Thanks to the Internet, day to day life moves faster than ever before. If you’re running an online business, it’s crucial that your websites are running as fast as possible. Since getting your site to perform faster is so important, many programs claim to be able to make it happen. One such program that I’ve come across recently is a WordPress caching plugin called Viper Cache. The sales page claims it makes WordPress sites up to 10x faster in 30 seconds and “beats all competitors”. In this Viper Cache review, we’re going to see if Viper Cache holds up to its’ claims. If there are any better options out there, and if you need to have a caching plugin on your WordPress site at all.

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What Exactly is Viper Cache?

Viper Cache Logo

Viper Cache is a WordPress caching plugin. It’s made by the Cyber Tactics team; Chris Hitman, John Merrick and David Cassar. It claims to be able to make your WordPress website up to 10x faster in as little as 30 seconds. According to the sales page and demo video, all you must do is click a few slider buttons and you’re off to the races.

If only it were that simple.

Can Viper Cache Increase Your WordPress Site Speed That Much?

Yes, on a very basic level, this plugin might increase your site speed if you’re using nothing else. Does it fulfill its’ claim as “beating all competitors”, well that doesn’t appear to be the case.

First, if you only want a WordPress caching tool, there are several available on the market for free. Yes, there are some premium ones that claim to perform better. In reality, the speed increases from free plugins to premium ones are very small.  So small that you most likely won’t be able to see any real difference.

This is because caching is only a small piece of a much larger puzzle for increasing the speed of your site.

What Contributes to Your WordPress Site Speed?

For you to understand my issues with this product, I have to explain a few things. For starters, let’s talk about some of the many factors that go into making a WordPress site faster.

There are a lot of things that contribute to the speed of your site. Some are very non-technical like the distance of your visitor from your servers. Others are very technical like CDN (Content Delivery Network) use, and bandwidth allowance. Since there are so many different things that can affect speed, it’s important to focus. For our purposes, we’re going to look at some of the main things that could slow your WordPress site down. First let’s look at the settings area inside of Viper Cache.

Viper Cache Review Dashboard

As you can see in the image above, the plugin covers most of the normal bases. So do many of the free caching plugins on the market.

In fact, this “premium” tool doesn’t have quite as many optimization settings as some of the free ones out there. On one hand, this could be a good thing for beginner users. On the other,  some of the main components for on-site optimization are missing. For those of us who are less technical, you won’t understand what many of these settings mean. That’s okay! You shouldn’t have to.

Many product creators of tools like Viper Caches hope you don’t understand the tech speak. This makes it far easier to sell you a promise that they’ve taken all the questions away. They promise an easy solution that will increase your site’s speed without the tech stuff. They hope you’ll take their word for it at face value. If you do, they sell more copies of the plugin. You feel like you’ve done everything necessary to increase the speed of your site. Everyone walks away happy, right? Well, not quite. With caching plugins, if you don’t understand exactly what you’re doing, you can crash your entire website. Yes, there’s a possibility that instead of a faster site, you end up with one that’s offline altogether.

So, while using a caching plugin can be beneficial, it can also be damaging. Also, it’s important that you understand there’s still a lot to do besides caching. To make a claim that a caching plugin is all you need for your site to be 10 times faster is very bold. To be accurate, the sales page should say that the plugin helps, but you’ll have to make a few more tweaks. Let’s face it, that wouldn’t sell as many copies though, would it now?

So, what can you do without this plugin to take your site’s speed to the next level? Here are a few tasks to put in your weekend project book:

  • Optimize Images for Web Use – Quality images are often saved in sizes for print. These files are very large and need compression before you use them on your site. Doing this alone will give you much faster page loading speeds.
  • Use Quality Web Hosting – A good hosting provider is key to having a fast website. For my top recommendations, you can check my list of the best WordPress hosting providers.
  • Make Certain Everything is Setup Right Server Side – Most managed WordPress hosting companies handle this for you. If you’re not using a managed WordPress hosting provider, then you’ll have to do it yourself. Make certain to have things setup the right way in your cPanel for the most speed possible.
  • Limit JavaScript and CSS Callouts – Try to make certain that most of your JavaScript and CSS callouts are occurring in the footer of your site.
  • Let Someone Else Do It for You – This stuff can get very technical, very fast. Companies like the one I mention in my top recommended resource handle all this for you. This takes a lot of the tech burden off your shoulders.

Results of Using Viper Cache

I hope you’ve found some value in the tips I listed above. Now that you understand a few of the tweaks you can do to make your site faster, let’s look at what Viper Cache promises.

