Below is a battle-tested PrestaShop speed optimization checklist, fully compatible with PrestaShop 9, Core Web Vitals, and real hosting environments.
(This complements your SEO work and directly impacts rankings and conversions.)
⚡ PrestaShop Speed Optimization Checklist (PS 9)
🧱 1. Hosting & Server (FOUNDATION)
✔ PHP 8.2 / 8.3 (mandatory for PS9)
✔ OPcache enabled (huge boost)
✔ Memory limit ≥ 512MB
✔ SSD / NVMe storage
✔ HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 enabled
✔ GZIP or Brotli compression ON
👉 If hosting is weak, nothing else helps.
🧠 2. PHP & MySQL Optimization
✔ Enable OPcache
opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
✔ MySQL / MariaDB:
innodb_buffer_pool_size= 60–70% RAM- Use InnoDB only
- Disable query cache (obsolete)
✔ Use Redis for:
- Sessions
- Cache
⚙️ 3. PrestaShop Performance Settings
Back Office → Advanced Parameters → Performance
✔ Disable debug mode
✔ Smart cache for CSS → ON
✔ Smart cache for JS → ON
✔ Minify CSS / JS → ON
✔ Load JS deferred → ON
✔ Move JS to bottom → ON
✔ Disable non-used features:
- Combinations (if not used)
- Customer groups
- Multistore (if unused)
🧩 4. Theme Optimization (CRITICAL)
✔ PS9-compatible theme only
✔ Remove unused:
- CSS files
- JS libraries
- Fonts
- Icon packs
✔ Replace sliders with static hero images
✔ Avoid page builders (Elementor-style)
👉 Theme bloat is the #1 speed killer
🖼 5. Image Optimization (PS9 Advantage)
✔ Enable WebP + AVIF
✔ Correct image sizes per device
✔ Lazy loading enabled
✔ Compress existing images
✔ Avoid PNG unless transparent
Target:
- Product image < 150 KB
- Banner < 300 KB
🌍 6. CDN & Caching Layer
✔ Cloudflare (recommended)
- Cache static assets
- Enable Brotli
- Image optimization
- Early Hints
✔ Page cache:
- LiteSpeed Cache (if available)
- Nginx FastCGI Cache
✔ Exclude:
- Cart
- Checkout
- My Account
📦 7. Module Audit (HUGE IMPACT)
✔ Remove unused modules
✔ Disable heavy modules:
- Live chat
- Popups
- Tracking duplicates
✔ Replace modules that:
- Load JS/CSS globally
- Inject inline JS
✔ Keep module count < 50
🧬 8. Database Optimization
✔ Remove:
- Old carts
- Old connections
- Logs
- Stats tables
✔ Optimize tables monthly
✔ Disable stats modules in production
📊 9. Core Web Vitals Targets
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| LCP | < 2.5s |
| CLS | < 0.1 |
| INP | < 200ms |
✔ Preload hero image
✔ Preload fonts
✔ Reduce JS execution time
🤖 10. Third-Party Scripts Control
✔ Load:
- Analytics after consent
- Chat widgets deferred
✔ Remove:
- Duplicate trackers
- Old pixels
✔ Use GTM efficiently (no junk tags)
🧪 11. Testing Tools (Use ALL)
✔ Google PageSpeed Insights
✔ Lighthouse
✔ GTmetrix
✔ WebPageTest
✔ Chrome DevTools → Coverage
❌ Common Speed Killers (Avoid These)
❌ Cheap shared hosting
❌ Heavy multipurpose themes
❌ Too many marketing modules
❌ PNG banners
❌ No CDN
🏁 Final Optimization Order (IMPORTANT)
1️⃣ Hosting
2️⃣ Caching
3️⃣ Theme cleanup
4️⃣ Image optimization
5️⃣ Module cleanup
6️⃣ Database cleanup