Here at QuickHostUK, we use CloudLinux OS+ which provides you with PHP X-Ray.

When a website slows down, there’s usually a problem with its content management system. To restore its performance, it used to be necessary to delve into its WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal installation and diagnose the problem by hand. Now performance problems can be identified immediately using our tool called PHP X-Ray.

PHP X-Ray provides detailed information on performance bottlenecks that involve the CMS. If a site has sluggish plugins, database queries, functions, or external calls, this new tool helps pinpoint the underlying problem.

PHP X-Ray was developed specifically to troubleshoot performance issues in PHP-based websites, such as:

• Slow plugins

• Slow database queries

• Slow functions

• Slow external calls

Below are instructions on how to use it to fix a slow site.

1. To get started, log into your hosting control panel (cPanel/Plesk) and click the X-Ray icon;

2. Click Start tracing:

3. Select the desired domain to trace;

4. Specify the exact desired URL or use a wildcard (*) for all;

5. Now visit your website to simulate real-world traffic so that the trace can collect the needed data.

6. You can now view your results by clicking on the view icon;

7. You’ll now see the results in order of the slowest first. Click the result to drill down into the trace data;

8. Here we can see all of the results;

If for instance, one of the WordPress plugins uses a lot of resources, you’ll see that here. Disable the plugin through the WordPress administration interface. Visit the site again and make some more requests. The site should load more quickly than it did before. The Details page should show no performance issues.

You should now have a clear idea of what is causing the issue and how to start debugging it.

The following data is collected for each request:

• Software modules/plugins by execution time (only for WordPress plugins)
• Database queries by execution time
• External requests by execution time
• Other system functions by execution time