The first step for troubleshooting a slow WooCommerce site is to determine the root cause.
Cache and CDN #
Using a caching plugin such as WP Super Cache is a good way to optimize site performance. You can also use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Jetpack’s site accelerator or Cloudflare to speed your site up further.
Be careful, though — caching plugins have the potential to cause your site to load incorrectly (or not at all) if incorrectly configured. Make sure to double-check and confirm settings after implementation.
Host #
Contact your hosting provider to discuss the impact your hosting plan has on site performance. We recommend high-quality, dedicated hosting over cheap hosting plans on shared servers. See our recommended WooCommerce hosting solutions.
Images #
A common cause of slow site performance on the front end is image size. The file size of your product/blog images directly impacts the speed at which your site loads.
Jetpack Boost or a third-party tool like Smush can help optimize images within WordPress.
View our guide for fixing blurry images in WooCommerce.
Minification #
Minification improves your site’s loading speed by reducing the size of its code files. It removes unnecessary characters like spaces, line breaks, and comments from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files — without affecting their functionality. This reduced file size results in faster download and execution times, enhancing overall website performance and user experience.
To minify files on your site, you can choose from a variety of third-party plugins.
Memory #
It may also be necessary for you to increase your site’s WordPress memory limit.
Extensions and plugins #
A sluggish site can sometimes be related to extension/plugin load.
To test this, deactivate all extensions and plugins, reactivating them one by one until you find a potential cause. You could also use the third-party Plugin Organizer to control the order of activation, toggling plugins on or off on a per-page/post basis.
Theme #
To test your theme, temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (such as Twenty Twenty-Five) and navigate through the site. If you notice a performance improvement, the problem is likely related to your theme.
Additional tools, tips, and resources #
Site analysis #
Tips #
- Offload all unnecessary functions to another server or third-party service, such as sending email via a dedicated Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) provider.
Resources #
- Ten ways to improve the speed of your WooCommerce store
- WooCommerce performance best practices
- WordPress.org performance optimization tips
Questions and support #
Do you still have questions and need assistance?
This documentation is about the free, core WooCommerce plugin, for which support is provided in our community forums on WordPress.org. By searching this forum, you’ll often find that your question has been asked and answered before.
If you haven’t created a WordPress.org account to use the forums, here’s how.
- If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the WooCommerce Marketplace.
- Need ongoing advanced support or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a Woo Agency Partner.
- Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.
