[Support request] Performance WordPress Customizer slowed down by GP Premium

[Tom]

Resetting your options likely won’t do anything to fix this issue. Siteground is usually quite good, so I assume you may be on a shared server with another site taking up a lot of resources.

Regardless, Customizer performance is something we’ll be looking further into for GP 3.1 🙂

[Walter]

Tom, thanks

– When is GP 3.1 due ?

– I understand that the reset will not fix the problem but I was thinking to do that to see if I can get everything to work with GP Premium deactivated …. I know it will restrict me somewhat as I am using several of the GP Premium modules including the WooCommerce, Colors, MenuPlus etc.

– Indeed I selected Siteground as well reviewed hosting provider (the same I did with GeneratePress :-)) I realize I am on a shared server environment (without control who else is using it) but if anything goes slow I would expect that to be my Homepage built with ElementerPRO including Video, Animations, you name it, but that is fine.

– I also use the SiteGround Caching that is supposed to be quite good but probably only/mainly for the frontend and not for the background Admin-Dashboard Pages where the Customizer resides.

[David]

Hi there,

as Tom said it sounds like a lack of shared resources on the shared server. Might be worth asking SiteGround if theres something they can do to improve that. In the past they have ‘happily’ moved a site to a different server for me.

[Walter]

David, thanks,

I opened a ticket on this with Siteground Support a few days back but they claimed it is a third party issue and not a hosting issue and pointed me to a “recommended” developper group that fixes WordPress or other application issues …. kind of useless of course ….. and I will most likely try again with them as it might also depend who you speak to.

Tom mentioned GP 3.1 but not yet when that is expected to come ?

[David]

I would give them a little kick, you really shouldn’t be suffering that issue with the GP customizer. And at the very least they should have a look at your server to see if you’re receiving a fare share of the overheads.

3.1 no definitive time frame on this just yet – its going to be weeks away not days.

[Walter]

David, thanks,

– I have tried with SiteGround but no success till now that claim everything is fine on their end.

– When the new version of GP Premium comes out I will give it a try and maybe also test on another hosting platform if that is what it takes (unfortunately SiteGround operates on yearly plans so I have paid for a year).

– In the meantime I look at my options to deactivate Generate Press Premium (I like the functionality) and I think that can be done for my relatively simple website but have to do a bit of work on WooCommerce to change the style of the buttons and hide some fields and make a nice homepage header (currently used the Elements function for that).

Regards, Walter

[David]

Well i am shocked by that – we have quite a lot of SG users and they generally give good feedback of the service. I run my development platform on their, albeit the higher paid plan, and have generally found them more willing to look into an issue.

Maybe install Query Monitor to see if it flags any issues:

https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/query-monitor/

[Walter]

David, thanks,

– Siteground Support is good when I ask questions about different questions then wordpress performance related things, so support questions for Staging, Backup, SSL etc. is all fine but as soon as it is performance related they run a GTMetrix or something (and that is good for my site) and then in the follow-up it soon stops. Few months back I started with SiteGround because of good reviews and I started with their GrowBig plan. But ala it is what it is.

– Query Monitor I may give a shot but I cannot do that this week, has to wait till next week.

– In the meantime I have looked into Headers with Elementor and WooCommerce buttons with CSS and is doable alright. But still I prefer the header, navigation, stickyness etc. to come from the Theme instead of making it with Elementor. That’s my feeling so still don’t really want to give up on GP Premium as the functionality is very handy.

Regards, Walter

[David]

If you want to send us temporary admin access to the site we would be happy to take a quick look?
You can share login and URL in the Private Information box.

[Walter]

David, thanks,

See the private info box for the URL, Admin User, Pwd.

This is a wordpress site created with the Siteground setup and I have only done the following:

– Changed the theme to GeneratePress
– Install Plugin GP Premium.
– Deactivate SGOptimizer plugin (that comes with the install) although it doesn’t make a difference.

To test:

1) Go the Appearance -> Customizer (check performance)
2) Activate the Plugin GP Premium
3) Repeat step 1.

If you want to have admin access to my site that I am constructing that has Elementor, WooCommerce and Learndash plugins I can give that too but the above is probably easier to pinpoint the issue.

Regards, Walter

[David]

I created a screencast to show the difference between GP and GPP customizer loading:

Is it slower than that on your end ? As external issues such as Network speed and Computer memory / Browser memory can also play a part in this

I also noticed that the Admin URLs were not set to HTTPS – i changed them after i did the video. Noticeably a small improvement – but this is probably more a random occurrence related to server response times fluctuating.

Also installed Query Monitor and i am not seeing any issues.

[Walter]

David, thanks, yes server is located here in Holland.

Once I am in the Customizer and working with the different modules it is all fine on my end too.
It is only the initial load of the Customizer that is slow when GP Premium is activated. Once I am in it’s fine as on your end in the video.

I see one thing different when loading the customizer pane: on your end the page (sample page) is loaded first/stays there visible when the left hand sidebar with the customizer comes up. On my end the page window always turns white and then it first loads that left hand sidebar with the cutomizer and then it shows the page itself after that. (I do not count that page loading in the numbers below)

On this “empty” system the load of the customizer screen with GP Premium active takes me 5 seconds (and without it roughly 1 second) … on a system filled with more plugins, pages, custom posts for Learndash etc. it takes 8 seconds (and about 2.5 seconds without GP Premium).

So it seems that when GP Premium is active it adds about 4 to 5,5 seconds to the loading of that left hand sidebar where the customizer shows.

Maybe I am complaining too much but I find it odd that this loads so slow. That backend performance is less important of course but still I think a reasonable load time for that pane should be closer to say 3 seconds the most.

Regards, Walter

[Walter]

p.s. I see in the video that your “difference” in initial loading with and without GP Premium is closer together (maybe indeed because of factors as latency, browser, memmory etc.).

On my end the initial loading without GP Premium is much faster then on your end though.

Walter

[David]

Across a handful of tests the avg time from opening Customizer to it being displayed and responsive was around 3.5 – 4seconds seconds, which is on the edge of being frustrating. The white screen sounds like a local memory issue, if you’re using Chrome you may want to clear its caches and check to see its not hogging all the memory.

As Tom said we are looking at updating the Customizer which should significantly reduce the load times, but some of this seems to be related to the server and maybe the local device.

[Walter]

David, thanks

– Have cleared caches, restarted local machine, used Edge, Chrome and Firefox all with the same result.
– Pitty no luck sofar …. let me wait on the update and I give it a shot again and then decide if I stay with Premium or do a test on a different Hosting platform or something else.
– I wish I had payed better attention in the beginning (but hey, I am new to WordPress) as I am not sure when this problem kicked in or wether it has been there from the beginning, I am not sure about this.

Appreciate your (and Leo,s and Tom,s) help I have no problem with that !

You have a customer here who is happy with support, happy with the functionality, but unhappy about his initial loading time of GP Premium whatever the reason may be …..

Regards, Walter

Regards, Walter

[Author]

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