Joomla is an excellent CMS that performs great and handles content very well. It works very well by itself, but runs even faster if you know how to optimize the page speed delivery. This article will go over the best plugins to speed up Joomla and make it faster.
JotCache
JotCache replaces the standard System-Cache plugin and adds a number of features. It changes modules when users refresh a page and caches the other parts of the page. There is an option to compress content using gzip. Using the JotCache component you can clear selected cache’s without clearing the whole website. Other features include Browser Caching, Cache Lifetime, Compress Cached Content, Mark Caching, Auto Caching, and more.
CDN for Joomla (NoNumber)
CDN for Joomla makes it easy to connect your site to a CDN. Simply type in the CDN Domain given to you by your Content Delivery Network. Options include: HTTPS handing, File Types Include, Document Types Include, Web Files Include, Extra File Types Include, Ignore files and more. CDN for Joomla also allows you to set up multiple CDN’s in one plugin.
JavaScript Control
Simply-put, some JavaScript files can slow down your website if Joomla is loading them and they are not being used. Sometimes templates and components will use jquery instead of Mootools, for example. JavaScript Control gives you 4 easy options, Disable Mootools-core.js, Disable Mootools-more.js, Disable Core.js, and Disable Caption.js. Once you go through each of the settings you will be able to see which of these options you can live with or without. Only loading necessary scripts will speed up your site a lot.
ScriptMerge
Instead of having lots of JavaScript and Cascade Style Sheets, ScriptMerge combines all of the similar files into one. The options for this plugin are Merge CSS, Merge JS, Compress CSS and Compress JS. Try each of the options out and see if your site still works. If you try it and find that a certain file can not be merged or compressed, then simply type it into the “Exclude CSS” or “Exclude JS” box. This way you are still loading the necessary files but at a minimum. This reduces the number of files and connections made to the server and speeds up the site considerably.
