Optimizing performance settings for PrestaShop

PrestaShop includes several performance-related settings that you can use to improve the loading speed of your Prestashop store.

The procedures below will show you how to configure these settings so that they are optimized for high performance.
The settings described in this article are for PrestaShop version 1.6. Earlier versions of PrestaShop may not include some of these settings.

PrestaShop themes use the Smarty template engine to render pages for your site. To optimize Smarty template settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the SMARTY section, under Template compilation, select Recompile templates if the files have been updated
4. The Never recompile template files option is actually the fastest option. However, if you select this option, you must remember to clear the cache whenever you make edits to the theme. Otherwise, your changes will not appear on the site.
5. Under Cache, click YES
6. Under Caching type, select File System
7. Under Clear cache, select Clear cache everytime something has been modified
8. Click Save

Debugging settings

PrestaShop includes debugging settings that you should only enable if you experience a problem with your site. During normal operation, all debugging should be disabled. To verify debugging features are disabled for your site, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the DEBUG MODE section, the Disable non PrestaShop modules option should be set to NO
4. The Disable all overrides option should also be set to NO
5. Click Save

Optional features

You can disable some optional PrestaShop features to help improve performance. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the OPTIONAL FEATURES section, select the features you want to disable:
   - To disable product combinations, under Combinations click NO
   - To disable product features, under Features click NO
   - To disable customer groups, under Customer Groups click NO
4. Click Save

CCC settings

You can improve PrestaShop web page loading times by enabling its CCC (“combine, compress, and cache”) feature.

As its name implies, CCC compresses and caches web page source code, including HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

To enable CCC, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the CCC (COMBINE, COMPRESS AND CACHE) section, under Smart cache for CSS, click YES
4. Under Smart cache for JavaScript, click YES. Under Minify HTML, click YES
5. Under Compress inline JavaScript in HTML, click YES
6. Under Move JavaScript to the end, click YES
7. Under Apache optimization, click YES
8. Click Save

Encryption settings

PrestaShop supports two encryption algorithms: Rijndael (also known as AES) and a custom Blowfish implementation. The Rijndael algorithm, provided by the PHP mcrypt library, is faster. To optimize the encryption settings, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the CIPHERING section, under Algorithm, select Use Rijndael with mcrypt lib
4. Click Save

Caching settings

PrestaShop supports several caching methods to help improve page load times. To configuring caching for PrestaShop, follow these steps:

1. Log in to PrestaShop as the administrator
2. On the menu bar, click ADVANCED PARAMETERS, and then click Performance
3. In the CACHING section, under Use cache, click YES
4. Under Caching system, select the caching method you want to use

• To use the file system, select File System
• To use Memcached, select Memcached, and then configure the server information

5. Click Save

If you encounter problems in applying the above instructions please contact us. HostX offers the best PrestaShop web hosting service and can help you solve your problems.