page load times in v6.2

[Serenade]

This is incredibly disappointing.

 

Version 5.3.14, has a clientarea.php GET request of 164ms

 

Version 6.2, has a clientarea.php GET request of 709ms.

 

This is the exact same WHMCS website (minor changes in head orders and jquery version), running on the same server and including the same hooks. I've taken screenshots which can be seen here: imgur.com/a/7AxH6

 

This isn't just my site either, the WHMCS demo site has a massive GET request of 1.84s (seriously?) imgur.com/wzKD3NT

 

One step forward, two steps back. Thanks WHMCS.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Serenade
WHMCS removed "Garbage" from my post title, and didn't recapitalize the the rest. Thanks WHMCS.

[Serenade]

This is incredibly disappointing.

 

Version 5.3.14, has a clientarea.php GET request of 164ms

 

Version 6.2, has a clientarea.php GET request of 709ms.

 

This is loading the exact same WHMCS website, running on the same server and including the same hooks.

 

This isn't just my site either, the WHMCS demo site has a massive GET request of 1.25s.

 

One step forward, two steps back.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Serenade

[Infopro]

Multiple threads merged here.

 

WHMCS removed "Garbage" from my post title, and didn't recapitalize the the rest. Thanks WHMCS.

 

Welcome.

 

[Chamber]

I'm not really sure where things went wrong, but the GET requests for WHMCS clientarea pages since the v6.2 upgrade are legitimately about 6 times worse than that of the 5.X version.

 

Looking at the WHMCS demo, even a simple login page of 2.7KB has a GET request of a whopping 1.11s (see attached).

 

The login page in my 5.3 install has a GET request of only 200ms.

 

I've tried contacting WHMCS support about the issue, naturally they tried blaming my server, theme and action hooks, but all of that falls apart when their very own demo suffers from the same issue.

 

I've even seen a post in these forums regarding this exact same issue, which upon revisiting now results in a 404. It's clear to me WHMCS is well aware of the issue, but has zero ambition to fix it.

 

I'm writing this to hopefully get some awareness around the issue so we can get some sort of a fix, until then WHMCS seems content banking on the fact likely very few people will notice the issue.

[Serenade]

Any updates here?

[Serenade]

Good to know WHMCS stands behind their product.

[Infopro]

Good to know WHMCS stands behind their product.

 

First, multiple user accounts are not permitted.

Second, this thread was started a month ago, the additional threads you started merged here, and only you and your alter ego have commented so far. Why is that?

[Serenade]

First, multiple user accounts are not permitted.

Second, this thread was started a month ago, the additional threads you started merged here, and only you and your alter ego have commented so far. Why is that?

 

Probably because most dollar a month VPS providers don't care about the page load times of their control panels being subpar. To date, not a single person has come forward and explained to me why index.php from the same theme has a 700ms jump from v5.2 to v6.2.

[Infopro]

Probably because most dollar a month VPS providers don't care about the page load times of their control panels being subpar.

 

Ouch. I would think a Hosting Provider on a budget would be very interested in having his site load as fast as possible. Even if its only 700ms faster.

 

To date, not a single person has come forward and explained to me why index.php from the same theme has a 700ms jump from v5.2 to v6.2.

 

What sort of explanation are you looking for here exactly?

[Serenade]

Ouch. I would think a Hosting Provider on a budget would be very interested in having his site load as fast as possible. Even if its only 700ms faster.

 

Well if that's the case, why not find out why it's so much slower and figure out some sort of a fix? It seems to me we're both on the same page, I'm not really sure why or what it is you're arguing here. I don't think I'm asking for anything unreasonable, I'm simply asking why WHMCS page load times are 4 times worse than its previous releases, and whether or not we can find a solution.

 

If you're still convinced this is an issue with my hooks, theme, server or otherwise, your WHMCS demo page now has a GET request of 1.37s, again compared to the 200ms of v5.2.3: https://i.imgur.com/oTJj028.png

Edited February 3, 2016 by Serenade
Added Screenshot

[Infopro]

...

