The Best WordPress Redis Object Cache Plugin For LearnDash

Your WordPress website needs to be fast enough for your visitors. Slow loading isn’t just inconvenient, but can mean lost engagement and revenue as well as lower search rankings. Ultimately, a slow website creates a bad user experience.

If you are looking to improve user experience on your LearnDash site, using a cache is a great way to go. By caching data, data is best stored for quick fetching, resulting in reduced page loading times.

While there are many WordPress object cache plugins available, these alternatives have not been designed with LearnDash in mind. In this post, we’ll take a detailed look at the LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on and the tailored features it offers to LearnDash users.

What is Cache?

A quick way to increase your site performance is to use caching. Caching is the process of storing copies of web documents in a temporary storage location called cache. A cache contains web pages, images, and other types of multimedia, to reduce server bandwidth usage, server load, and lag. From here, data is accessed quickly. 

Why is Caching Important?

WordPress is a dynamic content management system (CMS). Each time a user visits your WordPress website, WordPress will fetch requested information from the database, then run other steps before the page is sent to the user’s browser. This process increases a website’s load time, particularly if many users are visiting at once.

Rather than going through the entire process every time, “caching” makes a copy of the page after the first load and then serves the cached version to every subsequent user. This reduces the load on your hosting servers and makes your WordPress website faster.

By implementing “catching” you can increase user engagement, up your site visits and increase revenue! A faster website improves user experience and encourages users to keep browsing. This helps to boost engagement and helps drive traffic to your site. Google gives a significant SEO advantage to faster websites, ranking them higher in search results. 

What Are The Benefits of Using a WordPress Redis Object Cache plugin?

Redis stands for Remote Dictionary Server. It’s an open-source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache and message broker. Redis stores data in RAM, a Random Access Memory device, for fast accessing speed. 

Being a dynamic content management system, WordPress uses the MySQL database to cache internal application objects (breadcrumbs, menu items, etc). Since the database also handles queries for page requests, it’s possibly the most common bottleneck and often the cause of increased load times.

Redis provides a caching mechanism that acts as an alternative to the MySQL database. If a user visits a WordPress page, the MySQL queries required to generate the page are served via Redis. Culminating in blazing fast load times.

How Is Object Cache Different From Page Cache?

Both page cache and object cache work toward the same goal to display results faster.

Page cache stores the HTML/asset (images/JS/CSS) content. Whereas, the Object cache exists between the WordPress application and the database. It saves the serialized PHP objects (in simpler terms, the information that forms the web-page) so the same queries don’t need to be executed again every time that page is accessed during a certain period. 

Example:

Basically, if a user requests the same queries again, the object cache provides the requested data in no time, without having to constantly retrieve the information. This is made possible as the object cache temporarily saves the information that was previously requested, keeping it close by and ready to be reproduced on demand.

Can I use the free WordPress Redis Object Cache plugin available at wordpress.org?

There is a popularWordPress Redis Object Cache plugin available for free at wordpress.org. Yet, this plugin is that it is not optimized for LearnDash. The paid “Pro” version is however compatible with WooCommerce, but at a cost of $79/month.

There are also other Redis Cache plugins on the market, but they have limiting restrictions. For example LiteSpeed Cache, requires a Litespeed server to enable the cache feature. The LiteSpeed Cache plugin won’t  work with another server.

How Does the LearnDash Redis Object Cache Add-on work with the LearnDash?

The LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on has been tested extensively with LearnDash LMS. We focused on the areas that often presented issues with other WordPress Redis Object Cache plugins. We also added a Flush Cache feature and the option to exclude specific pages from the cache.

Historically, LearnDash LMS users give up on object cache related  add-ons when they come across issues, like blocks in progressive functions and course completion. Often these problems affect the front end.  With the  LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on, LearnDashers can experience the benefits of object caching with a tool that is tailored to LearnDash and optimized for WooCommerce. The LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on even provides a feature to exclude any page from caching, which prevents common issues present with other object cache add-ons.

LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on optimizes performance by caching queries in Redis so that database requests are served from cached objects, not direct from the server. This enhances both the backend and frontend for logged-in users.

Why Use the LearnDash Redis Object Cache Add-on, If You Have Already Installed a Cache Plugin like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache etc?

Basically, there are two types of content. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Static Content: 

Static content is content that will remain the same for all the site’s users. 

WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache etc are static content cache plugins because they cache static pages of the site. All these plugins can enhance the performance of the site and contribute to better page load speed if you have static content on your WordPress site.

Dynamic Content: 

Dynamic content is content that is going to change for each of the site’s users. 

Cache plugins (like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache etc) won’t be useful with dynamic content.

LMS sites generally rely on using dynamic content to personalize each user’s experience. In most LMS sites, each user views their individual enrollment in different courses/groups. Their unique progress, achievements and user leaderboards need to be updated on runtime and will differ for each individual. Dynamic web pages change on the fly based on user activities, interaction, form submissions etc.

Being the most popular LMS on the market, it only made sense for us to develop the LearnDash Object Cache add-on for LearnDash LMS. The current version of the LearnDash Object Cache add-on optimizes the page load speed from 15% to 20% on the back-end and it reduces the TTF as well.

Can You Use the LearnDash Object Cache Add-on Alongside a Static Cache Plugin?

Yes! LearnDash Object Cache add-on and other static cache plugins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache can be used at the same time.

Static cache plugins improve page speed on the front end for non-logged-in users and JS/CSS minification. Meanwhile, the LearnDash Redis Object cache add-on will optimize database queries for both the logged-in users backend and the frontend. 

Can you use the LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on with the WordPress Redis Object Cache plugin?

As this plugin does the same job as the Redis Object Cache plugin, the answer is, no. It is recommended that you uninstall other dynamic cache plugins, or add-ons using the Redis Object Cache, when you install our plugin.

Here’s what you get with the LearnDash Object Cache Add-on

Reduced load time

LearnDash Object Cache add-on reduces page loading times. Whenever a user visits a page, the server executes one or often several database queries. Using the LearnDash Object Cache add-on, that data will be stored in the cache and ready to be displayed in a flash.

Optimized server performance in high traffic

 When many users visit your website simultaneously, you can rely on LearnDash Object Cache add-on to optimize server performance and keep your site running smoothly.

Reduced database requests/queries

The goal of reducing the number of database requests/queries is to decrease the resources required to fulfill each request and provide the visitor with faster results. LearnDash Object Cache add-on reduces the number of database requests to boost the server response time.

WordPress Caching

LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on can also be used as a WordPress cache plugin. Improving the speed and performance of your WordPress website for those with limited hosting plans.

WooCommerce Optimization

When working with WooCommerce, you may not want to cache your entire website. For instance, you shouldn’t cache an order status, shopping cart, or product pages with customer specific pricing, as these pages change frequently. LearnDash Object Cache add-on has been tailored for WooCommerce by adding its session data in a non-persistent group, so that  order/cart/checkout functionalities aren’t cached. 

Flush Object Cache

LearnDash Redis Object Cache has a simple user interface with an option to flush the cache with a single click.

Exclude Pages and Posts

LearnDash Redis Object Cache Add-on gives you the ability to exclude any page/post from the cache process. In case you are using any other WordPress plugin, you can  exclude pages and posts from caching using their slugs.

Speed up your site with the LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on!

Looking for a WordPress Redis Object Cache plugin that will interact smoothly with LearnDash LMS? If you’re LearnDash site is taking too long to load, the LearnDash Redis Object Cache add-on is definitely a good option to consider. If you have any questions about this add-on, check out our FAQs, leave us a comment below or contact us.