Autoptimize vs Heartbeat Manager – Optimize CPU Performance, Fix admin-ajax & Speed Up WordPress

Autoptimize makes optimizing your site really easy. It can aggregate, minify and cache scripts and styles, injects CSS in the page head by default but can also inline critical CSS and defer the aggregated full CSS, moves and defers scripts to the footer and minifies HTML. You can optimize and lazy-load images (with support for WebP and AVIF formats), optimize Google Fonts, async non-aggregated JavaScript, remove WordPress core emoji cruft and more. As such it can improve your site’s performance even when already on HTTP/2! There is extensive API available to enable you to tailor Autoptimize to each and every site’s specific needs. If you think performance indeed is important, you should at least consider one of the many free page caching plugins (e.g. Speed Booster pack or KeyCDN’s Cache Enabler) to complement Autoptimize or even consider Autoptimize Pro which not only has page caching but also image optimization, CDN, critical CSS and more! Autoptimize Pro Autoptimize Pro is a premium Power-Up, adding image optimization, CDN, page caching, automatic critical CSS rules and extra “booster” options, all in one handy subscription to make your site even faster!! Premium Support We provide great Premium Support and Web Performance Optimization services with Accelera, check out our offering on https://accelerawp.com/! (Speed-surfing image under creative commons by LL Twistiti)

Is your WordPress admin dashboard lagging? Are you getting High CPU usage warnings from your hosting provider due to constant admin-ajax.php requests? By default, the native WordPress Heartbeat API constantly pulses in the background (every 15 to 60 seconds) to handle autosaves and notifications. On high-traffic sites, multi-author blogs, or busy WooCommerce stores, this silent stream of background requests can completely saturate your server resources, slowing down your site for both visitors and administrators. Heartbeat Manager is the ultimate lightweight performance solution designed to put an end to server resource waste. It gives you total control over background polling frequencies, allowing you to save hosting costs, boost backend speed, and eliminate server crashes. Unlike aggressive optimization methods that completely disable the heartbeat and break essential features, this plugin allows you to granularly optimize your site’s heartbeat frequency zone by zone. Key Benefits & Features: Stop Admin Dashboard Lag (Backend Control): Easily slow down the background poll interval when you are idling in general admin screens (Bacheca, Media Library, Plugins list) to save immense server memory. Isolate Post & Page Editors: Keep a faster interval (30s or 60s) exclusively while editing posts, pages, or WooCommerce products. This ensures your Autosaves and Post Locking features work safely without overloading your CPU. Boost Frontend Loading Times: Completely disable or dilate frontend heartbeat loops. Turning off the heartbeat on public pages eliminates unnecessary AJAX queries for your visitors, making mobile and desktop navigation significantly smoother. Page Builder Friendly: Fully compatible and optimized for sites built with Elementor, Divi, Gutenberg, and premium WooCommerce setups. Integrated Step-by-Step Vademecum: Includes a built-in testing guide directly in your admin sidebar so you can visually verify your CPU savings via the browser Developer Tools. Ultra-Lightweight & Clean Code: Built following the highest WordPress.org security standards with 100% unique prefixing to avoid any plugin conflicts. Fully translation-ready.