This is the biggest update we’ve shipped since BerqWP launched.
v4 isn’t a collection of new settings or tweaks. It’s a rethink of how BerqWP works from the ground up, built around two things we kept hearing from users: more reliability, and a free option that actually does something meaningful.
Here’s what changed.
A More Reliable Connection to Our Servers
In v3, the plugin uploaded your page’s HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and fonts directly to our servers for optimization. This worked well for most sites, but on certain hosting environments it caused problems. Hosting firewalls would block the outgoing file transfers, interrupting optimization and leaving sites with broken or missing cache.
In v4, we changed this entirely.
The plugin now sends only two things to our servers: your page URL and your plugin settings. Our cloud servers then fetch everything they need directly, using Cloudflare Workers to make those requests. Cloudflare Workers are far less likely to be blocked by hosting firewalls than traditional server-to-server requests. All optimization happens on BerqWP’s own cloud infrastructure.
Nothing is uploaded from your server. Nothing is transferred. Just a URL and your settings.
For most users this change will be invisible. For the users who were experiencing firewall blocks and failed optimizations, it should resolve the problem entirely.
Two Optimization Methods: Local Optimization and BerqWP Cloud
v4 introduces a formal choice between two ways to run BerqWP.
Local Optimization (Free)
Local Optimization runs entirely on your own server using PHP. No account. No license key. No external dependencies.
It is our way of giving something back to the WordPress community, and it is free forever.
What you get with Local Optimization:
- Full-page caching, with server-level delivery on Apache (automatic .htaccess rules written on activation) and configurable delivery on Nginx
- Four optimization modes: Standard, Smart, Blaze, and Turbo
- Lazy loading for images, background images, YouTube embeds, and Google Maps
- LCP image preloading, automatically detected per page
- Image dimension attributes to prevent layout shifts
- Prerender on Link Hover, using the browser’s Speculation Rules API
- URL prefetching for faster navigation
- Font optimization
- Sandbox Mode for safe testing
BerqWP Cloud (Premium)
BerqWP Cloud is not Local Optimization with more features switched on. It is a fundamentally different level of optimization.
Every optimization runs on our cloud infrastructure. Our servers fetch your pages, apply every optimization we are capable of, and store the result back on your site as cache. Your server does none of the heavy lifting.
Beyond the feature set, BerqWP Cloud delivers real-time compatibility patches for themes and plugins. When something in the WordPress ecosystem changes and causes an issue with optimization, we can fix it at the cloud level without requiring a plugin update. Your sites stay compatible automatically.
Cloud-exclusive features include: critical CSS generation, WebP image conversion, Fluid Images with AVIF delivery, JavaScript execution modes, BerqWP CDN, Web Vitals Analytics, and automatic cache warmup across your entire site.
Server-Side Cache Delivery
On Apache servers, BerqWP now automatically writes rewrite rules into your .htaccess file when the plugin is activated. When a visitor lands on a cached page, Apache serves the pre-compressed HTML file directly, before PHP or WordPress loads at all.
This is the fastest possible way to deliver a cached page. No PHP execution. No database queries. Just a file served directly from disk.
The cache is smart: it skips logged-in users, WooCommerce cart sessions, and password-protected pages automatically. The rules are removed cleanly when you deactivate the plugin.
On Nginx servers, you can configure equivalent rules manually. The full configuration is documented in our help center. Read: Serve Cached Pages Directly from Nginx
New Optimization Modes
The four optimization modes have been renamed to better reflect what they actually do:
| Old Name | New Name | CSS | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Standard | Browser default | Browser default |
| Medium | Smart | Asynchronous | Asynchronous |
| Blaze | Blaze | Asynchronous | Delayed |
| Aggressive | Turbo | Delayed | Delayed |
Start with Turbo. Step down to Blaze or Smart if anything on your site breaks.
Prerender on Link Hover
New in v4 and available on both Local Optimization and BerqWP Cloud: when a visitor hovers over a link, BerqWP uses the browser’s Speculation Rules API to start prerendering the destination page in the background. By the time they click, the page is already loaded.
This is available in Chrome and Edge today. Safari and Firefox support is on the way.
Smarter Cache File Structure
v4 changes how cached files are stored on disk. Cache files are now stored at a path that mirrors your site’s URL structure:
wp-content/cache/berqwp/html/your-domain.com/page-path/index.html.gz
This replaces the flat MD5-hashed filenames used in previous versions. The new structure makes it easier to inspect, debug, and reason about what’s cached and where.
Separate CSS and JavaScript Exclusion Fields
Previously, CSS and JavaScript exclusions shared a single field. In v4 these are now split into three separate fields under BerqWP > Script Manager:
- Exclude CSS — URLs, filenames, or keywords to exclude from the CSS delivery method
- Exclude JavaScript — URLs, filenames, or keywords to exclude from the JavaScript delivery method
- Exclude Third-Party Scripts — keywords to exclude from the new Delay Third-Party Scripts feature
Two new toggles come with these fields. Defer Excluded JavaScript makes excluded JS files non-blocking by deferring them, so removing a script from optimization no longer means it has to render-block the page. Delay Third-Party Scripts delays scripts from external domains until user interaction, keeping initial page load clean without touching your own JS files.
Smarter CDN Asset Handling After Updates
When you install or update a plugin or theme, BerqWP now automatically marks your CDN assets as stale. The next time a page is optimized, fresh assets are generated and pushed to the CDN.
Previously this required a manual CDN cache flush after every plugin or theme update. Now it happens automatically. Your visitors always get the correct CSS, JavaScript, and other assets after an update, without any action on your part.
This is distinct from a full cache flush. Only the CDN assets are marked stale, not the entire page cache.
MetaBox AIO Compatibility
BerqWP Cloud’s cache warmup now detects custom post types registered through the MetaBox All-In-One plugin. Previously, MetaBox AIO custom post types were silently skipped during warmup, leaving those pages uncached until a real visitor hit them. v4 resolves this automatically.
How to Get v4
If you’re already running BerqWP, update through your WordPress dashboard. The plugin will upgrade in place.
If you have an active license key, the plugin will automatically switch to BerqWP Cloud after the update. No action needed.
If you don’t have a license, the plugin will default to Local Optimization. Everything still works — you just get the free feature set.
After updating:
- Go to BerqWP > Dashboard and confirm your optimization method is set correctly
- Set your optimization mode. We recommend starting with Turbo
- Flush your cache from the BerqWP admin bar
If you’re new to BerqWP, install it from the WordPress plugin directory and follow the same steps. No account required for Local Optimization.
What’s Next
v4 is the foundation we’re building on. The architecture change to URL-only communication opens up optimizations that weren’t possible before.
If you run into anything unexpected after updating, Sandbox Mode is your friend: enable it in BerqWP > Dashboard, test your site, and reach out at berqwp.com/support if something needs attention.
Thank you to everyone in the community who tested the beta, reported issues, and gave us feedback. This release is better because of you.
The BerqWP Team
