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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Preload

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Preload

All 15 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for preload comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. Safelayout Cute Preloader Best overall 86/100
  2. 2. Image Prioritizer 85/100
  3. 3. Flying Pages: Preload Pages for Faster Navigation & Improved... 85/100
  4. 4. WP Performance Score Booster 84/100
  5. 5. Preloader 82/100
  6. 6. Preload LCP Image 80/100
  7. 7. Preload Featured Images 80/100
  8. 8. Oxyplug Preload 79/100
  9. 9. Nginx Cache Purge Preload 78/100
  10. 10. Super Preloader for Cloudflare 77/100
  11. 11. Preload Fullpage Cache 76/100
  12. 12. Warmer 75/100
  13. 13. WP Preloader 72/100
  14. 14. Custom Preloader 63/100
  15. 15. WP Smart Preloader 62/100
1 Safelayout Cute Preloader
Best overall Free by safelayout

Safelayout Cute Preloader

Beautiful pure CSS animated preloader for your WordPress website. A highly lightweight, easy-to-use, and powerful site loader.

5★
from 83 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
2 Image Prioritizer
Free by WordPress Performance Team

Image Prioritizer

Prioritizes the loading of images and videos based on how they appear to actual visitors: adds fetchpriority, preloads, lazy-loads, and sets sizes.

5★
from 1 ratings
40k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
85

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 WP Performance Score Booster
Free by Dipak Gajjar

WP Performance Score Booster

Make website faster, speed up page load time and improve performance scores in tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom, and more.

4.6★
from 339 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 Preloader
Free by Alobaidi

Preloader

The ultimate Preloader plugin for WordPress. Smart, flexible, and made for easy control. Add a preloader to your website easily in only 3 steps.

4.1★
from 41 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
6 Preload LCP Image
Free by Rhys Wynne

Preload LCP Image

Allows you to specify on individual pages or posts the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Image on that page to preload, making the page load quicker.

4.8★
from 5 ratings
4k+
active installs
Updated
Apr 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
8 Oxyplug Preload
Free by Oxyplug Team

Oxyplug Preload

Preload featured images to improve the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and to get a better Core Web Vital (CWV) score on Google's Lighthouse.

5★
from 6 ratings
500+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Nginx Cache Purge Preload
Free by Hasan CALISIR

Nginx Cache Purge Preload

The most comprehensive free solution for managing Nginx (FastCGI, Proxy, SCGI, UWSGI) cache operations directly from your WordPress dashboard.

5★
from 4 ratings
200+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
78

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Preload Fullpage Cache
Free by Pothi Kalimuthu

Preload Fullpage Cache

Preloads any new or recently updated post into fullpage cache. Requires a fullpage caching layer or plugin, such as Varnish or WP Super Cache.

5★
from 3 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
76

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 Warmer
Free by Atakan Oz

Warmer

Warm your WordPress cache with scheduled crawling, cache preloading, URL source control, logs, diagnostics, and WP-CLI.

4.3★
from 6 ratings
70+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
75

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 WP Preloader
Free by forgeo.dev

WP Preloader

A simple, responsive and customizable WordPress preloader with CSS spinners, logo, progress bar, gradient backgrounds, exit animations and more.

4★
from 4 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
May 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
72

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
15 WP Smart Preloader
Free by catchsquare

WP Smart Preloader

A Plugin to add awesome collection of Loaders and Spinners. Delightful and performance-focused Pure CSS animations.

4.4★
from 25 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Oct 2024
Tested to
WP 6.6.7
62

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org