Flyingpress Review: The Best WordPress Speed Optimization Plugin?

Welcome to my Flyingpress Review.

When discussing website speed optimization for a WordPress website, we often mention WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and Autoptimize. But did you know that there is one plugin worth mentioning? 

Flyingpress is a new website speed optimization plugin with outstanding performance. This review article is about Flyingpress and whether it is worth it or not, but spoilers ahead: It is the best speed optimization plugin that I ever tried on a non-LiteSpeed server.

In this review, you will learn the following:

• What is Flyingpress
• Speedtest result comparison with and without Flyingpress enable
• Why it is the best speed optimization plugin on a non-LiteSpeed server
• The Pros and Cons
• Pricing

I will tell you later why I mentioned that it is not the best for a Litespeed server; in the meantime, let me tell you first what a Flyingpress is!

What Exactly is Flyingpress?

FlyingPress is a premium performance optimization plugin created to deliver lightning-fast WordPress websites.

Developed by Gijo Varghese, the same mind behind a suite of popular free optimization plugins like Flying Scripts, Flying Images, Flying Pages, Flying Analytics, and Flying Fonts, FlyingPress offers a more comprehensive and streamlined approach.

FlyingPress acts as an all-in-one toolkit for website speed. Its features are carefully designed to improve Core Web Vitals, the key metrics used by Google to measure how user-friendly your site is. Key functions include:

• Efficient Page Caching: Stores static versions of your pages so they load without fully rebuilding each time a user visits.
• Image Optimization: Compresses images, enables lazy-loading, and supports next-gen WebP format.
• Smart Code Management: Minifies CSS and JavaScript files, allows delaying non-essential scripts, and generates critical CSS for super-fast initial rendering.
• Preloading and Prefetching: Instructs browsers to fetch crucial resources before they’re needed, accelerating the overall experience.

Gijo Varghese’s experience with focused optimization plugins shines through in FlyingPress. It delivers a potent combination of power and ease of use, making it a compelling choice for WordPress users who want to take their website speed to the next level.

What are the FlyingPress features that are noteworthy?

Before we go to the actual performance test, let me first introduce you to the most important features of Flyingpress that you need to know.

If you are not interested in the features and you just want to see the speed test, you can use our table of contents to quickly jump to different sections of these review articles.

Page Caching

FlyingPress is an all-in-one WordPress speed optimization plugin with built-in caching features, so you won’t need to add another caching plugin. Its core strength lies in its page caching mechanism. When a visitor requests a page on your website, FlyingPress first checks if it has a cached version ready.

If so, it directly serves this pre-generated HTML copy, bypassing the usual, more resource-intensive process of dynamically building the page from the WordPress database. This significantly reduces server load and leads to much faster visitor page load times.

How FlyingPress Caches Content

1. Cache Generation: When enabled, FlyingPress automatically starts creating cached versions of your website’s pages and posts as they are visited.
2. Storage: These cached pages are stored as static HTML files on your server.
3. Cache Serving: Upon subsequent requests for the same page, FlyingPress directly delivers the static HTML file instead of rebuilding it on demand.
4. Cache Updates: FlyingPress intelligently knows when to update the cache. If you edit a post or page, it automatically flushes the old cache and generates a fresh one, ensuring visitors always see the latest content.

Automatically Preload Cache

This feature helps optimize how FlyingPress generates its cache. When enabled, FlyingPress automatically preloads the cache in specific scenarios:

• After Saving Settings: Whenever you save changes within the FlyingPress settings panel, a cache pre-generation process is triggered. This ensures your website visitors experience the latest caching optimizations immediately.
• Other Relevant Events: FlyingPress might also preload the cache based on other relevant events, such as activating/deactivating plugins or updating themes. This proactive approach keeps the cache fresh and avoids potential delays on the first visit after such changes.

Preload Links on Hover

This feature focuses on user experience optimization. When enabled, FlyingPress instructs the user’s browser to preload the resources linked within your website’s content (like images, stylesheets, or scripts) as soon as the user hovers their mouse over those links. This preloading process happens in the background, and by the time the user clicks the link, the resource is already partially downloaded, leading to a perceived faster loading time for the linked content on the next page.

