Unlock Faster Site Speed With Edge Full Page Cache

Whether you’re a site owner, a developer, or you lead a digital agency, the demand for faster, more reliable digital experiences has never been higher. In speaking with our customers, we know this isn’t just a constant source of pressure—it’s a critical element of business strategy and success. 

To help meet this demand, we’re proud to introduce Edge Full Page Cache (EFPC) for customers on our Advanced Network. This powerful new caching solution enhances website performance by extending caching to static HTML, ensuring content is delivered quickly and efficiently to users worldwide. 

Building on Cloudflare’s CDN, which already caches files like images and JavaScript for sites on our Advanced Network, EFPC ensures your site’s data is hosted closer to your customers. This reduces the travel time required to serve content and leads to faster load times and a smoother user experience.

How does this fit with other caches?

To maximize your website’s performance, WP Engine uses several layers of caches. WP Engine has a Page cache hosted on our servers, which has all of your static website content (including HTML) ready to go and waiting for your users. 

In addition, WP Engine has an Object Cache, that caches all of the most common database queries to help speed up your website’s static and dynamic content. We also have other caching on our servers to optimize PHP output.

When combined with EFPC, these caches work together to serve content from the nearest possible location to the end user—starting with the CDN, then Page Cache, followed by Object Cache, and only as a last resort will the website serve un-cached content dynamically.

Benefits of Edge Full Page Cache

The key metrics that EFPC improves are Time to First Byte (TTFB) and server response time. Websites typically see improvements of 60–90% in their TTFB and server response time improvements of 50–90%. 

While your mileage may vary, most websites will see improvements to their Google Lighthouse Desktop Performance scores of up to 10 points or more. Google Lighthouse Mobile Performance scores typically increase by up to five points.

Unfortunately, EFPC isn’t a magic wand, so better-optimized websites tend to see greater performance gains than websites using JavaScript and/or large image files. Optimizing images and reviewing and minimizing JavaScript code can further boost performance scores.

How to enable Edge Full Page Cache

Enabling EFPC is simple for websites on WP Engine’s Advanced Network.

1. Log into WP Engine’s User Portal. 
2. For websites with custom domains on Advanced Network, you’ll see a new EFPC toggle on the Cache page. 
3. Simply toggle the feature on and wait a few minutes for EFPC to be fully enabled on your website.

Remember to clear your caches when updating content to see changes immediately.

To turn EFPC off, simply toggle it off in the same place and clear your caches.

Is Edge Full Page Cache right for my website?

WP Engine is still testing EFPC with popular features and adjusting our settings to maximize performance for users.

For early adopters, you’ll need to clear your caches or wait for your cache expiration to see content changes on your website. We have an “auto cache clear” feature on our product roadmap that will soon remove this requirement.

We currently recommend EFPC for most static and brochure websites as well as WooCommerce sites. EFPC is also compatible with Smart Search, WPGraphQL, and Page Speed Boost. However, EFPC duplicates some Page Speed Boost functionality, and we recommend using Page Speed Boost on its own if you have that add-on.

EFPC is not yet compatible with GeoTarget when used with WooCommerce.

We’re doing additional compatibility testing with GeoTarget and Instant Store Search. 

You can easily test your website with EFPC by enabling the feature and smoke testing your website. If you notice any compatibility issues, simply disable EFPC and clear cache.

Take the hassle out of caching

With the new caching features available on WP Engine’s platform you’ll be able to speed up your development workflow, rest easy, and “test easy,” with assurances that your caching is optimized for your site.

Click here to learn more about WP Engine’s caching features or speak to a specialist now for answers to your questions!