What's the best Plugin to make a WP site load faster?

13 years ago

I like W3 Total Cache.

However, many others like WP-Supercache in combo with WP-Minify.

Both do the same thing - cache your content and minify your js to make the site load faster. Both are pretty reliable although W3 takes a little more time to configure. It is more robust though.

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Quirpo

13 years ago

Yeah......I own many wordpress websites.....tried everything......W3 Total Cache helps........but in general.....there is not a whole lot you can do. If you are ok with a little slower website......it can be worth it....because wordpress is a great cms for great seo websites.

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AndreStoelinga

13 years ago

wp-super-cache plugin is recommended a lot.
Don't use wp-cache, because it hasn't been updated in ages...

Andre

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Chris-

13 years ago

Thanks for all the advice so far

Chris

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Amy Harrop 13 years ago

I use the W3 Total Cache, WP Widget Cache, and Autoptimize plugins.
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Matthew Shane Roe

13 years ago

Another vote for W3 Total Cache - I use it on all of my clients as well as my own sites.

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Bill D-G

13 years ago

Quick Cache is a good alternative that seems to work for me. I like the easy interface.

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UMS

13 years ago

In order of preference:

1. W3 Total Cache
2. Quick Cache
3. WP Super Cache

I did a series of speed tests from various source points and W3 Total Cache was the clear winner if you configure it correctly.

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Toby.T

13 years ago

Originally Posted by UMS

In order of preference:

1. W3 Total Cache
2. Quick Cache
3. WP Super Cache

I did a series of speed tests from various source points and W3 Total Cache was the clear winner if you configure it correctly.

Thanks, I personally use WP Super Cache but will switch to W3 Total Cache for testing purposes right now. Will be interesting to see if there is much difference.

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TheZafraGroup

13 years ago

A WP blog will slow down if you have too many active plugins. What you do is to start deactivating the ones that you don't really have any use for. Spam is also a nasty way to slow your site down. Those nasty little buggers actually take up a lot of band width. Another is how many posts you have on your page. Limit it to 5-8 posts and limit the images as well. The best plugin I know about that can speed up your WP blog is WP Super Cache. It will make loading faster and lessen the load from your server which is great. It's like it will take a snapshot of your blog so the next time you visit, it wouldn't have to load the whole thing. One tip tho, when making changes, deactivate this plugin to see them. Like I said it's like taking a snapshot of your blog, deactivating it and activating after the changes will take a new snapshot. Hope this helped!

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Chris-

13 years ago

Thanks for all the advice . . . looks like W3 is the winner

Chris

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ronaldmd

13 years ago

Why use plugin? Just like TheZafraGroup said, WP blog will slow down if you have too many active plugins.

Use gzip compression.

Add the following to the htaccess file:

Code:

mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*

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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by ronaldmd

Why use plugin? Just like TheZafraGroup said, WP blog will slow down if you have too many active plugins.

Use gzip compression.

Add the following to the htaccess file:

Code:

mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*

So what does that do, why and how ???

Chris

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JFSebastian 13 years ago

I suggest WP Super Cache.
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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by ronaldmd

Why use plugin? Just like TheZafraGroup said, WP blog will slow down if you have too many active plugins.

Use gzip compression.

Add the following to the htaccess file:

Code:

mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*

That doesn't work. I tried it and I get an internal server error.

I use W3 Total Cache and limit my plugins. A few days ago I had a message in my adsense account telling me that I needed to compress my sites for better user experience and didn't have a clue what it meant. I searched and found the following code to put in the htaccess file and tried it on my busiest blog.

# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

# Or, compress certain file types by extension:
<Files *.html>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</Files>

The blog seemed to load a bit quicker but when I enter the domain into an online gzip tester it says that it isn't compressed so I'm flummoxed now.

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trishacupra911

13 years ago

I also vote for W3 Total Cache. I use it on my clients' websites as well. It makes a very noticeable difference.

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Chris-

13 years ago

Thanks for the info. Can anyone give the full story on this compression thing? If not, I guess I'll do some reasearch and/or start a new thread about that!

thanks

Chris

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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris-

Thanks for the info. Can anyone give the full story on this compression thing? If not, I guess I'll do some reasearch and/or start a new thread about that!

thanks

Chris

How To Optimize Your Site With GZIP Compression | BetterExplained This site has an explanation that I more or less understood, but I don't know if the code I've used from there is working or not.

