222 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
222 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Self-Hosting Without a CDN: Performance Tips"
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description: "How to make your self-hosted site fast without relying on Cloudflare or other CDNs."
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section: privacy
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order: 3
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---
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# Self-Hosting Without a CDN: Performance Tips
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A common objection to self-hosting is "but it won't be fast without a CDN." That's not true for most sites. With proper configuration, a well-tuned Nginx server on a decent VPS will load pages in under 200ms for visitors on the same continent — more than fast enough for a great user experience.
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---
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## Tip 1 — Enable HTTP/2 and HTTP/3
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HTTP/2 multiplexes requests over a single connection. HTTP/3 (QUIC) reduces latency even further.
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```nginx
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server {
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listen 443 ssl http2;
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listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
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# HTTP/3 requires Nginx 1.25+ with quic support
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listen 443 quic reuseport;
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}
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```
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Check that HTTP/2 is active by looking at the Chrome DevTools → Network tab — your requests should show `h2` as the protocol.
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---
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## Tip 2 — Aggressive static file caching
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Serve static assets with long cache lifetimes and immutable headers so browsers never re-request them:
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```nginx
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location ~* \.(css|js|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg|woff2?)$ {
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expires 1y;
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add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
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access_log off;
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}
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```
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With immutable caching, the browser will never check if the file has changed until the user force-reloads.
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---
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## Tip 3 — Enable Gzip compression
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Compress text-based responses:
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```nginx
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gzip on;
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gzip_vary on;
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gzip_proxied any;
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gzip_comp_level 5;
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gzip_min_length 256;
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gzip_types
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text/plain
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text/css
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text/javascript
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application/javascript
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application/json
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application/xml
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image/svg+xml;
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```
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This can reduce HTML, CSS, and JS payloads by 60–80%.
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---
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## Tip 4 — Use a PHP opcode cache
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For WordPress and other PHP sites, enable OPcache:
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```ini
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; /etc/php/8.3/cli/conf.d/10-opcache.ini
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opcache.enable=1
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opcache.memory_consumption=128
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opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
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opcache.revalidate_freq=120
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```
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This keeps compiled PHP scripts in memory, avoiding recompilation on every request.
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---
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## Tip 5 — Install a WordPress caching plugin
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For WordPress sites, use a caching plugin that generates static HTML:
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- **WP Super Cache** or **W3 Total Cache**: Generate static HTML files served directly by Nginx
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- **LiteSpeed Cache**: If you're running LiteSpeed (LSAPI mode)
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See our [W3 Total Cache Configuration](/wordpress/w3-total-cache/) guide for detailed setup instructions without a CDN.
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---
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## Tip 6 — Tune Nginx worker settings
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```nginx
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worker_processes auto;
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worker_rlimit_nofile 65535;
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events {
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worker_connections 4096;
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use epoll;
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multi_accept on;
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}
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```
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`auto` sets the worker count to the number of CPU cores. `worker_connections 4096` allows each worker to handle 4,000 concurrent connections.
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---
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## Tip 7 — Serve images efficiently
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- **Use WebP** instead of JPEG/PNG (30% smaller). Convert with `cwebp`:
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```bash
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sudo apt install webp -y
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cwebp -q 80 input.jpg -o output.webp
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```
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- **Use responsive images** with srcset so mobile devices don't download desktop-sized images
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- **Lazy-load below-the-fold images** with `loading="lazy"` attribute:
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```html
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<img src="photo.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="...">
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```
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- **Compress images** with a tool like ImageMagick or optipng before uploading
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---
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## Tip 8 — Optimize your database
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For MySQL/MariaDB:
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- Enable query cache (MySQL 5.7 and earlier)
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- Run `mysqlcheck -o --all-databases` weekly
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- Remove unused plugins and post revisions in WordPress
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- Use an index on frequently queried columns
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```sql
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-- Clean up WordPress post revisions
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DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = 'revision';
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-- Optimize tables
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OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_posts, wp_postmeta;
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```
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---
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## Tip 9 — Set proper buffer sizes
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```nginx
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client_body_buffer_size 128k;
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client_max_body_size 50m;
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client_header_buffer_size 1k;
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large_client_header_buffers 4 8k;
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output_buffers 32 32k;
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postpone_output 1460;
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```
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These settings prevent Nginx from buffering more data than necessary per connection.
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---
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## Tip 10 — Choose a geographically close VPS location
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Arcline's data center location matters. A VPS in Dallas will serve US visitors faster than one in Frankfurt. For international audiences, consider:
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- One VPS in the US + one in Europe with a simple round-robin DNS
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- Or just accept slightly higher latency for overseas visitors — a 200ms response time is still perfectly usable
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---
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## Benchmarking your setup
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After making these changes, test your performance:
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```bash
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# Install siege for load testing
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sudo apt install siege -y
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siege -c 50 -t 60s https://example.com
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# Or use curl to measure response time
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curl -w "@curl-format.txt" -o /dev/null -s https://example.com
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```
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Create a format file (`curl-format.txt`):
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```
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time_namelookup: %{time_namelookup}s
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time_connect: %{time_connect}s
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time_appconnect: %{time_appconnect}s
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time_redirect: %{time_redirect}s
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time_pretransfer: %{time_pretransfer}s
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time_starttransfer: %{time_starttransfer}s
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----------
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time_total: %{time_total}s
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```
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---
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## Real-world results
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A typical Arcline VPS running WordPress with:
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- Nginx + PHP 8.3 FPM
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- OPcache enabled
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- W3 Total Cache (page cache + database cache)
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- WebP images
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- Gzip compression
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Will serve pages in **150–300ms** to US visitors and handle **500+ concurrent users** on a $15/mo plan.
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You don't need Cloudflare to be fast. You need a well-configured server.
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---
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## What's next
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- [What SPF, DKIM, and DMARC actually do](/privacy/spf-dkim-dmarc/)
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- [Why you shouldn't put Cloudflare in front of everything](/privacy/why-not-cloudflare/)
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- [How to check if a host is self-hosted](/privacy/arcline-check-walkthrough/)
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