How to optimize PrestaShop performance settings

This article describes how to optimize PrestaShop's performance settings for your site.

Optimizing PrestaShop performance settings

PrestaShop includes several performance-related settings that you can use to help improve your store's speed and responsiveness. The procedures below show how to configure these settings so they are optimized for high performance.

Smarty template settings

PrestaShop themes use the Smarty template engine to render pages for your site. To optimize Smarty template settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the SMARTY section, under Template compilation, select Recompile templates if the files have been updated.
   The Never recompile template files option is actually the fastest option. However, if you select this option, you must remember to clear the cache whenever you make edits to the theme. Otherwise, your changes will not appear on the site.
4. Under Cache, click YES.
5. Under Caching type, select File System.
6. Under Clear cache, select Clear cache everytime something has been modified.
7. Click Save.

Debugging settings

PrestaShop includes debugging settings that you should only enable if you experience a problem with your site. During normal operation, all debugging should be disabled. To verify debugging features are disabled for your site, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the DEBUG MODE section, the Disable non PrestaShop modules option should be set to NO.
4. The Disable all overrides option should also be set to NO.
5. Click Save.

Optional features

You can disable some optional PrestaShop features to help improve performance. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the OPTIONAL FEATURES section, select the features you want to disable:
   • To disable product combinations, under Combinations click NO.
   • To disable product features, under Features click NO.
   • To disable customer groups, under Customer Groups click NO.
   Depending on your store configuration, you may not be able to set some or all of these options.
4. Click Save.

CCC settings

You can improve PrestaShop web page loading times by enabling its CCC (“combine, compress, and cache”) feature. As its name implies, CCC compresses and caches web page source code, including HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

To enable CCC, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the CCC (COMBINE, COMPRESS AND CACHE) section, under Smart cache for CSS, click YES.
4. Under Smart cache for JavaScript, click YES.
5. Under Minify HTML, click YES.
6. Under Compress inline JavaScript in HTML, click YES.
7. Under Move JavaScript to the end, click YES.
8. Under Apache optimization, click YES.
   When you enable this option, PrestaShop adds several configuration directives to the .htaccess file in the PrestaShop directory. For example, it enables content caching, disables entity tags, and enables compression.
9. Click Save.
   After setting these options, you should test your theme to ensure pages load correctly. If you experience problems, try disabling the JavaScript CCC options, which may cause problems with some themes.

Encryption settings

PrestaShop supports two encryption algorithms: Rijndael (also known as AES) and a custom Blowfish implementation. The Rijndael algorithm, provided by the PHP mcrypt library, is faster. To optimize the encryption settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the CIPHERING section, under Algorithm, select Use Rijndael with mcrypt lib.
   By default, A2 Hosting servers include the mcrypt PHP library, so you can use Rijndael without any problem on your site.
4. Click Save.

Caching settings

PrestaShop supports several caching methods to help improve page load times, such as Redis and memcached. To configuring caching for PrestaShop, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator.
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance.
3. In the CACHING section, under Use cache, click YES.
4. Under Caching system, select the caching method you want to use:
   • To use the file system, select File System.
     Memcached and Redis can also increase the performance of your site, but they are only available on some types of hosting accounts. If your account does not support Memcached or Redis, file system caching is still better than no caching at all.
   • To use Memcached, select Memcached, and then configure the server information.
     Memcached is only available on the account types listed in our Does A2 Hosting support Memcached hosting? article. For more information about how to configure Memcached for PrestaShop, please see this article.
   • To use Redis, install the appropriate module, and then configure the server information.
     Redis is only available on the account types listed in our Does A2 Hosting support Redis? article. For more information about how to configure Redis for PrestaShop, please see this article.
   APC has been replaced by OPcache in PHP 5.5 and later versions, and A2 Hosting does not support XCache. You should only use the File System, Memcached, or Redis caching options with PrestaShop.
5. Click Save.

More Information

For more information about PrestaShop's performance settings, please visit http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS16/Performance+Parameters.