Sometimes, it’s a bottleneck.
Most times, a slow WordPress admin is from poor hosting on Apache servers and insufficient CPU cores/RAM (and possibly no object cache). If your hosting account shows high CPU usage, switching to LiteSpeed servers alone can reduce CPU and memory usage by 75%. Then you add faster NVMe storage + MariaDB into the mix, and the WordPress admin should load much faster.
Hosts often blame high CPU usage on things like Heartbeat, bots, and database bloat. While these can increase CPU usage, it shouldn’t be enough to make the WordPress admin unusable. It’s really because the hosting stack can’t handle it which is common on SiteGround, Bluehost, Cloudways, and other hosts (and by the way, all the hosts I just listed are using Apache servers).
If it is a specific bottleneck, it’s probably caused by resource-hungry plugins, background tasks, or your cache plugin/CDN setup. Regardless of which it is, these recommendations should help with all three: reducing CPU usage, speeding up your WordPress admin, as well as the frontend.
- Use LiteSpeed with more CPU cores/RAM
- Install object cache + OPcache
- Avoid page builders on slow hosting
- Use latest PHP versions
- Find resource hungry plugins
- Remove database junk
- Remove admin bloat
- Limit Heartbeat, autosaves, post revisions
- Limit preloading in cache plugins
- Don’t let your cache plugin clear the entire cache
- Try a different cache plugin and CDN
- Use a CDN firewall
- Cache your WordPress admin
- Replace wp-cron with a real cron job
- Delete transients
1. Use LiteSpeed With More CPU Cores/RAM
Check the CPU usage in your hosting account which should ideally be under 50%.
Next, use the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin to get a glimpse of your host’s performance. If your scores are low, you’ve narrowed down the problem. You can set up object cache and clean your database, but the scores highly depend on whether your host uses fast and efficient technology.
Here’s what can happen if you switch from Apache to LiteSpeed. SiteGround, Bluehost, Cloudways, Kinsta, and WP Engine all use Apache servers when LiteSpeed is more efficient.
Reducing CPU/memory is just 1 benefit of LiteSpeed. You also get to use the free LiteSpeed Cache plugin with QUIC.cloud’s CDN which are faster (and usually cheaper) than other setups.
ChemiCloud uses LiteSpeed servers, NVMe SSDs, Redis, and more CPU/RAM which can scale through their Turbo Boost add-on. You’ll configure LiteSpeed Cache (which is free and does a great job with core web vitals) on top of QUIC.cloud’s CDN or Cloudflare APO. This beats other hosting setups in terms of TTFB, price, support, and scalability. With a 5/5 TrustPilot rating, it’s obvious other hosts are popular from marketing, but fall short when you actually look at specs.
Notes
- LiteSpeed servers are faster than Apache.
- LiteSpeed servers are more CPU/memory efficient.
- NVMe SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs, often with 6x faster read/write speeds.
- MariaDB is more powerful than MySQL (here’s a Facebook poll taken on the two).
- Redis is more powerful than Memcached, especially for dynamic/WooCommerce sites.
Rocket.net is who I use (cloud hosting) which has 32 cores/128GB RAM on all plans, free Cloudflare Enterprise, and averages a 100ms global TTFB you can test in SpeedVitals (or feel free to click through my site). They have better specs than SiteGround, Kinsta, Cloudways, etc.
I’m not trying to make the whole post about “moving hosts” but it’s by far the #1 factor that affects your admin speed. I recommend reading my hosting reviews since Kinsta, SiteGround, WPX, Hostinger, and several other popular hosts don’t live up to the hype.
2. Install Object Cache + OPcache
Both are specifically good for speeding up the WordPress admin.
The first step is to check whether your host supports object cache at all. Do a Google search for “[your host} Memcached” or “[your host] Redis.” Redis is generally more powerful compared to Memcached, and Redis Object Cache Pro is even faster which is used on Cloudways/Rocket.net. Redis Pro is especially powerful for WooCommerce sites which require a heavier database load.
If your host doesn’t support object cache, use the Docket Cache plugin. If they do support object cache, follow their instructions. This usually means enabling it in your hosting account, then using a plugin to connect it like LiteSpeed Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, or a Redis plugin.
For example, on cPanel, you can enable both Redis + OPcache in the PHP Extensions menu. Then if you’re using LiteSpeed, use LiteSpeed Cache to connect Redis. On Cloudways, you would just enable Redis in their dashboard. On SiteGround, you would enable Memcached in Site Tools, then connect it in SiteGround Optimizer. Google instructions for your specific host!
3. Avoid Page Builders On Slow Hosting
Why do you think Elementor recommends a 768 MB memory limit?
Because Elementor (and Divi) use more memory than Gutenberg. When you start combining slow hosting with resource-hungry page builders, you get a slow admin. This is also true with WooCommerce. Running page builders/WooCommerce on Apache servers is a recipe for slow.
Every time you open your Elementor/Divi editor or preview a page, it requires memory. While there are several ways to optimize Elementor and Divi, the best thing you can do by far is use hosting that better supports them. Page builders can get by on shared LiteSpeed hosting, but WooCommerce sites should generally skip shared hosting all together and go straight to cloud.
You can also try increasing the memory limit in your hosting account to around 768 MB.
4. Use Latest PHP Versions
Upgrade to the latest stable PHP version in your hosting account.
I always upgrade to the highest possible version and check my site for errors. If you see any (which probably means a specific plugin isn’t compatible), simply revert to an earlier version.
5. Find Resource Hungry Plugins
What do security, statistic, and backup plugins all have in common?
They all run background tasks. The more background tasks that are running, the more resources you’ll need (same concept as your computer which you check in the task manager). And also like computers, they often store information in your database which makes it bloated.
There are a few ways to deal with this:
- Deactivate all plugins 1 by 1 and check the wp-admin speed.
- Use tools like Query Monitor and WP Crontrol to identify the problem.
- Use WP-Optimize to remove tables left behind by old plugins you deleted.
- Use WP Hive to see if a plugin increases memory usage before installing it.
- View my list of 75+ Slow Plugins which impact memory usage or PageSpeed.
| Plugin | Category | Memory Impact | PageSpeed Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analytify | Analytics | X | ✓ |
| Backup Buddy | Backup | X | ✓ |
| iThemes Security | Security | X | ✓ |
| Broken Link Checker | SEO | X | ✓ |
| Jetpack | Security | X | X |
| Query Monitor | Analytics | X | ✓ |
| NextGEN Gallery | Gallery | X | X |
| Site Kit by Google | Analytics | X | ✓ |
| Wordfence | Security | X | ✓ |
| wpDiscuz | Comments | X | X |
| WPML | Translate | X | X |
| Yoast SEO | SEO | X | ✓ |
6. Remove Database Junk
A bloated database can also slow down your admin.
While most cache plugins clean your database, WP-Optimize lets you remove database tables from old plugins you deleted which will be marked as not installed. If you don’t plan on using the plugin again, remove the table. While cache plugins are good for removing most junk, WP-Optimize does a more robust database cleanup, especially if you find yourself deleting plugins.
7. Remove Admin Bloat
Most of this can be done with FlyingPress and Unbloater.
There’s also Disable WooCommerce Bloat and Perfmatters also has several bloat removal options. Make sure you disable XML-RPC if you’re not using it and take some time to go through each setting to remove as much bloat as you can (remember to delete unused themes/plugins).
