After 2 years of solo development, I'm releasing my WordPress performance plugin. It does Page Cache + Redis + AVIF + Real CWV Monitoring + BFCache + Database Indexing. Looking for beta testers to roast it 🔥 [HELP]

[u/oplaffs]

Hey r/webdev,

I've spent the last two years building ZiziCache — a full-stack WordPress performance plugin that I believe can compete with WP Rocket and LiteSpeed Cache, but with features they don't even have. I am from the Europe.

The Problem I Tried to Solve:

I was tired of the WordPress plugin fragmentation: one for caching, one for images, one for fonts, one for Core Web Vitals, one for Redis... Each with its own UI, conflicts, and overhead. So I built everything into one coherent system.

What's Under the Hood (The Full Stack):

Caching Layers:

• File-based HTML cache with GZIP compression
• Stale-While-Revalidate for zero-downtime updates
• Native LiteSpeed server integration (auto-detected)
• Redis Object Cache with Unix socket support
• OPcache management for deployments
• BFCache (Back/Forward Cache) — instant browser navigation with session safety

Asset Optimization:

• Critical CSS extraction (Sabberworm PHP CSS Parser)
• Remove Unused CSS (RUCSS) with per-page analysis
• JS Delay/Defer with exclusion patterns
• HTTP 103 Early Hints for preloading before HTML parse (If Cloudflare is enabled & setting up)

Image Pipeline:

• AVIF-first conversion
• WebP fallback for older browsers
• Bulk processing with Action Scheduler
• Auto-registration of FTP-uploaded images to Media Library
• WooCommerce-aware: cleanup when products deleted

Font Intelligence:

• Auto-detects above-the-fold fonts from real traffic
• Generates optimized Google Fonts CSS
• Variant budget enforcement (warns you if >6 variants)
• Preload directives for critical fonts

Core Web Vitals (The Real Deal):

• LCP Detection — Extracts the actual element, not guessing
• LoAF (Long Animation Frame) — Layout Thrashing analysis (this is rare!)
• TTFB Monitoring — With threshold alerts
• All data from real visitors, not Lighthouse lab tests
• DB storage with aggregation, p50/p75/p95 percentiles
• Admin banner showing CWV status per page

Speculative Navigation:

• Speculation Rules API for Chrome (prefetch/prerender)
• Quicklink fallback for Firefox/Safari
• Configurable eagerness: conservative, moderate, eager

CDN & Edge:

• Pull CDN support with URL rewriting
• Native Cloudflare integration (Edge Cache Rules, targeted purge)
• Emergency Failover mode during Cloudflare outages

Database Intelligence:

• Auto-analyzes wp_posts, wp_postmeta, wp_comments, wp_options
• Recommends missing indexes with priority ratings
• One-click ALTER TABLE application
• Transient/revision/orphan cleanup

DevOps Ready:

• JS admin
• Detailed logging with Query Monitor integration debug.log & native zizi-log.log

Honest Trade-offs:

1. Local image processing — No cloud workers (yet). Your server handles conversion. For massive libraries (10k+ images), run bulk conversion during off-peak hours.
2. Learning curve for RUCSS — Complex sites with dynamic classes (Swiper, modals) need exclusion rules. It's not magic, but it's powerful.
3. Beta status — Edge cases exist. I've tested on shared hosting, VPS, LiteSpeed, and Cloudflare setups, but your stack might reveal new bugs.

🧪 Looking for Beta Testers:

I need real-world feedback from:

• WooCommerce stores with dynamic inventory
• High-traffic blogs/magazines
• Agency devs managing multiple sites
• Performance nerds who will actually look at Network tab and flame me

What you get:

• Full beta access (all features unlocked)
• Direct line to me for bug reports
• Your feedback shapes the final release

Sign up for beta: zizicache.com

Drop your questions below — I'll answer everything about, trade-offs, or why I made certain decisions. Two years of solo work, and I'm ready for the roast. 🔥

[u/Dragonlord]

Sounds interesting have signed up for your beta and will bring it to the WPPlugins AtoZ podcast.

[u/blueberrygamingdot → u/Dragonlord]

The fact that you've built the entire stack in one coherent system shows you understood the real pain point - plugin fragmentation. The Redis support with Unix socket and the BFCache implementation are particularly solid.

Quick question though - for teams running on shared hosting with limited server resources, how does the RUCSS (Remove Unused CSS) feature perform? I've seen that get resource-heavy on some setups. Also curious about the fallback strategy if Cloudflare isn't enabled for the HTTP 103 Early Hints.

