Hummingbird Performance – Cache & Page Speed Optimization for Core Web Vitals | Critical CSS | Minify CSS | Defer CSS Javascript | CDN Plugin

Hummingbird makes your website faster and optimizes site performance by adding new ways to boost Google PageSpeed Insights with fine-tuned controls over file compression, deferring CSS and JavaScript styles and scripts, minify for CSS and JS, Lazy Load integration, and world-class caching.

Hummingbird is brought to you by the WordPress speed specialists that created Smush image optimization, now active on more than +1 million websites. Get the complete speed boost with Hummingbird and Smush.

Enjoy top-tier performance and PageSpeed optimization from the start with Hummingbird Pro.

Level up immediately with exclusive Pro features like Delay JavaScript Execution, Critical CSS Generation, Brotli file compression, and 123-point global asset CDN with unlimited bandwidth. Learn more about Pro.

If PageSpeed Insights is making these speed recommendations Hummingbird can help:

• Enable text compression – Use gzip to make your site fly (Brotli Compression via CDN included with Pro).
• Preconnect to required origins – Use Hummingbird to establish earlier connections.
• Preload key requests – Prioritize resources based on order.
• Avoid enormous network payloads – Consider Lazy Load for comments or breaking up smaller posts.
• Use efficient cache – The Hummingbird Cache suite offers effective browser cache for caching any site.
• Fix your JavaScript execution time – Deliver smaller JS payloads, preload JS, and defer JS.
• Minify CSS – Strip unused code from your CSS.
• Minify JavaScript – Speed up the time it takes to parse your JS files.
• Eliminate render-blocking resources – Move critical CSS and JS inline and defer all non-critical JS/CSS.
• Delay JavaScript execution (Pro only) – Increase performance by delaying the loading of non-critical JS files and scripts until user interaction.
• Automatically generate Critical CSS (Pro only) – Substantially boost page speed and UX by prioritizing above-the-fold content.
• Defer unused CSS – Defer the loading of CSS not used for above-the-fold content.
• Lazy Load offscreen images (Smush free integration).

Hummingbird scans your site and provides one-click fixes to speed up WordPress in a flash.

You’ll get faster loading pages, higher search rankings (SERP) and PageSpeed scores, and happier visitors with Hummingbird’s WordPress speed optimization. Optimizing the speed of your site has never been easier!

Features Available in Hummingbird Include:

• Scan and Fix – Get a scan of your site, find out what’s slowing it down, and use one-click performance improvements to make critical speed improvements.
• World-class caching – A full caching suite to load pages faster with full-page, Gravatar, and browser cache tool.
• Performance Reports – Pro tips for running your site at super speed.
• Asset Optimization – Position, minify and combine Javascript, CSS, and Google Font files for top performance. Test changes with built-in Safe Mode.
• Better Rankings – Improve scores on Google PageSpeed Insights (SEO ranking factor), YSlow, Pingdom, and GTmetrix.
• Increase Your Conversion Rate – Don’t keep visitors waiting: faster sites convert better.
• GZIP Compression – Blazing-fast HTML, JavaScript, and stylesheet (CSS) transfer.
• Configs – Set your preferred performance settings, save them as config, and instantly upload to any other site.
• Font Optimization – Improve site speed, Core Web Vitals, and visual stability by preloading critical fonts and enabling fallbacks.

Learn The Ropes With These Hands-On Hummingbird Tutorials

• How To Optimize WordPress For Speed With Hummingbird
• How To Optimize Elementor for Free Using Smush and Hummingbird
• How To Optimize WPBakery Sites Using Smush And Hummingbird
• Speed Up and Optimize Avada for Free Using Smush and Hummingbird
• Optimize Divi for Free Using Smush and Hummingbird

Hummingbird Features to Speed Up WordPress

Scan and One-Click Fix

Hummingbird is a WordPress speed optimization plugin. It will scan your site, find files that are slowing it down, and provide tips and fixes for making your site run at top speed.

