Perfmatters vs Speed Optimizer
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Perfmatters v2.6.8 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Paid Visit Details | Speed Optimizer v7.8.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | — | 1M+ |
| Last updated | — | October 20, 2026 |
| Editions | Perfmatters ($) | Speed Optimizer |
| Pros | Per-page control of scripts and styles; Lazy loading, minification and CDN rewrite included; Database cleanup built in | Page caching, minification and lazy loading in one place; Browser cache headers and database cleanup; Free, from the WordPress.org directory |
| Cons | Paid product, updates need a licence key; Not a page cache or object cache; pair it with one; Many options can change how pages behave, so testing is needed | Dynamic caching and Memcached are SiteGround-only; CDN premium tier depends on the hosting plan; Calls Google PageSpeed and Google Fonts services |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | — |
| Features (Speed Optimization plugins checklist) | ||
| Page cache | No | Yes |
| Browser cache | No | Yes |
| Minify CSS/JS | Paid | Yes |
| CDN | Paid | Paid |
| Object cache | No | Yes |
| Database cleanup | Paid | Yes |
| Free version | No | Yes |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Per-page script and style control ($), Lazy loading for images, iframes and assets ($), Remove unused CSS and inline stylesheets ($), Resource preload hints ($), Google Fonts handling ($), Local copy of Google Analytics scheduled daily ($), WP-CLI commands ($), Safe mode notice for testing ($) | Lazy loading of images, iframes and videos, Image optimisation, WebP image conversion, Force HTTPS, Heartbeat control, PageSpeed analysis |
| Integrations | ||
| Analytics | Google Analytics ($) | Google PageSpeed Insights |
| Other | Google Fonts ($), Perfmatters license server ($) | Google Fonts |
| Requires WordPress | 5.5 | 5.5.1 |
| Requires PHP | 8.1 | 7.0 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | perfmatters.io | www.googleapis.com, fonts.googleapis.com, sgwpdemo.com, api.wordpress.org |
| Shortcodes | 1 | — |