For starters, let’s take a look at some of the images that show how much faster sites were before and after plugin use. Below is an image that the Viper Cache sales page praises as proof to the impressive 162% speed increase of a site.

Viper Cache Review Demo Site Test

Using the same tool shown in the image, I had a little bit of a different result. Instead, as you can see below, the tool says the site is slower than it was before using the plugin.

Demo Site1 Update

Does this mean that Viper Cache is a scam? No, not at all. This is because page load times can change a lot throughout the day. There could be more visitors on site, more people using the speed checking tool, or it could in fact be that slow to load. The problem is that this does make me wonder how much Viper Cache is doing to optimize the page.

Now, let’s look at a page that I featured in a post showing examples of affiliate marketing websites.

Viper Cache Review Demo Site 2

As you can see in the image, the owner of this site has taken the time to make certain to make website speed a priority. The result is an impressive page loading time of less than 1 second. Does this person use Viper Cache? No, and as you can see, the site actually loads faster than the examples Viper Cache provides on their sales page.

Pros and Cons of Viper Cache

Pros:

  • Inexpensive
    There are free alternative caching plugins available. But, there are many other premium caching plugins that charge more for many of the same features.
  • Simple User Interface
    The UI is very easy to use and only contains a few options

Cons:

  • Could Harm Your Site
    Any caching plugin has the potential to harm your website. Viper Cache is no different. If you choose to use a caching plugin, make certain you back your site up before activating it.
  • Price
    Yes, I listed this as a pro as well. The problem is that Viper Cache doesn’t offer anything unique from free alternatives. Also, caching is a VERY small part of the equation to getting your site to run as fast as possible.
  • Sales Page
    The sales page may lead you to believe that to make your WordPress site fast, all you need is this plugin. That is not going to be the case for most users.
  • Fewer Features than Free Alternatives
    Again, there are many free options available online. Several offer more optimization options to further help with your sites loading speed.
  • Questionable Results
    When I rechecked some of the sites they listed as proof, I had different results.  I found that sites they listed loaded as slow or slower than they did before installing the plugin. This could be for several different reasons. But, I was unable to verify their claims that the plugin reduced the loading times of the pages at all. Let alone verify that sites loaded 10 times faster because of using the plugin.

Viper Cache Review – You Probably Don’t Need It

After looking over all the information available about the results delivered by the Viper Cache plugin, I have to say that this is one to pass on.

With all things considered, the use of caching plugins in general is unnecessary. You’re far better off to use a quality hosting provider that handles caching on the server side of things.

This lets you focus on creating quality content and products to further grow an audience. All in all, that’s what’s important at the end of the day.

If you do believe you still need to use a caching plugin, there are a lot of free ones out there that will work as good. Most of them have more options than Viper Cache, so they may even perform better.

So, What’s a Better Alternative to Viper Cache?

If you’re concerned about your site’s loading speed, there are a couple of things you can do. First, you should put the tips above into place. After that, you should take the time to check out the hosting offered by my top recommended resource.

The technology they use, called SiteSpeed, helps to make your WordPress site faster. Best of all, they handle it server side. For you, this means a faster site with none of the tech headaches that come with it.

They also give even more great training on how to make your site faster in the members’ area. Combine the two and you’ll have your site loading in under a second like the one shown above in no time.

Top Recommendation
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3 Comments

  1. Great review. The fact that you are a WA affiliate doesn’t undermine your analysis. I agree that newbies get taken advantage of, I did. I have learned to dig a little deeper to gain a better understanding.
    The more I learn the more I understand how little I know.
    Thanks for the heads up!

    Regards,
    James Stone
    P.S. Mike F.D. is off base, unfortunately, most new people DO NOT realize that a caching method is only part of the recipe for getting a speedy site.
    They may be preying on people’s ignorance.

  2. OK I review products, and they are reviews not promotions.

    So I just love these Reviews from Wealthy Affiliate (WA) members . I mean they are not really reviews, they just provide an opportunity for a WA member to run down a product, then at the end suggest something that is “better”, but which may not relate directly to the product they are reviewing – all interesting stuff.

    There is usually a section in these reviews that contains bare statements to try and make people wary of the product in question.

    As well, where is the description of the methodology that gives us some insight into how the speed tests were undertaken for the review.

    As well again, most people realise that a caching method is only part of the recipe for getting a speedy site.

    Hey, at least they could get the pricing right………………………

    Oh, by the way, I have nothing to do with the product developers of Viper Cache, I just like to see objective reviews.

    All the best,
    Mike FD

  3. I just click your link and i saw the price $49 for each month. I’m curious! I’m a Rookie and what happen to my siterubix.com after my wealthyaffiliate premium expires? Is it shut down?