Records & measurement · Beginner · 20 minutes
How to enable LiteSpeed caching — The Cache Keys on the Hostname, So Check Every Name You Serve
The cache is working on your main name. Whether it is working on the three you added last year is a separate question with a separate answer.
The short answer
Install and activate LiteSpeed Cache, leave the defaults alone, then prove it with the response headers rather than with a stopwatch: x-litespeed-cache: hit on the second request is the evidence. Collect that evidence for each hostname the account serves, because www and the bare form are cached as separate entries, and so is every addon domain.
Below: why you cannot see the cache while signed in as an administrator, the exclusions worth confirming, and the cached redirect that gets mistaken for a DNS fault about once a month.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 24 August 2026
Beginner
Level assumed
5
Stages in the procedure
Free
Cost of asking us
Proven
Where it was checked
No technical background needed. This was written for people who manage names rather than servers, proven on the platform we actually run, and honest about which parts are genuinely fiddly rather than merely unfamiliar.
Read the trap section before you start rather than afterwards. It was assembled from the tickets of everybody who tried the other order.
Turn it on, then leave the settings alone
With WordPress on LiteSpeed servers, the plugin is the control surface for the server's own engine rather than a cache in its own right. Install it, activate it, switch caching on, and stop there. The stock lifetimes and rules suit most sites perfectly well.
Resist the urge to explore every option before the basics are proved. Most cache configurations that misbehave were configured before anybody confirmed the simple version worked.
Prove it in the headers, once per hostname
Open developer tools, network tab, and read the response headers for the page document. x-litespeed-cache: hit on the second visit is your proof. A permanent miss means something needs attention rather than more settings.
Then repeat for every hostname: the bare name, the www form, and each addon domain and subdomain. Caches key on the host, so these are genuinely separate entries and a site added later can be entirely uncached while the main name looks perfect. This is a two-minute check that answers a question most people never think to ask.
You cannot see it while signed in
Administrators bypass the cache deliberately, which makes the owner's own browser the one place the acceleration is invisible. Test signed out or in a private window, or you will spend an afternoon debugging something that is working.
The same applies to any visitor a plugin has marked as dynamic. A cookie set for every arrival — some consent banners and some analytics tools do this — can mark the entire audience as uncacheable, and the plugin's environment report usually names the culprit.
Exclusions, redirects and the purge button
Running WooCommerce? Its cart, checkout and account screens should have excluded themselves automatically, so confirm that they have and add any custom dynamic URLs to the never-cache list yourself. Form submissions travel past the cache in any case.
Then the one that causes confusion: change your canonical form from www to bare, or the reverse, and a previously cached redirect can keep sending people the old way for a while. It looks exactly like a DNS problem and it is not. Purge after any structural change, and check the redirect returns the status code you intended.
The account these steps were written against
Guides written against imaginary hosting go stale quickly. These are written against the real thing: the same panel, the same zone editor, the same defaults sitting in your account.
Mailboxes at your own name are part of the plan rather than a line added back at the checkout.
- Every step run on this platform before it was published
- The clock on each record spelled out
- The failure mode printed beside the fix
- A desk that answers whatever the hour
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Sized honestly, not flattered
Switch the server cache on and prove it is returning hits for every hostname the account answers for is a beginner-level job — set aside 20 minutes, with the steps the platform already absorbs marked as such.
Someone awake when a name breaks
Expiry dates and DNS faults keep no office hours, so the desk answers at whichever hour you find one.
Written from the ticket queue
Every trap named here came out of a real support ticket, which is why the awkward ones get named at all.
Five stages, none of them filler
Each stage is a short spell of deliberate clicking, and the ones that are genuinely fiddly are labelled fiddly.
Screens that match the words
Written against the panel your own account opens, so the buttons sit where the page says they sit.
The way back, printed beside the risk
Anything awkward to reverse is flagged, with the route back written next to it rather than three paragraphs later.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Install, activate, switch caching on
On LiteSpeed servers the plugin drives the server's own engine. Enable it and change nothing else until you have proved the basic behaviour.
- 2
Read the header on your main name
Developer tools, network tab, page document. x-litespeed-cache: hit on the second request is the evidence you are looking for.
- 3
Repeat for every hostname the account serves
Bare and www, then each addon domain and subdomain. Caches key on the host, so a name added later can be completely uncached while the main site looks perfect.
- 4
Test signed out
Administrators bypass the cache by design, and a cookie from an unrelated plugin can mark every visitor as dynamic. A private window settles both questions in seconds.
- 5
Confirm exclusions, then purge after structural edits
Cart, checkout and account pages should exclude themselves; add custom dynamic URLs by hand. Purge after any layout or redirect change, because a cached redirect looks remarkably like a DNS fault.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- A 99.9% uptime target, watched every hour of the day
- NVMe SSD storage on every tier, not just the expensive ones
- LiteSpeed caching inside the server, not bolted on by a plugin
- A renewal figure identical to the one you first registered at
- Mailboxes answering at the name on your registration
- Money back inside 30 days on hosting plans, 7 on reseller
- WebP image optimisation built in at no extra charge
- A PHP version chosen per site from the control panel
- Webmail in the browser, with IMAP, POP and SMTP for any client
- Year one of the registration included with an annual plan
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
Do addon domains get cached separately from the main site?
Yes. The cache keys on the hostname, so every name and subdomain the account serves is its own set of entries — as are the www and bare forms of the same registration. That is why the header check is worth repeating per hostname rather than doing once and assuming. A name added months after you set the cache up is the likeliest to be missed.
I changed my canonical domain and visitors still land on the old form. Is that DNS?
Usually not. A 301 is cached by browsers aggressively and by intermediate caches too, so a redirect you have since changed can persist for a good while. Purge the server cache, confirm the new redirect returns the code you intended, and test in a browser that has never visited the site. If it still misbehaves for everybody rather than for you, then look at the records.
Can a stale cache be mistaken for a DNS problem?
Constantly, and telling them apart takes one command. Resolve the hostname and see where it points: if the address is correct, DNS has done its job and whatever you are seeing is a cache — server, browser or intermediate. If the address is wrong, no amount of purging will help and the repair is in the zone.
Is the cache part of the plan or an add-on?
Part of it. LiteSpeed caching sits inside the server on every tier, the smallest included, rather than being bolted on by a plugin or sold as an upgrade. The plugin you install is the control surface for it, which is why the results are noticeably different from a pure PHP caching plugin on ordinary hardware.
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