WordPress can be fast — the secret is caching. On a VPS you control the full stack, so you can add the two caching layers that make the biggest difference.

1. FastCGI page cache (Nginx)

This caches fully-rendered pages, so most visitors are served static HTML without touching PHP or the database at all — a massive speed boost for anonymous traffic.

fastcgi_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=WP:100m inactive=60m;
# then enable fastcgi_cache in your PHP location block

2. Redis object cache

Redis caches database query results in memory, speeding up logged-in users and dynamic pages:

sudo apt install redis-server php-redis -y

Then install a Redis object-cache plugin in WordPress and enable it.

3. Other wins

  • Use PHP 8.x with OPcache enabled.
  • Serve images in modern formats and enable browser caching.
  • Put a CDN in front for global visitors.

With NVMe SSD storage and dedicated resources on a OneHost VPS, these caching layers make WordPress genuinely fast.