High WordPress memory usage used to be a problem as many hosting providers offered low amount of memory, fortunately nowadays webhosts offer more than enough memory for a smaller site (however, I’ve just tested one allowing 24MB memory and the installation of plugins never worked). This problem usually appears when a website starts to grow and the number of visitors and with that page views drastically increase. Typically, better hosting provides get in touch with us that the memory usage of the site crossing the allocated limit continuously, sometimes they increase it, but generally they offer a more powerful service for extra cost.
Going with a better, more powerful service or using VPS or even dedicated server can be a solution, but before this you should complete some steps to resolve high memory consumption of WordPress, that cost you nothing.
Solving WordPress High Memory Usage
- Usually plugins slow down a WordPress site. A badly coded plugin does not use the resources on the optimum way. If you have just installed a plugin and your site slows down, in that case you should remove it, try to use an alternative one. You can check which plugin slows your WP site by deactivating them and switching on them one by one.
- A badly coded WordPress theme can also cause higher memory consumption. If you have just installed a theme and your site gets slower, find an alternative.
You can find the “bad” plugin easier if you use the WP Memory Usage Plugin that shows you the memory limit of your hosting provider and current level of memory your WordPress site uses. So, when you install plugin or theme and the current memory level increases drastically, that theme or plugin is better to be not used.
- Use Cache Plugin – In case everything is OK with your plugins and theme and you still have high memory usage, you should use a caching plugin. There are many I personally use Quick Cache, but the mostly suggested is W3 Total Cache. If a cache plugin cannot solve the problem, you should configure it for minifying scripts, compression etc.
- Optimizing Database Tables – Sometimes unoptimized MySQL tables make your site slower. By using the WP-DB Manager plugin you can make many steps for optimization plus it offers great features for handling your database simpler and for backing up.
- Disable and Remove Revisions – Whenever you save a post as draft it is stored in your database, I think it is unnecessary, you can switch off this function or remove the revisions regularly. There is a good plugin called Revision Control that can help with this.
If the tips above cannot help with high WordPress memory usage, you should check out the WordPress Optimization Bible where more solutions can be found.
Last updated by at .
