Our plans have a limit on PHP requests instead of bandwidth, storage, etc. In this article, we explain what PHP requests are, why we have a limit on it and what you can do to lower the number of requests.

What are PHP requests?

PHP requests are requests that use a lot of server resources. PHP is the programming language where WordPress is made in. When a pageview can’t be cached or isn’t a static request (images, fonts, styles, scripts, etc.) it will route to WordPress which uses PHP to ‘render’ the pageview and server it to the webserver.

What can I do to lower PHP requests?

Block admin access
First of all, make sure that you block admin access for non-whitelisted IP addresses. This will block all login attempts which are all PHP requests.

Enable caching (and ignore query strings if possible)
Cached requests are great. They use a fraction of the resources of a PHP request. Also letting the cache ignore query strings is a smart move but make sure that your site doesn’t use query strings. If you hesitate just contact us and we will check if your site needs query strings to work.

WooCommerce: disable cart fragments
If you use WooCommerce, then it could be that cart fragments is enabled. This will cause a lot of unnecessary PHP requests. You can read more about cart fragments on: /docs/tutorials/disabling-woocommerce-cart-fragments/.

Fewer cronjobs (longer time between cronjobs)
Lowering the number of cronjobs will also reduce PHP requests. Is it really necessary to execute a cronjob every minute?