Loading optimization? 4 seconds to load every content 🥲

waazdakka

Hello folks!
Our Flarum forum is now up and running for few months now on https://forum.c4c6historique.fr, and users are thrilled with the different functionnalities, the modernity and the new ways of sharing their ressources.
However, I still have performances issues that drive users crazy...

I followed a lot of tutorials, tried a lot of server-side optimizations, and even if the server is not a rocket, I can't understand why every page content is loading in 4 seconds most of the time as you can see on the screenshot below

I know there is a lot of content on the forum, and a lot of extensions activated, but I'm pretty sure I missed something about the optimization.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Karl

waazdakka do you use any server side caching? CDN can benefit you as well.
Another note, are you on shared hosting or on a VPS? If you're on a shared hosting, you might have to get up with your host due to limitations they may have.

waazdakka

Karl I'm not using any CDN so far, but I would hope a 4-seconds loading system is not the standard behaviour of Flarum even with a lot of content?
I'm on a dedicated server (small, but dedicated), a Dedibox from Scaleway so I can customized pretty much everything except for the hardware.

Server-side optimizations already in place:

Nginx + HTTP/2 enabled
Gzip compression fully configured (CSS, JS, fonts, wasm)
Long-term HTTP cache on all static assets (Cache-Control: public, immutable, expires 2037)
PHP OPcache enabled
Redis connected as Flarum cache backend (database 1)
FastCGI cache configured with cache_valid 200 10s, background update, stale serving
MySQL InnoDB buffer pool at 3 GB
Server is a dedicated Dedibox (not shared hosting)

Remaining bottleneck observed:

API calls (/api/discussions, /api/tags?include=...) have a TTFB of 1.5s to 2.9s regardless of cache state
Slow query log shows no single slow query — issue appears to be the volume of small queries generated per API call
50+ extensions installed, all actively used

Question: Is this TTFB normal for a Flarum instance with many extensions, or is there a specific caching layer we're missing beyond Redis?

Tutrix

waazdakka but I would hope a 4-seconds loading system is not the standard behaviour of Flarum

Take a look at the complete network list, and you'll see what's slow to load
For example:
Matomo
Google Translate
3450_1606678400.jpg
2782_1742122393.jpg

luceos

Post the output of php flarum info please

waazdakka

luceos

here are the php flarum info:

Flarum core: 1.8.16 PHP version: CLI: 8.4.20, Web: 8.4.20 PHP memory limit: CLI: 512M, Web: 512M MySQL version: 10.11.14-MariaDB-0+deb12u2 Loaded extensions: Core, date, libxml, openssl, pcre, zlib, filter, hash, json, random, Reflection, SPL, session, standard, sodium, cgi-fcgi, mysqlnd, PDO, xml, apcu, bcmath, bz2, calendar, ctype, curl, dom, mbstring, FFI, fileinfo, ftp, gd, gettext, gmp, iconv, igbinary, imagick, imap, intl, exif, mysqli, pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite, Phar, posix, readline, shmop, SimpleXML, soap, sockets, sqlite3, sysvmsg, sysvsem, sysvshm, tokenizer, xmlreader, xmlwriter, xsl, zip, redis, ionCube Loader, Zend OPcache +---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+ | Flarum Extensions | | | | +---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+ | ID | Version | Commit | Notes | +---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+ | flarum-flags | v1.8.2 | | | | flarum-tags | v1.8.8 | | | | flarum-approval | v1.8.2 | | | | flarum-suspend | v1.8.6 | | | | askvortsov-auto-moderator | v0.1.3 | | | | flarum-nicknames | v1.8.3 | | | | v17development-seo | v2.0.9 | | | | flarum-mentions | v1.8.5 | | | | flarum-subscriptions | v1.8.1 | | | | fof-byobu | 1.4.6 | | | | v17development-user-badges | v1.1.0 | | | | sycho-profile-cover | v1.3.5 | | | | sycho-move-posts | v0.1.8 | | | | spookygames-auth-keycloak | 1.3.0.1 | | | | pianotell-flamoji | v1.1.0 | | | | nearata-internal-links-noreload | v2.2.0 | | | | mickmelon-coloured-usernames | 0.1.1 | | | | michaelbelgium-discussion-views | v7.4.2 | | | | ianm-boring-avatars | 1.0.1 | | | | glowingblue-password-strength | 4.0.0 | | | | foskym-pagination | v0.3.0 | | | | fof-user-directory | 1.4.1 | | | | fof-upload | 1.9.0 | | | | fof-sitemap | 2.6.1 | | | | fof-reactions | 1.4.1 | | | | fof-profile-image-crop | 1.1.8 | | | | fof-nightmode | 1.6.0 | | | | fof-masquerade | 2.1.7 | | | | fof-links | 1.4.0 | | | | fof-impersonate | 1.2.0 | | | | fof-follow-tags | 1.2.9 | | | | fof-drafts | 1.2.14 | | | | fof-cookie-consent | 1.1.3 | | | | fof-categories | dev-unread-feature | | | | fof-analytics | 1.1.0 | | | | flarum-sticky | v1.8.2 | | | | flarum-markdown | v1.8.1 | | | | flarum-lock | v1.8.2 | | | | flarum-likes | v1.8.1 | | | | flarum-lang-polish | v1.10.10 | | | | flarum-lang-german | 1.25.15 | | | | flarum-lang-french | v4.29.4 | | | | flarum-lang-english | v1.8.0 | | | | flarum-lang-dutch | v1.4.2 | | | | flarum-extension-manager | v1.0.8 | | | | flarum-bbcode | v1.8.0 | | | | datlechin-birthdays | v2.1.2 | | | | c4c6-users-map-location-osm | dev-main | | | | blomstra-sort-order-toggle | 0.2.0 | | | +---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+-------+ Base URL: https://forum.c4c6historique.fr Installation path: /var/www/forum/public Queue driver: redis Session driver: redis (Code override. Configured to file) Scheduler status: Actif Mail driver: smtp Debug mode: off

