W3 SUpercache and speed score
 

Interestingly, I am getting a lower google speed score on Google Page Insight once I activate the w3 super cache. Still, when it it turned off and the score is great, google is telling me to start using some cache.

Any idea what is going on here?

The W3 Supercache in itself takes too much computer power to run, so what you - as an experienced webmaster - save in loading time, you end up losing in processing time.

W3 Supercache is great for amateurs and people who doesn’t know and who doesn’t want to care enough. If you want a truly faster webpage, you need to enable caching maybe on server level or possibly via Cloudflare for example.

Is there a good plugin for that? I'm running into the same issue with different caching plugins.

I asked MoJo Hosting to install Memcached on my server because WordPress kept throwing up an alert to use either Memcache or Memcached to improve performance. I started using W-3 Supercache because it supported it. Is there a better plugin I could use to take advantage of Memcached properly?

If you are running nginx use nginx cache at the server level, way better performance

Unfortunately, I don't have nginx on my server and to install it now might cause issues for me.

when i use a cache plugin i use wp-rocket, i get anywhere from 95-99 on mobile and desktop. of course you will need to tweak your settings.

These cache plugins are not magical things that make your site fast instantly. Of course these will help some parts. W3 Total Cache free versions is great and has many features, I have used it some sites for years without issues.

You have to do some server configuration also.

Avoid shared hosting, get VPS. You have to optimize NGINX, Apache, SQL, Memcahced, Redis etc. what ever tech you use, to make site blazing fast.

Has anyone had any experience with Super Page Cache for Cloudflare? I have a couple of WP sites I might test this on just to see if it stands up to the hype.

Cdn
 

I think I've done the necessary stuff on the server, years ago. It is a VPS.
Anyway, I've tweaked stuff on the test subdomain, and I am satisfied with the results at the moment, although the main problem will be the sponsor live stream.

It is still without the usage of CDN. Now, the question (note that this is a small website, a blog).

It seems there is a free Cloudflare CDN available. I also have a CDN feature available for activation on my hosting account that I've never used.

What do you think, what is better?

From what little I know, with your own hosting you just have one point of CDN, where Cloudflare has over 200 points. Poor wording, I know.

More info at this WP plugin site.

wp-cloudflare-page-cache.zip