Here are some additional points to consider including:

• Benefits: Highlight how preloading the cache and links can significantly improve website performance, especially for first-time visitors.
• Server Load: Briefly mention that preloading links on hover might add a slight additional strain on your server, especially on shared hosting plans. Users with limited resources might consider disabling this feature.
• Customization: If FlyingPress allows customization of preloading behavior (like specific link types), you can mention it here.

CSS Optimization

FlyingPress includes tools to optimize your website’s CSS files, helping to further reduce page load times and improve user experience.

• Minify CSS: This feature involves removing unnecessary characters (like whitespace, comments, and formatting) from your CSS code. This reduces the file size without affecting how the browser interprets and renders the styles on your website. Smaller CSS files mean faster loading times.
• Remove Unused CSS This more advanced feature works to identify and remove CSS code that is not applied to the current page or post. Unused CSS can bloat your website’s codebase and slow down rendering. By removing it, pages load faster and your website becomes more efficient.

How It Works

FlyingPress analyzes your website’s content and HTML structure to determine which CSS rules are actively being used. It then carefully removes or minifies the code that isn’t contributing to the visual layout.

Important Considerations:

• Compatibility Caveat: While removing unused CSS can dramatically improve performance, it’s crucial to note that it might break the design of your website in some cases. This is why thorough testing is essential before implementing this optimization on a live website. Users may need to experiment and potentially exclude certain CSS for compatibility.
• Additional Optimization: You might want to mention that pairing these features with a well-written and efficient CSS codebase offers greater optimization benefits.

JavaScript Optimization

FlyingPress understands that JavaScript can be a double-edged sword. It’s great for interactive elements, but if not managed carefully, it can slow things down. That’s why it offers these tools:

• Minify JavaScript: Just like with CSS, minifying shrinks JavaScript files by getting rid of extra spaces, comments, and stuff the browser doesn’t need. This translates to faster downloads and happier visitors.
• Defer JavaScript: Often, JavaScript doesn’t need to load immediately when someone visits your page. Deferring tells the browser, “Hey, load the important stuff first (like HTML, CSS, and images), and then worry about the JavaScript.” This makes pages feel snappier.
• Defer Inline: This focuses on those small chunks of JavaScript embedded directly into your HTML. Deferring them can also contribute to faster initial page rendering.
• Delay JavaScript: This is a powerful but potentially finicky tool. It allows you to delay the execution of certain JavaScript files until a later point, like after the user interacts with the page. If done correctly, it can significantly boost how fast pages feel.

Important Note: Just like with the ‘Remove Unused CSS’ feature, the ‘Delay JavaScript’ option needs to be used with a bit of caution. Sometimes delaying JavaScript can cause unexpected problems, especially if different parts of your website rely on it to work properly. Always test thoroughly before using this on a live site!

Optimizing Fonts

Fonts play a crucial role in your website’s design but can also impact loading times. FlyingPress helps you strike a balance between aesthetics and performance:

• Optimize Google Fonts: If you use Google Fonts, FlyingPress offers several optimizations to streamline their delivery:
  • Preloading: Ensures the browser prioritizes fetching critical font files early in the page load process.
  • Combining Requests: FlyingPress can combine multiple Google Font requests into one, reducing the number of connections the browser needs to make.
  • Local Hosting (advanced): For even greater optimization, FlyingPress may have an option to host Google Fonts on your own server, eliminating external requests.
• Display Fallback Fonts: The font-display swap setting in FlyingPress tells the browser to first load a basic system font (like Arial or Times New Roman) while your custom web font is downloading. Once the web font is ready, it seamlessly ‘swaps’ places. This prevents lengthy periods of invisible or unstyled text, making the loading experience much smoother for visitors.

Why This Matters

Unoptimized fonts can cause delays and layout shifts as the text finally appears on the page. FlyingPress helps you deliver your beautiful fonts without compromising the user experience!