Hummingbird even has one-click improvements like a full cache suite, one-click minify for styles and scripts, and deferring CSS and JS for quickly optimizing performance. What could be easier!

World-Class Caching

You’ll get a world-class caching suite, including full-page, browser, and Gravatar cache.

Make your site load even faster with Hummingbird’s complete set of cache tools that give your visitors a faster browsing experience. Including full-page, browser and Gravatar caching.

Asset Optimization

Did you know that the more files you add to your site’s header, the slower it will load? With Hummingbird, you can easily customize the load position of your CSS, JavaScript (defer CSS and Javascript), Fonts, and other files to increase your page speed.

Quickly reorder, compress, and reposition files with Hummingbird’s minification feature. Reset any changes you make in one click, or use Asset Optimization Safe Mode to test changes before pushing live.

Transfer Data at Top Speed With GZIP

Hummingbird has GZIP powers to make sharing your site more efficient.

Sending zipped files is faster and can save you money on hosting. And don’t worry about setup, send Hummingbird instructions with the click of a button and she’ll handle the rest.

Built-in Cloudflare Integration

Hummingbird can be used to control your Cloudflare browser cache and Automatic Platform Optimizations (APO) settings as well! Simply add your Cloudflare API key and configure away.

Font Optimization

Boost site speed, Core Web Vitals, and the visual stability of pages for users with Hummingbird’s one-click font optimization features: Preload Fonts, which instructs browsers to preload essential fonts, and Swap Web Fonts, which applies a temporary fallback font until the primary one loads.

Fully Compatible With Smush Image Optimization

You can complement Hummingbird’s WordPress speed optimization features with our award-winning sister-plugin Smush image optimization. Smush compresses your images, giving your site less to load – and thus a faster load time. Hummingbird + Smush integrate perfectly together, and are the perfect match to speed up WordPress.

Compress, optimize (optimise), and fix PageSpeed performance with properly sized images, lazy load, next-gen WebP convert, image formatting, and more.

Save time with Hummingbird Configs

Configs allow you to save your preferred Hummingbird configuration settings and apply them to your other sites in a few clicks. You can create unlimited configs.

Delay Javascript Resources (Pro Only)

Boost site performance dramatically by delaying the loading of JS files and third-party scripts until direct user interaction (e.g. scroll or click). Enjoy faster loading pages, improve web vitals, and ace your PageSpeed scores.

Activate in one click, includes user interaction timeout and the option to exclude critical files from being delayed. A paid WPMU DEV account (the developers of Hummingbird) is required to access this feature. You can check out our affordable plans here.

Generate Critical CSS (Pro Only)

Maximize site speed and user experience by prioritizing only the CSS that matters most. The Generate Critical CSS feature intelligently generates and embeds critical CSS in the head of each page, giving priority to above-the-fold content and significantly improving loading speed. Updates to your critical CSS are automated with every site design change, and you can enable/disable with a click.

Faster Websites Rank Higher, Convert Better

Every millisecond counts: your visitors expect an ever-faster website, with a page load time of under two seconds expected – and the norm. If visitors don’t get that on your site, they will leave.

If you’re running a business website or eCommerce store, that means if your website does not load quickly, you will lose sales.

Hummingbird is here to help you; it’s a one of a kind WordPress performance optimization plugin that can make your site run at superspeed, for free!

You get our WordPress performance optimization suite, which includes minification and GZIP for small page sizes, full caching for faster loading, and integration with Cloudflare’s APO / browser cache, and our sister-plugin Smush image optimization.

Hummingbird is built with ease-of-use in mind; it makes your WordPress site faster, but it’s also fast to set up. You can scan your site and implement recommended changes in one-click, getting a fast site in mere minutes.

All the above is free and will speed up WordPress for you. If you need the very fastest WordPress site, you should get a WPMU DEV Membership.

Our Membership gives you access to Hummingbird Pro – which features automated scanning, uptime monitoring, enhanced minify compression (with 2x the regular optimization), CDN hosted minification – alongside Smush Pro image optimization, all our premium WordPress plugins, and 24/7 WordPress support.