Another thing that I've found helps with site load speed is to get rid of the Google analytics plugin and use the code provided in the blog header instead.

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1 reply

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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

How To Optimize Your Site With GZIP Compression | BetterExplained This site has an explanation that I more or less understood, but I don't know if the code I've used from there is working or not.

Another thing that I've found helps with site load speed is to get rid of the Google analytics plugin and use the code provided in the blog header instead.

Thanks for the link, I'll have a read of that

Chris

Thanks
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PatriciaJ 13 years ago

If you can figure it please let us know, I've been worried since that went on my Adsense account
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- Chris- 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by PatriciaJ
  
  If you can figure it please let us know, I've been worried since that went on my Adsense account
  
  Yes, I'll post here if I figure it out
  
  Chris
  
  Thanks
  
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KenFighter

13 years ago

this one also cool..
WordPress › Quick Cache ( A WP Super Cache Alternative ) « WordPress Plugins

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Chris-

13 years ago

So far, I've used an analyzer:-

Web Page Analyzer - free website optimization tool website speed test check website performance report from web site optimization

which says that my pages are being sent compressed, so I guess W3 is doing that for me.

I found a link with some very interesting-looking info on speeding up WP sites:-

11 Ways to Make Your WordPress Site Faster and Leaner

So I'm going through that currently!

Chris

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1 reply

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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris-

So far, I've used an analyzer:-

Web Page Analyzer - free website optimization tool website speed test check website performance report from web site optimization

which says that my pages are being sent compressed, so I guess W3 is doing that for me.

I found a link with some very interesting-looking info on speeding up WP sites:-

11 Ways to Make Your WordPress Site Faster and Leaner

So I'm going through that currently!

Chris

Thanks. I tried the web page analyser on my 2 busiest blogs, one is running W3 total Cache, the other I added the code which was supposed to compress but the results for both blogs come back as need compressing. So I'm probably doing something wrong. Sometimes I prefer my html sites to Wordpress, they are easier to run

Thanks
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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

Thanks. I tried the web page analyser on my 2 busiest blogs, one is running W3 total Cache, the other I added the code which was supposed to compress but the results for both blogs come back as need compressing. So I'm probably doing something wrong. Sometimes I prefer my html sites to Wordpress, they are easier to run

My settings for W3 . . . plugin enabled, PageCaches, Minify, Database Cache, and Browser Cache all enabled.

Chris

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PatriciaJ 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris-

My settings for W3 . . . plugin enabled, PageCaches, Minify, Database Cache, and Browser Cache all enabled.

Chris

I've got page cache, minify, database cache, object cache and browser cache enabled. I had one of the Hostgator support check it out for me and he said it was ok, but it is hard to understand.
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Mike Tyler

13 years ago

Quick Cache and gZip Configuration is the king!

Mike Tyler.

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Zaheera

13 years ago

Hi,

Total Cache is the best option and first choice. I give second rating to Hyper Cache.

Regards,

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abdin66

13 years ago

I found Flexicache very good too. W3 Cache is very complex to setup but seems most Warriors favour that.

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ManageWP

13 years ago

There are a couple of services, CloudFlare.com and Inapcsula.com come to mind first, which allow you to run your website traffic through them and they will automatically optimize the output, while also protecting you from hackers.

CloudFlare is more performance oriented and Incapsula more security but they both have free plans.

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1 reply

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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by ManageWP

There are a couple of services, CloudFlare.com and Inapcsula.com come to mind first, which allow you to run your website traffic through them and they will automatically optimize the output, while also protecting you from hackers.

CloudFlare is more performance oriented and Incapsula more security but they both have free plans.

Thanks for the info, I hadn't realised they might be free

I'll keep that in mind for the future!

thanks

Chris

Thanks

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sbucciarel

Banned 13 years ago

I've been using WP Super Cache, but think I'll give the W3 plugin a shot and see if there's a noticeable difference.

Thanks
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octavyo 13 years ago

Without any doubt W3 Total Cache is the best one. I`m using in on some of my sites and the load time has been improved considerably
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pacelattin

13 years ago

+1 here for W3 Total Cache. Plus use a CDN.

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Brian Alaway

13 years ago

For those on shared hosting, some hosts (Hostgator included) disable content compression on shared accounts because it is too resource intensive. For HG there is an "Optimize Website" icon in cPanel and even though it will appear to work, in fact it does not for shared accounts as HG disables gzip (mod_deflate) on their shared servers. W3 Total Cache will handle the compression instead.
You can go here and enter a url to check for compression:
GIDZipTest: Web Page Compression (Deflate / Gzip) Test - GIDNetwork

Also, the latest version of W3 Total Cache now integrates with Cloudflare. You'll find the Cloudflare settings on the W3TC General tab.