I'm not really sure why or what it is you're arguing here. ...

 

You're mistaken, I'm not the one arguing, you are.

 

The demo site is just that, a demo. I would guess that the demo server is not fine tuned for speed, it resets to all defaults every hour.

 

I can't answer your questions properly in regards to differences in versions and speed. You might ask WHMCS Technical Support about it.

 

I just opened my own demo, then forced a refresh. I did the same with the WHMCS demo as well.

 

Mine:

 

WHMCS Demo:

 

 

 

All the same, my original point, to your original point, stands.

 

Where is everyone else on this matter? I would think if this was an issue with WHMCS and not something else, your server for example, that there would be plenty more posts in this thread or on these forums about it.

 

This thread is well over a month old now and still, you and me are the only ones posting here.

 

Horrible, and Garbage comments aside, if you see why there's a slow down, speak up. Just remember that you're not arguing with me. I'm the only one helping keep your thread alive so far.

[Serenade]

Where is everyone else on this matter? I would think if this was an issue with WHMCS and not something else, your server for example, that there would be plenty more posts in this thread or on these forums about it.

 

This thread is well over a month old now and still, you and me are the only ones posting here.

 

Horrible, and Garbage comments aside, if you see why there's a slow down, speak up. Just remember that you're not arguing with me. I'm the only one helping keep your thread alive so far.

 

I don't know where everyone else is, I honestly don't think most people would notice a 0.7s jump in load time, and if they did it probably wouldn't be a major cause of concern. The only reason I noticed it is because I'm in the process of completely refreshing my website to work entirely within WHMCS, and was optimizing page loads. Regardless, I don't think it's any sort of ground to completely dismiss the issue.

 

The screenshots you posted don't really pertain the issue at hand. Lots of things can affect the overall page load time which is what those screens are showing. I'm specifically talking about the GET request for the .php files, resources aside (in this case, index.php). That's the time it takes for the browser to even know what content to load.

 

I tried contacting WHMCS support, and it went absolutely nowhere. That's the only reason I'm in here. Trust me if I had any idea what the root of the issue was, I would certainly share it. What I do know however is my server is not the issue. I have two WHMCS installs on my server v5.3.2, and v6.2. Both have the same theme, hooks, includes and mysql database. v5.3.2 continues to have a consistent GET request of ~200ms, and v6.2 consistently has a GET request plus of 800ms. At this point however, I've basically subscribed to the fact that WHMCS has no interest in resolving the issue.

[Infopro]

What issue? 800ms is not a real issue. This thread loaded in 3347ms.

 

There are many thousands of Hosting Providers using WHMCS. There are over 60,000 users registered to this forum.

 

And here you and me are, speaking alone here and only one of us has a problem with page load in his WHMCS.

 

I'm not saying there is no issue, I too would love to see an optimized demo on WHMCS and I want my WHMCS to load as fast as it can too same as you. But, one person is not an issue. 5 might be, a couple hundred users complaining in this thread, you bet, there's a problem and I am quite sure WHMCS would pay more attention to the 800ms if that was the case.

[Serenade]

What issue? 800ms is not a real issue. This thread loaded in 3347ms.

 

There are many thousands of Hosting Providers using WHMCS. There are over 60,000 users registered to this forum.

 

And here you and me are, speaking alone here and only one of us has a problem with page load in his WHMCS.

 

I'm not saying there is no issue, I too would love to see an optimized demo on WHMCS and I want my WHMCS to load as fast as it can too same as you. But, one person is not an issue. 5 might be, a couple hundred users complaining in this thread, you bet, there's a problem and I am quite sure WHMCS would pay more attention to the 800ms if that was the case.

 

You've literally come full circle with your statement here. A few posts ago you mentioned you though most budget providers "would be very interested in having his site load as fast as possible. Even if its only 700ms faster." Now you're saying the complete opposite stating 800ms is not a real issue. The time it took for the thread to load is completely irrelevant. It's not my business, I don't care how fast it loads.