Image Optimization

Images often make up the bulk of a website’s size, so it’s no surprise FlyingPress puts a big focus on optimizing them:

• Lazy Load Images: This technique tells the browser “Don’t load images below the fold (the part of the page the user doesn’t see yet) until the user scrolls down.” This saves bandwidth and makes the initial page load feel much faster.
• Exclude Above-Fold Images: Important images at the top of your pages (like your logo or featured image) should obviously load right away. FlyingPress lets you exclude specific images from lazy loading to ensure they’re immediately visible.
• Exclude Images: You can also choose to exclude specific images from any optimization by providing URLs, which is useful if a particular image or image type causes conflicts.
• Add Missing Width and Height: This fixes a common problem that causes “layout shifts.” Missing dimensions cause the browser to guess the image size, and it often guesses wrong, This leads to the page layout jumping around as images load. FlyingPress helps prevent this by automatically adding width and height attributes to your image tags.
• Host Gravatar Images Locally: Gravatars (those little profile pictures in comments) are usually loaded from external servers. Hosting them locally keeps everything in-house for a potential speed boost.
• Preload Critical Images: Much like ‘preloading’ links, you can tell FlyingPress that certain images, like your hero image, are super important and need to load as quickly as possible.

Why this feature is important: Images are essential for a great website, but they need to be managed well. FlyingPress provides tools to balance beautiful visuals with exceptional page speed.

iFrame Settings

You know how sometimes websites have embedded videos or maps from other places? Those are usually done with something called an iFrame. While they’re cool, they can also be a bit heavy and slow things down. FlyingPress offers a couple of tricks to handle iFrames better:

• Lazy Load iFrames: Just like images, you can tell FlyingPress to hold off on loading an iFrame until the user scrolls near it. This keeps the initial page load snappy!
• Use Placeholder Images for YouTube videos: Instead of loading the whole YouTube video player right away, FlyingPress can display a simple image instead. When the visitor clicks the image, THEN the full YouTube video loads. This saves a ton of data and speeds up your website.

CDN Settings

CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) are like a global network of super-fast servers. They help get your website’s content to visitors faster, no matter where they are in the world. FlyingPress plays nicely with a bunch of major CDNs – so if you already use one, you can easily connect it.

But here’s the cool part: FlyingPress also offers its own CDN service called FlyingCDN. It’s powered by Cloudflare Enterprise, which is some seriously top-notch CDN technology. Of course, FlyingCDN does come with an extra cost, but it might be worth it if you’re looking for a super streamlined solution.

Bloat Settings

Think of these settings as your website’s spring cleaning toolkit. FlyingPress lets you get rid of some of the extra “stuff” WordPress adds that you might not always need, leading to a leaner, faster site. Here’s what you can do:

• Remove Google Fonts: If you’re using a custom font solution, you can safely disable Google Fonts to avoid unnecessary requests.
• Control Heartbeat: Manage the frequency of background WordPress processes. Reducing this frequency can decrease server load, especially in the WordPress admin dashboard.
• Disable Bloat: This section gets more granular, letting you target things like:
  • WooCommerce cart fragments and assets: Streamlines WooCommerce stores.
  • XML-RPC: An old protocol, usually safe to disable if you’re not using certain apps or services.
  • RSS Feeds: Turns off RSS feeds if you don’t have a blog.
  • Emojis: Prevents WordPress from loading its own emoji scripts and styles.
• Advanced Control: This section is for more experienced users and lets you target things like:
  • Post Revisions: Limits the number of old versions of posts WordPress stores.
  • jQuery Migrate: Disables an older compatibility script if your site doesn’t need it.

Important Note: While tempting to go crazy here, use caution! Some of these settings can break website functionality if you’re not sure what they do. Tread carefully, and always test thoroughly after making changes.

Database Settings

A well-maintained database is key to a fast WordPress site. FlyingPress gives you tools to keep things tidy:

• Automatic Cleaning: You can schedule FlyingPress to automatically clean up your database at regular intervals (like weekly or monthly). This helps get rid of excess ‘junk’ that can accumulate over time.
• Manual Cleaning: FlyingPress allows you to optimize individual aspects of your database, including things like:
  • Post Revisions: Old versions of your posts and pages.
  • Auto Drafts: Unfinished posts WordPress saves automatically.
  • Trashed Posts/Pages: Items in your trash folder.
  • Spam Comments: Speaks for itself!
  • Transient Options: These are temporary settings, and sometimes they linger in the database longer than needed.

