{"id":36894,"date":"2024-12-04T04:37:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T04:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/?post_type=knowledgebase&#038;p=36894"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:26:42","slug":"cost-optimization-strategies","status":"publish","type":"knowledgebase","link":"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/sg\/knowledgebase\/cost-optimization-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost Optimization Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At Staq, we prioritize transparency and provide tools and alerts to help you manage costs effectively. While this guide will not eliminate all overage costs\u2014particularly for resource-intensive websites\u2014it will help identify opportunities to reduce expenses across various categories.<\/p>\n<h3>Cost Categories<\/h3>\n<p>This guide evaluates costs in the following categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Visits<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bandwidth<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Local Storage<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Database Storage<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>CPU Usage<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Memory &amp; PHP Workers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below, you\u2019ll find recommendations specific to each category.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Visitors<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Staq tracks unique visitors at the server level. To reduce overage costs, cache your website using CDN options available in the Staq Panel for the site. Visitors served via a CDN are not counted against your visitor quota, as visitor traffic is based on server hits.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>CDN Options<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Staq supports the following CDN solutions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Staq Next-Gen CDN<\/strong> (requires using Staq DNS)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cloudflare<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For guidance on enabling CDNs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/enable-next-gen-cdn-instructions\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">How to implement Staq Next-Gen CDN<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/integrating-cloudflare-with-staq\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">How to implement and enable Cloudflare on Staq<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><strong>Bandwidth<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Bandwidth optimization involves several strategies:<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Enable Lazyload<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Lazyload prevents loading all page media until users scroll to view specific sections.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>WP Rocket<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Go to <strong>WP Rocket &gt; Media<\/strong> and enable:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lazyload for images<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lazyload for CSS background images<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lazyload for iframes and videos<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Staq Cache<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Go to <strong>Staq Hosting &gt; Optimizer &gt; Media<\/strong>, then enable <strong>Lazyload images &amp; videos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Compress Images (Staq Hosting)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Inside the backend of WordPress, click Staq Hosting plugin and then Media. Then, there&#8217;s two settings to enable:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Media optimization<\/strong> which compresses both JPEG and PNG images<\/li>\n<li><strong>WebP conversion<\/strong> which takes your JPEG and PNG images, and duplicates them into a WebP image format.\n<ul>\n<li>please note:\n<ul>\n<li>you must have Staq Optimizer enabled, followed by WebP enabled when you click <strong>Optimizer &gt; Media<\/strong> with <strong><span class=\"wpstaq-child-label\" data-chip-label=\"\">Serve next-gen images [WebP]\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"wpstaq-child-label\" data-chip-label=\"\">toggle enabled<\/span><\/li>\n<li>if you have background images via CSS, it will not serve the WebP image unless you natively have the WebP source in the CSS. Coming soon, we will solve this via our Optimizer plugin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Check Bandwidth Metrics<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In the site&#8217;s <strong>Staq Panel &gt; Metrics &gt; Traffic &amp; Storage<\/strong>, check:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Amazon EC2 bandwidth<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Amazon S3 outgoing bandwidth<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Amazon CloudFront bandwidth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Evaluate whether S3 bandwidth significantly exceeds EC2 bandwidth. If yes, optimizations may be limited for images.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Compress or Offload Videos<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Use tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.veed.io\/tools\/video-compressor\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Veed<\/a> to compress videos. Alternatively, host large videos on platforms like Vimeo or YouTube to minimize bandwidth.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Push to Cloudflare<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Integrate Cloudflare to serve assets like images via CDN. This traffic does not count toward Staq bandwidth. Follow this guide: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/integrating-cloudflare-with-staq\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Cloudflare integration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Local Storage<\/h2>\n<p>High storage usage on small websites is often due to third-party backup files. Staq backups stored on AWS S3 do not count toward storage limits. To free up space:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/ftp-access\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">sFTP access<\/a> to check for backups, such as:\n<ul>\n<li><code>.zip<\/code> files in the root directory<\/li>\n<li><code>.wpress<\/code> files in <code>ai1wm-backups<\/code> (inside <code>wp-content<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li><code>updraft<\/code> files in <code>wp-content<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Delete unnecessary backups or files to reduce storage costs.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Database Storage<\/h2>\n<p>Optimize your database using the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/advanced-database-cleaner\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Advanced Database Cleaner plugin<\/a>. It removes expired transients, orphaned metadata, and unnecessary entries.<\/p>\n<p>Check for large tables like <code>wp_woocommerce_log<\/code> and clear unnecessary entries.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>CPU Usage<\/h2>\n<p>High CPU usage may indicate an issue, especially for non-resource-intensive websites.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Investigating Spikes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Go to <strong>Staq Panel &gt; Metrics &gt; PHP Workers<\/strong> and check data over the last 30 days. Identify spikes or consistent high usage.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Optimize Cron Jobs<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Install <strong>WP Crontrol<\/strong> plugin inside WordPress to identify problematic cron jobs. A common offender is <code>action_scheduler_run_queue<\/code>, which runs every minute. Reduce its frequency to lower CPU usage.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Memory &amp; PHP Workers<\/h2>\n<h3>Memory<\/h3>\n<p>Check and adjust PHP memory limits:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Go to <strong>Staq Panel &gt; PHP Config<\/strong> and review <strong>Request Memory Limit<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Go to <strong>Metrics &gt; PHP Workers<\/strong>, select <strong>Daily &gt; 30 days<\/strong>, and check if memory usage exceeded 256MB.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If not, consider downsizing the memory allocation.<\/p>\n<h3>PHP Workers<\/h3>\n<p>Similarly, under <strong>Metrics &gt; PHP Workers<\/strong>, review <strong>Parallel PHP Workers<\/strong>. If the usage consistently stays below the limit, reduce the number of PHP workers.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>By applying these strategies, you can manage and optimize costs effectively across your hosted sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-36894","knowledgebase","type-knowledgebase","status-publish","hentry","categories-accounts-billing","categories-optimize-scale"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cost Optimization Strategies - Managed Hosting Platform for WordPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/cost-optimization-strategies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cost Optimization Strategies - Managed Hosting Platform for WordPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Staq, we prioritize transparency and provide tools and alerts to help you manage costs effectively. 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