Hello @nasikseva
First of all, thank you for your review.
I am not sure what gave you the impression that this plugin is “paid only”. W3 Total Cache is a free plugin with the possibility of upgrading to Pro to unlock the additional features.
If it was not free, it would not be here in the wp.org forum.
Also, I am not seeing any support questions for the issue with uninstalling.
To uninstall W3 Total Cache you need to simply purge the cache, deactivate and delete the plugin. In some cases depending on the environment, in some weak environments, there might be some leftover files that need to be deleted manually.
To make sure that W3 Total Cache is completely removed please follow the steps below:
1. Purge Cache
2. Deactivate and Delete Plugin
3. Check .htaccess File (make backup)
W3TC will create many directives in the .htaccess file to control caching behavior. Each section will start and end with comments like “#BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core” and “#END W3TC Page Cache core”.
Ensure that no residual entries are leftover in your .htaccess file after deleting the plugin.
4. Delete wp-content files and folders
– cache folder
– w3tc-config folder
– object-cache.php (if exists)
– advanced-cache.php (if exists)
– dbcache.php (if exists)
– upgrade folder
– delete w3-total-cache folder in wp-content/plugins/ (if exists)
5. Delete Cached Files from CDN (if using CDN)
Besides deleting all the relevant files, if you use CDN then ensure to purge the cached content from your CDN. This is necessary when you enabled the minify option in W3TC settings. You should delete the minified and combined scripts and CSS files from your CDN server to avoid the site breaking on the browser.
W3 Total Cache is a very complex and most powerful caching plugin with a lot of options for your convenience.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can assist you with.
Thanks!
