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Free Plugin by kohashi v2.0.0

WPPerformanceTester

WPPerformanceTester benchmarks your server's performance through a variety of PHP, MySql and WordPress tests

WPPerformanceTester

The facts

Rating
4.3★ from 8
Active installs
1k+
Price
Free
Last updated
26 Apr 2024
Added
Nov 2015
Requires WP
3.5
Tested up to
WP 6.5.10
Downloads
37,224

Our analysis

AI-assisted

WPPerformanceTester is a WordPress plugin designed to benchmark server performance by executing various tests on PHP and MySQL. It performs a series of calculations and database operations to assess the speed of your server. This tool is useful for developers or site administrators looking to understand the raw performance capabilities of their WordPress hosting environment.

The plugin conducts tests including mathematical operations, string manipulations, loop iterations, and MySQL functions. It also compares your server's performance against industry benchmarks. However, it is important to note that the results may not reflect overall website performance, as factors like caching can significantly influence load times.

Best for: This plugin suits developers and site administrators looking to benchmark their server's performance.

What it does well

  • Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
  • Tests multiple aspects of server performance
  • Compares results to industry benchmarks
  • Designed for PHP and MySQL stress testing
  • Active installation count of 1,000

Where it falls short

  • Results may not reflect overall website performance
  • Can time out if max_execution_time is exceeded
  • Some plugins may interfere with performance testing

Verdict

WPPerformanceTester provides a focused tool for assessing server capabilities, but it should be used alongside other performance testing tools for a comprehensive analysis.

From the developer

kohashi's own description of WPPerformanceTester, lightly tidied.

WPPerformanceTester was written as a tool to benchmark WordPress in the WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2015) by Review Signal. Current benchmarks are on WPHostingBenchmarks.com. It was designed to test the server’s performance by stressing PHP, MySql and running $wpdb queries.

WPPerformanceTester performs the following tests

  • Math – 100,000 math function tests
  • String Manipulation – 100,000 string manipulation tests
  • Loops – 1,000,000 loop iterations
  • Conditionals – 1,000,000 conditional logic checks
  • MySql (connect, select, version, aes_encrypt) – basic mysql functions and 5,000,000 AES_ENCRYPT() iterations
  • \$wpdb – 250 insert, select, update and delete operations through \$wpdb

It also allows you to see how your server’s performance stacks up against our industry benchmark. Our industry benchmark is the average of all submitted test results.

Notes on Performance

Performance can be measured in a lot of ways. WPPerformanceTester was simply one component of a much larger performance benchmark. It tests a single server (or node) that it is running on. So if you’re considering looking at the results from a clustered or distributed setup, it may give you limited insight into how well your whole system performs. WPPerformanceTester is about the raw speed a system has to execute code and perform database operations.

Real website performance isn’t always correlated with raw speed. A seemingly slow website could have a very fast WPPerformanceTester result. There are lots of layers (namely caching) in making a WordPress website fast. A good caching layer will almost always outperform computing power. But when the caching layers are equal, raw speed can make a difference.

WPPerformanceTester is simply one tool to add to your toolkit in measuring performance. You should have a variety of others to test other facets of performance.

Known Issues

If the script times out (max_execution_time limit) it will not show any results. You can solve this by increasing the max_execution_time in the php.ini. Some plugins may also cause WPPerformanceTester to run exceptionally slow and make it more likely to hit this limit. One such plugin is VersionPress. You can temporarily disable plugins that might be interfering with it as an alternative way to run it.

Note:

  • It’s always best to BACKUP EVERYTHING before running ANY new plugin or making changes to your WordPress install.

Read the full description on the official page →

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