It’s not overkill to combine Cloudflare cache and a WordPress (or a Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3) cache plugin because they operate at different levels and complement each other, rather than fully overlapping. Think of it like this:

• Cloudflare Cache (Global Front Door): This cache sits outside your website, on Cloudflare’s massive global network of servers. When a user requests your site, Cloudflare checks its cache first. If it has a copy, it serves it directly from a server geographically close to the user. This is incredibly fast because the request doesn’t even have to reach your WordPress server. It’s like having multiple express lanes on a highway before anyone even gets to your house.
  • Best for: Static assets (images, CSS, JavaScript files), and frequently accessed pages that don’t change often. It significantly reduces the load on your server.
• WordPress Cache Plugin (Inside Your House): This cache operates on your WordPress server. When a user requests a page that isn’t in Cloudflare’s cache, or a dynamic page, the request goes to your server. The WordPress cache plugin then intercepts this request and serves a pre-built, static version of the page from your server’s disk, rather than having WordPress dynamically build the page from scratch (which involves querying the database, running PHP scripts, etc.). This is much faster than processing the full WordPress request every time. It’s like having a pre-cooked meal ready in your fridge instead of preparing it from scratch every time someone visits.
  • Best for: Dynamic pages, reducing database queries, and speeding up the server-side processing when Cloudflare can’t serve the content directly.

Why they’re a great combination:

1. Reduced Server Load: Cloudflare handles a significant portion of traffic, meaning fewer requests ever hit your WordPress server. The WordPress cache plugin then handles the remaining requests more efficiently.
2. Faster Global Delivery: Cloudflare’s CDN ensures users worldwide get content quickly from the nearest server.
3. Optimized Dynamic Content: The WordPress plugin is specifically designed to optimize how WordPress delivers content, especially dynamic pages that Cloudflare might not cache as effectively.
4. Redundancy and Layers of Speed: If one cache misses, the other catches it. This creates multiple layers of optimization, leading to a much faster overall experience for your users and a more stable server for you.

In essence, Cloudflare acts as a super-fast global filter for most requests, while the WordPress plugin ensures that anything that does reach your server is handled as efficiently as possible. It’s a powerful one-two punch for website performance.