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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Brian Alaway

For those on shared hosting, some hosts (Hostgator included) disable content compression on shared accounts because it is too resource intensive. For HG there is an "Optimize Website" icon in cPanel and even though it will appear to work, in fact it does not for shared accounts as HG disables gzip (mod_deflate) on their shared servers. W3 Total Cache will handle the compression instead.
You can go here and enter a url to check for compression:
GIDZipTest: Web Page Compression (Deflate / Gzip) Test - GIDNetwork

Also, the latest version of W3 Total Cache now integrates with Cloudflare. You'll find the Cloudflare settings on the W3TC General tab.

Interesting point. BlueHost seems to be allowing me to use content compression, but I guess I'd better check with them to make sure it won't cause any problems if I do it on all my sites.

thanks

Chris

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Chris- 13 years ago

I read somewhere that it is possible to pre-Gzip files on the server, rather than have the CPU do them as the pages are requested (if I understand correctly).

Does anyone know how to do that for a WP site?

Chris
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Mark Marzinzik

13 years ago

My suggestion is NONE OF THEM... One of the easiest answers can be upgrading to a faster business server. You will be amazed at the the difference it makes. The problems I had with these plug-ins is they require Caches and you are forever messing with clearing the cache, adjusting the cache when you change anything on your site. It was not a delightful experience. If you place a non-dynamic site on line they would work fine.

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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by pacelattin

+1 here for W3 Total Cache. Plus use a CDN.

I was told that I didn't need that for my sites.

Originally Posted by Brian Alaway

For those on shared hosting, some hosts (Hostgator included) disable content compression on shared accounts because it is too resource intensive. For HG there is an "Optimize Website" icon in cPanel and even though it will appear to work, in fact it does not for shared accounts as HG disables gzip (mod_deflate) on their shared servers. W3 Total Cache will handle the compression instead.
You can go here and enter a url to check for compression:
GIDZipTest: Web Page Compression (Deflate / Gzip) Test - GIDNetwork

Also, the latest version of W3 Total Cache now integrates with Cloudflare. You'll find the Cloudflare settings on the W3TC General tab.

GIDNetwork is what I've been using to test my sites and according to that tester none of my sites are compressed whether I've used W3 Total Cache or added code to my htaccess

I'm with Hostgator but what I'm finding hard to follow is them disabling content compression yet they recommend that you use W3 Total Cache, that's not logical.

Originally Posted by Mark Marzinzik

My suggestion is NONE OF THEM... One of the easiest answers can be upgrading to a faster business server. You will be amazed at the the difference it makes. The problems I had with these plug-ins is they require Caches and you are forever messing with clearing the cache, adjusting the cache when you change anything on your site. It was not a delightful experience. If you place a non-dynamic site on line they would work fine.

I upgraded to a VPS last year. With W3 Total cache you just clear the cache when you add or remove a plugin or if there has been a plugin or theme update. Don't think you need to adjust the cache.

Just seen Google APIs at the bottom of the W3 stttings, anybody know if that's of any use?

Thanks
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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

I'm with Hostgator but what I'm finding hard to follow is them disabling content compression yet they recommend that you use W3 Total Cache, that's not logical.

W3 does other things other than content compression, so even if HostGator is blocking content compression, W3 can still speed up your site.

Chris

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andrejvasso

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

I'm with Hostgator but what I'm finding hard to follow is them disabling content compression yet they recommend that you use W3 Total Cache, that's not logical.

Just in case you find it interesting to know why Hostgator and others are disabling content compression:

Most of this big webhost companies offer hosting and domain at so cheap rates, that they are not really making any profit from that.

They do make their profit by charging insanely high costs when you exceed the allowed bandwidth.

So, the logic is simple: compressing content -> results in less bandwidth used -> less bandwidth means less profit.

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Brian Alaway 13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

I upgraded to a VPS last year.

Make sure that mod_deflate is enabled on your VPS account as I don't think it is by default.
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Michael Fied

13 years ago

I really like W3 Total Cache...

