Is there a need in Magento 2.4 for Cache warmer extension or Google Page Speed Optimizer?

Question

Magento ver. 2.4.2
4 x 2.50 GHz Cores
8 GB RAM
5 TB Bandwidth
5000 Mbps Network Out

We used to run Magento 1.9.4 but are switching to Magento 2.4.2. Every time I installed Magento 2.x it always seemed very slow on the back-end (we haven't set up the front end yet to see) even though I have done all the recommended optimisations.

Now I found 2 extensions created by Amasty:

• Full Page Cache Warmer
• Google Page Speed Optimizer

They are not the cheapest ones so I was wondering if this would help with Magento 2 or is Magento 2.x designed in such a way where this is no longer needed? Historically (on our Magento 1.9.4) we had a hard time with Caching extensions so we ended up disabling it (I guess we weren't able to configure them properly).

Answer 1

In your question you state that the Magento backend is slow. The modules you mentioned are for frontend optimisation and will have absolutely no effect on the backend performance. On a properly spec'd and configured host server Magento administration (backend) should be fast.

Is your host in a virtual/shared environment or dedicated? I would suggest that your host is a little under spec'd for a production Magento2 site.

I recommend using Varnish for Magento 2 full page frontend caching. After you have got your site built, tested and ready for production you can then look more closely at optimising your frontend Lighthouse rating (PageSpeed) and whether your full page cache requires to be "warmed".

Answer 2

I won't tell you for backend optimization (Redis is much recommanded - but still my own backend is quite slow compared to my old Magento 1.9), but I know the Amasty modules very well.

I won't recommand their Google Page Speed Optimizer, I had many troubles with it.

Instead, I strongly recommand this one: https://fishpig.co.uk/magento/extensions/page-speed/

It is working out of the box and it is the best module I have tested so far (support is very good too).

Regarding Full Page Cache Warmer, I'm currently using it. Except that the cache warmer functionnality to warm logged customers is faulty, I'm having the support to debug again and again.

Hope it will help.