8. Limit Heartbeat, Autosaves, Post Revisions
WordPress Heartbeat slows down the admin since it consumes resources by notifying you when other users are editing a post, real-time plugin notifications, etc. You can disable/limit it in most cache plugins, the Heartbeat Control plugin, or add the code below into your functions.php file.
add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', 1 );
function stop_heartbeat() {
wp_deregister_script('heartbeat');
}Some plugins can control Heartbeat in the dashboard, frontend, and post editor. In this case, I recommend disabling it in the dashboard/frontend, then increasing it to 120s in the post editor.
Similar to Heartbeat, WordPress autosaves every 1 minute and stores a post revision any time you hit the “publish” button. I personally increased the autosave interval to 5 minutes then limited post revisions to 5 (so I’ll still have a few backups, but they don’t cause too much bloat).
Both these can be done in Perfmatters or by adding the code to your wp-config.php file.
define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5);define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 300); // seconds
9. Limit Preloading In Cache Plugins
When cache plugins preload the entire cache, it increases resource usage. Some cache plugins like WP Rocket and the LiteSpeed Cache crawler let you control preloading. Here are some tips:
- Disable preloading and control it with a cron job (recommended).
- Only preload important sitemap URLs like pages/posts, not the full sitemap.
- Increase the preload crawl interval (usually something like 500ms – 3000ms).
Disable Link Preloading
You may also want to disable link preloading especially if you’re on a shared server or your website has lots of image links. When users hover over your internal links, those pages will be downloaded in the background so they’re loaded when users actually click them. This is great for perceived load time, but can increase server load especially if users hover over lots of links.
Reduce Remove Unused CSS Batch Size
The remove unused CSS feature can also increase CPU usage and can be limited by adjusting the batch size. However, I recommend using Perfmatters, FlyingPress, or LiteSpeed Cache for this since WP Rocket loads used CSS inline which is better for scores but slower for actual users.
10. Don’t Let Your Cache Plugin Clear The Entire Cache
Any time you trigger one of these actions, the entire cache is deleted and needs to be rebuilt. Just like anything that increases CPU usage, this can slow down the admin. The screenshot is shown in WP Rocket’s documentation but is similar with most cache plugins. They do partial cache deletions on specific actions too. If you trigger these too frequently, it stresses the server.
To avoid this, you can disable automatic cache clearing (WP Rocket has a helper plugin) then create a cron job to control which pages are cleared and when the cache is cleared. You could schedule the cron job to run in the middle of the night when very few people are on your site.
Increasing cache TTL helps since the cache won’t be rebuilt as frequently, which can lead to a better cache hit ratio. This is why Google suggests serving static assets with a 1 year cache TTL.
11. Try A Different Cache Plugin And CDN
For cache plugins, FlyingPress and LiteSpeed Cache address core web vitals better than WP Rocket and SiteGround Optimizer. WP Rocket only released 1-2 new features since 2011 if you check their changelog. FlyingPress specifically made several major updates (including bloat removal) which put it far ahead of WP Rocket. I always say: use LiteSpeed Cache if you’re on a LiteSpeed server, FlyingPress in all other cases. Even if you’re using SiteGround Optimizer, you should also use FlyingPress, but remember to avoid enabling duplicate settings in each plugin.
For your CDN, it’s hard to beat Cloudflare with APO (except for Cloudflare Enterprise on Rocket.net which is what I use). QUIC.cloud’s CDN is also good if you’re on a LiteSpeed server. All these support dynamic caching which can significantly improve TTFB when testing your site in multiple global locations using tools like KeyCDN’s performance test + SpeedVitals TTFB test.
Since your host/CDN are the 2 main TTFB factors, your CDN is just as important as hosting (if not more) for TTFB. And since TTFB is roughly 40% of LCP and FCP, these are key for core web vitals.
12. Use A CDN Firewall
By blocking unwanted requests, you’re saving server resources.
My site isn’t that big and it still can block 100+ events/day. I would have never known so many bots were hitting my site until I saw my Wordfence real-time traffic report. But since security plugins (and image optimization plugins) increase usage, you’re better off using a CDN firewall.
QUIC.cloud’s CDN also uses a firewall and includes DDoS protection on their paid (standard) plan. However, many CDNs like RocketCDN and SiteGround’s CDN don’t always include these.
Not Using A Firewall? Then you need to find a solution for blocking bad bots, then enable Hotlink protection in your host or Cloudflare. Not using a CDN? Unless you target 1 specific area, you should offload bandwidth to Cloudflare which can massively reduce resource usage.
13. Cache Your WordPress Admin
Some cache plugins like LiteSpeed Cache let you cache the WordPress admin which can speed it up. Just note that this can cause expired data which you may see when working on your site.
14. Replace WP-Cron With A Real Cron Job
wp-cron is loaded on every pageview and schedules automatic tasks like checking updates, publishing scheduled posts, sending email notifications, and more. Just like you can use cron jobs to schedule preloading and automatic cache clearing, you can do the same with WP cron.
The first step is to disable wp-cron by adding the code to your wp-config.php file.
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);Now we’ll set up an external cron job (Google instructions for your host). In cPanel, you’ll open the “cron jobs” tab and add this line to set a cron job to run every 10 minutes. It may seem a higher interval would be better, but this can cause CPU spikes since too many jobs run at once.
wget -q -O - https://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1
WP Crontrol is nice for changing the schedule of specific cron jobs and deleting jobs with no action. You could also offload cron jobs from your server using a Cloudflare JavaScript worker.
15. Delete Transients
WooCommerce and social sharing plugins specifically can accumulate transients.
You can clear WooCommerce transients and customer sessions in the WooCommerce Tools settings. If you’re not using WooCommerce, the transients manager plugin is a handy tool. Other types of transients can usually be deleted with your cache plugin or with WP-Optimize.
Plugins To Help Speed Up Your WordPress Admin
Not that most plugins actually speed up your site/admin, but if they do, here they are.
| Plugin | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Query Monitor | Find slow queries + plugins | Diagnostic |
| WP Hosting Benchmark | View CPU/memory utilization | Diagnostic |
| WP Healthcheck | View WordPress/PHP/mySQL version, server, etc | Diagnostic |
| WP Rocket Helper Plugins | Control preloading + automatic cache clearing | Limiting |
| WP Crontrol | Control cron jobs | Limiting |
| Unbloater | Remove various types of bloat | Bloat Removal |
| Widget Disable | Disable unused widgets in the admin | Bloat Removal |
| Disable Woo Bloat | Remove WooCommerce admin bloat | Bloat Removal |
| Limit Login Attempts | Block requests to wp-login | Security |
| WPS Hide Login | Block requests to wp-login | Security |
| Transients Manager | Edit/delete transients | Transients |
| WP-Optimize | Remove old databases tables | Database |
| Docket Cache | Object cache (if your host doesn’t support it) | Caching |
| Cloudflare | Set up Cloudflare’s APO | Caching |
| Super Page Cache for Cloudflare | Full page caching on Cloudflare | Caching |
| Blackhole for Bad Bots | Block bad bots | Bot Protection |
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes a slow WordPress admin?