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indojobsearch 13 years ago

if you installed many plugins i think you need wp super cache too speed up your wordpress site..
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Chris-

13 years ago

Looking at how content compression affects my BlueHost (shared) account, it looks like the initial changes I made yesterday such as deleting the old versions of posts, caused some CPU throttling, but only up to about 1/3 of the danger level, and so far it looks like the use of content compression itself is not a problem at my current traffic levels, although it is obviously something I will have to keep an eye on, in case it gets close to danger levels (CPU throttling >5000 seconds per day, or >600 seconds per hour).

I'll leave it a day and see if there is any CPU throttling under normal use, then make the changes on my other sites too.

Chris

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andrejvasso

13 years ago

Do not use another wordpress plugin!

Use common sense: Plugins are the main reason for a wordpress site to become really slow. Do you really think adding more poorly coded plugins will help to decrease loading time? I think not.

Here is something for you to paste into your .htaccess file:

Code:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>

# Force deflate for mangled headers developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/
<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
    SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)s,?s(gzip|deflate)?|X{4,13}|~{4,13}|-{4,13})$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding
    RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding
  </IfModule>
</IfModule>

# HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC:
<IfModule filter_module>
  FilterDeclare   COMPRESS
  FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type /text/(html|css|javascript|plain|x(ml|-component))/
  FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type /application/(javascript|json|xml|x-javascript)/
  FilterChain     COMPRESS
  FilterProtocol  COMPRESS  change=yes;byteranges=no
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_filter.c>
  # Legacy versions of Apache
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript application/javascript application/x-javascript 
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component
</IfModule>

# Webfonts and SVG:
  <FilesMatch ".(ttf|otf|eot|svg)$" >
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
  </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

Taken from html5boilerplate htaccess and working like a charm.

Thanks
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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by andrejvasso

Do not use another wordpress plugin!

Use common sense: Plugins are the main reason for a wordpress site to become really slow. Do you really think adding more poorly coded plugins will help to decrease loading time? I think not.

Here is something for you to paste into your .htaccess file:

Code:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>

# Force deflate for mangled headers developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/
<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
    SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)s,?s(gzip|deflate)?|X{4,13}|~{4,13}|-{4,13})$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding
    RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding
  </IfModule>
</IfModule>

# HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC:
<IfModule filter_module>
  FilterDeclare   COMPRESS
  FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type /text/(html|css|javascript|plain|x(ml|-component))/
  FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type /application/(javascript|json|xml|x-javascript)/
  FilterChain     COMPRESS
  FilterProtocol  COMPRESS  change=yes;byteranges=no
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_filter.c>
  # Legacy versions of Apache
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript application/javascript application/x-javascript 
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component
</IfModule>

# Webfonts and SVG:
  <FilesMatch ".(ttf|otf|eot|svg)$" >
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
  </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

Taken from html5boilerplate htaccess and working like a charm.

We know that plugins are causing sites to load slow. I decreased mine ages ago but Google are telling me that I need to compress. Thank you for this code, but I've tried it and it's still not compressed according to the tester. I might have a chat with Hostgator, if I'm getting a warning message in my Adsense account I need to sort it

Thanks
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andrejvasso

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

We know that plugins are causing sites to load slow. I decreased mine ages ago but Google are telling me that I need to compress. Thank you for this code, but I've tried it and it's still not compressed according to the tester. I might have a chat with Hostgator, if I'm getting a warning message in my Adsense account I need to sort it

The problem is most def. Hostgator related.

I am hosting sites on a VPS (@ webangel.ie) and the code above works good and testing my sites (with that tester that has been posted here) confirms it.

Thanks
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PatriciaJ

13 years ago

Originally Posted by andrejvasso

The problem is most def. Hostgator related.

I am hosting sites on a VPS (@ webangel.ie) and the code above works good and testing my sites (with that tester that has been posted here) confirms it.

I've got some sites on another host and will test the code on those before talking to Hostgator. It was their support that told me to use W3 Total Cache before I upgraded to VPS. If that plugin can't work properly there was no point in them saying to use it.

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Istvan Horvath

13 years ago

Use common sense: Plugins are the main reason for a wordpress site to become really slow. Do you really think adding more poorly coded plugins will help to decrease loading time?

^^This!
(and thanks for the useful code!)

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Chris-

13 years ago

And/Or, content compression in real time uses the CPU to do it, so the more it's being done the more CPU they'd have to provide, and that costs money. Hence they use CPU throttling to limit the amount of CPU power you use, and if you keep on trying to use more than they want you to use, they might suspend your account (that's what BlueHost seems to be saying, anyway, with its upper limits to throttling).

