Knowledgebase
How to speed up Magento
Here are some tips on how to speed up your Magento. Before you make any changes make sure you have a recent backup of your Magento files and database.
- One way to speed up your Magento is to enable mod_deflate. It's a module for compressing the data transferred from the server to the client's browser. You can enable this compression by uncommenting some lines in the .htaccess file located in the root Magento directory on your account. For more information on what lines to uncomment read the article on speeding up Magento by enabling HTTP compression.
- Enable Magento Compiler from your store's Dashboard: System>Tools>Compilation. This will create a compilation of the PHP files in a single directory. In this way they'll be accessed faster since they won't be scattered in many different folders. If enabling this option causes some problems to your Magento you can always disable it.
- Enable FastCGI. This can be done from the PHP Settings section of the Pixie control panel.
- You can merge the CSS and Javascript files to reduce the number of HTTP requests. This can be done from your store's Dashboard (System>Configuration>Developer). It's possible that enabling these options may cause some problems. If there are any, disable them. An alternative would be to use a minifying extension such as Fooman Speedster.
- Install Fooman Speedster. It's an extension for merging, compressing and caching CSS and Javascript files. With this extension installed, you shouldn't enable the CSS and Javascript merging options in the admin panel.
- Don't install too many extensions. Install only extensions that you need. If there are any that you don't use any more remove them.
- Update your store when there's a new stable Magento update.
- Optimize the images on your store. You can use an online tool such as Yahoo's Smush.it.
- Optimize your Magento database regularly. You can do that through phpMyAdmin.
For some more details read the Magento Optimization Tutorial.