 

What's also irrelevant is how many people are complaining about it. If one person finds a breaking bug (not saying this one is), that bug has to be fixed regardless of whether or not it's an edge case.

 

To my previous point, I'd be willing to bet nearly every single WHMCS is having this issue they are just unaware of it for the reasons mentioned earlier. If you yourself have a WHMCS install, I'd be curious to see the load times there. I just pushed my new website to production, and I'm currently getting get requests for index.php from 800ms - 2.2s which is outrageously bad. There is a problem here. I don't know what it is, how to fix it, or care how many people are complaining about it.

[ntucakovic]

I haven't went very deep into issue of why WHMCS has slowed down, but I've done performance improvements on theme six on the site I'm currently developing. I've managed to improve load time significantly (haven't done details tests on it). I'm still not satisfied with how resources are loading on theme six though.

 

Nonetheless YSlow reported grade increase from 77 to 86, without server improvements. Only improvements on theme. Meaning, there's still left to handle caching, header expiration, gzip compression, etc..

 

I agree that performance is extremely important for conversions, and especially on e commerce software. It's kinda ridiculous to go back with performance with new major release.

[Serenade]

I haven't went very deep into issue of why WHMCS has slowed down, but I've done performance improvements on theme six on the site I'm currently developing. I've managed to improve load time significantly (haven't done details tests on it). I'm still not satisfied with how resources are loading on theme six though.

 

Nonetheless YSlow reported grade increase from 77 to 86, without server improvements. Only improvements on theme. Meaning, there's still left to handle caching, header expiration, gzip compression, etc..

 

I agree that performance is extremely important for conversions, and especially on e commerce software. It's kinda ridiculous to go back with performance with new major release.

 

Completely agree. All I can say is don't even think about bothering with WHMCS's support, it'll just be an infuriating run-around of non-sensical canned replies blaming your server for configuration issues. Which is laughable considering their own WHMCS install suffers from the same issue.

[Infopro]

Completely agree. All I can say is don't even think about bothering with WHMCS's support, it'll just be an infuriating run-around of non-sensical canned replies blaming your server for configuration issues. Which is laughable considering their own WHMCS install suffers from the same issue.

 

As I mentioned weeks ago:

 

The demo site is just that, a demo. I would guess that the demo server is not fine tuned for speed, it resets to all defaults every hour.

 

If you've got an open ticket with WHMCS that you'd like to have escalated please let me know, I'll be happy to help with that.

[Serenade]

As I mentioned weeks ago:

The demo site is just that, a demo. I would guess that the demo server is not fine tuned for speed, it resets to all defaults every hour.

 

I'm not talking about the demo site, I'm talking about the WHMCS Members area.

 

As I mentioned weeks ago:

If you've got an open ticket with WHMCS that you'd like to have escalated please let me know, I'll be happy to help with that.

 

It got escalated to level 2 or 3, still nothing. Your staff just continued to blame my server and configuration, even though everything was working perfectly fine before the update.

[Serenade]

Good to know WHMCS values their customers' feedback.

[Infopro]

Good to know WHMCS values their customers' feedback.

 

WHMCS does appreciate your feedback, and the feedback of the entire WHMCS community.

 

I'm wondering when the rest of the community is going to post to this thread though. So far, besides me, only three others have posted and two of those users is you.

 

 

 

 

continued to blame my server and configuration

 

Got a ticket number for this I can look into for you?

[Serenade]

I'm wondering when the rest of the community is going to post to this thread though. So far, besides me, only three others have posted and two of those users is you.

 

That has no bearing on the issue nor does it justify neglecting the problem. I've already told you why I think more people haven't chimed in, and it's also likely due to the fact this thread was moved (conveniently) to a logged-in only sub-forum which barely sees any traffic at all.

 

Got a ticket number for this I can look into for you?

 

Sure: #JLY-852544

[Infopro]

That ticket reads a lot like this forum thread. I didn't login to your site but I did visit you and it loads pretty damn good from this end.