It’s an incredible deal, and you can find out more here.

What do People say About Hummingbird?

★★★★★

“Hummingbird is so easy to use. I thought it wouldn’t change my speed much because I already made improvements. I ran the scan, it gave me recommendations, I pushed a button to apply them and it made my site even faster!” – Camilo

★★★★★

“Hummingbird is getting smarter with each update. Today it’s become so good that it forced me to remove giant cache and optimization plugins like WP Super Cache and WP Sweep because now Hummingbird includes all those features – but in a more impressive way.” – swagatam1975

★★★★★

“Hummingbird took me from 32 to 84 on Google page speed plus made my site 50% faster on GTmetrix!” – Nicolas

★★★★★

“I just built a real bloated sack of crap of a WP site, and after configuring Hummingbird and letting it do its thing, the site is actually fast — much faster than it has any right to be…I’m impressed.” – Cacarr

A Note From Hummingbird

Hey! This is Hummingbird, your trusted solution to speed up WordPress. I’m part of the WPMU DEV team, a superhero-suite of WordPress plugins, services, and support. Here are some of our other free plugins:

• Smush – Image Compression and Optimization
• Forminator – Form, Quiz, Poll and Survey Builder
• Hustle – Pop-ups, Slide-ins and Email Opt-ins

And if you need ALL our Pro plugins AND 24/7 WordPress support, get WPMU DEV membership!

My superhero friends run the WPMU DEV Blog, your source for the very best WordPress tutorials. If you need to be in the know about WordPress, check it out.

Thanks for looking at Hummingbird, and I look forward to flying through your site to make it faster than ever.

Enjoy, The Hummingbird

About Us

WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Join us here:
https://wpmudev.com/

Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource:
WPMU DEV Blog

Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you!

1. 

   Scan your site for optimization tips and tricks.

2. 

   Use the complete suite of cache tools to speed up load times.

3. 

   Asset Optimization lets you combine and reposition CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files.

4. 

   Use suggestions to make improvements and speed up your site.

3.9.2 ( 2024-07-23 )

• Improvement: Security hardening

3.9.1 ( 2024-07-15 )

• Fix: Whitelabel fixes
• Improvement: General code improvements

3.9.0 ( 2024-07-09 )

• Improvement: Better integration with WPMU Dev hosting’s Static Server Cache
• Improvement: Option to switch Font Swapping modes to fine tune performance
• Improvement: Option to switch Font Preloading modes to fine tune performance
• Improvement: Preload Caching is now enabled by default for Homepage when Page Caching is active
• Improvement: Woo cart and checkout pages are excluded from optimization to prevent broken functionality
• Improvement: Faster Critical CSS processing
• Improvement: WP 6.6 compatibility
• Fix: Google Site Kit compatibility with Asset Optimization
• Fix: Relative URLs are now handled without errors when generating Critical CSS

3.8.1 ( 2024-05-02 )

• Fix: Font optimization causes issue with RSS feeds
• Fix: PHP errors and warnings

3.8.0 ( 2024-04-29 )

• New: Load local fonts early with font preloading
• New: Font swapping to ensure that text remains visible while webfont is downloading
• Improvement: Better caching compatibility with popular third-party plugins
• Improvement: Auto-populate CDN and web font domains in Advanced Tools > Preconnect
• Fix: PHP warnings
• Fix: Delay JS compatibility issue with Avada
• Fix: Asset optimization bug fixes

3.7.4 ( 2024-03-27 )

• Improvement: Security hardening

3.7.3 ( 2024-03-21 )

• New: Replaced deprecated FID check with INP in performance test

3.7.2 ( 2024-01-16 )

• New: Use static IPs for Critical CSS service
• Improvement: Ignore missing CSS files when generating Critical CSS
• Fix: Avoid calling the Critical CSS service too frequently

3.7.1 ( 2023-12-20 )

• Improvement: Stability improvements

3.7.0 ( 2023-12-06 )

