Slow time to first byte in WordPress

[KeithPickering]

http://keithpickering.net/

On webpagetest.org, I frequently have a TTFB of nearly 2 seconds. It only occurs on WordPress pages. To test this, I created a simple html document, ran it through the tester, and received an A for the TTFB. I then took that same code, turned it into a page template, and created a page in WordPress—this page gets an F. Something is up with WordPress.

I’ve tried deactivating my plugins, switching themes, etc. Interestingly enough, I also have a slow TTFB on the login page for the WP dashboard.

I’ve contacted my host and they told me it was an issue with my WordPress installation, because other WP sites on the same server are running just fine.

Any ideas?

[TreeRoot]

Are you running a cache plugin such as Quick Cache, W3 Total Cache, or WP Super Cache? If not, try doing so, then retest your TTFB.

Nevermind the above, as I see you are indeed running W3 Total Cache (didn’t see your link there).

I was running W3 Total Cache and experienced slow TTFB. I switched to Quick Cache and TTFB is now fast. I didn’t switch due to TTFB–it’s just something I noticed afterwards.

[KeithPickering]

I’ve tried disabling W3TC and it didn’t help—that actually made it slower.

[TreeRoot]

Keith, I wouldn’t suggest “just” disabling it, but also replacing it with Quick Cache. Also, browsing page-to-page, it didn’t feel like the pages were cached. There was a delay going back and forth, so I’m wondering if your cache is even working properly. What version of W3TC are you using anyway as it appears that v0.9.2.6 through v0.9.2.8 have been having some trouble lately due to the number of support requests on the plugin page.

The last stable version appears to have been v0.9.2.5. I never upgraded past that version due to stability concerns.

[KeithPickering]

Is it possible for W3TC to affect the TTFB of the dashboard?

[KeithPickering]

Looks like completely wiping W3TC and installing the older version has fixed the problem—caching seems to work properly too, now.

[Historical Forums User]

Sounds like it could have been a database query performance issue. If you have a localhost version you could setup an Xdebug configuration which would allow function and method tracing, and profiling of PHP applications.

This article is unfinished but might get you pointed in there right direction.
[Testing_WordPress_Performance](http://codex.wordpress.org/Testing_WordPress_Performance “Testing WordPress Preformance”)

[Historical Forums User]

Hi,

Try to use an HTML cache plugin like WP Super Cache, it’s so useful, it creates an static HTML files for pages ang update when it’s necessary

Look at my website : http://geekcoder.fr/

The TTFB is about 1ms, it was 1.2s before because I use a very slow free hosting service

I hope this will help

[endeavour]

Hi, affasib,

I’ve checked your site, it’s about 100-200 ms (0.1-0.2s). Anyway speed is great.
We had the same problem with our plagiarism checker – TTFB was near 1200ms. Disabling W3TC and enabling WP super cache reduced TTFB to 350-400ms.
Don’t forget to empty all caches before testing.

[Author]

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