Why is WP so slow but everything else is buttery smooth?

Community Support
1

Just installed WordPress and its so slow and idk why. I have OPCache enabled, turning Nginx caching on (using the template) and still so slow.

My php.ini: JustPaste.it - Share Text & Images the Easy Way

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My server specs ^

Now I know I’m not local to the server, its in Europe and I’m in the US but seeing as everything else appears to be lightning fast, just not WP, I’m failing to understand. I also installed it with the autoinstaller HestiaCP has, and I also am using PHP 8.3. I just need help making it usable. I checked and monitored CPU and RAM usage, and it appears fine.

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I don’t think I need a server upgrade, this is an optimization issue or smth. I’m using no custom templates, only what came with HestiaCP.

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2

Your server resources are enough to run hundreds of WordPress at the same time.

Apart from the basic autoinstaller HestiaCP WordPress installation, have you installed something else on it? Plugins, themes, anything?

With your current information posted in your message, it is very difficult to know what it could be without asking you lots of things, so I recommend you try to create a new subdomain website in HestiaCP and start again from zero, repeating the same installation procedures, and check speed one by one to notice when it starts to go slow in order to identify what step is causing this problem.

It surely is not a HestiaCP or server problem but a WordPress problem, or depending on your full WordPress installation, maybe it needs to be fine-tuned with custom service settings.

3

I have only installed a single theme but it was slow before I even installed anything

4

Then no idea. Let me recommend you debug everything, for example, starting with:

  1. Your latency from your connection to your server (ping)

  2. Check pagespeed results (https://pagespeed.web.dev/)

  3. Create a simple PHP script in the same public_html folder with just phpinfo() and see if it loads faster and review opcache and other settings in it

  4. Open a single direct URL image from the same domain to notice if it goes slow or not too (first time, later it could be cached)

  5. Try to access the wp-admin area to notice if it also goes slow moving around it.

I recommend you use F12 to open the Web Developer Tools in your browser and check the Network tab and check the timings of steps 3, 4, and 5.

If all these steps still point to speed problems, then you should try a manual install of WordPress, just in case the autoinstaller in HestiaCP could be the reason.

5

When I first set up my WordPress blog on a Hetznet VPS using HestiaCP, it wasn’t exactly fast either.

I subsequently put a lot of effort into optimizing it and have written down the steps here.

6

Server specs look fine, so it’s likely not a hardware issue. Check for plugins, theme, or caching problems.Even fresh WP can be slow due to config or DB queries. Try a clean install on a subdomain and compare. Use Query Monitor or browser dev tools to see what’s slowing it down.

7

I installed it brand new via HestiaCP autoinstaller, instantly slow, even before I installed a theme. Theme didn’t make it any slower. Installing it again on a new subdomain is a waste of time imo.