Breeze
by Cloudways
Cloudways' free cache plugin with file, database and Varnish level caching plus basic asset minification.
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What Breeze does
Cloudways' free cache plugin with file, database and Varnish level caching plus basic asset minification.
It sits in the performance part of a WordPress stack and is sold by Cloudways on a free basis. We recommend it in our performance guides because it does that one job well without asking you to rebuild the rest of the site around it.
Every plugin adds work to a page request, so treat this as a decision with a cost. Record a speed test before you install it and run the same test afterwards, on the same page, so you know exactly what it charged you.
Real user ratings
Score
3.6/5
Reviews
126
Active installs
300,000+
Downloads
17.4M
Latest version
2.5.15
Last updated
2026-09-09
These figures come straight from the public WordPress.org plugin directory API for version 2.5.15, not from us. Check them yourself on the WordPress.org listing. Our own editorial score is 3.6/5.
Where Breeze ranks elsewhere
Breeze does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
- Security: Completed the fix for the previously identified low-severity content injection concern related to cache handling.
- Improvement: Further improved cache handling to ensure consistent processing of requests with query-string variations.
- Fix: Addressed a low-severity content injection concern related to cache handling.
- Fix: Patched a medium-severity XSS issue under specific conditions. In most cases, WordPress admin approval was required; default installations are not affected.
- Fix: Resolved intermittent 404 errors on minified JS and CSS files after clearing the cache.
- Fix: Fixed corrupted file downloads and images with Gravity Forms.
- Improvement: Removed Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel from Host Files Locally, as hosting them locally does not improve performance and added unnecessary risk. Google Fonts remains available for local hosting, since it can genuinely i...
- Improvement: Reduced unnecessary database queries when preload has nothing to warm up.
- Fixed: Prevented crafted currency cookies from manipulating cache file handling and overwriting files.
- Improved: Enhanced compatibility with WCML, CURCY/WMC, WOOCS, Aelia Currency Switcher, and Weglot.
- Improved: Refined cache keys and ETags to better account for product variations.
- Improved: Enhanced variation handling and cache invalidation across multisite environments.
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
Pros and cons
- Works well on Cloudways servers with Varnish
- Free with no licence to renew
- Actively maintained and used on production sites we test
- Less useful away from Cloudways hosting
- Support is community-led rather than guaranteed
How to use it
- 1Record a baseline with our speed test before you change anything.
- 2Activate the plugin with its default settings and clear every cache layer.
- 3Re-run the test on the same page and template to see the real delta.
- 4Turn on one optimisation group at a time, testing after each change.
- 5Add exclusions for cart, checkout and logged-in pages.
How it compares
Other performance plugins we recommend, with their rating and pricing model.
| Plugin | Our rating | WordPress.org | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breeze | 3.6 | 3.6 (126) | Free | Works well on Cloudways servers with Varnish |
| AMP | 3.9 | 3.8 (367) | Free | Very fast mobile pages by construction |
| Autoptimize | 4.7 | 4.7 (1,428) | Free | Free asset optimisation that pairs with any cache |
| Hummingbird | 4.7 | 4.7 (1,487) | Freemium | The scan explains each fix in plain language |
| Jetpack | 3.7 | 3.7 (2,407) | Freemium | One plugin replaces several smaller ones |
| WP Super Cache | 4.3 | 4.3 (1,346) | Free | Simple, dependable static caching with no licence |
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