[Serenade]

That ticket reads a lot like this forum thread. I didn't login to your site but I did visit you and it loads pretty damn good from this end.

 

That's because I've made every attempt possible at optimizing load times of every single resource on the site including utilizing Cloudflare's Rocket Loader, minizing and caching.

 

The fact remains however that using the same template on the same server, WHMCS 5.x has an index.php GET request of only 164ms, and that same GET request on WHMCS 6.x averages 709ms.

 

As much as this thread has gone back and forth, there is nothing more to be said. There is something wrong and I cannot fix it as I do not have access the source code, nor do I know what has changed since the v6 implementation. And to be completely honestly, the saddest part this whole situation is the people who would normally be in charge of rectifying the issue are completely unaware because (as you witnessed for yourself in the support ticket) your staff refuses to flag Matt or one of the developers on the issue.

[Infopro]

That's not the saddest part at all. Why would Matt need to get involved with this? You're the only one posting to this thread. The 3 forum links you posted to your ticket, one of them is this very thread, another, you yourself in the ticket state its a different issue that yours. There's nothing to rectify here as far as I can tell.

 

If this thread and the ticket system was blowing up with complaints about speed issues, you can be sure WHMCS developers would be looking at it, just like they're working on anything else. But that's not the case here.

 

One person, using a modified 5.x theme for admin area of a 6.x site is getting a 600 MS difference in speed from his 5.x site and his 6.x site, running a long ticket using CAP letters throughout, and bumping this thread week after week till its over 2 pages long.

 

That's not an issue, that's just as the ticket suggests. I don't see why Matt needs to come check your site when you're, seemingly, the only one with the issue.

 

Valid suggestions were provided to you in that ticket. Past that, I'm not sure what you're hoping for but Matt is not coming to make your site run faster.

 

As much as this thread has gone back and forth, there is nothing more to be said.

 

I agree with you here on this one item, 100%.

[Serenade]

That's not the saddest part at all. Why would Matt need to get involved with this? You're the only one posting to this thread. The 3 forum links you posted to your ticket, one of them is this very thread, another, you yourself in the ticket state its a different issue that yours. There's nothing to rectify here as far as I can tell.

 

Well then you are mistaken. Two other people in the thread said they noticed the same thing after upgrading. Regardless, I've already explained to you several times why I think more people haven't come forward with the issue. Feel free to check my last few replies in this thread.

 

If this thread and the ticket system was blowing up with complaints about speed issues, you can be sure WHMCS developers would be looking at it, just like they're working on anything else. But that's not the case here.

 

I love how that's the measuring stick for WHMCS to justify looking into an issue. Unless the sky is falling, who cares right?

 

One person, using a modified 5.x theme for admin area of a 6.x site is getting a 600 MS difference in speed from his 5.x site and his 6.x site, running a long ticket using CAP letters throughout, and bumping this thread week after week till its over 2 pages long.

 

Here you go again selectively quoting what bolsters your one and only argument that only me and no one else is having this issue. I've mentioned several times over in this thread and the ticket that the issue occurs not only with my custom theme, but also with the default WHMCS 5 template running on WHMCS 6 and the stock templates on both.

 

Also nice little jab there with your "CAP letters throughout" comment trying to paint me as the villain. Only one out of the 11 back and forth replies prior to that has a few words capitalized. Big deal. The reason is was capitalized was to emphasize the fact that 11 replies in, the ticket was still not transferred to Matt despite being told it would be once they had a little more info.

 

Quote: "I apologize it was noted this would be escalated to either Matt or the development team previously as this is not something we're able to do at this time."

 

That's not an issue, that's just as the ticket suggests. I don't see why Matt needs to come check your site when you're, seemingly, the only one with the issue.

 

Valid suggestions were provided to you in that ticket. Past that, I'm not sure what you're hoping for but Matt is not coming to make your site run faster.

 

He doesn't need to visit my site and make it faster. He just has to visit his own to see how poorly WHMCS 6 loads compared to WHMCS 5.