Chris

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Velant

13 years ago

Chucky in his WSO has videos that not only shows what plugin combination he installs to rise loading speed significantly, but also shows how you can monitor/measure the loading speed in browser. He uses several plugins and one of them is W3 Total Cache.

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w@rrior

13 years ago

WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Minify, Free CDN, GZIP Output

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DianaG

13 years ago

I'm a big fan of WP-super-cache, but I'm definitely giving W3 a spin after reading this. Also, check your image size and load on your page. That makes a definite difference.

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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by DianaG

I'm a big fan of WP-super-cache, but I'm definitely giving W3 a spin after reading this. Also, check your image size and load on your page. That makes a definite difference.

Yes, good point, thanks

Chris

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Chris-

13 years ago

I'll add that on my cPanel (on BlueHost), there is the option to "optimize website", which sets content compression to be used when the server is not too overloaded, so speeds up your website sometimes, without running the risk of using too much CPU (which can cause "throttling" errors, and too many of those and your websites get suspended!).

In comparison, a plugin like W3 will use content compression all the time, which is better for your website loading time, but might cause you to be using too much CPU, and get into problems with your hosting service (ie. you might have to pay for more expensive hosting to give you enough CPU access).

Chris

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Chris-

13 years ago

I've seen hints that it might be possible to Gzip all content before-hand, while it is on the server (before it is requested), and thus get round any CPU usage problems. However, I've not been able to find any details on this, and besides, as some older browsers need un-compressed files, presumably having both options available would double the file-count, so that's no good for me (I've got too many files already!).

Chris

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Velant

13 years ago

I though people in this thread will find this interesting:
I have tried W3 Total Cache using the settings dicussed in this thread - it either doesn't improve the loading speed or even slows it slightly down (like 75% without chaching, and 73% - with W3 activated). Then I went and installed WP Super cache and Quick cache (one at a time of course) - the same result: no improvement or even slower.

That's the 'power' of caching.

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pamela88

13 years ago

I think that all plug-ins will delay WP website to load. Any plugin will take time to run on server side before page will send to client side PC. Try the code ideas is the best solution.

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Velant

13 years ago

I tested W3 TC on other blog and it works fine (75 -->90 speed increase!)
The reason it didn't work on the other blog, as I found out, is because I can't use Minify in "Automatic" mode - as this screws up all the blog design (misplaces graphics, shifts text blocks etc.), and setting minify to "Manual" doesn't improve the speed at all.

I played with manual minfiy parameters but to no avail. If anybody knows how to 'detect' parameters of the "Automatic" minife mode or what are the optimum settings for the Minify in manual mode, I'd be most grateful for any suggestions.

thank you

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Mark Marzinzik

13 years ago

Chris, I previously used Bluehost. The problem is they "Throttle your account" Have you looked at your throttling chart lately? I needed a way to communicate via MySQL port directly into local software programs I develop, Bluehost could not accommodate. I started using Westhost and then things started getting slow with that account. I then upgraded to a Business account. Better yet. To the best of my knowledge what these catching programs are doing is making use of the "Cloud" Multiple servers throughout the world. The ultimate in serving up fast pages. Look into Amazon they may offer Web-hosting, don't know their specific size requirements. Whenever you are used a shared account things are bound to get slow. As you start getting into business class servers you share the virtual space with fewer participants which can help in creating less traffic jams on the server. Just my 2-cents

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Karen Blundell 13 years ago

one of the best things I ever did for myself and my WordPress blogs was to change to a web host that runs LiteSpeed
no additional plugins needed...
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Chris-

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Mark Marzinzik

Chris, I previously used Bluehost. The problem is they "Throttle your account" Have you looked at your throttling chart lately? I needed a way to communicate via MySQL port directly into local software programs I develop, Bluehost could not accommodate. I started using Westhost and then things started getting slow with that account. I then upgraded to a Business account. Better yet. To the best of my knowledge what these catching programs are doing is making use of the "Cloud" Multiple servers throughout the world. The ultimate in serving up fast pages. Look into Amazon they may offer Web-hosting, don't know their specific size requirements. Whenever you are used a shared account things are bound to get slow. As you start getting into business class servers you share the virtual space with fewer participants which can help in creating less traffic jams on the server. Just my 2-cents

Thanks for your comments. I'm gradually learning about this stuff

Chris