Like any performance testing, PHP Vitals works best when you run benchmarks regularly. We recommend a weekly or monthly cycle, and keeping a record of all the results that you generate. That's because the performance of your hosting infrastructure can change over time, and because website performance is something to work on consistently.
Here are three reasons to make PHP Vitals benchmarks part of your website work routine.
1. Spot hidden changes
Chances are that your websites are hosted on a VPS or another virtualized platform, like shared web hosting. Virtualization brings a huge range of benefits and it frees you up from having to worry about hardware and other things. But it also means that things can change without you noticing. For example:
- Your hosting provider might migrate your websites between physical servers, i.e. onto different hardware.
- The number of "neighbors" who share your physical resources, like CPU cores, can grow or shrink.
- Hosting plans can be adjusted over time.
There can be valid reasons for all of these things, and for other invisible changes. They might improve your server's PHP performance, or they might degrade it. Either way, how would you know? You can't make a "before-and-after" comparison without "before", so it's best to start collecting data now. A long-term picture of the PHP performance that you get from your hosting infrastructure is the best way to spot changes that would otherwise fly under the radar.
PHP Vitals could reveal that you're gaining the benefits of being with a proactive web host that delivers new gains over time. Or it could show you that you're in the opposite situation.
2. Know where to look when performance dips
If a website suddenly slows down, or if your core web vitals take an unexpected hit, you need to fix something. The question is, where should you look first?
With your PHP Vitals history on hand, an easy first step is to run a new test and compare the results to what you've seen before.
- If your PHP Vitals are holding steady, then you know to start troubleshooting further up the stack.
- On the other hand, a dip in your PHP Vitals grade tells you that it's time to talk to your web host.
Without that knowledge, you're working in the dark and can easily spend time trying to fix things that aren't broken.
3. Build a bigger picture of your performance
The first two reasons both matter most when performance changes suddenly. This third reason is different, and it matters because website performance is an ongoing concern for you and every website that you compete with.
By tracking PHP Vitals weekly or monthly, you'll be able to see the effects of changes in your website traffic. If you're building a larger and larger user base, PHP Vitals can give you an early signal when it's time to consider boosting your hosting resources to keep up.
If there are seasonal differences that you cater to (perhaps extra shoppers in the build-up to Christmas), then you'll see in your PHP Vitals scores whether your hosting needs to flex over time.
Results and grades tell you different things
Even if your PHP Vitals benchmarking takes the exact same time to run every time, you'll still be gathering useful new information.
That's because, since the release of version 1.2, PHP Vitals grades are dynamic. Each of the twelve bands (from A+ to F) are the same size as each other, and stay that way even as new results arrive. As we explained at the time:
When a new test result comes in, the leaderboard will adjust existing grades to fit. In time, PHP Vitals users can expect to see historical tests downgraded as hosting improves. In the race for performance, standing still is the same as losing ground.
By running PHP Vitals regularly and checking your grade each time, you'll know how your hosting is performing on a comparative basis. Results that earned an A- last year might only be worth a B next year. Regular testing will show you whether your hosting is getting overtaken by others - and the leaderboard will tell you who those others are.
Start now
PHP Vitals is quick and free to use. There's no better time to start building up your PHP performance history, so install the WP plugin today.