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Free Plugin by ensemblebd v1.5

WP Rocket

Deprecated

WP Rocket

The facts

Rating
1★ from 2
Active installs
4k+
Price
Free
Last updated
1 Apr 2023
Added
Oct 2018
Downloads
66,083

Our analysis

AI-assisted

WP Rocket | Simple LoadCSS Preloader is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance the CSS loading process for front-end pages. It works by applying the loadCSS preload polyfill to ensure that CSS is deferred and uses a preload attribute, which can improve performance metrics like Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights.

However, this plugin is deprecated and will be removed in the future. Users are advised to use WP Rocket’s built-in Load CSS Asynchronously feature instead, as it is better integrated and recommended for optimal performance.

Best for: This plugin may suit advanced users familiar with performance optimisation who are currently using WP Rocket.

What it does well

  • Enhances CSS loading for front-end pages
  • Uses loadCSS preload polyfill
  • Can improve Lighthouse and PageSpeed scores

Where it falls short

  • Plugin is deprecated and will be removed
  • Not recommended for normal users without WP Rocket
  • Limited to front-end pages only

Verdict

While it offers some performance benefits, the deprecation status and recommendations against its use make it a less viable option for most users.

From the developer

ensemblebd's own description of WP Rocket, lightly tidied.

Deprecated

This plugin is deprecated and will be removed in the future.
It was coded back in 2019 when WpRocket did not have asynchronous support for CSS.
Although this plugin operates at a lower level (main php buffer), which helps apply loadsCSS to ALL styles regardless of whether they conform to wp_enqueue or not, we recommend instead using WpRocket’s system: Load CSS Asynchronously.

Description

Simple high performance plugin to enhance WP Rocket’s css output to use the loadCSS preload polyfill.
This will ensure any css being loaded via the page output is deferred, and utilizing a preload [rel] attribute.
Note: This will not affect admin pages. It’s designed only to process front-end pages.

It is recommended to enable the WP Rocket setting for “Optimize CSS”, which will provide your pages with inline Critical-CSS.
That way an unstyled flash is not seen on page load (if properly configured of course).

This plugin will boost your Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insight scores.

Plugin Mission

We hope that WP Rocket will implement this as a feature of their plugin.
The existing Load CSS Asynchronously only works for supported wp_enqueue styles, which not all plugins/themes properly utilize.
For normal users, we recommend using WP Rocket’s system instead of this plugin.

Requirements:

  • If you intend for logged-in users to see the effect, you must enable WP-Rocket’s setting called “caching for Logged-In Users”
  • Alternatively, you can run the plugin without WP-Rocket, despite it’s intended purpose. (>^.^)>

Features:

  • FilamentGroup’s LoadCSS(v2.0.1) inline injector
    (optional – see settings page next to WP Rocket), triggered via wp_head
  • High performance Regular Expression approach to process WP Rocket’s (php’s) output buffer, to replace stylesheets with the appropriate loadCSS syntax
  • Option to enable the buffer processor when you don’t have WP Rocket installed.
    ** This will respect AMP pages, and Yoast Sitemap output (by not executing). No other considerations have been implemented.

No fluff. Just a robust loadCSS implementation.

You can see how it works, & measure the performance, with this(via repl.it): Run the Plugin’s code
Just paste your own page’s url or html into the appropriate variable @ the top.

And you can test this plugin’s regex as well: WordPress.com html – links filtered by regex

Github link is here: Click

Read the full description on the official page →

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