• Fix: Critical CSS and Delay JS causing validation errors with AMP
• Fix: Compatibility warning with PHP 8.3
• Improvement: Better analytics

3.6.1 ( 2023-11-06 )

• Fix: Minify module generating CSS file with HTML inside, when source CSS file not found

3.6.0 ( 2023-10-09 )

• New: Generate Critical CSS for your pages to address render-blocking resource warnings and eliminate unused CSS
• Improvement: Add comments for all translation strings that have placeholders in them
• Improvement: Set minimum required PHP version to 7.4
• Fix: PHP errors and warnings
• Fix: Asset Optimization doesn’t save settings on Manual Mode
• Fix: Delay JS conflict with Hub Client

3.5.0 ( 2023-06-27 )

• New: Delay JS – Delay the execution of scripts to prioritize page rendering
• Improvement: PHP 8.2 Compatibility
• Fix: Accessibility Improvements
• Fix: Security audit and improvements
• Fix: Filter panel overlaps result while scrolling down on Asset Optimization page
• Fix: Asset Optimization doesn’t save manual settings in some situations
• Fix: Minor improvements in code and copy

3.4.7 ( 2023-06-13 )

• Improvement: Performance improvements

3.4.6 ( 2023-04-17 )

• Improvement: Switch from React development build to production build
• Fix: Asset Optimization stats showing NaN on non-English sites
• Fix: HB CDN automatically excluding two files from Themeco Pro theme
• Fix: Hummingbird performance test results accordion not opening
• Fix: Whitelabel issue with “What’s New” modal
• Fix: Minor compatibility issues with PHP 8.2

3.4.5 ( 2023-03-28 )

• Fix: Incorrect post types getting deleted

3.4.4 ( 2023-03-15 )

• Improvement: Minor bug fixes and improvements

3.4.3 ( 2023-02-23 )

• Fix: Security fix

3.4.2 ( 2023-02-16 )

• Fix: JS error in configs

3.4.1 ( 2023-02-16 )

• Improvement: Security hardening
• Fix: Issue when upgrading from version 2.7.3

3.4.0 ( 2022-11-28 )

• New: Asset optimization safe mode
• New: React-based asset optimization module
• New: Compatibility module with WPMU DEV hosting FastCGI feature
• New: Map generated filenames to actual filenames on Manual Asset Optimisation
• New: Replace Google fonts with Bunny fonts for GDPR compliance
• Fix: Performance module showing older version of the report after scan
• Fix: Page cache preloader icon
• Fix: Uptime compatibility with WPMU DEV free Hub
• Fix: Smush activation links on MU
• Fix: Dashboard Asset Optimization Stats are different from the AO Summary Details
• Fix: Miscellaneous PHP warnings and errors

3.3.7 ( 2022-11-17 )

• Improvement: Code and compatibility improvements

3.3.6 ( 2022-11-01 )

• Enhance: Security hardening
• Enhance: WP 6.1 compatibility

3.3.5 ( 2022-10-04 )

• Enhance: Membership status check

3.3.4 ( 2022-06-16 )

• Enhance: Split out JavaScript libraries into smaller files
• Enhance: Reports compatibility with Defender masking feature
• Enhance: Cleanup on uninstall on network installs
• Enhance: Page cache compatibility with Defender security headers
• Fix: Usage tracking option on network installs
• Fix: Setup module logic on plugin activation
• Fix: Inline limits in asset optimization
• Fix: Weekly performance report sometimes sent out twice
• Fix: Settings link on Plugins page
• Fix: Comment on-click lazy loading
• Fix: Translation link URL
• Fix: Tooltip showing by default on ‘Checking files’ asset optimization modal
• Fix: Redis module not always being able to write to wp-config.php file
• Fix: Skip onboarding wizard if a config has been applied
• Fix: Rename “Basic” config to “Default”
• Fix: Tutorials scripts loading on all pages

3.3.3 ( 2022-05-12 )

