How can I improve the TTFB?

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)

I was having a very large (500-1500ms) TTFB with nginx, wordpress, PHP 7 (php-fpm), and SSL. This was not the case on non-PHP sites, so it was safe to assume that PHP and SSL each could use some tuning.

2 things got me great improvement (<100ms TTFB):

1. Enable http2 in all of my SSL server blocks (needs nginx 1.9.5+)

   server {
     listen 443 ssl http2;
     #rest of your config here
   }
   

2. Set up fastcgi_cache

   In /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

   fastcgi_cache_path /etc/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=phpcache:100m inactive=60m;
   fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
   

   In your server’s .conf file likely in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ modify the php handling block

   location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
   fastcgi_cache phpcache; # The name of the cache key-zone to use
   fastcgi_cache_valid 200 30m; # What to cache: 'Code 200' responses, for half an hour
   fastcgi_cache_methods GET HEAD; # What to cache: only GET and HEAD requests (not POST)
   add_header X-Fastcgi-Cache $upstream_cache_status; # Add header so we can see if the cache hits or misses
   
   # the rest of your existing stuff to handle PHP files here
   }
   

3. restart nginx sudo nginx -s reload

This reduced my TTFB to under 100ms consistently, and everything seems to be pretty happy :)