A slow WordPress admin is often caused by high resource usage on Apache servers. Try using a better hosting configuration with more CPU cores + RAM, object cache, limiting background tasks/bloat, and identifying resource-hungry plugins. Offloading resources to a CDN and using a CDN firewall to blocked unwanted requests to your server can also help.
Will changing hosts fix a slow admin?
Switching to a host that uses more efficient technology (like Apache servers, Redis, MariaDB, and more CPU cores + RAM) can definitely speed up your WordPress admin.
How do I fix a slow WooCommerce admin?
A slow WooCommerce admin is highly affected by your hosting including PHP workers and CPU frequencies. You can also use the Disable WooCommerce Bloat plugin as well as clear transients + customer sessions. Redis Object Cache Pro helps with database optimizations.
Why is the WordPress admin slow on GoDaddy?
If your admin is slow on GoDaddy, it's likely because they use outdated technology, overcrowds their Apache servers, and don't support critical features like object cache.
How do I reduce admin-ajax.php server load?
To reduce calls to the admin-ajax, try disabling WordPress Heartbeat and use Query Monitor or your GTmetrix waterfall chart to find plugins making calls to admin-ajax.php.
Admin still slow? Let me know a little bit about your setup and I’ll see if I can help.
Cheers,
Tom
You can check these in your hosting account or use WP Server Stats. The majority of this tutorial is focused on reducing server load and lowering usage.
Hey Tom,
Has anyone reported to you that they’re having issues with Chemicloud and the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin? I switched from Siteground to Chemicloud last November. I purchase a 3-year Wordpress Turbo plan during black Friday. I have two websites; one is just a Wordpress site and the other is a Wordpress/Woocommerce site. The Wordpress only site runs pretty well. The Query Monitor plugin is showing less than 1 second load times for all the admin dashboard pages. The Wordpress / Woocommerce admin dashboard is running slow. 16-17 second load times for some admin pages.
I came across your article and downloaded the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin. Both of my websites scored bad. Both websites run completely different plugin stacks and their benchmark scores are almost identical so I’m thinking it’s the hosting.
Here are my results, I’ll just be listing the bad scores.
PHP 8.3.3
5 errors during the CPU and memory test
Operations with large data text = 0
File system write ability = 0
Local file copy and access speed = 1.49
Small file I/O test = 2.52
Importing large amount of data to database = 2.58
Persistent object cache enabled = 0
Server score 4.4
PHP 8.2.16
No errors during benchmark
File system write ability = 0
Local file copy and access speed = 1.51
Small file I/O test = 2.52
Importing large amount of data to database = 3.27
Persistent object cache enabled = 0
Server score 5.7
I talked with a few different support techs at ChemiCloud and they seemed stumped by these scores. They said they weren’t exactly sure how the testing methodologies are being conducted within the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin. They were very confused by the (Persistent object cache enabled) 0 score since they logged into my Woocommerce site and verified that the LiteSpeed Cache plugin was configured properly.
They did mention that their shared hosting plans have a I/O limit of 10MB/s which may be causing the low score for the filesystem test category. I don’t know if an I/O limit of 10MB/s is good or bad.
My Woocommerce site hasn’t officially launched yet so I’m a little concerned that once it launches and starts to receive traffic that some issues might arise given these benchmark scores. I’m debating on whether or not to switch to an Entry Cloud plan with Scala Hosting instead.
With that said, have you had any issues with Chemicloud and the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin or know of other people that have?
I’d appreciate any feedback.
Thanks Tom,
-John
Hey John,
Sorry to hear this. I wouldn’t run a WooCommerce site on ChemiCloud or really any shared hosting. Too many restrictions, not enough resources, etc. And yes, 10MB/s isn’t the best and is one of the few cons for them.
Scala would be better, but have you looked into Rocket.net or RunCloud? For WooCommerce, Rocket.net has a lot more resources and Cloudflare Enterprise… notoriously good for WooCommerce performance, but can be expensive due to low bandwidth (lowest plan starts at 50 GB). If that isn’t an option, I’d probably start comparing Scala, RunCloud, or a VPS from MechanicWeb.
All 4 of the options I listed should have better WooCommerce performance than Chemi’s shared hosting.
Hi Tom,
Thought I would give you shout, love your work.
I am on Name Hero and my admin is running very slow it takes about 30 seconds to load.
Not sure what my issue is when I check GTMetrix I get a great score but its another story from my end. I am running php8.1 and I am getting the following errors from Query Monitor:
include_once(/var/lib/sec/wp-settings.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory 1
wp-config.php:87
WordPress Core
include_once(): Failed opening ‘/var/lib/sec/wp-settings.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’.:/opt/alt/php81/usr/share/pear:/opt/alt/php81/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php’) 1
wp-config.php:87
WordPress Core
Not sure if this is causing the issue but I just can figure it out.
Hey Gary,
I wish I knew how to help but it sounds like that’s something you need to contact their support about. Send them the logs and have them investigate.
I’m using Avada Theme, and the Avada Builder plugin (which is required) makes getting to the edit product page take 30s . Removing the plugin reduces the speed to 3s . I’ve disabled all of the options on Avada Builder, but it still takes forever to edit a product. Any ideas?
–Bobby
Moving away from Avada would obviously be the best solution (not good for the admin or frontend). It’s hard to know without looking through your configuration and settings but since you’re using Avada with WooCommerce, your choice of hosting and it’s configuration will be key. Have you run any diagnostic tools, checked memory usage, etc?
On my website,when i post a new reply,it will pending over 20 seconds fttb,i dont know how to fix,waiting your reply
TTFB is almost always related to hosting unless there’s a specific bottleneck. Who do you use or what’s your website URL?
Thanks Tom, this was really helpful. By the way, what’s the name of the related posts plugin you use at the end of your content? It looks really nice and simple
WP Show Posts, recommended by Pronaya (my developer).
Alright, thanks.
Are you using the pro version? Also, do you have a link to a guide on integrating it? It doesn’t seem to be like every other normal related posts plugin.
I’m using the free version but it’s something I asked my developer to do so I’m honestly not sure how he got it working. Sorry I can’t help more with this. I know there’s a video on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb2p0SoVBmY
Is plugin make my website run slow on admin panel?
Yes, they can slow it down.
Hi Tom
We steel have a backoffice very slow.
We thing is because W3 Total Cache installation (with no selection in object cache), but it solves our front office problem….
Any sugestion about other plugin to speed our site?
Thanks
Maria
Hey Maria,
I’m a big fan of FlyingPress (what I’m using) even over WP Rocket. Shouldn’t slow down the admin, addresses core web vitals like WP Rocket, but real world browsing is even faster than WP Rocket. Also very easy to setup.
Hi,
My WP-Dashboard keep on “Looking for wifi”
When I don’t have my dashboard on my browser, it is fine. but when the dashboard is open, it happens. and makes everything super slow…
Do you have any idea how I can fix this?
Thanks for the W3 Object cache tip. That improved the speed by a few seconds. Query Monitor still showing W3 to be the main culprit in waiting times, and even though it connects my CDN and caches nicely, if it’s gotta go then it’s gotta go. Still figuring it out.
Yep, object cache is pretty common for slowing down admins. W3 Total Cache isn’t an easy plugin to configure :/
I just jumped to 98% speed with this tutorial and my website stopped crashing in the WordPress admin panel. Man, you are my Epic.
