FlyingPress: The best WordPress performance plugin?

Slow loading times can be detrimental to a website.

The longer the loading time of your site and its subpages, the worse the conversion rates, user satisfaction and visibility in search engines are.

Therefore, it is important to do everything possible to improve the performance and speed of your website.

There are numerous caching and performance plugins available for WordPress, which can make finding the best plugin for your website time-consuming. Even more problematic is that choosing an unsuitable plugin could actually negatively impact your site's performance.

One option is the plugin FlyingPress:

This is FlyingPress

FlyingPress is marketed as a comprehensive optimization plugin for WordPress that offers everything in one.

Released in 2020, it has recently undergone a major overhaul and improvements. If you're unfamiliar with the plugin or haven't used it in a while, it's definitely worth taking a closer look.

Similar to WPRocket FlyingPress aims to appeal to users who are looking for a simple solution to achieve immediately noticeable improvements by activating the plugin, as well as those who want fine-grained control over the optimization of their website.

You'll likely notice a significant improvement in website performance immediately after installing and activating the plugin. Users with a deeper technical understanding or a willingness to delve into the numerous settings can maximize its performance and achieve even greater performance gains.

If this sounds interesting to you, read on to learn more about FlyingPress. We also share our test results on a WooCommerce store, including loading times and Core Web Vitals scores, giving you a comprehensive insight into the plugin's performance.

In this FlyingPress review, we'll help you determine if it's the ideal plugin for your website. We'll highlight its key features, describe our practical experience, and present the results of our tests on a WooCommerce store.

At the end, you will know exactly whether FlyingPress is the right performance plugin for your needs.

My FlyingPress settings

Cache settings

• Cache for logged in users: Cache is also generated for logged in users.
• Automatic preloading of the cache: The entire cache is automatically preloaded after saving settings and other relevant events.
• Preload links on hover: Links are preloaded when hovered over or touched on mobile devices.
• Planned preloading: The cache is automatically regenerated at specified intervals. You can choose between never, 2 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.

CSS

• CSS minification: Removes extra spaces, comments, and compresses property values to reduce file size.
• Remove unused CSS: Removes unused CSS code to improve page load time and reduce file size.
• Loading unused CSS: Determines how unused CSS is loaded after the used CSS is generated, with the options:
  • Asynchronous
  • On user interaction
  • Remove

JS

• Minimize JavaScript: Removes extraneous spaces, comments, and compresses property values to reduce the file size of JavaScript files.
• Defer JavaScript: Delays JavaScript execution until the HTML has been fully parsed.
  • Defer inline scripts: Executes inline scripts only after the HTML has been parsed and other scripts are ready.
  • Exclude scripts from postponing: Certain scripts can be excluded from deferring (by entering keywords).
• Delay JavaScript: Loads and executes scripts only after user interaction (e.g. mouse movement, keyboard input, scrolling).
  • Delay method: You can choose whether all or only certain scripts should be executed with a delay.
  • Exclude scripts from the delay: Certain scripts can be exempted from the delay.

Fonts

• Optimize Google Fonts: Combines and hosts Google Fonts locally to improve performance.
• Show fallback fonts: Ensures that a visible font is displayed while the web fonts are loading to keep the layout stable.
• Preload fonts: Allows preloading of high-priority fonts. URLs or paths of the font files can be entered here.

Images

• Lazy loading images: Delays the loading of images that are not immediately needed on the page.
• Exclude images above the fold: Determines how many images above-the-fold are excluded from lazy loading.
• Exclude images: Certain images can be excluded from lazy loading and loaded immediately.
• Add responsive images: Returns resized images that are adjusted to the actual render size.
• Add missing width and height information: Automatically adds missing width and height attributes to minimize layout shifts (CLS).
• Host Gravatar images locally: Downloads Gravatar images and stores them on the server to reduce external requests.
• Preload critical images: Preloads images needed for initial rendering (e.g. logo, featured image).

iFrames

• Lazy loading iFrames: Delays the loading of iFrames that are not immediately needed on the page.
• Using placeholder images for YouTube videos: Replaces YouTube iframes with a placeholder image and only loads the video when the user clicks on it.

Bloat

FlyingPress's bloat settings are important in optimizing website performance by removing unnecessary data and scripts that can slow down loading times.

By debloating the page, unnecessary CSS and JavaScript files, as well as other non-essential resources, are minimized or completely disabled. This results in a leaner, more efficient page that loads faster and provides an improved user experience. Additionally, bloat settings help conserve server resources and improve overall website performance, which is beneficial for both search engines and visitors. In a time when speed and efficiency are crucial, these adjustments enable website owners to optimize their pages and achieve greater online visibility.

• Remove Google Fonts: Replaces Google Fonts with locally available fonts on the user's device to improve performance.
• Disable XML-RPC: Improves website performance by disabling XML-RPC, which can cause slow performance and unnecessary requests.
• Deactivate RSS feed: Saves server resources by disabling the RSS feed, which generates additional requests.
• Disable block editor CSS: Disables the Gutenberg editor's CSS code that may not be needed in the frontend.
• oDisable embeds: Disables oEmbeds, which generate additional requests through embedded content.
• Disable emojis: Disables emojis, which WordPress uses to display smileys and other icons.
• Disable WP Cron: Disables the built-in WP Cron, which runs scheduled tasks for visitors, and recommends using an external cron job.
• Disable jQuery Migrate: Disables jQuery Migrate, which is used to provide backward compatibility for older jQuery code.
• Disable Dashicons: Removes dashicons used in the WordPress admin area that may not be needed in the frontend.
• Control post-revisions: Controls how many post revisions should be saved (options from 1 to 10 or disabling revisions completely).
• Control heartbeat: Controls Heartbeat's background API to reduce unnecessary requests. Can be set to "enable only when editing posts."
• Heartbeat frequency: Controls how often the Heartbeat API runs, with options of 15, 30, or 60 seconds.

How much does FlyingPress for WordPress cost?

One can Buy FlyingPress in 4 different versions (sizes):

• starter: 49 $ per year for 1 website
• Per: 99 $ per year for 3 websites
• Business: 199 $ per year for 25 websites
• Unlimited: 249 $ per year for unlimited websites

There is also a 14-day, unconditional money-back guaranteeIf FlyingPress doesn't meet your expectations, you can get a full refund within 14 days, no questions asked.

My opinion on FlyingPress

In my opinion, FlyingPress an excellent choice for optimizing WordPress websites and offers many useful features that can significantly improve performance. However, I consider Litespeed the superior option whenever it's available. Litespeed not only offers impressive speed and efficiency, but also seamless integration with appropriate hosting environments, which further improves loading times. Therefore, if Litespeed is available, you should definitely opt for this solution. However, if Litespeed isn't available, FlyingPress is an excellent alternative that also offers many benefits and significantly optimizes website performance.

Do I think FlyingPress is better than WP Rocket?

Yes. Compared to WP Rocket, FlyingPress offers a wide range of customization options, allowing users to optimize their website even more specifically. While WP Rocket already offers a solid foundation of performance-enhancing features, FlyingPress impresses with a more intuitive user interface and a more extensive range of settings.