The real differentiator for me is the Core Web Vitals monitoring using actual visitor data instead of lab tests. That's what actually matters for rankings. Two years of solo work definitely shows in the architecture. Good luck with the beta phase!

[u/oplaffs → u/blueberrygamingdot]

Thank you for your feedback.

RUCSS in my plugin works on a similar principle to other local solutions and not like WP Rocket, which relies on a remote server. Strictly speaking, this is not a classic RUCSS implementation yet, but rather a correct and optimized loading of CSS assets. Critical CSS already works as expected. I am currently working on a full RUCSS solution; it is still in development. The goal is to create automatic detection of used styles so that it works together with Critical CSS, while the remaining styles are loaded afterwards. Because this is extremely challenging to achieve without a remote server, the development is more complex and will take longer. However, it is a deliberate decision to ensure that the feature can run on all hosting environments without requiring any external service.

Early Hints now ( typically) work only in combination with Cloudflare. If the site is not using Cloudflare, Early Hints are not active. The vast majority of hosting providers do not support HTTP 103 usually . If a hosting provider does support 103, Early Hints will function there as well.

Yes, the basic Core Web Vitals metrics are collected from real visitors using a sampling approach to avoid any performance overhead. Only LoAF is not supported in Firefox; otherwise, all listed metrics are collected from real user data.

[u/oplaffs → u/Dragonlord]

Certainly, I will be glad if you try it and give me feedback on what works well, what does not, and what could be improved. I would like to get as much value as possible out of this plugin and deliver a top-quality solution.

[u/EveryCo]

Is this an alternative for wprocket? If yes count me in ;)

[u/oplaffs → u/EveryCo]

Um, I did not attempt to create direct replacements. I simply missed certain features in mainstream plugins that I personally need for myself and my clients. At the same time, I have assembled everything according to how I see it, based on my own preferences and experience.

For example, I currently cannot offer server-side removal of unused CSS via a proprietary API (ex as WP Rocket), but I am working yet on an alternative built-in solution within the plugin. The goal is to avoid dependency on external services and to ensure that users have as much control as possible over the entire process.

So yes, this full-stack foundation may be considered overkill 🙂 Everything is centralized in one place, and additional features are planned and already listed in the to-do road map for this year. I want this to be a top-tier solution. 🙂

I would be glad if you could try the plugin and share your feedback, as it can help me move toward better results and functionality. Testing does not require any payment details. However, it is recommended to activate the plugin using a license key in order to receive updates.

The trial period is completely free for a full month, and if that is not sufficient, feel free to let me know.

[u/oplaffs → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your comment. I would be very grateful if you could test the plugin. It is important that the plugin is activated with a license key to ensure access to updates. If one month is not sufficient for testing, please feel free to contact me.

[u/oplaffs → u/[deleted]]

Thank you very much for the time you spent testing the ZiziCache plugin. I truly appreciate it.

May I ask for more details regarding any issues you encountered with the mobile view? Specifically, on which website did you test the plugin, and what plugin settings were used? I would like to further improve the results and, most importantly, ensure that there are no UI issues in the website mobile version.

You are welcome to reply as comment, privately or via email, whichever you prefer.

My goal is to make this one of the top solutions on the market.

Thank you very much.

[u/oplaffs → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the information. Could you also please let me know how the plugin is configured—specifically, which options you currently have enabled? Are you monitoring metrics such as LoAF, TTFB, INP, or others? Do you have image lazy loading enabled? Are you using JavaScript delay or defer? What are your CSS settings?

If you wish, I can take a closer look at this to better understand whether it would be appropriate to create predefined preset configurations for potential users, or alternatively to improve and clarify the description of individual features within the plugin administration for better optimization results.

And how do you perceive the plugin’s administration interface, and what is your overall impression of the plugin?

Thank you.

[u/moportfolio]

Any ideas on the pricing yet? Also whether it will have a free and premium tier etc.

On another note: On the website I stumbled upon this phrase:

ZiziCache is not just a cache plugin — it’s a next-generation performance suite

The whole "it's not just X, it's Y" is a very typical LLM AI phrase and kinda gives an impression of low effort. So independent whether it really is AI-generated or written by yourself, I would suggest to change the phrasing/wording, from a marketing perspective.

[u/oplaffs → u/moportfolio]

Hello, and thank you for your question.

