WPThumbs
Themes Plugins By purpose By industry Best-of lists Fix it guides
Free Plugin by WP Media v2.0.1

Heartbeat Control

Allows you to easily manage the frequency of the WordPress heartbeat API.

Heartbeat Control

The facts

Rating
4.2★ from 68
Active installs
80k+
Price
Free
Last updated
31 Aug 2023
Added
Nov 2014
Requires WP
3.6
Tested up to
WP 6.3.10
Requires PHP
5.3
Downloads
1,238,813

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Heartbeat Control is a WordPress plugin that allows you to manage the frequency of the WordPress Heartbeat API. This API facilitates real-time communication between the server and your browser when you are logged into the WordPress admin panel. By adjusting the frequency of AJAX requests, you can reduce CPU usage and improve server performance, especially if you keep the admin panel open for extended periods.

The plugin enables you to limit or stop the Heartbeat API activity and set rules for specific areas such as the Dashboard, Frontend, or Post Editor. It is suitable for users who want to optimise their site's performance and manage server load effectively.

Best for: This plugin is best for WordPress users looking to optimise site performance and manage server load.

What it does well

  • Allows management of Heartbeat API frequency
  • Can limit or stop AJAX requests
  • Custom rules for specific locations in WordPress admin

Where it falls short

  • Limited information on additional features
  • No specific details on user interface or ease of use

Verdict

Heartbeat Control provides a straightforward solution for managing the WordPress Heartbeat API, which can help improve server performance. However, details on its user experience are not provided.

From the developer

WP Media's own description of Heartbeat Control, lightly tidied.

Heartbeat Control by WP Rocket allows you to manage the frequency of the WordPress heartbeat API in a few clicks.

The WordPress Heartbeat API is a great feature that provides real-time communication between the server and the browser when you are logged into your WordPress admin panel. It uses the file /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php to run AJAX calls from the browser. By default, AJAX requests are sent every 15 seconds on post edit pages, and every 60 seconds on the dashboard.

This is indeed helpful; but if you usually leave your WordPress admin open for long periods (for example when you write or edit posts), the AJAX requests from the API can pile up and generate high CPU usage, leading to server performance issues and even hosting account suspensions.

With Heartbeat Control by WP Rocket, you can easily choose to limit or completely stop the activity of the WordPress Heartbeat API. You can also add rules for specific locations only (Dashboard, Frontend or Post Editor).

To learn more about WordPress performance optimization and make your website faster, join our WP Rocket Facebook Community!

Related Plugins

  • WP Rocket: Best caching plugin to speed-up your WordPress website.
  • Lazy Load by WP Rocket: Best Lazy Load script to reduce the number of HTTP requests and improves the websites loading time.
  • Imagify: Best Image Optimizer to speed up your website with lighter images.

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

Alternatives

Other plugins for making sites fast.

WP-Optimize

Get caching and more with this powerful cache plugin. Cache, optimize images, clean your database and minify f...

Free 1M+ installs 4.8★ (2,606)
LiteSpeed Cache

All-in-one unbeatable acceleration & PageSpeed improvement: caching, image/CSS/JS optimization...

Free 7M+ installs 4.8★ (2,764)
EWWW Image Optimizer

Comprehensive image optimization with WebP, AVIF, Lazy Load, and more. Optimize images automatically for Faste...

Free 1M+ installs 4.8★ (1,838)
Under Construction

Easy to use Under Construction Page & Coming Soon Page. Enable Under Construction Mode in seconds & sh...

Free 600k+ installs 4.8★ (1,285)
Smush

Smush

93

Compress and optimize images, enable lazy load, serve WebP & AVIF, and speed up your site with a global im...

Free 1M+ installs 4.8★ (6,051)
Converter for Media

Speed up your website by using our WebP & AVIF Converter. Optimize images and serve WebP and AVIF images i...

Free 500k+ installs 4.9★ (1,097)