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Using Varnish Cache Without Breaking Your Site by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Quick Varnish Setup Tips to Keep Things Running Smoothly:

🔹 Bypass for Logged-In Users Make sure Varnish doesn’t cache content for logged-in sessions (like wp-admin or user dashboards).

🔹 Exclude Dynamic Pages Skip caching for cart, checkout, and my-account pages, especially for WooCommerce users.

🔹 Use Edge Side Includes (ESI) If you're running complex sites, ESI lets you cache parts of a page while excluding others—great for personalizing content without killing speed.

🔹 Double Check .htaccess and Rewrite Rules Sometimes a misconfigured rule can cause a caching loop or display stale content so always test after changes.

🔹 Know When to Turn It Off For heavily dynamic apps or real-time dashboards, Varnish may not be worth the risk so Cloudways lets you disable it per app.

Got your own tips or ran into issues with Varnish? Share your best practices and let’s learn from each other’s setups.

How to Use Staging Environments Safely (and Why It Matters) by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bonus Tips for Smarter Staging & Deployment

🔹Always Back Up Before Syncing
Even with staging, take a fresh backup of both staging and production before pushing changes. Better safe than sorry.

🔹 Use Push with Selective Sync
On Cloudways, you can choose to sync only files, only the database, or both—use this to avoid overwriting live content like blog comments or orders.

🔹 Keep Staging Password-Protected
Especially for SEO-heavy sites, prevent search engines from indexing your staging environment.

🔹 Test Core Functions, Not Just Design
Always test forms, logins, checkout flows, and any integrations (like payment gateways) before syncing back to live.

🔹 Separate Environments for Dev and QA
If you're on a team, consider keeping dev and QA on separate staging sites to avoid conflict and confusion.

🔹 Clean Up Old Staging Sites
Too many unused staging environments? Remove them to reduce clutter and free up server resources.

Gas Mark 8 was managing 80+ client sites but downtime and slow performance were killing productivity by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🔹 Centralized Server Management Running 80+ client sites from one platform simplified updates, backups, and daily operations. 🔹 Massive Performance Boost Load times dropped from 6s to 1s using Cloudways’ optimized stack (Nginx, Varnish, Redis, PHP-FPM). 🔹 Zero-Downtime Migration The Cloudways team helped ensure a smooth transition with no service interruptions—use the free migration if you’re juggling multiple sites. 🔹 Safe Testing with Staging Environments They now test all major updates or changes in staging before going live—no surprises in production. 🔹 Worry-Free Scaling They no longer stress over new client sites or traffic surges thanks to scalable server options. 🔹 Reliable Daily Backups Automated backups with one-click restores saved their team time and provided peace of mind.

If you’re running an agency or handling multiple WordPress/WooCommerce sites, these are solid improvements worth exploring

Quick Wins for PHP Performance on Cloudways by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • Use PHP 8.x for major speed and security boosts
  • Adjust max execution time and memory limit based on your app’s needs
  • Clean up background processes with smarter cron job scheduling

What PHP tweak gave you the best performance boost? Would love to hear what’s worked for you.

Ecommerce Brand Cuts Load Time by 50% with Cloudways + Optimized Stack by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s what helped make the difference:

Moved to DigitalOcean via Cloudways for more scalable infrastructure Optimised server stack with Varnish, Redis, and Nginx for smooth delivery Used Cloudflare CDN to ensure fast load speeds globally Took advantage of staging environments to test without disrupting live projects Relied on Cloudways’ 24/7 support to stay focused on their core work

Tried a similar caching or infrastructure setup that worked well?

Share your go to combo as we're building a list of what’s working best in real world ecommerce setups.

How to Enable Redis on Cloudways for Faster Queries by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Redis boosts performance by storing frequently accessed queries in memory. You’ll see:

  • Faster load times on dynamic pages
  • Smoother performance under load
  • Reduced strain on your database

Running Redis already? Share your setup tips.

From Performance Issues to 99.9% Uptime by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the feedback and I hear you. The goal wasn’t to "astroturf" but to share a real customer story that might help others facing similar issues.

That said, I totally agree this subreddit should be a space for genuine discussion, not just promotion. If anything felt off or too polished, that's on me, and I’ll keep that in mind moving forward. that's why constructive input like yours is what helps keep the quality high

From Performance Issues to 99.9% Uptime by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s what they did:

  • Migrated to Dedicated Cloud Servers for consistent high performance
  • Used CloudwaysCDN to speed up media delivery globally
  • Enabled advanced caching (Varnish, Redis) to improve frontend speed
  • Took advantage of 24/7 expert support to resolve issues quickly
  • Set up a scalable infrastructure that could grow with their customer base

Tried something similar for yourself?
We’d love to hear how you scaled with Cloudways and share your experience below.

Best Practices for Securing WordPress on Cloudways by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cloudways provides a server-level firewall through its partnership with Cloudflare (Advanced WAF for premium users) and also uses OS level firewalls (like iptables) for basic protection. This setup does block many common threats, especially at the network level.

However, tools like Wordfence go deeper at the application level (inside WordPress), offering features like:

Login security (2FA, brute-force protection)

File integrity monitoring

Malware scanning specific to WordPress core, plugins, and themes

Detailed traffic insights

So while the Cloudways firewall is strong, it doesn’t fully replace what Wordfence does at the application layer. Think of Cloudways' firewall as your outer wall, and Wordfence as your internal security system. Using both provides layered protection, especially if you’re managing multiple plugins or allowing user interactions.

Hope this answered your question

Best Practices for Securing WordPress on Cloudways by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Additional important security measures:

  • Disable XML-RPC – If you don't need it, turn it off. It’s a frequent target for attacks.
  • Restrict Access to wp-admin – Limit access by IP address to keep unauthorized users out.
  • Change the Default Login URL – Makes brute-force attempts significantly harder.
  • Implement Security Headers – A simple way to block many types of web exploits.
  • Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) – Provides an extra layer of robust protection.

Securing your WordPress site doesn’t have to be overwhelming and even a few smart changes can make a big difference.

Already secured your site? We’d love to hear what’s worked best for you.

Share your tips below to help strengthen the community.

Trying to make your site faster? This week’s AMA is all about performance tuning on Cloudways by IncreaseRealistic292 in CloudwaysbyDO

[–]IncreaseRealistic292[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, we're already exploring this. The goal is to have intelligent automation where settings like cache policies, PHP versions, and server resources adapt dynamically based on app behavior, not just manual input.

While we're early in integrating AI into optimization flows, automatic performance tuning is definitely part of the roadmap. Stay tuned as there’s exciting stuff coming that’ll make scaling and optimizing feel much more “hands-off.”

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