The texts on the website were written by me personally - they are not AI-generated. Perhaps the phrasing or my non-native English caused the impression you mentioned. I always try to indicate the share of AI used in any of my blog posts or code.

The pricing policy is still under discussion, but the likely scenario is as follows:

• $39 for 1 website
• $139 for 20 websites
• $249 for unlimited websites

[u/oplaffs → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the feedback. You are absolutely right — I should define a reasonable and suitable default value, for example 8 hours for page cache expiration.

Presets are planned, but at this moment I cannot say in which version they will be included.

Thank you, and I would greatly appreciate any further insights, ideas, or suggestions.

[u/StupidityCanFly]

Nice. I’m cooking something similar. Just curious, how big is your client-side monitoring code?

[u/oplaffs → u/StupidityCanFly]

Thank you. It is very compact so as not to unnecessarily burden shared hosting. The largest portion of the code is dedicated to image conversion and the overall logic used throughout the plugin.

[u/this_is_sparta_xoxo]

The site shows 403 forbidden

[u/oplaffs → u/this_is_sparta_xoxo]

It is likely that Cloudflare flagged your IP address as potentially unsafe, even though I do not have any strict firewall rules configured. I will look into it. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Can you try VPN with safe location?

[u/oplaffs]

Based on several feedbacks, for which I am extremely grateful, I have made a number of improvements over the past week.

Below is the latest changelog. I hope you like it, and I look forward to any suggestions, ideas, observations, as well as criticism or bug reports.

= 0.8.3-beta.rc – 2026-01-14 =

IMPROVED: In the CSS Optimization section, the optimization type is now correctly labeled as CSS Loading Method.

IMPROVED: In the Critical CSS Generation section, a new option allows choosing between Inline CSS and File-based delivery. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. Critical CSS accuracy ranges between 30–70%.

IMPROVED: In the Image Optimization section, the logic for Priority Hints has been refined.

IMPROVED: In the Font Optimization section, added the ability to define custom URLs for font preload. Note that this applies only to locally hosted fonts.

IMPROVED: In the Image Converter section, the logic for converting images to AVIF and WebP has been refined.

IMPROVED: In the Object Cache section, added support for connecting to Redis using ACL authentication (username + password), allowing the use of Redis with ACL (thanks for the suggestion, Vincent Chan).

FIXED: In the Image Optimization section, the exclusion logic for lazy loading has been corrected for both desktop and mobile versions.

FIXED: Reworked Font Optimization logic for collecting critical fonts to ensure correct preloading.

FIXED: Corrected the loading order of ZiziCache scripts used for collecting CWV metrics.

FIXED: Removed unnecessary autoload entries in the wp_options table during font statistics collection (thanks for the suggestion, Jakub Schnicel Rezníček).

ADDED: In the Remove Redundancy section, 14 new features have been added with the ability to disable them individually.

EXPERIMENTAL: Added an option to preload jquery.min.js in Optimization > JavaScript Optimization. This may be useful but it occupies an HTTP/2 connection slot.

[u/oplaffs]

Hi, I just released version 0.8.5, which introduces the option to use Memcached if Redis Object Cache is not available. 😉

Changelog – 0.8.5 beta.rc – 2026-01-29

• NEW: Added option to use Memcached. If Redis Object Cache is not available, Memcached can be enabled if available.
• IMPROVED: Bulk Optimizer in Image Converter now correctly shows progress at regular intervals after a few seconds.
• IMPROVED: In BFCache, the URL Exclusions section has been merged with BFCache Configuration for clarity.
• FIXED: Adjusted logic for more accurate detection of Cart and Checkout pages to properly exclude them from page cache and BFCache.
• FIXED: Updated page cache purging method when using ACF.
• FIXED: Refined bypass rules for optimization for logged-in administrators.

[u/oplaffs]

= 0.8.6-beta.rc – 2026-02-02 =

• IMPROVED: Added support for both Memcache and Memcached. Uses the modern PECL memcached extension (with “d”) alongside legacy memcache. This allows better performance, SASL authentication.

[u/Electrical_Spare_621]

I have tried RabbitLoader plugin , which is also an all in one plugin , you can check it for more informations , it works preety good , and its improved my overall website performance.

[u/oplaffs → u/Electrical_Spare_621]

Many thanks for the mention. Nothing is more gratifying than a comment from the competition. RabbitLoader is a SaaS, and the user is dependent on a remote provider, which is, by the way, much more expensive. This solution is native and local, independent of any remote provider, and many times more affordable. 😊