be well understood to get the most from it.

Are you on shared hosting with minimal resources? Then don't even consider turning on DB cache and opcache may not even be avaialbel. Do you have opcache / APC or memcached? Is Zend on? What is the disk i/o infrastructure like?

Often people will attempt to turn everything on without understanding the implications, and it can actually slow up the site.

I'd be happy to help configure, but without knowing what's available on your instance it would be guess work. W3TC's greatest strength AND flaw is the level of control you can apply and people often become overwhelmed with all the options.

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Coral Sea IT

[jmrallen]

CoralSeaIT, you're asking questions to which I frankly don't know the answers. Sorry. I'm definitely on shared hosting at the moment, but I'm exploring moving to Synthesis hosting. I know which version of PHP my server uses, but other than that I've no idea about the other options you've asked about. Perhaps W3TC is too technical for my blood.

[Author]

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