Points to Consider

• Importance of Backups: Always, always back up your website before making any major database changes. FlyingPress may allow syncing with some backup plugins to make this process easier.
• Potential for Issues: While database optimization is generally beneficial, overly aggressive cleaning could occasionally cause problems. Test carefully if you’re unsure, and err on the side of caution.

Now that I already mentioned and explained all the features of the Flyingpress plugin, let me show you the speed test before and after using this optimization and caching plugin.

How do I test Flyingpress?

To do the test, I used the Flyingpress plugin on two of my websites, first on my main website which is Mirageportal before I migrated to a LiteSpeed server hosting and used the LiteSpeed cache plugin.

The second site is my test website, which uses a theme from ThemeForest; I also installed eight plugins that are known to slow down the site to fully test the capability of Flyingpress and whether it is really an effective speed optimization plugin.

To measure my site core web vitals, I use three of the most reliable and popular site speed checkers:

• PageSpeed Insights
• Pingdom Speed Test
• GTmetrix

Here is my speed test result before using Flyingpress

PageSpeed Insight Speed Test Result Without Flyingpress (Desktop and Mobile Test Result)

The screenshot shows that my website performs slow even though it doesn’t have any ads. The mobile score is only 35, which is pretty low and nowhere near my ideal site speed.

On the desktop, it only reached a page speed score of 61, which is also slow.

Pingdom Speed Test Without Flyingpress

I also used the Pingdom speed test, and the result was not great. It reached a score of C, a page size of 1.5 MB, and a load time of 1.42 s.

GTmetrix Speed Test Without Flyingpress

Gtmetrix is also no exception. You can see from the screenshot that the page speed score is not good as well. It has a Gtmetrix grade of D and a performance score of 52%, which is not a good score for me.

After installing and configuring the Flyingpress setting, let me show you the speed test results!

PageSpeed Insight Score With Flyingpress (Mobile/Desktop)

You can see the significant improvement of my site now on mobile after using Flyingpress; it has now reached 98 on mobile. You can also see from the screenshot that even on a desktop, it improves a lot and reaches a score of 95.

From 35 to 98 on mobile and from 61 to 95 on desktop, it is crystal clear how Flyingpress greatly improves my site speed.

Pingdom Speed Test With Flyingpress Enable

Even in Pingdom, you can see how the site speed has improved. It has now reached a score of B, the page size has decreased to only 437.4 KB, and the load time is now only 794 ms.

GTmetrix Speed Test With Flyingpress Enabled

Now, we are in our last test, GTmetrix. Based on the screenshot above, you can see that it has improved a lot. It is now grade A instead of D, and the performance is 98%. You can also see that all the numbers are green, which means the plugin did a pretty good job.

Speed Performance Conclusion: We can see in all of our tests that Flyingpress indeed performs well in optimizing the entire site. With the right settings, I can assure you that this plugin will improve your site performance and pass all the tests.

Ease of Use

How easy is this plugin to use? It was so easy to understand, actually. I never got lost in the options and settings of the plugin. If you are a complete beginner, there are a lot of useful tutorials on the internet about Flyngpress’s best settings.

Flyingpress VS WP Rocket: Which One Is The Better Option?

Before, my go-to tool for speed optimization was WP Rocket, until it was not enough to speed up my site. WP Rocket now has a hard time optimizing for the largest contentful paint and removing unused CSS.  

I just noticed that WP Rocket can’t optimize my site anymore, especially when I’m using Ads on my site. Flyingpress is hands-down better than WP Rocket in all aspects, and since I will not switch, I’m satisfied with WP Rocket.

How much does it cost to use Flyingpress?

In terms of pricing, This WordPress Plugin has unusual pricing. In other plugins or Saas products, the discount comes first and becomes more expensive after a month or year, but Flyingpress is different; it is expensive for the first year and becomes cheaper the following year. See the pricing list below:

• Personal Plan (1 website): $60 for the first year then $42 per year.
• Developer Plan (5 websites): $150 for the first year, then $105 annually.
• Professional Plan (50 websites): $250 for the first year, then $175 yearly.
• Agency (500 websites): $500 for the first year then $350 annually.

