HOSTING TIPS ARCHIVE
PHP: hosting guides
Practical steps and checks for hosting, WordPress and performance. Browse a topic or use the dates to explore the experience behind the advice.
9 guides, newest work first.
Self-hosted WordPress: eight WP-CLI checks for speed and safety
Eight practical checks for WordPress on your own server: verify core files, run cron properly, find autoload bloat, lock down editing, use an object cache and update with a way back.
Test deployments as the web server user
A release can pass checks in an administrator’s shell and still fail for the account which serves the shop. I check both the runtime and its access.
Atomic deploys with automatic rollback for PHP and WordPress
Release folders, a symlink swap that is truly atomic, rollback when a post-deploy step fails, and the OPcache and permission traps that catch people out.
Apache tuning and hardening: PHP-FPM, HTTP/2, caching and Cloudflare IPs
Practical Apache tips: switch to the event MPM with PHP-FPM, turn on HTTP/2 and Brotli, cache static files properly, read real visitor IPs behind Cloudflare and hide what should be private.
Deployment configuration needs one clear owner
Define which source owns each deployment configuration file, then test that old local copies cannot silently override an intended change.
Test the oldest PHP version your site actually runs
A clean local lint is useful, but I also check the runtime that receives the deployment.
PHP in the browser and PHP in cron must agree on the cache
The same cache key is not enough. Every process that reads it has to understand the value written underneath it.
A slow cache should not hold the whole site hostage
I put a time budget around Redis so that a temporary cache problem does not quietly occupy every PHP worker.
Keep a rollback route when moving PHP
I move the web server onto a separately tested PHP runtime, keep a clear route back, and check cron and background work as part of the change.
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