And the full phpinfo

info-c4c6.txt

PHP logo
PHP Version 8.4.20
System 	Linux citroen-ac4.fr 6.1.0-45-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.170-1 (2026-04-30) x86_64
Build Date 	Apr 11 2026 07:44:29
Build System 	Linux

Download file

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Tutrix I browsed on several pages, and while Matomo, Google Translate etc. load fast now (I created an external php configuration for Matomo to not have a workers war at every request), and I see the size of the pictures but even on pages without images (like the category home), forum.js is struggling to load !

luceos

waazdakka explain the server to me, what are the specs that you run the community on? How many discussions, posts and users do you have (roughly)?

waazdakka

luceos So in fact I have a dedicated server at Scaleway
The configuration is :
CPU : Intel C2750 (Avoton) / 8C / 8T - 2.4 GHz
RAM : 16 GB
Storage : 1 × 1 TB HDD
LAN : 250 Mbps
Even if I think it's perhaps a little undersized, I'm not sure it's the main issue...

discussions : 17271
posts : 143421
users : 2080
tags : 75

Oh and one important information I forgot to share... All the content of the forum has been imported / converted from an old phpBB forum. I don't know if it could have some impact on the database optimisation 🙄

GreXXL

Your migration from phpBB most likely has nothing to do with what you experience. What I can see is that you are using a bigger number of extensions that might cause some of the issues you are seeing.

Some recommondations:

Use php 8.3 maximum if you are running 1.8.x
Increase the php memory limit
Try to figure out if some extensions cause exensive queries on loads - possible culprits:
-- askvortsov-auto-moderator
-- v17development-user-badges (maybe replace with fof/badges)
-- michaelbelgium-discussion-views (maybe replace with fof/discussion-views)
-- datlechin-birthdays
-- c4c6-users-map-location-osm

Karl

GreXXL the extension list is a a great indication of slow speeds. Think of it as each item on that list is its own load. What I highly recommend is disabling all of them and slowly flipping one on at a time with a priority list of must haves. Flip until the load time gets too slow and rethink that extension, repeat. Isolate it down.

waazdakka

GreXXL Ok thanks for the advices

I'm running 8.3 for Flarum
php memory limit increased
and to answer to @Karl too, I tried disabling all the extensions to see if it speeds up. In fact yes, a bit, but not something spectacular, and browsing categories takes just as long as opening a thread.

So I'm a bit lost, when analyzing the network loading tab, I can see that loading the tags seems to be the longest request.
And on the homepage, I have all the secondary tags displayed, and there is no option on the Category module to hide them (But since the secondary tags are not on threads, it's probably not the main issue)

Impulsive5

waazdakka CPU : Intel C2750 (Avoton) / 8C / 8T - 2.4 GHz

I think the culprit is your cpu. I think you can get better performance out of a VPS. When comparing vps and dedicated options look at single thread passmark or geekbench scores.

esbeeb 🇨🇦

waazdakka Intel C2750

I agree, that's an Intel "Atom" CPU, they were notoriously slow

waazdakka

Yep, 2013 CPU 🥲
I could upgrade to an Intel Xeon E3 1220v2 (4C / 4T - 3.1 GHz), I guess the upgrade is worth the price?

https://askgeek.io/en/cpus/vs/Intel_Atom-C2750-vs-Intel_Xeon-E3-1220-v2

waazdakka

Impulsive5 The Dedibox are already VPS ! 🙂

luceos

waazdakka before you upgrade I would check resource usage. top or the better version htop could help you identify how much of your cpu/memory you are currently using. The cpu might be the bottleneck, but upgrading without knowing that for sure might result in higher cost without a guaranteed solution to your problem.