You can enhance the performance of hosted websites by applying the optimal PHP and nginx settings. As a result, the websites” pages will load faster.

We called this feature « Performance Booster », and it is available only to the Plesk administrator. At the moment, you enable the feature individually for each website.

To enhance a website’s performance:

  1. Go to Tools & Settings > Performance Booster (under « General Settings »).

  2. Click the name of the website whose performance you want to enhance.

  3. Select the « Speed up web server », « Set optimized PHP settings », and « Switch to modern PHP version (Plesk PHP-FPM 8.1) » checkboxes, and then click Apply.

    Note: Depending on the website settings, some checkboxes may be disabled. Learn more in the section below.

image performance booster

Once you have optimized the PHP and/or nginx settings of the website, you will see the image performance booster icon icon under the « Web server » and/or « PHP » columns.

« Web server » and « PHP » are shown as optimized when « Speed up web server » and « Set optimized PHP settings » are enabled, respectively. The « PHP » status does not depend on the « Switch to modern PHP version (Plesk PHP-FPM 8.1) » option.

Note: The websites” optimization status on the « Performance Booster » screen may not always be up to date. To update the status of all websites, click Refresh domains status.

Note: If you enabled « Speed up web server » and then manually updated /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/conf/nginx.conf, the image performance booster icon icon under the « Web server » column will not disappear (as it should). Clicking the Refresh domains status button will not update the web server optimization status either. To update the status, disable the « Speed up web server » option manually. You can then turn on the option again if you want to optimize the web server.

Optimization Settings Prerequisites

The « Speed up web server » option is available when both of the following conditions are met:

  • Hosting of the website is enabled.
  • nginx is installed and enabled on the server.

The « Set optimized PHP settings » option is available when all the following conditions are met:

  • Hosting of the website is enabled
  • « Hosting settings management » and « Common PHP settings management » are allowed in the hosting plan the website belongs to.
  • The panel.ini file has no predefined defaults in the [php] section. For more information, see Customizing PHP Parameters.

The « Switch to modern PHP version (Plesk PHP-FPM 8.1) » option is available when all the following conditions are met:

  • Hosting of the website is enabled.
  • PHP 8.1 is installed on the server.
  • PHP version selected for the website is earlier than 8.1.
  • When the « PHP version and handler management » permission is allowed in the hosting plan the website belongs to.
  • The « 8.1.18 FPM application » handler is enabled in Tools & Settings > PHP Settings (under « General Settings »).