In an earlier post I wrote about Azure WordPress performance compared to a Linux VPS hosted instance for WordPress, with the later completely trouncing the Azure hosted instance. While I really wanted the Azure environment to be a success, until the database performance increases we’ll be hosting our WordPress sites elsewhere.
To start with let’s recap our Azure WordPress Environment that we’re using as a baseline:
Azure WordPress
Instance: Large 4 Cores, 7 GB RAM, ClearDB 1GB MySQL Venus Plan (paid MySQL Plan), hosted US West
MySQL test: Total time (all MySQL tests) : 53.47 seconds
PHP test: Total time (all PHP tests) : 7.37 seconds
Network test: Network test 1: 10.31 Mbps
All tests: Total time (all MySQL + PHP tests) : 60.84 seconds
Figure: Azure hosted WordPress benchmarks
After deploying an empty site to a WPEngine account the benchmarks are looking a lot better (but still not as good as the earlier Linux VPS):
WPEngine WordPress
WPEngine: Professional Plan
MySQL test: Total time (all MySQL tests) : 18.09 seconds
PHP test: Total time (all PHP tests) : 6.68 seconds
Network test: Network test 1: 187.72 Mbps
All tests: Total time (all MySQL + PHP tests) : 24.87 seconds
Figure: WPEngine hosted WordPress benchmark
OK so comparing benchmarks MySQL is about 3 times faster on WPEngine compared the ClearDB’s Venus plan and PHP performance between the two aren’t too far apart with WPEngine being a little quicker. Let see how this translates in the real world.
After moving the site from Azure to WPEngine, by backing up and restoring the database and copying the the content folders, running a Chrome Developer Tools | Network is a good way to measure how long pages takes to load. The home page for the site being moved from Azure was extremely slow, so it’s a good place to start:
Site: firebootcamp.com (Azure WordPress 4.1)
Figure: 24.59 secs to load firebootcamp.com homepage on Azure WordPress (with 15.67 sec Time to First Byte)
Site: firebootcamp.com (WPEngine WordPress 4.1)
Figure: 6.81 secs to load firebootcamp.com homepage on WPEngine WordPress (with 450 ms Time to First Byte)
