High Server Response Time on Droplet-Hosted Website

Hi everyone,

I’m hosting my website on a DigitalOcean droplet (Ubuntu 22.04 with Nginx), and I’ve been noticing high server response times recently. Pages that used to load within 1 second now take 3–5 seconds to respond, even for simple static content.

Here’s my setup:

• Droplet: 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50 GB SSD
• Web server: Nginx
• Database: MySQL
• CMS: WordPress with a few lightweight plugins
• Traffic: ~5,000 daily visitors

The issues I’ve noticed:

1. TTFB (Time to First Byte) has increased significantly, as reported by tools like GTmetrix and Pingdom.
2. The server’s CPU and RAM usage seem normal, with no major spikes.
3. Static files like images and CSS are cached, but the issue persists even with cache enabled.

What I’ve tried so far:

1. Optimized the database by removing overhead and running OPTIMIZE TABLE.
2. Increased the PHP memory limit and ensured PHP-FPM is configured properly.
3. Enabled Gzip compression and browser caching in Nginx.
4. Checked for malware or unusual traffic patterns but didn’t find anything suspicious.

Questions I have:

1. Could this be a networking issue specific to DigitalOcean’s data center? How can I test this?
2. Are there recommended Nginx or MySQL settings to further optimize performance for my droplet size?
3. Should I consider upgrading my droplet, or is there something I’m overlooking in terms of server configuration?

Any guidance or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!