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A good cache system
Debian
Preferably many cores and fast ones. A whole bunch of memory and fast disk nvme.
Tweak database so it actually uses resources and the amount of PHP workers. Location doesn't matter much if HTTP2 is enabled. If it's still slow look into plugins slowing it down
Fast CPU, more RAM, good network, CDN and cache.
but if the server has more than 200ms, then it creates slow response on database operation like adding cart or checkout.
ideally this is progressive web, spinner icon at cart. order process always slow, imo better cheap fast hardware over 0.3 sec
Wordpress / Wocommerce will slow down your website like hell. If you have a lot traffic and products i suggest skip shared hostings/normal vps's. Go for a dedicated instead.
And as mentioned before, use caching plugin.
Hardware and bandwidth.
As many people already mentioned good hardware, a fast connection port, proper caching and a CDN are crucial, Debian 12 or Rocky 9 as the operating system might be give you a boost also -and this actually sometimes is the killer- the web server you use, LiteSpeed > OpenLiteSpeed > Nginx > Apache, if you're using Apache nowadays you're losing at least about 8x performance gains from faster web servers.
In addition to the advice you've received, it's worth noting that hardware selection can vary based on your WooCommerce setup, caching, and optimizations. A practical approach is starting with a small or medium VPS from a provider that allows for easy upgrades without data transfer. This method lets you adjust your resources as needed without initially committing to excess. As you understand your site's demands better, you can scale up your VPS or move to a dedicated server if necessary.
I had WooCommerce site with around 1k per day hosted on RackNerd shared hosting plan. It became slow so I negotiated upgrade from 1vCPU and 1GB RAM to 2vCPU and 2GB ram. Much better, but still sometimes slow.
Migrated to Netcup root server with 4vCPU and 8GB RAM with Nginx + Redis + Cloudflare Wordpress APO. Now site is blazing fast.
So I would say search for 4vCPU/4GB RAM or higher, cache objects in Redis and it will fly.
This site Im talking about is not that optimized and runs Divi - its way cheaper to throw more hardware than to try to optimize it more.
Location is important, choose your country or country/city from your continent that has a lot of datacenters and fibers connevtions (you can find maps online). In case with Europe I always recommend choosing Netherlands or Germany, but now Austria has great routing too.
What you'll find different between WooCommerce and plain standalone Wordpress is logged in member requests which bypass any form of caching implemented.
Wordpress itself without caching is much slower and if you have a non-member/non-logged in Wordpress site that is basically static, then caching can accelerate the Wordpress install and improve performance dramatically.
When I was evaluating ecommerce or learning management systems (LMS), ones based off of Wordpress always required way higher hardware requirements than non-Wordpress based options due to that member/logged in nature that bypasses caching. Reading on the various LMS forums, Wordpress based ones start running into scalability issues around 200-500 concurrent logged in/non-cacheable users while non-Wordpress based ones like Moodle, the issues started around 3,000-5,000 concurrent users. So just choosing the right platform out of the gate, gets you a way better starting point for performance and scalability.
So if you choose WooCommerce or a LMS that is based off of Wordpress, expect higher resource requirements which scale with your actual user concurrent connection/request activity. The more concurrent requests, the higher the server resource requirements.
As such, the priority would be first to know how to monitor, measure and test your entire web stack of software and settings for your specific usage requirements and understand your current usage requirements and how to tune your web stack settings based on those monitored metrics and also know when to upgrade the server based on that analysis.
Granted modern server hardware and software defaults have improved so much, it can mask some of the need for this knowledge at lower user concurrency loads. But if you expect to grow your user based and traffic, you'll eventually need to learn this or hire someone ^_^
p.s. learn how to utilise Cloudflare features and products as they'd pay off over time
Hello there, I am actually using LiteSpeed on an shared hosting and I kinda want to change to Nginx. How was the migration to Nginx?
I've heard from knowledgeable providers that location is a bit overrated and that other factors, such as using a competent and reliable provider that doesn't oversell their hardware and bandwidth, is much more important.
Nginx+Redis Object Cache is way LESS problematic than Litespeed + LSCache. All issues with cache (like prices not updating) gone, big layout shifts gone.
I'm not going back to LiteSpeed anytime soon.
Zero issues caused by migration, I just copied Wordpress using UpdraftPlus and migration took like 10 minutes.
If you need some crazy .htaccess rule that you don't know how to do in Nginx then just paste it into ChatGPT/Google Gemini and tell it to convert. Works fine.
Narrow down location, then choose reliable provider.
Best server won't fix issues caused by long distance from visitors (long routes, higher chance of congestion, higher TTFB).
Just like when you are going to vacation, first you need to know where and then you can decide on hotel (provider). Shit place will have shit providers, that's why I'm recommend to look at region/continent instead.
What hosting control panel are you using?
CloudPanel.
I will test CloudPanel vs AAPanel vs Cyberpanel vs Hestia soon on LowEndBoxTV YouTube channel so if you want best free solution take a look a it when it will be published
very good suggestion. thanks.
very well detailed, and informative suggestion. thanks a lot.
looking forward