Comments like yours are why I enjoy writing these tutorials :)
bookmarked your site for a lifetime. Hope to see great articles from your side in future.
If you have anything you’d like to see, I’m always open to suggestions.
Great article. Thanks!
Sorry, meant to add that You said Cloudflare was slow but then you said it was good! Sorry for so many questions!
Many thanks,
Brian
Cloudflare can be hit or miss. Their APO is usually a hit. For a consistently performant CDN, BunnyCDN is good but is paid.
Hi,
My website is sometimes lightning fast and sometimes appallingly slow according to GT Metrix, it can vary inside a minute or two.
Also, I noticed you seemed to suggest Wordfence is ok but my Query monitor says it’s 0.0470
I’m also confused because one of the comments said you recommended Siteground but your article suggested it was poor. I’m with Siteground. I’m confused.
I really need my site to be fast and not vary.
I want to follow your advice but I’d like you to answer these questions first please.
Many thanks,
Brian
Hey Brian,
I would try Cloudflare Firewall instead of Wordfence especially if you’re already using Cloudflare. Cloudflare can be hit or miss though – some people have great results, sometimes it makes your site slower. If using it, I would test their APO if you have $5/month, otherwise BunnyCDN is a consistently performant CDN.
That SiteGround comment must have been from early 2020 or even before that because I stopped recommending them. They have gone downhill throughout 2020 and slow TTFBs is one main reason. See the Backlinko analysis where they found SiteGround had some of the worst TTFBs. SiteGround will defend themselves and never admit it, but it’s true.
So basically, move away from SiteGround if possible and try Cloudflare APO or BunnyCDN.
Hi Tom,
Thank you very much for your reply.
Will definitely try your suggestions and will report soon.
Love this wesome resource!
Cheers,
Brian
Sweet, let me know it goes!
Hey Brian. Within the last month or less, SiteGround has upgraded their servers and got rid of cPanel. They claim their new servers are 5x faster, but don’t know what the benchmarked against. I have my guys running speed tests now.
Tom, you are the best! Out of all the research I do, your site provides the best and most useful information and guidelines. Clean, easy to follow, well thought out, and you tell it like it is.
I agree about SiteGround. I have switched to GreenGeeks and so far so good. They operate on Litespeed Servers and the LiteSpeed Cache plugin works simultaneously and has improved my site. I’m developing my site on my own with over 4,000 products so it has been a learning process and sometimes a little overwhelming. Your recommendations are definitely helpful. I’m about to dive into your Cloudflare page rules since I am getting a GTMetric recommendation to use a content Delivery Network for 57 resources found.
I have my media stored in a different folder to help with the page speed. Would you have any words of wisdom for this setup?
Thank you.
Sorry for the late reply Aline. With regards to GreenGeeks/LiteSpeed, as long as your TTFB is ideally around 200ms or less then it’s good. For Page Rules, you might want to try the WP Cloudflare Super Page Cache Plugin. I also have a few page rules I recommend. As to my knowledge, GTmetrix still doesn’t show Cloudflare as a CDN since it’s setup difference. You can use their Claire Chrome Extension to make sure it’s working, but I wouldn’t worry if it doesn’t make the CDN 100% in GTmetrix.
Only one site? Just kidding! I have 11.
When a professional person share their knowledge is helping the whole society to be better! Thank you bro!
This is the best guide i ever seen, i hit subscibe 1000x times .
Thanks for saying that :)
HI TOM. U wrote: Host Google Fonts locally (built-in to WP Rocket…
Where are these settings? I only find that they optimize it. But host local?
I don’t see that in the article. You can host analytics locally but not fonts with WP Rocket. You will need to do it manually (e.g. Transfonter) or using OMGF plugin.
Very good article, but maybe you can enhance it by adding a particular topic.
What about database RAM consumption ? When uploading files to the media library, we often have huge ram peaks on database side. Is there a way to cap it or to configure something so as not to consume for instance 512 GB of RAM ?
Because otherwise, hosting providers sometimes cap it for us and it results on unability to upload images or even to see the content of previously uplaoded media in the library …
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your amazing site. I am using the gogeek plan and i am running 3000ms when i use byte check.
I stopped using SiteGround and also stopped referring my readers to them, partly because I think their servers have gotten slower despite them moving to Google Cloud.
Tom, you might run another benchmark now. I found speeds have gotten better recently.
I’ll be running another test soon but I won’t be referring anyone to them regardless of the results. They have gotten completely unethical.
Hey there, WP-disable removes my product counts from the basket when on index page / main / front page of the site. When in product category or single product page, it shows up. Can’t find what perk disables it. :(
hi i have not cpu problem but whenever i enable gravity form . my dashobord speed lower too much. is there a way to solve this ?
I just signed up for SiteGround GoGeek using your aff link. I have been with GoCRAPPY for close to a decade and just determined from your article that my TTFB and page speeds are awful. My page speed scores are cringeworthy. I still have a lot of cleanup to do but ditching GoTACKY was my FIRST PRIORITY! I also read your GoDaddy article about how abhorrent they are and that really pushed me over the edge.
I read several more articles on SiteGround after reading yours, but I used your aff link because you provided me with a ton of value and I initially found your recommendation to SiteGround first.
Thank you for the highly useful info and I am SO EXCITED about SiteGround!!!!
Thanks so much Regina! SiteGround is much than GoDaddy. Be sure to activate Cloudflare in SiteGround’s dashboard which should also help. I really appreciate it, let me know how it goes and if you have any questions (glad to look over your site’s GTmetrix report if you want).
Very informative and helpful post. Thanks
Thank you! My problem is I had too many themes installed and I had no idea how to delete them till now so thank you again!
Tom, you mentioned CloudFlare for resource storage. What about Amazon S3? How does WP access those resources when outside of the working environment (host)?
Thanks!
SO happy I came upon your site and this page. Pretty well did everything you suggested except switch hosts – definitely going to get off Bluehost as soon as my subscription is up.
Your advice helped my site got from a 34 to a 53! Lots more to do obviously, but a huge improvement.
Thanks so much!
That’s awesome Lindsay! Can I ask which items helped the most?
Great post, thank you so much for posting this extremely detailed info!
Eleanor
strange I’ve blocked poneytelecom.eu with wordfence, still there are many requests going through. Every few seconds accessing /wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron=1561075355.2676320075988769531250
Might want to contact Wordfence about that.
I see you recommend WP Rocket as the Best. I disagree. It is nothing but a disaster. I purchased it and each time I send a request to support, I get a response after 3-4 days with the well-known excuse “We are receiving higher than normal Support request.” Each new update introduces new problems and messes up the web site. The Support is slow to respond. Website owners either survive with a messed up website or move on to some other plugin which has a better control to troubleshoot. Below is a copy of recent email to Support after dumping the WP Rocket.
> We’re currently experiencing a higher than normal volume of tickets and responses are delayed. We do answer every ticket we receive and will reply as soon as we’re able to.
Unfortunately, that is what I hear always when I need support. Is it a customer problem? No it is not. My visitors do not care to read messed up site because of a plugin. It is not their issue. Similarly, it is not our issue as your customer to keep waiting for your response for a paid plugin. There are other option to move on. Your plugin has the least options to customize and troubleshoot compared to W3 Total Cache. I will leave these comments as a comment on WP Rocket Review blogs.
