Although it is common knowledge that the programers are reluctant to go public and are the happiest when we let them to work, we have succeeded in luring Peter Molnar for one quick interview, the chief and responsible for the idea and development of the Swift Plugin.How the story with Swift started? How did the idea come?
We started to develop Fevr theme and I started to optimize it (it also has a performance module, that was the very first version of Swift Performance). I wanted to create critical CSS on the fly to optimize CSS delivery, but I realized the process will be too slow, so I will need to add caching to be able to publish it as a standalone plugin.
What was the main purpose of this plugin development?
I always liked new challenges, I wanted to make the best cache plugin.
What is your previous experience in this area
I made some WordPress sites where the speed was very important, so I started to learn everything about this topic. I also had some experience in optimization when we were working on Fevr.
What are the main differences between Swift and other similar plugins?
I love to find new aspects, adding unique features like Auto-generated critical CSS, Async Javascript execution, Ajaxify, etc.
How long have you been working on the development of Swift?
We started to work on it in 2016 December, 1.0 was released on 8. April. 2017.
How much progress has been made from day one?
A lot. Current version is more stable, and much more compatible with other WordPress products than 1.0 was, and of course, we also added tons of new features since the beginning (like Smart Youtube embed, Async JS execute, Plugin organizer, WooCommerce specific features, etc).What are your plans with Swift in the future?
I have to point out today that Swift works thx to a whole team of people without which this plugin would certainly not be so fast and well-developed. With a good team, the users are also needed, who will trust your product, especially at the beginning. Today we have formal and informal members, and they all greatly help to be even bigger. Today we can praise Swift has taken an important place on the WP accelerator market.
Swift is not just an ordinary Caching plugin but an all in one optimization plugin that replaces many other speed up plugins.
However, we also plan many other new and exciting projects: to find new opportunities to speed up WordPress and also make it easier to use even for nontechnical users – that is our first step forward. So stay tuned and follow us! 🙂
How many users currently have Swift?
Currently, we have more than 10 000 Lite users and more than 2500 active subscriptions. Fortunately, we are still growing.
