My web app is slow

Hello,

I hired a student to create a web app for our tech recycling business. The customer visits the site, selects their device, answers a few questions about the condition, and then we generate an instant quote for that model based on their answers. We are using a MySQL database on a shared web host. The app seems very slow when loading and going through the process. I am not a developer but if there is anything that I can do that might help, please let me know. The developer I hired is busy on other work so I am kind of stuck.

The selling page

Thanks,
Frank

It seems fine to me, not slow at all.

You have a system were the page has to fully download before it shows, which displays your spinning icon while it is loading. This is so the page displays complete and tidy, and has no layout breaking movements while bits download. For your simple site design this is probably not needed and gives the impression that the page is slower than it is.

Your option pages seem to be loading all the possible options for every stage, on every stage. A strange approach to take IMHO. Given the simplicity of your site design I would imagine it would be like lightening. You also have a https://www.tawk.to/ script on the page that might be slowing things down too. And you are linking to fontawesome from a bootstrap server too, which again could be a source of delays. This is a tiny set of files you would normally download and host locally. However I would suspect it is the tawk servers slowing your site down when they are busy.

But is there a simple way to improve your site speed, not really. Perhaps upgrade your web hosting?

Best wishes,

Paul.

It seems fine to me, not slow at all.

You have a system were the page has to fully download before it shows, which displays your spinning icon while it is loading. This is so the page displays complete and tidy, and has no layout breaking movements while bits download. For your simple site design this is probably not needed and gives the impression that the page is slower than it is.

Your option pages seem to be loading all the possible options for every stage, on every stage. A strange approach to take IMHO. Given the simplicity of your site design I would imagine it would be like lightening. You also have a https://www.tawk.to/ script on the page that might be slowing things down too. And you are linking to fontawesome from a bootstrap server too, which again could be a source of delays. This is a tiny set of files you would normally download and host locally. However I would suspect it is the tawk servers slowing your site down when they are busy.

But is there a simple way to improve your site speed, not really. Perhaps upgrade your web hosting?

Best wishes,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I also have seen stages where all options are displayed all of a sudden, not just for that model but all different models. The wheel icon should be removed? Other than removing my live chat or paying for a better web host, can I improve the app speed or page loading times by myself?

Enable your profiler in development mode to get total execution time.

Keep calm.

Enable your profiler in development mode to get total execution time.

I have disabled db_queries, does that do anything?

not sure if this is location dependent but i called http://macmetro.com/ajax/get_models/2/ 10 times in a row:
The response times were between 1.2 and 5 seconds which is far too slow...

I would also check that the database has the relevant indexes in its tables.

Thanks guys, clearly there are some issues. Would you suggest I hire a freelancer?

The truth is that no website is ever finished. They need to constantly evolve, improve, respond to needs and user needs.

Ideally you would find someone close to you, that you can visit, that can take some responsibility for your site, and within a budget, solve your issues and offer improvements etc.

Finding this person can be a pain, it's true, with lots of false starts. A distant freelancer might work for you, but can often produce work aimed at getting the job done minimally to get paid, rather than producing the results or standards of work you need.

It all depends on your budget, your ROI expected from the site, and your ambitions for the site.

Alternatively, you can roll your sleeves up, and start coding. PHP is a pleasure to learn but it might just not be your cup of tea and it can take a real commitment in time and effort.

Wish you luck with the site though, seems like a good idea,

Best wishes,

Paul.

Thanks Paul, you are 100% correct. I am now seeing (12)Cannot allocate memory: couldn't create child process: /opt/suphp/sbin/suphp for /home2/myusername/public_html/macmetro/index.php messages in my error log. Can anyone refer a honest CI person who I can hire?