Slow WordPress admin dashboard? The causes & ways to fix it

Do you have a slow WordPress admin dashboard that you want to make to load faster?

And do you want to know the reasons why and how to fix and speed up your WordPress admin backend?

If you answered yes to both then this ways to speed up WordPress admin dashboard article is for you.

Speeding up a slow loading WordPress site admin dashboard is important for any WordPress site performance.

WordPress is an awesome and popular CMS. So popular that over 40% of all websites in the world use it.

You can build a lot of beautiful websites with it and it has a lot of features helpful for search engine optimization on Google and others.

With all that said, if not optimized properly and constantly, your WordPress speed will be affected including the admin panel.

This Online Business Consulting post will help you address those by covering:

A. What causes WordPress admin panel to load slowly -

• clustered admin area
• slow servers
• slow WordPress hosting provider ( we recommend you use fully managed cloud hosting by WPENGINE or LiteSpeed servers by GreenGeeks)
• resource-intensive plugins
• not optimizing core features like HeartBeat API
• etc.

B. Methods that are used to fix and speed up slow WordPress admin area to make it load faster -

• updating PHP to the latest version
• removing themes and plugins not active
• deleting, repairing, & optimizing the WordPress database
• etc.

Please use the below table of contents links to go directly to a section of interest faster.

What's causing your WordPress Admin Dashboards slow loading?

Below is a list of the most common causes of WordPresd admin dashboard slow loading issues.

Note: Each WordPress website is different so some or all of the below could be the reasons for your admin panel not loading fast.

1. Unoptimized WordPress Heartbeat API
2. Unused/Deactivated Plugins & Theme
3. Slow Hosting Server
4. Bloated Admin Dashboard
5. Too Many Autosaves & Revisions
6. No Cache or Wrong Cache Setting
7. Old PHP Version
8. Translation Plugins

Continue reading below to get the lowdown on the actual fixes that will make your WordPress admin load faster.

8 solutions that fixes slow WordPress Admin Panel speed

Speed-up admin dashboards not fast with the below tested methods.

1. Control or disable heartbeat API

WordPress Heartbeat API can use excessive resources when not managed, especially, for a website with multiple authors.

The Heartbeat API in a nutshell is a WP core feature that handles session management, plugin notifications, post locks, creation of autosaves, drafts, and revisions.

It operates by allowing your browser to auto communicates with the server.

The heartbeats simulate a pulse that beats every 15 seconds by default.

The best way to handle Heartbeat API when it is using excessive resources(this usually happens when you are editing a lot or so many logged-in users editing at the same time)which will cause your admin to run slowly is to either disable or limit the frequency of the pulses.

How to Control & Limit It

To manage the Heartbeat API to improve the admin dashboard performance, you can use the following plugin:

• Heartbeat Control (set frequency to 60 seconds)

You also do it manually by inputting the below code in the functions.php file of your theme. Just copy and past it there.

/** Control Interval Heartbeat API **/
add_filter('heartbeat_settings', 'obc_control_heartbeat');
function obc_control_heartbeat($settings)
{
    $settings['interval'] = 60;
    return $settings;
}

Disable(plugin & manual)

To disable Heartbeat you can use plugins such as:

• Perfmatters
• the Heartbeat Control plugin

To disable it manually copy and paste the below codes into your WordPress theme functions.php file.

add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', 1 );
function stop_heartbeat() {
wp_deregister_script('heartbeat');
}

2. Delete unused themes & plugins

Having many unused & deactivated plugins or themes is not good for your WordPress admin area performance.

This is because the files for these unused themes and plugins will still be running at the backend even though they are deactivated. And remember that most deactivated and unused themes or plugins will still have their setting and tables stored in the database.

So please delete any unused and deactivated themes and plugins in your website. Each time you uninstall any plugins you want to clean the settings it created on the wp table, wp-0ption, or cron.

You can do this with a lightweight plugin like Advanced Database Cleaner Pro.

3. Consider full managed WordPress hosting

Another way to fix slow WordPress admin dashboard is to get a fully managed WordPress hosting provider( we recommend WPENGINE or Kinsta).

Being hosted on a website hosting platform not optimized for WP sites is not good.

You can do all the fixes we mentioned but if you are on the wrong hosting platform, your admin will still be slow.

Being on a fast server optimized for WP sites is one of the top factors for a fast website.

By moving your website to a fully managed WordPress hosting, you will significantly speed up your entire website including the admin.

Again, consider this two hosts(they only host WordPress websites which allows them to specialize and build infrastructures for them):

• WP Engine

• Kinsta

Consider reading this detailed article on what to look for when picking a web hosting provider.

Being of a fast hosting server will also help with your WordPress site search engine higher ranking.