Boom!
I reduced from 1.6s to 821ms of my website. All credit goes to you, sir.
Super and extraordinary unique post.
Thanks!
Joint effort :-) thank you for sharing the results!
I learned some new tactics, thank u very much. Php version upgrade is my new star ;)
Glad that worked for you, makes a huge difference!
Hey TOM,
What’s a great post. My Dashboard was very slow and after reading your post I’ve removed some make “slow plugins” and it’s better now.
I agree about Siteground hosting review as well.
Hi Tom, this is fantastic. I was wondering if I can hire you to clean up my site please? Or recommend someone good who can? I’d be happy to pay you or donate to one of your current Fund Me causes.
Thanks so much,
Mark
Hey Mark,
I work with 2 developers on freelancer.com who do speed optimization products (they can also fix slow admins). If you sign up for an account, their usernames are BDKAMOL and I333. Both are very good and you can hire them there.
How about installing Wordpress in Google Cloud Platform? Does it help to the speed?
I have never used Google’s Cloud Platform so I don’t have a great answer, but I would think that just by installing WordPress there it probably wouldn’t help.
Hi,
Thank you for the guide!
I joined CloudFlare and using WP Fastest Cache – everything is set as you suggested. The website is a lot faster but sometimes it doesn’t load at all and I see this message: [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Awesome article. I was finding these type of content so i got it. thanks a lot.
Great Post. Some realy high value information. Thumbs up!!!!
My website runs on Digital Ocean cloud server which has 4GB RAM. 99% things recommended in this article is already in-place. Still my website’s server response time is very slow.
My website has 20 plugins.
Hi, thanks for the tutorial! So I followed your tips and decided perhaps it was time to try a different hosting company (have used both GoDaddy and HostMonster).
I am wondering whether SiteGround has changed since you wrote. I was glad to see PHP 7.0 when I started an account on SiteGround and had high expectations. but the tech support–compared with HostMonster–seems lousy: the tech support people were impatient, curt, and not very professional (like with various household noises runny in the background). There were only two people, the same two, answering calls when I called about various issues. Is SiteGround more geared towards the tech savvy who don’t need a lot of hand-holding?
A tip 99% of WooCommerce don’t know is disable WC Status widget if you have big inventory shop that will speed WP Admin maybe 3x faster
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-wc-status-littlebizzy/
Thanks. This is probably one of the best posts on solving wordpress performance woes I’ve come across in a long time. Awesome!
Hi
Nice and useful article
Some comments
For my own taste, in your article, the “advertising” for you hosting and your cache plugin is toooooo looooong . I have made other choices, but I agree that W3Total Cache has to be delivered at least with a bunch of aspirin and a PhD in fuzzy logical.
The advice to avoid plugins as Woocommerce when you have an online shop is a bit “strange”. It is equivalent to say: if you want a fast website do not make an online shop.
For information, I am a photographer but I used to be a software developper for 2 decades. I have a public Website with Woocommerce enabled, I get 100% on GTmetrix PageSpeed and with around 2 second of full load time with 2 photos slideshows on my home page, one for my “‘best” photos, the other for my blog articles. The total page size is 877K. To be compared to your own 1 second/376K. But I do not have a CDN :-)
My second website is also a Wooocommerce website where I deliver 500 photos/products every week, and it works like a charm (I cannot make speed test on this one as all customers galleries are protected)
Plugin WP Disable is quite buggued and makes a bunch of 404 on the admin (without activating any of its features)
You should check your own current TTFB results. I found 710 ms.
Either Byte Check is buggued (their SSL time is incoherent with those in Gtmetrix and pingdom) or you have a very bad hosting :-)
Best and kind regards
Thierry
Hello;
You mentioned vaultpress, disqus and jetpack and we use this 3 plugins so what do we do?
Replace Vaultpress with UpdraftPlus (for backups) and either Wordfence or iThemes (for security).
Disqus…it depends. I use WordPress’ native commenting system and don’t use Gravatars. But speed is obviously important to me especially since I blog about it. This one is tricky since it really depends on what you want for user experience vs. speed. Haven’t really found a true lightweight commenting plugin.
Jetpack… what features do you use on it? Cloudflare is good for a CDN, WP Rocket for caching/lazy loading (or the Lazy Load For Videos Plugin if that’s all you’re looking to do). Google Search Console Google Analytics should have all the stats you need.
Tom, I think the only reason to use Jetpack is the Photon CDN? For site with lots of images, that’s a no brainer. Do you have any other suggestion? Jetpack is indeed bulky for just the Photon. And not to forget the fact that it requires XMLRPC.
I think if you’re just using it for a CDN, you should just use Cloudflare and if open to a paid options, StackPath or KeyCDN.
Great work thru, you’ve got a good few there i hadn’t considered.
Couple of points. You say to turn off plugin features that are not required, I’ve actually been deactivating them altogether thinking that would save extra resource. Good example is broken links. i tend to run it every few months. If you have it activated won’t it be using some resource even if not being used – even if only checking for updates etc. I tend to keep most occasional tool plugins deactivated.
Also in wordfence. You recommend blocking all crawlers who go to more than 4 pages per minute, and for a month? Wouldn’t all crawlers go at a rate faster than that? I know you have google set as an exception, but doesn’t your setting have the effect of blocking all crawlers? I have always assumed crawlers are faster than humans, and have set my rates the same for both, as wordfence seems to get it wrong so often. Interested to hear your thoughts.
Hey Nick,
Yes, deactivating plugins and only running them when you need to will definitely save CPU. The Broken Link Checker is a great example.
I need to change the screenshot of the crawl rate limit, it should be 240. Thank you for pointing that out, that’s my fault.
There is a typo.
“Host your Google Analytics tracking code locally in the ride side of settings”
I presume “right” side of settings.
Corrected – thank you Michael.
Sir what should I do when our server response time is above 1 second
At the end of the day you need to upgrade with your current host or switch to a new one, since servers are controlled by your host. But you can also use a CDN and clean your database.
I will look all of your optimisations later. But only this article helpful for me. Thank you!!!
Which, if any, of these settings and configurations might affect the ability for Twitter cards to display images correctly? I’ve done most of the above and now my Twitter cards are showing grey image holder instead. Thank you!
Yoast Settings > SEO > Social > Twitter > Add Twitter card meta data.
Then when you edit a page/post, scroll down to the Yoast section and you will see a social sharing link where you can upload custom images so the post formats properly on Facebook/Twitter.
Facebook Image: 1200 x 628px
Twitter Image: 1024 x 512px
Hi Tom,
I found your site today upon looking for ways to speed up admin in wordpress.
I was quite excited as I read through all the suggestions, and one by one put them into place up to point 8 (but not the rocket plugin).
A couple hours later, after being away from the computer, I tried to log in to admin and got an error: HTTP500 internal server error. At first I just thought it was a little browser glitch. After a few reloads and also attempting the page speed test (google) I was getting the same error and that my site wasn’t rendering. So my site wouldn’t load, and, I could not log in to admin.
I figures it must have been one of the plug ins. I was a little anxious as the only way I could get rid of them was to go through CP and I was worried deleting them that way would completely stuff things up, but I had no choice as I couldn’t access it anyway.
