ZiziCache

RC Beta

Join the Beta β

How to Install and Activate ZiziCache Plugin?

Updated on 10. 2. 2026

Installation Requirements

Before installing ZiziCache, ensure your server meets the following minimum requirements:

Server Requirements

  • PHP Version: 8.1 or higher (PHP 8.3.16+ recommended for best performance)
  • WordPress Version: 6.8 or higher (WordPress 6.8.3+ recommended for latest optimizations)
  • Memory Limit: 512 MB minimum (2048 MB recommended for bulk operations)
  • Disk Space: At least 500 MB free space for cache storage and image optimization
  • File Permissions: Write permissions for wp-content directory and subdirectories
  • MySQL: InnoDB engine support for database tables

Optional Enhancements

  • Redis Object Cache: Version 7.x for 96%+ cache hit rate (7,000-8,000 hits/page)
  • Memcached Object Cache: Alternative to Redis with bidirectional exclusion support
  • OPcache: PHP bytecode caching with automatic management
  • GD or Imagick: For WebP/AVIF image conversion (97% size reduction)
  • WooCommerce Action Scheduler: Bundled for background tasks
  • mod_rewrite (Apache) or OpenLiteSpeed: For advanced optimizations and parallel preload

Installation Methods

Method 1: Direct Upload via WordPress Admin

  1. Download the ZiziCache plugin zip file from LemonSqueezy
  2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New
  3. Click Upload Plugin button at the top
  4. Choose the downloaded zip file and click Install Now
  5. After installation completes, click Activate Plugin
  6. You’ll be redirected to the ZiziCache dashboard automatically

Method 2: FTP/SFTP Installation

  1. Download and extract the ZiziCache plugin files
  2. Upload the entire zizi-cache folder to /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  3. Ensure the folder structure is: /wp-content/plugins/zizi-cache/
  4. In WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins
  5. Find ZiziCache and click Activate
  6. The plugin will run initial setup routines automatically

Method 3: WP-CLI Installation

For command-line enthusiasts:

wp plugin install zizi-cache.zip --activate
wp zizi-cache preload-cache

License Activation

To receive automatic plugin updates and access premium features, activate your license key:

  1. After plugin activation, go to ZiziCache > License tab
  2. Enter your license key from LemonSqueezy
  3. Click Activate License
  4. Available plans:
    • Starter: 1 site activation
    • Small Business: 25 site activations
    • PRO Enterprise: 100 site activations
  5. Once activated, you’ll receive automatic updates via the WordPress updater

First-Time Setup

Automatic Security & Infrastructure Setup

Upon activation, ZiziCache automatically:

  • Creates necessary cache directories:
    • wp-content/cache/zizi-cache/ – Page cache storage
    • wp-content/cache/critical-css/ – Critical CSS files
    • wp-content/cache/used-css/ – RUCSS optimized files
  • Generates .htaccess files for cache protection
  • Creates wp-content/advanced-cache.php drop-in
  • Sets up secure file permissions (755 for directories, 644 for files)
  • Initializes database tables:
    • wp_zizi_cache_license – License management
    • wp_zizi_cwv_metrics – Core Web Vitals raw data
    • wp_zizi_cwv_summary – Aggregated performance metrics
    • wp_zizi_image_converter_stats – Image optimization tracking
    • wp_zizi_cache_urls – LiteSpeed cache URL tracking
  • Enables WordPress WP_CACHE constant in wp-config.php

Access the Dashboard

After activation, you can access ZiziCache dashboard via:

  1. Admin Sidebar: Look for the ZiziCache menu item (icon with plugin logo)
  2. Admin Bar: When logged in, ZiziCache appears in the top WordPress admin bar with quick actions
  3. Direct URL: /wp-admin/admin.php?page=zizi-cache
  4. The dashboard features a modern Vue.js SPA interface with 25 JavaScript modules

Dashboard Overview (15 Tabs)

The ZiziCache dashboard consists of 15 comprehensive tabs:

