WordPress performance audits

Find the exact bottleneck slowing your WordPress site.

Lighthouse tells you your site is slow. BoltAudit tells you which plugin, query, or cache layer is responsible — then ranks the fixes by expected win.

Run free audit → See sample report
Read-only — never touches your site Runs in 90 seconds
boltaudit.app / report / acmestudio.com
Top bottleneck
Database — autoloaded options
Critical
Load saved
1.4s
Autoload
4.2 MB
Priority
#1
wc_admin_notes_data
2.4 MB
cron
1.6 MB
active_plugins
0.9 MB
Recommended fix
Disable autoload on wc_admin_notes_data. Expected win: 1.4s off TTFB on cold cache.
12,400+ Sites audited
1.8M+ Bottlenecks surfaced
90s Average audit time
4× Layers audited

You already know the site is slow.
The real problem is not knowing why.

Most WordPress performance workflows are a patchwork of tools that tell you what's wrong at the edges — but never pinpoint the root cause inside the stack.

Debugging without BoltAudit The old way

Four tools, three browser tabs, and a guess.

  • Lighthouse score drops, but it can't tell you which plugin is loading 40 scripts.
  • Query Monitor shows 800 queries — you still don't know which are autoload.
  • Client asks "so what should I fix first?" and you're not sure.
  • You disable plugins one-by-one, reload, and hope for the best.
  • Two hours later you're still guessing. The client is still waiting.

With BoltAudit The new way

One audit. The root cause, ranked by impact.

  • See the single query, plugin, or asset costing you the most — with exact numbers.
  • Evidence-backed: every finding links to the underlying query, option, or file.
  • Fixes ranked by expected speed-up, so you know what to ship first.
  • Copy the fix, or hand the report to a teammate. No guessing.
  • Done in 90 seconds. Client sees a measurable win by the end of the day.
The 4-layer model

Performance lives in four layers.
We audit all of them.

Most tools only see one or two. BoltAudit correlates findings across the entire stack so the real bottleneck can't hide.

1
Frontend delivery
Asset count, enqueue order, render-blocking CSS/JS, unused scripts, critical-path weight, and image payload per page template.
Enqueue order CSS blocking Asset weight
2
Backend execution
Slowest hooks, plugin-by-plugin time budget, cron schedules, PHP warnings, and REST/AJAX endpoints that quietly burn server time.
Hook time Cron jobs REST usage
3
Database efficiency
Autoloaded options, table size & growth, meta bloat, missing indexes, transient churn, and the slow queries actually running in production.
Autoload weight Slow queries Meta bloat
4
Infrastructure & caching
PHP version, OPcache, object cache hit rate, page cache coverage, memory headroom, and server config that's quietly capping throughput.
Object cache OPcache PHP config

Built for the way devs actually debug.

No vanity charts. No generic advice. Every feature exists to shorten the path from "something is slow" to "this exact thing is fixed."

Prioritized fixes

Every finding is ranked by expected speed-up — not alphabetical order, not severity theater. Ship the #1 fix, come back for #2.

Evidence-backed

Every claim links to the specific query, option, plugin, or file responsible. Copy the snippet or screenshot it into a ticket.

Read-only & safe

BoltAudit observes — it never mutates the database, never toggles plugins. Safe to run on production, every day of the week.

Under 90 seconds

A full 4-layer audit finishes faster than a cold Lighthouse run. Run one before standup, and again after you ship.

Copy-ready fixes

Each recommendation ships with the WP-CLI command, SQL statement, or filter snippet needed to apply it. Zero translation tax.

Client-ready reports

Export to PDF with your logo on the cover. Technical findings up top, plain-English summary at the bottom for the client.

Inside a real report

This is the screen you'll see after your first audit.

Ranked findings on the left, evidence on the right, copy-ready fixes below. No hunting.

app.boltaudit.com / report / acmestudio.com
Database efficiency

3 findings · Potential speed-up: 2.1s

Autoloaded options dominate the database layer on acmestudio.com. One WooCommerce option alone accounts for 57% of autoload weight.

62 OUT OF 100
Database layer score
Needs attention
3 fixes here will move this score to 91 and remove roughly 1.9s from TTFB on cold cache.

Findings, ranked by expected win

Disable autoload on wc_admin_notes_data
A 2.4 MB autoloaded row from WooCommerce admin notices. It's read on every page load but only used on the dashboard.
+1.4s Effort: 1 min WP-CLI snippet included
Critical
Flush expired transients (1,204 rows)
The _transient_timeout_* table is 38 MB. WordPress garbage-collects on read — a manual flush is faster.
+0.4s Effort: 30 sec SQL included
High
Add index on wp_postmeta.meta_key
12 plugins query this column without an index. Average query time: 94 ms.
+0.3s Effort: 2 min SQL included
Medium

From install to prioritized fixes in 4 steps.

No agents, no accounts for your client, no rebuilding your stack. Install, audit, fix.

01 · Install

Drop in the plugin

Install from wordpress.org or upload the zip. No server access needed. No new services to run.

$ wp plugin install boltaudit --activate
✓ Plugin installed successfully.
02 · Audit

One click, 90 seconds

BoltAudit crawls your stack in read-only mode. Nothing is mutated. Production-safe by design.

Scanning database…
03 · Review

Ranked findings

Every bottleneck scored by expected speed-up. No more guessing which fix matters most.

#1 Autoload+1.4s
#2 Transients+0.4s
#3 Index+0.3s
04 · Fix

Apply & re-audit

Copy the WP-CLI or SQL snippet. Re-run the audit. Watch the score climb.

Score 91 ▲ 19
TTFB 0.9s · was 2.8s

Simple, transparent pricing.

Free for your own site. Fair pricing for freelancers. Predictable for agencies running audits across dozens of clients.

Starter
For solo devs auditing their own sites
$177once
  • 3 connected websites
  • Unlimited audits
  • All 4 audit layers
  • Full performance reports
  • Audit history & dashboard
Most popular
Pro
For freelancers and WordPress consultants
$347once
  • 10 connected websites
  • Unlimited audits
  • Scheduled weekly audits
  • PDF export with your logo
  • Historical score tracking
  • Priority email support
Agency
For teams managing many client sites
$797once
  • Unlimited sites
  • Team seats & shared reports
  • White-label PDF exports
  • Slack & webhook alerts
  • API access & CI integration
  • Priority support within 4h

What's in every BoltAudit report.

Eight categories of signal, all correlated across the four layers. Every row comes with evidence and a copy-ready fix.

Category
What you get
Starter
Pro
Autoloaded options
Weight-ranked list of rows auto-loaded on every request, with fix snippets.
Plugin time budget
How much wall-clock time each active plugin spends per page load.
Top slow queries
Actual SQL running in production, with index suggestions where relevant.
Cron schedule audit
Jobs running too often, jobs overdue, and jobs that never fire.
Enqueue & asset weight
Scripts and styles per template, with unused-asset detection.
Historical tracking
Score and TTFB history by audit run, with regression alerts.
—
White-label PDF
Branded report with your logo, ready to hand to the client.
—
Ready when you are

Stop guessing.
Start shipping fixes that actually move the needle.

Install BoltAudit on one site. Run an audit. If the #1 fix doesn't shave at least 500 ms off your TTFB, we'll personally help you tune it.

Run my free audit → Get the plugin →