Fortunately it worked and I can now log in. Unfortunately, most of the suggestions in your article I put in place are now gone and I am now unsure how I can attempt to optimise my site without something similar happening.
I’m very wary of plug ins as they have caused a few issues with my site and with so many, it’s so hard to know what’s good and what’s not good.
If you are able to offer a suggestion or two where I could go from here (which I know is like asking find that needle in the haystack!), I’d be very grateful.
Despite your suggestions not quite working for me, I think the article is great.
Sincerely
Dori
Hey Dori,
Sorry for the late reply. What cache plugin are you using, and did you adjust any of the settings? W3 Total Cache is infamous for causing errors like these but I would guess it’s your cache plugin causing the error… I do recommend WP Rocket – it’s the only premium plugin I really encourage buying as it can save a lot of headaches and works quite well.
After appplying the wp disable plugin and going by your settings, and following the cloudflare settings as you instructed, it seemed to speed up admin a bit but it horribly slowed down my site! Even after pruging all neccessary places at : cloudflare – my server – dns flush – autoptimize – site cache. This was the ruination of my site. Now no one will visit. The first test at pingdom was 30 seconds. But after the “warmup” it is still at a horrid 13-15 seconds. Perhaps you should have warned about this before instructing people to make these changes. I certainly wish I had not read and followed this tutorial. You should have thought things thru, so someone does not ruin thier site!!
Hey Steve,
Sorry to hear about your site. What was the cause? I am curious… was it Cloudflare? Your cache plugin? Both of these are usually great plugins/services that help speed up websites, but I can’t guarantee they will work perfectly 100% on all websites. I have thought this tutorial through on what works for the majority of websites. Still, speed optimization requires testing, so if something doesn’t work, simply stop using that plugin/service. Or you can test changes on a staging site then if all looks good, launch those changes. Still, you should be able to revert back with no problems just like I see you have already done. I am curious on what made your site that slow.
Hello – I seen in section#10 – that the first line says “Diable Hotlink Protection” – then when I read on it says “enable hotlink protection”. So do I turn the switch off at cloudflare or turn the switch on? Thanks – Steve
Enable it Steve! Will correct this when I get home – thanks for pointing this out.
Hi Tom,
I really appreciate your well knowledge information, very helpful for me after reading your article especially for a newly wordpress user(me).
But there is one thing I don’t know what’s going on after configured cloudflare for my site the wp admin dashboard became pretty crazy slow. Even I already followed your tips to create 2 rules by “Exclude WP-Admin From Cloudflare Using Page Rules”.
Do I missed anything… really need your suggestion! Thanks for your time :)
This is my site: zc-do.com
See https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200172856-My-website-is-slow-or-having-performance-issues
They basically say to investigate it using https://webpagetest.org and that it could be your hosting/origin server, but that you should check the waterfall tab too.
It could also be slow since you just activated it (nameservers need to propogate) and you may need to give it some time.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for replying :)
Considering migrate to site ground seriously …
For sure. Ya, they’re great.
By the way, can they help me to migrate my site from Godaddy(Wordpress hosting) with ?
Do I need use this service FREE WEB-TRANSFER(https://www.siteground.com/website-transfer) specifically, or normal wordpress hosting plan in siteground is ok for me?
Which plan are you looking at? Depends on how many visitors you have (and more importantly how many resources your site consumes) but if it’s relatively small I recommend at least the GrowBig plan since for $2 more/month you get more server resource, priority support, and can host multiple sites if needed.
I would check in Godaddy’s cPanel how many resources your site consumes, then call SiteGround to see which plan is right for you. And yes I would do the free website transfer – have had them migrate many sites and it has always gone smoothly.
Thanks alot now my dashboard running very speed. thanks onlinemediamasters to made this post.
Thank you for this great post! The poor loading speed of my site has been driving me crazy for weeks and both my host and the Wordpress helpdesks helped a bit but hadn’t fully resolved the problem (plus sometimes I couldn’t understand what they were saying). You have written this post perfectly in layman’s terms for non-qualified folk like I to understand.
I was on a shared server and am now on a private one – that has solved the problem (for now, at least). For optimal speed I will go through everything you have written here.
I will keep referring back to this – thank you!
Hey Marie!
Yes let me know if you have any questions too. I tried to lay out the “non code” solutions to WordPress speed, but often you need to tweak some code to really improve the grades/load times, however most things don’t usually require that. So glad you’re finding it helpful :)
Object cahce is my problem.. :D
Thank you :D
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your amazing site. I am using the gogeek plan and i am running 3000ms when i use byte check.
Will this ever improve following your advises or it is just a hosting issue?
Thanks
Hm make sure you setup Cloudflare (and optionally but recommended MaxCDN), look for large plugins in your GTmetrix waterfall tab and try to delete or replace those, and do whatever you can to reduce CPU consumption. This tutorial should help: https://onlinemediamasters.com/reduce-cpu-usage-wordpress/
Thank-you so much for the informative and easy-to-follow article. I appreciate it!
Hi, thanks for your really useful post!
Just wanted to let you and everybody know that there are updated and maintained alternatives to the P3 plugin, which is actually one of the wordt. :)
https://asphaltthemes.com/alternative-to-p3-plugin-performance-profiler/
Cheers,
Carsten
Thanks for this Tom, I have implemented several of your suggestions here. I’m on SiteGround’s GoGeek plan and certainly can’t complain about the speed my users get.
But my Admin interface is still very slow. Saving a page draft (a few hundred characters in length) takes just over 5 sec.
I installed the Query Monitor plugin and it says this is happening when I click “Save Draft”:
4 wp_remote_post() calls as follows –
Theme update check: 2.3 sec
Core update check: 0.7 sec
Core update check: 0.9 sec
Core update check: 0.99 sec = Total of 5 sec!
Does this make sense? Why would WP be checking for updates whenever I save a draft?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I’m not sure why it would check for updates… do you have same autoupdate feature on? Did you configure WP Disable?
Try this plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/stops-core-theme-and-plugin-updates/
Thank you so much for sharing :)
Anytime :)
Thx for mentioning my WordPress Speed Up group, many new members come from this your article ;-)
I’ve been trying to mention you and that group more in my articles, thanks for doing an awesome job running it!
I am really educated by the your post.
I am trying to reduce the number of plugins, but I gave this issue I hope to duel on your opinion.
Buddypress displays on the Gtmetrix Waterfall as one of the plugins increasing response time.
Making it simple. Can you suggest a plug in or solution, where in a multisite, a user avatar on buddypress is uploaded on one site and is used sitewide?
I want to disable network activation of buddy press and use it on just one site.
You opinion would be a great deal.
Thanks.
Hey K,
I did a bit of research and all I found was this thread…
It turned out to be related to directory permissions, and pilot error in not noticing my user avatar directory chmod changed to 755 when overwritten from a local > remote upload. Avatar directories have to be write-enabled for avatars to display.
Just FYI your link to cache plugin poll is wrong (goes to hosting poll).
Really only reason Siteground is popular is cuz it’s cheap. Once you get successful enough online and escape the cheap crowd and junk shared hosting, you will never look back at crap like cache plugins. That’s cuz “real” high traffic sites use Nginx servers with FastCGI cache built in, so no need for cache plugin. Also a lot easier and simple to manage cuz no settings it’s all automated and scales very easy (no PHP involved).