The price is a bit more expensive than its competitors, but for me, it is worth the price since, for now, there is no other speed optimization plugin that is better than Flyingpress for a non-LiteSpeed server.

FlyingPress Pros and Cons

To help you decide more, here is the pros and cons of using this plugin.

Pros:

• Ease of Use: FlyingPress offers a user-friendly interface and clear explanations for most settings, making it accessible even for less technical users.
• All-in-one Optimization: Provides a wide range of optimization features, reducing the need for multiple speed optimization plugins.
• Powerful Caching: Its page caching mechanism is robust, significantly improving page load times.
• Granular Control: Offers numerous options for fine-tuning website optimization, catering to both beginners and experienced users.
• Potential CDN Integration: Seamlessly integrates with popular CDNs and offers its own FlyingCDN service for additional speed gains.

Cons:

• Pricing: Premium plans can be a bit higher-priced compared to some competitors.
• Compatibility Caveats: Some advanced optimizations (like removing unused CSS or delaying JavaScript) may require careful testing to avoid breaking website functionality.
• No Free Version:  Flyingpress is a premium plugin, it doesn’t have a free version or even free trial which should be more helpful for users that want to try it before making a purchase.
• Potential Resource Impact: Features like link preloading, while beneficial, might slightly increase server resource usage.

Why Don’t I Recommend Flyingpress on Litespeed Server?

It’s simple. If your site is hosted on a Litespeed server, I recommend that you just use the Litespeed cache plugin since it is 100% free with Quic.cloud CDN, which also provides free usage of its fast CDN.

One example is the web hosting that I’ve used in Mirageportal before I switch host I’ve using Flyingpress but my new hosting is offering Litespeed server with Quic.cloud enterprise for free.

So I just switched from Flyingpress to Litespeed Cache since it is much more compatible with the Litespeed server, and I can enjoy the use of Quic.cloud enterprise with no additional charge.

Flyingpress and Litespeed Cache plugins can produce the same result; the only difference is that the Litespeed Cache Plugin is 100% free, so it is more practical to use on a Litespeed server, and Flyingpres is the best for non-Litespeed server hosting.

Best Flyingpress Alternatives

If your Flyingpress is not for you, here are some of the alternatives that are worth exploring:

• WP Rocket: One of the most popular premium caching plugins. Renowned for its ease of use, strong performance gains, and a wide array of features. A solid choice if you want a user-friendly, no-nonsense solution and don’t mind the premium price tag.
• Litespeed Cache: This plugin is specifically designed for websites running on LiteSpeed web servers. If your hosting uses LiteSpeed, this offers unparalleled integration and enterprise-level performance gains. Be aware, it has a steeper learning curve.
• WP Super Cache: Well-respected and free caching plugin. Great if you need a simple, free option to get started with page caching. However, it lacks some of the advanced optimizations found in premium plugins.
• W3 Total Cache: A powerful and very popular caching plugin. It delivers a high degree of customization, making it an excellent option if you’re comfortable with more technical settings. However, this complexity can be overwhelming for beginners.
• Autoptimize: Focuses on JavaScript, CSS, and HTML optimization. An excellent choice if you want to supplement your primary caching plugin with additional granular optimization controls. Free to use.
• WP-Optimize: Combines caching with database and image optimization tools. A good option for those seeking a free and relatively comprehensive performance suite.

Important Note: The best alternative for you will depend on your specific needs, budget, and your website’s technical setup.

Related Content: Want to go faster? Try our recommended Hosting For WordPress Websites

Conclusion

I hope that this review helps you decide whether to get Flyingpress for your site. As I’ve mentioned, if your site is hosted on a non-Litespeed server, there is no doubt that Flyingpress is the best option.

Unless your site is using Ezoic, I know this is a bit off-topic, but I’m very aware that Ezoic users keep finding ways to speed up their sites; I knew this since I’m also using Ezoic in some of my sites. 

I just want to let you know that there is no third-party speed optimization plugin that can help speed up websites that are using Ezoic. Just stick to LEAP or leave Ezoic.

I’m sure that it’s pretty clear now. Keep in mind that for non-Litespeed web hosting without using Ezoic, Flyingpress is the best and highly recommended.