Choosing between Perfmatters and NitroPack to make your WordPress site faster can be tough. This guide is here to help, but there’s no simple answer. Both NitroPack and Perfmatters are really good at speeding up websites, but they’re good in different ways, which makes picking one quite confusing.
NitroPack costs more than Perfmatters, but there’s more to think about than just the price. Keep reading to find out all you need to know about NitroPack and Perfmatters and figure out which one is best for you.
Perfmatters vs NitroPack: Overview
Perfmatters
Perfmatters is a plugin for WordPress sites that helps make them run faster. It uses different ways to help improve how quickly a website loads and works better overall.
Some of its main features include turning off WordPress scripts and styles that aren’t needed, making the database (where website information is stored) run more efficiently, and making sure images and videos only load when they need to (this is called lazy loading).
People like using Perfmatters because it’s easy to use, even if you’re not very tech-savvy, and it helps make your website faster without needing to understand complicated technical stuff.
NitroPack
The NitroPack plugin for WordPress includes all the tools you’d expect for making a website quicker, such as making images load faster, a built-in system for delivering content quickly worldwide (CDN), lazy loading (which means images only load when you scroll down to them), and making files smaller so they load quicker.
The service began in 2012, focusing on making OpenCart websites run faster. But in 2018, NitroPack became its own company, aiming to boost website speed not just for OpenCart but also for WordPress, Magento, WooCommerce, and others through its NitroPack API.
Websites like SmartBlogger and Partnerize use NitroPack to make their sites faster.
Main differences between Perfmatters and NitroPack
Both Perfmatters and NitroPack are website optimization tools that can help you speed up your website. However, they have different features and compatibility.
Perfmatters is a WordPress plugin, while NitroPack is a standalone tool that can be used with a variety of platforms.
Perfmatters offers features like CDN rewrite and local Google Fonts hosting, while NitroPack offers features like caching, image optimization, and minification. Ultimately, the best tool for you will depend on your specific needs and requirements.
Perfmatters vs NitroPack: CDN – Content Delivery Optimization
Perfmatters
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) makes your WordPress website faster by keeping copies of your site’s files, like images, on several servers around the world.
When someone visits your site, they get the files from the server closest to them. The Perfmatters plugin helps you connect a CDN to your WordPress site easily.
Here’s what you can do with Perfmatters’ CDN feature:
- You can add your CDN’s web address, and then Perfmatters will make sure that all your website’s files, like pictures, use this address. This means they’ll be served from the CDN.
- You have the option to pick which folders on your WordPress site you want to be part of the CDN.
- You can also tell Perfmatters not to use the CDN for certain types of files or files that contain specific words or phrases.
NitroPack
NitroPack includes CDN (Content Delivery Network) services that are powered by Cloudflare, which is a big company with data centers in 275 cities across 100 countries.
This means that Cloudflare can help websites load faster by storing their content in many places around the world.
If you’re already using Cloudflare, you’ll need to adjust some settings, like your domain and API in NitroPack, to make it work. One thing to note is that NitroPack only works with Cloudflare’s CDN and doesn’t let you use other CDN services.
Suppose you have a preference for a different CDN provider. In that case, this might be a problem for you, and it could be a good idea to talk to NitroPack’s support team to understand more about their CDN policy before you decide to pay for a NitroPack plan.
Perfmatters Main Features
Performance Enhancement Features
Perfmatters offers tools to make your website faster and more efficient. Permatters allow you to turn off unnecessary scripts and styles on specific pages, which reduces clutter and speeds up loading times.
You can also control how CSS and JavaScript files load, optimizing their loading process for faster performance.
Another helpful feature is lazy loading, where images and videos only load when you scroll to them, making your site start loading faster.
Database optimization
Database optimization is another tool that removes outdated information from your site’s database, improving speed and efficiency. Preconnect sets up connections early to load content from other sites faster, reducing wait times.
Additionally, removing extra information from URLs helps content load faster and saves space.