• New: Set the number of comments to preload in lazy loading module
• Enhance: Clean up after uninstalling on multisite
• Enhance: Remove duplicate ‘wphb_page_cache_cleared’ action in favour of ‘wphb_clear_cache_url’
• Enhance: Sanitize input fields in Configs module
• Enhance: Compatibility with Weglot plugin
• Fix: PHP undefined array key warnings
• Fix: Fatal error when clearing cache in certain conditions
• Fix: Toggling Uptime from WPMU DEV hub
• Fix: Clear cache button not white labeled
• Fix: Onboarding setup wizard summary layout
• Fix: Onboarding setup wizard tracking option on multisite
• Fix: Smush upsell block logic
• Fix: Tutorials on dashboard page cannot be hidden
• Fix: Duplicate users in notifications modal
• Fix: Errors when offloading ES6 modules with import statements to CDN
• Fix: Clear cache button (admin bar) logic on network installs
• Fix: Cloudflare zone selector not working
• Fix: High contrast notice in comments lazy load module
• Fix: Lazy loading WooCommerce reviews

3.3.2 ( 2022-03-14 )

• Fix: XSS vulnerability

3.3.1 ( 2022-02-24 )

• New: Onboarding setup wizard
• Enhance: Support for WPMU DEV Hub
• Enhance: Add a unique salt when enabling Redis integration
• Enhance: “How does it work” section in asset optimization module
• Fix: Incorrect detection of Cloudflare APO status
• Fix: Missing action buttons on Integrations page in sub sites
• Fix: Page cache not clearing when caching is disabled on subsites
• Fix: Duplicate ID elements on dashboard page
• Fix: Inability to auto start asset optimization scan from dashboard page on free version
• Fix: Remove global configs from network subsites
• Fix: An invalid form control with name=’cloudflare-email’ is not focusable error
• Fix: Documentation link in Notifications module
• Fix: Translation strings
• Fix: Styles for Select2 textarea elements

3.3.0 ( 2022-01-11 )

• New: Font optimization is now part of automatic asset optimization mode
• New: Notification email designs
• New: Plugin icon
• Enhance: Add file size limits for inlining assets in asset optimization module
• Enhance: Status of assets in asset optimization module
• Enhance: Updating of exclusion list in asset optimization UI
• Enhance: Page types exclusions in page caching
• Enhance: PHP 8.1 compatibility
• Fix: Clearing page cache on subsites in a network sub-directory installs
• Fix: Page caching module not showing for site admins
• Fix: Browser caching module not showing on subsites with Cloudflare integration
• Fix: Cached files counter when purging cache
• Fix: Infinite loop with orphaned assets when page cache integrations are enabled
• Fix: Cases when asset optimization breaks CSS with background SVG images
• Fix: Asset optimization auto selecting files in auto mode
• Fix: Cloudflare integration when a site is installed in a sub-folder
• Fix: Missing notification modules and translations
• Fix: Errors when purging Varnish cache
• Fix: Fatal error when scheduling database reports
• Fix: Fatal error with WP Ultimo 2.x

3.2.1 ( 2021-11-24 )

• Fix: Sync issues with WPMU DEV Hub

3.2.0 ( 2021-11-24 )

• New: Notifications module and dashboard widget
• New: Performance reports for subsites
• New: Database cleanup reports
• New: Page cache integration with WP Ultimo plugin
• New: Browser caching set up wizard
• Enhance: Simplify and improve browser caching setup
• Enhance: Allow changing file location for asset optimization in multisite
• Fix: PHP warnings when syncing settings with Hub
• Fix: Parse warning in DOM when using font optimization

3.1.4 ( 2021-11-04 )

• Enhance: White labeling support
• Fix: Double notices on Dashboard page
• Fix: Translation strings

3.1.3 ( 2021-11-01 )

• Enhance: Minor performance improvements

3.1.2 ( 2021-10-19 )