  • Overview: Dashboard statistics, cache status, performance graphs, system health
  • Page Cache: File-based cache configuration, lifespan, preload, mobile cache, bypass rules
  • BFCache: Back/Forward Cache configuration for instant page navigation
  • Optimization: Unified CSS/JS/HTML/Images/IFrame optimization settings
  • Font Optimization: Font preloading, Google Fonts optimization, font-display control, language priority
  • CDN: CDN configuration, Cloudflare integration, file type selection
  • Object Cache (Redis): Redis configuration, connection testing, hit rate monitoring
  • Memcached: Memcached configuration, server settings, bidirectional exclusion
  • OPcache: PHP bytecode cache status, manual flush, statistics
  • Image Optimizer: Lazy loading, WebP/AVIF bulk converter, auto-conversion, quality settings
  • Database: Cleanup operations, table optimization, Action Scheduler management
  • SLAPI / Quicklink: Configure Speculation Rules for intelligent prefetching and prerendering or Quicklink
  • Metrics (CWV): Core Web Vitals monitoring (LCP, LoAF, TTFB), performance graphs
  • License: License key management, activation status, auto-updater diagnostics

Cache Systems (4 Layers)

1. Page Cache (File-based)

  • Format: HTML files with GZIP compression (aprox. 70% size reduction)
  • Location: wp-content/cache/zizi-cache/
  • Modes: Auto / LiteSpeed / File (automatic detection)
  • Features:
    • Configurable cache lifespan (hours/days/unlimited)
    • Separate mobile cache with automatic user-agent detection
    • 404 page caching (bot protection)
    • Cache for logged-in users
    • 67 default query parameters to ignore (utm_*, fbclid, gclid, etc.)
    • Automatic preload with parallel threads (LiteSpeed)
    • Cookie-based bypass rules
    • URL pattern exclusions

2. Redis Object Cache

  • Features:
    • Unix socket and TCP connection support
    • Redis 6.0+ ACL authentication
    • AES-256-CBC encrypted password storage
    • Configurable database selection (default 1)
    • Custom key prefix/salt
    • Max TTL: 300 seconds
    • Health monitoring and connection testing
    • Automatic drop-in installation

3. Memcached Object Cache

  • Support: Full integration with MemcachedHandler
  • Features:
    • Multiple server support: ['127.0.0.1:11211']
    • Bidirectional exclusion (auto-disables Redis when activated)
    • Fail-safe template with graceful fallback
    • Automatic wp-config.php updates
    • Extension detection (memcache/memcached)
    • Custom key prefix (WP_CACHE_KEY_SALT)

4. OPcache (PHP Bytecode)

  • Features:
    • Automatic flush after plugin upgrades
    • Manual flush via dashboard or WP-CLI
    • Real-time statistics (memory usage, hit rate)
    • REST API integration

Initial Configuration

Essential First Steps

For immediate performance improvements, follow this recommended sequence:

1. Enable Page Cache (Highest Impact)

  1. Go to Page Cache tab
  2. Enable Page Cache toggle
  3. Configure cache lifespan (ex. 8 hours)
  4. Enable Separate Mobile Cache if you have responsive design
  5. Enable Cache Preload for automatic page generation
  6. Click Save Settings

2. Configure Object Cache (Redis or Memcached)

For Redis:

  1. Go to Object Cache tab
  2. Enter Redis connection details:
    • Host: 127.0.0.1 or Unix socket path
    • Port: 6379 (default)
    • Database: 1 (separate from other caches)
    • Password: If authentication is enabled
  3. Click Test Connection to verify
  4. Enable Redis Object Cache
  5. Monitor hit rate (should reach 96%+ after warm-up)

For Memcached:

  1. Go to Memcached tab
  2. Enter server details: 127.0.0.1:11211 or Unix socket
  3. Enable Memcached Object Cache (Redis will be auto-disabled)

3. Enable Image Optimization

  1. Go to Optimization tab
  2. Enable Lazy Loading with loading="lazy" attribute
  3. Enable LCP Detection for automatic Priority Hints
  4. Set above-fold exclusions (typically first 2-3 images)
  5. Go to Images tab
  6. Enable Auto-conversion on Upload
  7. Set format priority: AVIF first (97% reduction), WebP fallback (70% reduction)
  8. Quality: AVIF 75, WebP 80 (default optimal balance)
  9. Optionally run Bulk Conversion for existing images (50 per batch)

4. Optimize CSS & JavaScript

  1. Go to Optimization tab → CSS section
  2. Enable CSS Minification (matthiasmullie/minify engine)
  3. Enable Critical CSS extraction with viewport height (1200px default)
  4. Optionally enable RUCSS (Remove Unused CSS) – uses Sabberworm CSS Parser
  5. Loading method: Choose interaction, onload, or media_print
  6. Go to JavaScript section
  7. Enable JavaScript Minification
  8. Enable Defer JavaScript (130+ default exclusions)
  9. Configure Delay JavaScript with user interaction modes (smart/interaction/timeout)
  10. Enable Lazy Render for UI elements (hybrid/css/javascript methods)

