My website is slow: what to check

1. Check Webway's status page

Open status.webway.host and look for an active incident affecting your server or service.

If the website is completely unavailable rather than slow, see My website is down: is it the server, DNS or my site?

2. Test from another connection

Try the website in a private browser window, on mobile data instead of Wi-Fi, from another device, or from another location.

If it is slow only on one connection, the cause may be the local network, DNS resolver, browser extension or internet provider.

3. Identify what is slow

Check whether the problem affects every page, one page or function, only the administration area, only logged-in users, file uploads, searches, checkout pages or external API calls.

A single slow page normally points to its code, database queries or external integrations.

4. Check whether static files are slow

Open a normal image or CSS file directly in the browser. If static files load quickly but pages are slow, investigate PHP, the database and application code. If everything is slow, check resource usage, traffic and the status page.

5. Check hosting resource usage

The default account limits are 2 GB memory, 30 entry processes and 90 processes. Open Resource Usage (cPanel) or Extra Features › Resource Usage (DirectAdmin).

A 508 error commonly means the account reached a resource limit. See What do 500, 403, 404 and 508 errors mean on my website?

6. Check disk space

A full account can prevent caches, sessions, uploads and temporary files from being written. Look for old backups, full mailboxes, large error logs, cache folders, staging copies and database exports.

7. Review recent changes

Temporarily reverse the most recent change where safe. Common triggers include plugin or theme updates, a PHP-version change, new code, a database import, a new analytics or advertising script, security scans and backup jobs. Take a backup before removing or downgrading anything.

8. Check PHP and application logs

Look for repeated PHP warnings, database connection errors, memory errors, slow external requests, missing files and failed scheduled tasks. A rapidly growing log means the same operation is failing repeatedly.

9. Check caching

Confirm that only one page-cache system is active, cached pages are served to logged-out visitors, and the cache plugin suits the server. LiteSpeed Cache page caching works on DirectAdmin servers using OpenLiteSpeed; it doesn't provide page caching on cPanel's Apache servers. See How to speed up WordPress.

10. Check the database

Slowness can come from large or unindexed tables, expired sessions, excessive stored revisions, slow searches or plugins storing unnecessary data. Back up the database before cleaning or optimising it.

11. Check external services

Payment providers, analytics, advertising, fonts, maps, social widgets and remote APIs can delay a page even when the Webway server is responding normally.

Still stuck?

Open a support ticket and include:

• Your domain name
• The slow URLs
• When the problem started
• Whether it is constant or intermittent
• Whether another network has the same problem
• What changed before it began
• Screenshots of resource usage
• Relevant error-log entries
• Whether logged-out visitors are also affected