---
title: "Talk: The ultimate WordPress performance stack"
id: "569"
type: "page"
slug: "wordpress-performance-stack"
published_at: "2026-10-06T20:00:49+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-06T22:11:40+00:00"
url: "https://danielpazwp.com/talks/wordpress-performance-stack/"
markdown_url: "https://danielpazwp.com/talks/wordpress-performance-stack.md"
excerpt: "WordPress performance talk from WordCamp Canada 2025: hosting, page and object cache, CDN, images and scripts, with the trade-offs of each layer."
---

Talk

# The ultimate WordPress performance stack

Hosting, caching layers, CDN, image and script strategy: what to use, what to skip and what each choice costs. WordCamp Canada 2025.

Written by

Daniel Paz

WordPress Performance Engineer, CEO of WebOption

The Ultimate WordPress Performance Stack: Tools, Tactics & Tradeoffs is my session from WordCamp Canada 2025, on October 16, 2025. It walks through the full WordPress performance stack, layer by layer: hosting, caching layers, CDN, and image and script strategy. For each layer the talk answers three questions: what to use, what to skip and what each choice costs you. The point is to make decisions in the right order, because a faster plugin cannot fix a slow server, and a CDN cannot fix uncached HTML.

## Where I gave this talk

| Date | Event | Session | Link |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| October 16, 2025 | WordCamp Canada 2025 | The Ultimate WordPress Performance Stack: Tools, Tactics & Tradeoffs | Official session page |

There is no recording linked here yet. The official session page has the description and the schedule details.

## What the talk covers

The talk goes through the stack in the order a request travels, from the server to the browser.

| Layer | What it decides | Typical trade-off |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hosting and PHP | How fast WordPress can build a page when nothing is cached | Managed hosting limits what you can change; a VPS gives control and adds maintenance |
| Page cache | Whether most visitors get ready HTML instead of running PHP | Logged-in users, carts and personalized pages bypass it |
| Object cache | How many database queries repeat on uncached requests | A persistent cache like Redis needs memory and monitoring |
| CDN and edge | How close the files, and sometimes the HTML, are to the visitor | Caching HTML at the edge needs careful purge rules |
| Images | How many bytes the largest elements cost | Modern formats and sizes need a workflow, not just a plugin |
| Scripts and CSS | How much the browser has to run before the page is usable | Aggressive delay and removal can break features and hurt INP |

Each layer comes with what to measure on your own site, because the right answer depends on the site. A brochure site and a WooCommerce store with thousands of logged-in customers need different stacks.

## Who it is for

WordPress developers, agencies and site owners who have tried caching plugins and optimization settings and want a framework for deciding what matters. It assumes you know what a plugin and a hosting plan are, but not server administration.

## Related articles and guides

The written version of this approach is in [how to speed up WordPress](https://danielpazwp.com/speed-up-wordpress/)
. For the caching layers, read [page cache, object cache and edge cache: which one you actually need](https://danielpazwp.com/page-cache-object-cache-edge-cache-which-one-you-actually-need/)
 and [Redis object cache for WordPress](https://danielpazwp.com/wordpress-redis-object-cache/)
. The server side is in [TTFB in WordPress](https://danielpazwp.com/ttfb-wordpress/)
. If you want this applied to your site, see [WordPress performance consulting](https://danielpazwp.com/wordpress-performance/)
, and for the rest of my sessions, the [talks page](https://danielpazwp.com/talks/)
.

[Book this talkI bring this session to WordCamps, conferences and company teams, in English or Portuguese.Book me](https://danielpazwp.com/#book)