How fast is Classibase compared to other scripts? How much resource will be required for certain amount of ads? What is suggested server configuration? There are most common question asked from our customers. To answer these questions we will compare WordPress vs Classibase scripts’ resource and time used to generate a page.
We designed Classibase to use only required resources and not load unused files and classes. Also we cache slow and not vital queries like counting ads for one hour to speed up page generation. WordPress loads almost all files even if it is not going to be used for this particular page. There are some performance plugins like caching in WordPress as well.
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Performance comparison WordPress vs Classibase
Classibase - live site with 1000 active ads, 3000 total ads website. Performance data is read from built in debug mode which can be enabled by navigating to “Tools” -> “Maintenance” page under “Debug mode” title there is “Enable debug mode” button. After enabling debug mode you logged in as admin will see queries to database, time for each query, and memory usage information at the bottom of each page.
WordPress – live site clasibase.com with 26 active plugins, 100 posts. WordPress version used 3.6. Memory and number of query values measured with “P3 - Plugin Performance Profiler” plugin. Most resource consuming plugins: bbPress, Google Analytics For WordPress, Quick Cache, s2Member® Framework, Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Did you know you can list featured ads with WordPress widget? You can learn how we did it in our tutorial.
Simple PHP page – page containing only static HTML content and time/ memory measurement functions. Database connection is not used. We include plain PHP result because WordPress and Classibase are both written in PHP.
| Classibase | WordPress | Simple PHP page | |
| Avarage page generation time (milliseconds) | 494 | 3.199 | 150 |
| Number of database queries | 15 | 30 | 0 |
| Memory used MB | 4.75 | 31.53 | 0.26 |
What these numbers mean? This means Classibase 6 times faster than WordPress and uses 6 times less resources. These results and performance achieved because Classibase loads only those files that are used on current page and nothing else. While on WordPress almost all PHP files loaded and uses memory even if not used on current page. So if you use classifieds theme or plugin for wordpress then it will also be slower than any stand alone classifieds script like Classibase. WordPress is designed to answer all possible solutions and made extensible in nature. Stand alone classifieds scripts designed to be only classifieds website and nothing else, which makes them more optimized for performance and less flexible.
Average page generation time is measured using Google webmaster tool. See graphs below.
Average page generation and response time for WordPress vs Classibase. Measured by Google, this is screenshot from Google Webmaster Tools.
Why compare WordPress vs Classibase?
We compared plain WordPress without any classifieds plugin or theme. This is because any additional plugin or theme that configures WordPress to work as classifieds website adds more database queries and uses more resources on top of current base measurements. So WordPress with classifieds plugin will be much slower and more resource intensive than these results.
For a small classifieds website with couple hundred listings it may be ok using WordPress. For any bigger websites it is definitely recommended using dedicated classifieds software like Classibase. Because we built and optimized this PHP classifieds script to serve one single purpose. And it is a classifieds script only.
Where WordPress is built as blogging CMS and made flexible to add many additional features. WordPress has extensible database structure which is not optimal for performance. There are many plugins that converts WordPress to online shop with woo-commerce or similar plugin, recipe website, photo portfolio, classifieds or directory listing website, membership website, newspaper site and to many other website type. All these plugins make WordPress even more slower. At some point when your website grows to more than 10K or even 100K ads WordPress based plugin will struggle and may not deliver custom search results.
For these reasons we always advise using standalone classifieds script instead of classifieds plugin or theme based on WordPress.
How much server resources Classibase will use?
Classibase as many PHP scripts require database for storing user generated data. Disk storage for storing user uploaded images related to each posted item. Bandwith is data transferred between your server and user devices, some web hosts may measure and bill for bandwidth usage. You can define number of allowed images per listing. When planning to buy hosting for your classifieds website you need to know how many ads and page-views your server can handle.
File count and size for 50k ads classified website. Counting performed using Linux commands find and du.
We measured Classibase PHP classifieds script on live website with 50K ads, 10k users:
- MySQL database size used 250 MB.
- File count 110K and total size 4.3 GB. These are user uploaded images and resized images by server.
- Monthly bandwidth usage 70GB when used with Cloudflare free account.
Bandwidth is average calculated for the 2019 year. Usage can vary depending on traffic you get. Maximum bandwidth reached 130GB in May and June, minimum in October 24GB. Keep this in mind when purchasing web hosting, prefer web hosts with unlimited bandwidth.
Database and disk space measurements were performed on 09.01.2020 date and website were using Classibase version 2.0.4 .
For smaller website with 2K classified ads we measured database size 6 MB.
Suggested server configuration for classifieds script
System requirements for running Classibase are same as any PHP powered website:
- PHP version: 5.x, 7.x, 8.x (including latest version PHP 8)
- MySQL database
- Apache or Nginx web server
Besides these settings you need to know server disk space, database space, CPU and RAM needed to run classifieds website smoothly. We can give you approximate numbers for reference because these may vary depending on features you allow in your classifieds website. Remember this numbers are estimates.
| Number of ads | 10.000 | 100.000 |
| Number of pageviews / month | 100.000 | 1.000.000 |
| CPU | - | 1.2 GHz atom or greater |
| RAM | - | 1 GB |
| Database space | 30MB or greater | 800 MB at least. |
| Storage space for images if each ad has 5 image | 5 GB | 20 GB |
| Server type | Shared | Dedicated |
| Suggested hosting | Bluehost | OVH dedicated servers |
For shared hosting we recommend using Bluehost because it is easy to start. We also started with shared hosting. For dedicated server we are currently using Kimsufi series from OVH, do not go for VPS because your host can shut down your server if it will be attacked with DDOS. Dedicated servers from kimsufi are affordable and almost same price as VPS, so it is smarter to use dedicated server. Also you can host many sites with dedicated server even host some of your clients websites and earn some money.
Also you can always use CDN (Content Delivery Network) by Cloudflare to reduce server load. It has easy SSL integration as well in case your web host does not provide you with it. Plus Cloudflare allows to survive DDOS attacks by implementing bot detection when needed, actually it is one of the most valuable features of it. Also it encrypts visible email addresses on your website and prevents email mining by bad bots.
Remember on popular website you can reach 100k image files, which are static files and can be cached and server by Cloudflare without requesting from your server every time. And that is a huge benefit from a free CDN. We suggest using Cloudflare to reduce server load. You can read more about server optimization for classifieds website in our detailed guide. It also covers usage of free Cloudflare service as well.
Keep in mind that dynamic pages are not cached and will not much benefit from CDN, they will always load from your server. If you notice that PHP and MySQL is using all of your servers CPU then better switching to dedicated server with more powerful processor.
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