LEMP stack on Vultr/DO with HTTPS is what I mostly use (LittleBizzy offers managed option with this stack, or can do it by yourself if you know how).
Anyone still using W3TC in 2017 is frankly clueless, it’s so full of bugs and the founder doesn’t even know what Opcache is (APC is dead frankly).
Good info otherwise….
Thanks for telling me about the link Chris. Will update.
Agree to disagree on SiteGround. I have gotten tons of comments/emails from people who are happy after the migration like this comment from morning – “I recently jumped to Siteground from Inmotion after reading your review. Must say! The change is worth it” or even the comment that is on this very post “thank you for the tips they still work good to this day. changing my host to siteground was the largest boost of speed” – plus out of the last 50 people I referred not 1 has cancelled (here’s the screenshot). For the large population who is with Bluehost, Godaddy, HostGator, InMotion and those other (shared) hosting companies the migration is almost always an upgrade. They maybe not be great for super large websites where you need a dedicated server or more complex needs, but otherwise people are usually very happy.
I just updated this to suggest WP Rocket instead of W3TC – been meaning to do that for awhile. Thanks for the suggestion :)
Really Helpful. Thanks, It’s working.
Hey, currently running through your tutorials, hoping to speed up my sites. Checked out P3. Doesn’t work anymore. Only shows itself when showing plugin load time. Apparently, it does not work with PHP 7 . Any suggestions on an alternative?
Best thing to do is expand your GTmetrix items and see which ones show up frequently. Slider, live chat, event/calendar and other plugins are also known for being slow.
Disabling the live traffic and disabling few unnecessary plugins worked for me. Thank you for sharing this helpful information.
Anytime, glad that worked for ya :)
To use lots of Plugins in wordpress is really harmful for a wordpress website. I was also using lot of Plugins in a wordpress website & It was running slowly on Server but as I uninstall some unused plugins now wordpress website is performing well than lat time.
Awesome, plugin minimization is definitely huge. Glad performance is up!
i disable object cache. and it is better now
Awesome :0
Hi,
Helpful tutorial but it looks like since the last update the admin is loading too slow.
I even run a lot of test with my hosting provider but the issue still there lol
:( this was since you updated to the newest WP version?
Hi
thank you so much for this article. I’ve recently experienced a very slow wp-admin with WooCommerce, caused by a big meta-table. Described some test-cases on my blog (see website link).
Do you have ideas how to fix that?
Thanks
Daniel
503 error :/
how about hosting in VULTR? i used it now, but my wordpress admin is too slow (for me) after i delete cache with autoptimize plugin and delete cache in cloudflare.
Heard of it, haven’t used it. Have heard decent review about it but most people including me still prefer SG or even WP Engine, and Cloudways.
The heartbeat control is what helped me. Thanks. I use it on other sites, and just forgot to install it on this site giving me grief. Great write up!
For sure, thanks for sharing which one solved the issue :0
Thanks for all the great info. You mention object cache and W3 Total Cache.
Do you think this is also an issue for SiteGrounds caching plugin?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/
Thanks!
Anytime! I haven’t been able to get great results using SG CachePress, I prefer WP Rocket if you can drop $39 and it was also rated #1 in a Facebook poll, or WP Fastest Cache/W3 Total Cache for the free cache plugin. Both are solid.
thank you for the tips they still work good to this day. changing my host to siteground was the largest boost of speed.
That’s awesome Kyle, glad that worked for you.
I disabled the object cache and my back-end is flying now.
Also, I agree with you that fast hosting is the #1 thing that will influence the website speed. Since I migrated my website to Rosehosting, it is noticeably faster.
Awesome, glad it’s good now and that you found a fast host! Definitely helps.
I have done all these bro but. I. Am still experiencing it.. Please. What do I do?
So your dashboard is still slow when all plugins are deactivated? Do you remember if there was any work done on your site when this happened? And what cache plugin are you using if any (and how many plugins)?
I’ve been able to improve speeds with the use of WP Rocket which has now become the top caching plugin. A site loading in 0.3 seconds? Damn!
On a good day but yes! #amazing
I disable object cache but still dashboard is too slow, can you help me for faster dashboard
Have you tried the other methods too, like deactivating W3 Total Cache to see if it runs faster then?
This post is really helpful. Now, my Wordpress dashboard loads faster 8 seconds than before. Thank you very much!
Anytime, glad it worked for you.
Thanks for the great tutorial! Quick question: I used to use P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) and I loved it. However, it hasn’t been updated in 2 years and I can’t find a good alternative for it. I usually shy away from plugins that haven’t been updated for that long. What are your thoughts on using this plugin despite the fact it’s been a long time since it was updated?
I would just make sure you have a backup before installing it… some reviewers of the plugin say it crashed their site (see here) but it still works fine for me (using Genesis Framework). Was glad to see W3TC was updated but P3 is such a good plugin I hope the developers update it soon.
Vielen Dank für den Tipp mit dem Object Cache! Diese Option hatte meinen TTFB Wert von 500ms auf bis zu 8 Sekunden erhöht. Jedoch ausschließlich im Backend.
Weiß jemand woran es liegt wenn diese Option Probleme verursacht?
Gruß Sadarex
Ich bin mir nicht sicher genau, warum Objekt-Cache oft langsamer Ladezeiten verursacht, aber ich weiß, es ist ein häufiges Problem (vor allem auf Shared Hosting) und die meisten Menschen sollten es unkontrolliert lassen.
Froh, dass es so schöne Ergebnisse hat!
Translation FYI…
He said:
Thanks for the tip with the ObjectCache! This option had increased my TTFB value from 500ms to up to 8 seconds. However, exclusively in the backend.
Does anyone know what it is when this option causes problems?
Greeting Sadarex
I said:
I’m not sure exactly why object cache often causes slower load times, but I know it’s a common issue (especially on shared hosting) and most people should leave it unchecked.
Glad disabling it got you such nice results!
Thank you so much! Helped me a lot with W3C cousing backend slowness
Welcome! Glad it’s running faster.
Hello I need help please! I was making a simple change to my page and I received a fatal error code on the from end of my webpage. It is now taking 15 seconds to load my site and it’s pages. I was making a simple update to a picture and the page crashed. I had to duplicate the page by copying and pasting the content into a fresh page to replace it.
Then once I fixed it I was editing a totally different page on my site when it happened again. The page had a fatal loading error on the front end saying ti timed out from taking to long to load. I had to build the page all over again. To add to the problem my site it running super slow now. I am afraid to make any changes to any of my pages in fear I will cause further damage.
I can really use your help please. Thanks!
Thank you so much! Disabling Object Cache worked right away. I’ll probably try the heartbeat thing too, but I just breathed a big sigh of relief :)
Perfect! Heartbeat is definitely good especially if multiple people are working on your site.
I switched to SSD hosting and my hosting provider installed Nginx PHP 7 Opcache for me which improved the speed of my site multiple times.
That will definitely do it… great combo.
Hi Tom,
I just joined freelancer to search for Pronaya Kumar Sarker and get no results!
Is there any other way to contact him?
In the meantime Im getting bombed with requests to do my project.!
