Do I need a caching plugin?

We almost always recommend our server-level caching options over any plugin caching solution. We run a stack optimised only for WordPress, and it is done at the server level, meaning that it's super fast and your site doesn't need to do more than simply serve pages. 

Should I run a plugin like Swift, WP Rocket etc? 

Generally speaking, running a plugin like these, the caching part of it won’t move the needle as long as you’re using one of our server-level caches, but the site optimisations like CSS minification, JS deferments, image optimizations, those types of optimizations can definitely move the needle.

However, if you choose to run these plugins, we would recommend either disabling the caching component of these plugins or disabling our server-level cache. If you do run both caches, what tends to happen is that the cache will become cross poisoned. The plugin cache will be cleared, but the server cache will still have some data in it, leading to errors on the site, visual errors, etc.

Generally speaking you will get much the same results with our server level systems. 

Plugins we use to manage the cache

Plugins you should leave active that help manage that cache are: 

• Cloudflare
• Nginx Helper
• Redis Object Cache