• New: Option to hide average response time from Uptime reports
• Enhance: Database cleanup drafts processing – drafts are now moved to trash instead of removed completely
• Enhance: Asset optimization processing – to prevent infinite processing loops, assets that use timestamps for versions will no longer be tracked
• Enhance: Asset optimization purging orphaned data entries
• Enhance: LiteSpeed server browser cache instructions
• Enhance: Compatibility with WPMU DEV hosting FastCGI
• Fix: Asset version changes not triggering asset optimization updates
• Fix: Page cache not clearing out cache when menu is updated
• Fix: Page cache not working on a page/post if the slug is ‘mobile’
• Fix: PHP undefined offset warnings
• Fix: Hidden CPTs clearing out page cache
• Fix: Configs not working for subsite admins
• Fix: PHP warnings on Dashboard page when Smush was previously installed and removed
• Fix: Performance optimization guide link

3.1.1 ( 2021-09-07 )

• New: Import/export of asset optimization settings on network subsites
• Enhance: Page caching warnings and errors
• Enhance: Compatibility with PHP 8.1
• Fix: PHP warning in Asset Optimization module
• Fix: Error with [object Object] in Gzip module
• Fix: Page cache status when disabling the plugin on the network
• Fix: Preload key requests audit in performance test
• Fix: Performance scans not always starting in Firefox
• Fix: Cloudflare integration not detecting mapped domains on subsites
• Fix: Cloudflare modal not properly closing
• Fix: Overlapping tooltips on Asset optimization page

3.1.0 ( 2021-07-20 )

• New: Asset optimization preload option
• New: Asset optimization async option for external assets
• New: Add prefix to Redis cache via the WP_REDIS_SALT define (possible to store cache for multiple sites in a single database)
• New: DNS prefetch for asset optimization CDN
• New: Filter relevant audits in the performance test
• New: Connect to Cloudflare via API token
• Enhance: Allow setting crossorigin attribute for preconnect resources
• Enhance: Performance test score metrics weights (inline with latest Lighthouse changes)
• Enhance: Performance test tooltips
• Enhance: Make sure logging is active only when both WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG are set
• Enhance: Set the cache by device type option in Cloudflare APO for new installs
• Enhance: White labeling support
• Enhance: Processing of configs from other plugins
• Fix: Do not preconnect to Google fonts servers if no fonts are being optimized
• Fix: Broken purchase link in Cloudflare APO integration
• Fix: Page cache module not always showing on subsites
• Fix: Redis not connecting to external servers via hostname
• Fix: PHP warnings for undefined index original_size
• Fix: PHP warnings when doing performance scans from Dashboard
• Fix: PHP warnings array_filter() expects parameter 1 to be array
• Fix: Saving/applying settings via configs for Page Caching module on network installs

3.0.1 ( 2021-06-17 )

• New: Configs
• New: Define for controlling Redis exclusion groups
• New: Allow adding admin bar shortcuts for purging various caches
• Enhance: Move admin bar cache controls settings to the Settings – General page
• Enhance: Performance test informative audits UI
• Fix: Dashboard and Gzip compression module layout issues on mobile devices
• Fix: White pages when page cache is removed without header files
• Fix: Asset optimization empty debug link on subsites
• Fix: Documentation links
• Fix: Skip performance test button styles
• Fix: Skipping performance tests on subsites

3.0.0 ( 2021-05-19 )

• New: Performance reports (synced with latest Lighthouse API)
• New: Cloudflare automatic platform optimization (APO) integration
• New: Cloudflare integration for subsites
• New: Asset optimization font preloading
• New: Allow customizing page cache file names with a wphb_cache_* cookie
• New: Preconnect option
• Enhance: Asset optimization asset action tooltips
• Enhance: UX in Redis integration
• Enhance: Asset optimization and page cache compatibility
• Fix: Asset optimization settings reset
• Fix: Asset optimization UI inconsistencies
• Fix: Clear cache notice on network subsites
• Fix: Select element styles on reporting screens
• Fix: Overwriting network admin settings in advanced tools
• Fix: Page cache clearing taking too long during post edit
• Fix: Cloudflare browser caching settings not syncing with Hub

Changelog for previous versions.