Hi Des,
Try searching for username bdkamol and if you still can’t find him, try turning the “online users” option off. Let me know if that works for you.
Thanks. Its working. Installing the heartbeat control works for me.
Perfect.
Thanks for the awesome article, it’s being cached by me now .. ;-)
The 1st one did the trick for me : Disable “Object Cache” In W3 Total Cache
Great ! Keep up the good work !
Yeah me too! That one was a game changer.
I came across your site yesterday after looking for a way to fix my three sites at A2 Hosting. The Wordpress Dashboard was so slow I was getting constant 522 errors. I uploaded your W3 Cache file after deleting A2’s Wordpress Optimizing plugin, and my problem was solved. Working in the dashboard now is so much faster and I don’t get stressed out. Thanks so much for your able assistance, I really appreciate it. I will work on the Yoast plugin next, using your suggestions. Keep up the good work!
That’s awesome Gust, yes a lot of hosting companies try to get you to use their cache plugin but W3 Total Cache always seems to work better including getting better results on your front-end load time. Glad your dashboard is fixed and let me know if you have any questions when going through those Yoast tutorials. Thanks for the feedback!
This blog post was both unexciting, and lacking information other than the obvious.
Nothing is exciting about speeding up a WordPress dashboard. Lacking information? I’ll agree with you there… I can probably add a couple more suggestions.
Disabling object cache helped speeding up admin panel. Thanks.
Awesome Gabor, glad that worked.
Hello Tom,
Best tips and tricks so far i read .
I do agree with all of core tasks for getting fast wordpress website. According to me, reliable hosting provider, light wordpress theme, cache plugins, remove all of in-active plugins, tinny images are core task for getting fast wordpress based website.
One things need to add, web administrator should consider website speed seriously. According to research, people love to skimming new website with in 20 sec. If it is slow speed website, it might get negative impression from visitors.
Cheers
Ben
True that Ben. Another thing you reminded me of is monitoring CPU usage in AWStats as an overloaded server can definitely cause a slow dashboard, and AWStates show you exactly what plugins, crawlers, etc are consuming the most CPU. Thanks for your feedback!
Hi, Thanks for this posts. I am really suffering for this problem, I have done all the step and i don’t use wp-cache plugin. Yah i get batter results. I wm interested to buy hosting from siteground, please tell me about their customer support and services Thanks again.
Anytime Biplab. Yes I see your website won’t load for me or in GTmetrix. Have you gone through my speed optimization guide yet? I would first try minimizing plugin and contacting your current hosting provider (CloudFlare I think?) because it should at least load at some point.
SiteGround is awesome. Customer support is very knowledgeable with WordPress and you can reach them instantly through chat, phone, or ticket (have always been able to not only answer my questions but took the time to tweak some plugins for me and solve issues that go above and beyond just answering questions). Their GrowBig and GoGook review come with priority support but regular support is still very good.
You can read about their speed technology here but you will basically choose between their StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek plan (see a comparison chart or read my review of all 3 plans).
Basically the higher the plan, the more server resources you get which makes your site load faster. And the more features you get (eg. staging, more storage, etc). GrowBig is definitely the best value I think. Let me know if you have other questions.
My WP admin is painfully slow on my laptop and desktop but not another laptop (using same wifi, login). What WP crap resides on the machines rather than on the host?Suggestions?
Hey Charles, nothing resides on the machine in WordPress, not even your host. Do other websites load slow on your laptop or is it just WordPress?
Thanks so much, the object cache makes my Dashboard slow too, after disable it the Dashboard load quickly again.
But if we disable it the front end will be slow for visitors?
Thanks
You should be fine without it, just make sure you have configured the settings properly (eg. using my W3TC tutorial) ideally with CloudFlare MaxCDN. Then optimize images, plugins, and other things listed in my speed guide.
I’m shocked, #1 worked like a charm! I’m not very familiar with Object Caching, but it appears that disabling it made my admin run much smoother. I was getting worried it was the server, thank goodness!
Simple fixes are good, that’s awesome.
its work for me on step 2 .
Thank You soo much Sir
Anytime!
Thanks for posting this. My woocommerce site was painfully slow to manage in the WP admin backend. This certainly fixed the issue.
Awesome Dan, glad you were able to solve it.
Method 2 worked for me thanks you for the effort to post this.
Anytime, thanks for your feedback Ivan. Glad it worked.
A life saving post Tom. We just moved over a prominent site for a client and had to swap out two plugins with something else. Seemed like everything came to a halt.
This was a huge help. Kudos and more kudos!
Thanks so much Bill! Glad you found the solution to your client’s site and that this article helped you out.
Very useful post, you helped me!! Thank you!! :)
Of course Idoia, glad it helped you solve it!
I wanted to know what security plugins you recommend. I’m currently using wordfence and all in one wp security (which is a heavy plugin) but the security features are thorough, but since it is a heavy I would like to know what you use . Thanks.
Wordfence and Sucuri are my 2 favorite, I use Wordfence the most. Not sure if you need both Wordfence and All In One WP Security unless they perform separate functions?
Thanks. WP3 cache was at fault.
Glad it worked for you Tor.
When I initially set up W3TC I followed several tutorials and just couldn’t seem to get things running properly. I finally paid the guys at W3TC to setup the plugin for me. My website is really fast, unless I’m logged in and posting, which is all day because it’s a news website.
By some miracle, I found your website. Most of my settings were the same as this tutorial, but with some tweaks. I’m using the exact say setup as you, W3TC MaxCDN Cloudflare. I followed your Page Rules for Cloudflare and now everything runs like a dream!
THANK YOU SO MUCH… I’ve been struggling with this for almost a year. I COULD JUST KISS YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! :)
Laurie, that’s awesome! I am so happy to hear that… I spent a lot of time putting together the W3 Total Cache settings article and it makes it all worth it when you leave me a comment like that. A great combination indeed! Sounds like everything is running well for you now but let me know if you have any questions down the line! And thanks again for your wonderful feedback, it means a lot :)
Thanx a lot! At my page it was the W3 Cache. I disabled the object part and now it runs at least two times faster.
That’s awesome :)
Hello i am Arijit and i run a website rapidweightlosscare.com
On which i am currently having some issues regarding site load being too slow.
So i used gtmetrix to see what problem i have and found that majority of the issues are related to image.
On page speed test (Google) i get a very low score on mobile as well as desktop version.
Any suggestion on how i will optimize that issue asap…
I tried all possible plugins but non helped.
I also referred to different posts on that issue on this site but non worked for me.
When i click those links on gtmetrix i see a suggested dimension. But i find all my posts automatically applies image dimensions via small, medium, or large tags on media settings.
So my question is how will i set specific image dimensions to images. I tried every available way to do it.
And most importantly i don’t know coding so what ever your suggestions will be please be brief…. ;-)
Specifying image dimensions in featured images and plugins is tricky and I don’t think you can do this without knowing a bit of code. Some themes/plugins seem to do this automatically (you can try checking with your theme developer), others don’t.
I know that for “serve scaled images” your featured images on the homepage (and anywhere else) should be the correct dimensions. Looks like these are 245(w) x 153(h) on your site – so when you upload that featured image, it should be in those dimensions.
Let me know if that helps.
it worked thank you! the object cache thing was annoying me!
You’re welcome Reza – glad it worked :)