Perfmatters over WP Rocket

Context

Original locked stack included WP Rocket as the performance plugin. WP Rocket is the well-known choice — page caching + asset optimization in one. But “well-known” is not the same as “right for this stack.”

Decision

Replace WP Rocket with Perfmatters as the locked performance plugin for all NP clients on GridPane.

Rationale

• GridPane has its own server-level caching (nginx FastCGI). That’s faster than any plugin caching because it serves static HTML before WordPress even loads. WP Rocket’s page-caching feature — its main value — is redundant or actively conflicting with GridPane’s native caching layer.
• Perfmatters is architecturally complementary to GridPane, not duplicating it. Its value is in:
  • Script Manager — per-page selective script/style loading. Disable contact form CSS on every page that doesn’t have a form. Major performance win, especially with WordPress’s “load everything everywhere” defaults.
  • WordPress feature toggles — disable XML-RPC, emojis, embeds, dashicons, RSD links, shortlinks, WLW manifest, self-pingbacks. Comprehensive granular control.
  • Heartbeat control, DNS prefetch, local fonts/analytics, lazy loading.
• Half the cost at unlimited tier. $124.95/yr (Perfmatters) vs $299/yr (WP Rocket). $175/yr savings × every client × forever.
• Fewer toggles to fight with. ACSS produces lean CSS already; WP Rocket’s minify/combine features (which we’d disable until Phase 5 anyway) become unnecessary because Perfmatters doesn’t have them.

Consequences

• Performance optimization is now a two-layer story: GridPane FastCGI for caching, Perfmatters for asset/script management. Clean separation of concerns.
• The Script Manager becomes a Phase 4 productization workflow — configure rules per page archetype, ship those rules across all clients via the locked stack.
• License procurement: $124.95/yr unlimited tier under Blackbyrd account.

Related

• stack/overview.mdx
• decisions/2026-04-27-stack-foundation.mdx