Cloudflare unveiled a new service, Automatic Platform Optimization, supports WordPress, the most popular website hosting solution serving 38% of all websites. Cloudflare also stated that their tests showed a 72% reduction in Time to First Byte (TTFB), a 23% reduction to First Contentful Paint, and a 13% reduction in Speed Index for desktop users, by serving nearly all of your website’s content from Cloudflare’s network.
How to get started
Users who want to get started with APO can install it from the WordPress admin console.
- Install the Cloudflare WordPress plugin on the WordPress website, or update it to the latest version
- Authenticate the plugin to talk to Cloudflare
- Go to the Home screen of the Cloudflare section and turn on Automatic Platform Optimization
Cloudflare also stated that they have tested APO on more than 500 Cloudflare customer websites that run on WordPress. According to the announcement, APO serves the html from Cloudflare’s edge with 0 origin processing time, getting the first byte to the eyeball is consistently fast. Thus, APO, makes a WordPress website’s TTFB is made both fast and consistent.
In addition to faster TTFB and additional caching of third-party fonts, APO also improves the performance of the First Contentful Paint and Speed Index of websites. By caching additional third-party fonts, Cloudflare API can reduce the time it takes to fetch that content.
The service is now available for all WordPress users. It costs $5/month for customers on Cloudflare’s Free plan. It is included at no additional fees in Cloudflare’s Professional, Business, and Enterprise plans.