This is because a fast web host helps your website loading time be fast which in turn lead to users spending more time on your website thus helping in it's better ranking position.

4. Remove Admin bloats

A how to fix slow WordPress admin to make it faster guide won't be complete without mentioning the importance of removing admin bloats like pop ups by plugins, news and event widgets, etc.

These widgets and popups make a lot of external calls to load their information, which slows down your WordPress backend.

To fix this, use the Unbloater and Widget Disable plugins to clean up your WordPress admin dashboard from unnecessary and not needed items that guzzles CPU in the backend.

5. Limit/delete autodrafts/revisions

When dealing with a slow WordPress admin, cleaning up revisions and limiting draft auto saves will assist in making it load faster.

Delete

You can use Advanced Database Cleaner Pro to delete and schedule deletion of auto-drafts and revisions to be done done automatically weekly or monthly.

Limit

You should also limit the amount of revisions that your WP site saves.

To do this contact your web hosting provider and ask them to do it for you.

We normally set revisions to 2 to 5.

If you are comfortable editing your site wp-config.php file, add the following codes:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 4);

We also recommend that you change WordPress's default autosaving interval from 1 minute to between 3 to 6 minutes( WP autosaves your posts every 1 minute).

Add the below code to your wp-config.php.

define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 240); // seconds

Another option is to use

• Perfmatters plugin to limit the revision and autosaving interval( super easy and no technical skills needed.

6. Enable caching

Enabling cache and setting it up correctly is how to fix WordPress admin panel too that is important.

You should speak to your hosting service company to see what type of caches are in place.

Some hosts have zero to basic server cache and you will need to complement it with a cache plugin like WP Super Cache.

Fully managed WP hosts like WP Engine do full server caches without a need for caching plugins.

We highly recommend these type of hosts as they will handle everything for you and you just focus on creating content for your website.

7. Update to the latest PHP version

Another way to fix slow WordPress admin dashboard is to make sure that you are running the latest PHP version.

Before doing that, make sure that your host supports the latest version of PHP.

If you are with a host that make you wait months before you can safely upgrade to the latest version switch to another host.

This is why a fully managed WP hosting provider is best. Since they only host WordPress, they tend to have their infrastructures ready for the latest tools.

8. Translations plugins

The last recommendation on this how to fix a slow WordPress backend guide is to look into your translation plugin if you are using one.

Most multilingual plugins such as WPML are known to be resource heavy which slows down admin dashboards.

We recommend that you try other multilingual plugins that are lightweight.

Frequent Asked Questions:

Q: What plugins & tools can I used to make my WordPress backend faster?

A: Below are list of some of the plugins and tools mentioned in this article that you can use to make your website admin area load faster.

Plugins

Name	What It Does	Rating	Price
Advanced Database Cleaner Pro	Delete auto draft revisions, and orphaned cron task/options/table	5 star	Starts at $39 lifetime(no monthly or yearly recurring fees)
Widget Disable		5 star	Free
Unbloater		5 star	Free
LiteSpeed Cache	Fast caching plugins for sites hosted on LiteSpeed servers like GreenGeeks' & NameHeros'	5 star	Free/Best for sites hosted on LiteSpeed Servers
Perfmatters	Plugin to unload assets, limit & delete revisions/autosaves & many more	n/a	22.46/year with codes
WP Super Cache	Lightweight plugin for browser caching	5 star	Free
Query Monitor	Plugin used to sniff out slow plugins & queries	5 star	Free

Tools

Name	What It Does	Price	Notable Clients
Plugintests.com	Test a plugin for file size, database additions, & load time	Free	n/a
WPHive.com	Get both file size, load time, & database addition of a plugin	Free	n/a
Kinsta	Fully managed WordPress hosting for small businesses and enterprises	35/m	Unicef, ScreamingFrog, Ricoh, Intuit, etc
WP Engine	Fully managed WP hosting(only hosts WordPresses) for small businesses, developers, and enterprises	Starting at $20/m(4 months FREE & 60 days money back guarantee) See Plans	Petco, Pingdom, Yelp, InstaCart, Pandora, AMD, NBA, National Geographic, Under Amour, DropBox, SoundCloud, Thomson Reuters, etc.

Q: Should I hire a WordPress expert to help implement the speed up solutions?

A: If you are a beginner, doesn't have the time, or not technical, consider hiring a WordPress speed tuning expert.

When the right speed expert is hired, they will implement the fixes needed to speed up your slow WordPress admin dashboard properly.

Let a pro like Online Business Consulting help make your WordPress admin area load faster.

REFERENCE SERVICES:

https://www.onlinebusinessconsultants.net/wp-speed-optimization-services/