Resource Management:
Perfmatters also helps manage server resources by allowing you to control background tasks and turn off unnecessary features, making your site smaller and faster.
Finally, it prepares your site to load content from other websites sooner, reducing wait times.
Nitropack Features
Caching:
NitroPack has a special way of making websites load quickly for anyone visiting them. It saves versions of your web pages so they can be shown instantly to visitors, without having to load everything from scratch each time.
NitroPack is smart about updating these saved versions whenever you change your site, making sure visitors always see the latest content.
It’s also clever enough to show the right version of your site whether someone is using a phone or a computer, and it takes into account different web browsers and visitor habits to boost loading speed even more.
Image Loading:
Images can slow down your site, but NitroPack has that covered. It reduces image file sizes without losing picture quality, or it makes a very small trade-off in quality to get big speed gains.
It also waits to load images until they’re actually going to be seen on the screen, and it adjusts image sizes in advance based on what’s needed. Plus, it can change images to a faster-loading format called WebP for browsers that support it, making your site even quicker.
Other Advanced Features:
Besides caching and image optimization, NitroPack offers a bunch of other features to make your site super fast.
It has a global network to store and deliver your site’s content quickly all over the world. It also shrinks the size of your site’s code to make it faster to download and ensures the most critical parts of your site load first.
Other technical tweaks like preparing domain names early and loading some content ahead of time also contribute to a faster site.
Perfmatters and NitroPack : Support
Perfmatters Support
Perfmatters really cares about its customers and wants to make sure they get the best support whenever they need it. I had a great experience with Perfmatters’ customer support.
When I had a question about making my website faster, their team replied quickly. They gave me clear instructions and even shared extra tips to improve my site’s performance.
The whole process was easy, from sending my message to getting a detailed and friendly reply. It was nice to know that expert help was just a message away, which made my experience with Perfmatters even better.
If you need help with the Perfmatters plugin or have any questions, their support team is always there for you.
NitroPack Support
NitroPack provides support through tickets and help documents, just like Perfmatters. However, considering its high price, people might expect more, like live chat or special support for paying customers.
Unfortunately, NitroPack doesn’t offer these extra services. Users have complained about their support being insufficient, with some saying that they ignore or avoid contact, especially when it comes to refunds.
Perfmatters and NitroPack : Pricing
NitroPack Pricing
Nitropack is pricey, which is a big downside, especially if you’re just starting your site. The cost varies depending on the size of your site, with an average of $21/month for a site with 50k visitors and up to $176/month for larger sites.
However, they offer discounts for annual payments and a free version for small sites to try out.
Related: 35% Off NitroPack Black Friday
Perfmatters Pricing
On the other hand, Perfmatters is a more budget-friendly option for optimizing WordPress sites.
They have three plans: Personal, Business, and Unlimited Sites.
- The Personal plan costs $24.95/year for one site, great for individual site owners.
- The Business plan is $54.95/year for up to three sites, suitable for small businesses or agencies.
- The Unlimited Sites plan at $124.95/year is perfect for managing many sites.
All plans include premium support and updates for a year, a 30-day refund policy, and support for multiple sites.
Overall, if you’re looking for a cost-effective option, Perfmatters might be the better choice, whereas Nitropack offers more features but comes with a higher price tag.
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Conclusion
Choosing between NitroPack and Perfmatters can be challenging, especially if you’re not concerned about the budget. Both performance solutions have their strengths and weaknesses, and your decision will depend on various factors.
However, I’ve provided you with plenty of information to help you make the right choice.
Perfmatters is the better option if you prefer performance and speed optimization plugins specifically designed for WordPress. It’s an ideal plugin to work efficiently with WordPress sites.
On the other hand, NitroPack is compatible with other content management systems besides WordPress. This could be beneficial if you have websites using different blogging platforms and prefer managing them all under one account.
If you have any questions about NitroPack vs. Perfmatters, feel free to ask in the comment box below. Overall, considering its WordPress-focused approach and efficiency, Perfmatters stands out as the preferred choice for optimizing your website’s performance.
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