5. Configure Font Optimization

  1. Go to Fonts tab
  2. Enable Master Switch
  3. Enable Google Fonts Optimization if using Google Fonts
  4. Enable Font Display Swap injection
  5. Configure Language Priority (auto, latin, cyrillic, arabic, etc.)
  6. Enable WOFF2 Fallback for better browser support
  7. Add manual preload URLs if needed

6. Enable Advanced Features (Optional)

  1. BFCache: Go to BFCache tab
    • Enable Back/Forward Cache for instant page navigation
    • Configure “Remember Me” requirement
    • Set token lifetime (14 days default)
    • Auto-exclude WooCommerce pages
  2. Early Hints: Enable HTTP 103 Early Hints for faster resource loading
    • Preload images, fonts, CSS, scripts
    • Configure crossorigin and fetchpriority attributes
  3. Speculative Loading: Configure prefetch/prerender
    • Mode: prefetch, prerender, or both
    • Eagerness: conservative, moderate, or eager
    • Quicklink fallback with 20+ configuration options
    • Analytics guard (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, MS Clarity)
  4. Core Web Vitals Monitoring:
    • Enable CWV monitoring with 5% sampling rate
    • Track LCP, LoAF, TTFB metrics
    • View performance graphs in CWV Metrics tab
    • 7-day raw data retention, 30-day summary retention
  5. Redundancy Removal: Go to Advanced tab
    • Disable WordPress bloat (emojis, jQuery Migrate, Dashicons, etc.)
    • Remove WooCommerce cart fragments, password strength meter
    • Disable Elementor Google Fonts
    • Control post revisions and heartbeat frequency
    • 30+ optimization options

LiteSpeed Integration

If using LiteSpeed server:

  1. Automatic Detection: Plugin auto-detects LiteSpeed and enables optimizations
  2. Parallel Preload: Configure parallel cache preload with curl_multi
    • Threads: 1-10 parallel requests (default 3)
    • Server load threshold: 0.5 max
    • Delay between batches: 500ms
    • Timeout per request: 20s
  3. Stale-while-revalidate: Enable stale content serving (24h TTL)
  4. Private Cache: Cache for logged-in users
  5. Mobile Vary: Separate mobile cache headers

CDN & Cloudflare

  1. Go to CDN tab
  2. Select CDN type: Pull CDN or Cloudflare
  3. Enter CDN URL
  4. Choose file types: all / images / css_js / fonts / videos / static
  5. Enable Force HTTPS
  6. For Cloudflare:
    • Enter API Token (Zone.CachePurge, Zone.ZoneSettings, Zone.Zone)
    • Enter Zone ID and Account ID
    • Enable Edge Caching

Compatibility Settings

ZiziCache automatically detects and integrates with 19 plugins:

  • WooCommerce: Excludes cart/checkout/account pages, product image cleanup
  • Page Builders: Elementor, Gutenberg, Bricks, Divi, Beaver Builder
  • Multilingual: WPML, WCML, TranslatePress, Weglot, Polylang
  • Image Optimization: EWWW, ShortPixelAI integration
  • Performance: Perfmatters, NginxHelper, SiteGround, Varnish, APO
  • Other: ACF, BuddyBoss, PrettyLinks

Verification of Installation

Check Plugin Status

  • Verify ZiziCache appears in Plugins > Installed Plugins
  • Confirm the plugin status shows as “Active”
  • Check version: 0.8.5-beta.rc (or newer if updated)
  • Verify the ZiziCache menu is visible in admin sidebar and admin bar
  • Check that WP_CACHE constant is set to true in wp-config.php
  • Verify object cache drop-in: wp-content/object-cache.php (if using Redis/Memcached)

Test Cache Functionality

  1. Visit your website homepage in an incognito window
  2. Open browser developer tools (F12)
  3. Go to Network tab
  4. Reload the page and check response headers:
    • X-Cache: HIT (after first visit)
    • X-Cache-Status: HIT
    • Content-Encoding: gzip (if GZIP enabled)
    • Look for 103 Early Hints requests (if enabled)
    • LiteSpeed servers: X-LiteSpeed-Cache: hit
  5. Check Elements tab for optimization indicators:
    • Images with loading="lazy" attribute
    • First image with fetchpriority="high"
    • WebP/AVIF images being served
    • Minified CSS and JS
    • Critical CSS in