The Events Calendar/Events Calendar Pro causing site slowdown

[knoxmercury]

We’re seeing some fairly hefty slowdowns on our site that seem to be connected to The Events Calendar. We are currently running Events Calendar Pro and the Community Events and Filter Bar plugins. We don’t
have a huge number of events in the db – the site has only been live for three weeks now, and we’ve been seeing these slowdowns from the EC plugins since launch.

I’m getting my numbers from the P3 Plugin Profiler, which tells me that on a site with 15 plugins, my plugins are adding around 5 seconds to site load times. Out of those 15 plugins, The Events Calendar is adding 2.5-3 seconds by itself, and Events Calendar Pro is adding another 0.5-1 second. The other 13 plugins combined give me an added load time of around 1.5-2 seconds. (WP core and theme load times are holding steady at ~1.5 seconds.)

Additionally, I have run tests by disabling all non-Events Calendar plugins and moved the site back to Twenty Fourteen to see if that changes anything. No changes to plugin load times were observed after multiple tests on a default theme with no non-Events Calendar plugins activated.

We have events calendar elements on every page of the site, so it’s kind of central to the site’s design. I’m trying to get our load times pared down as much as possible without having to scrap the plugin and look elsewhere. Are there any obvious places that Events Calendar might be spitting out errors or warnings, and/or any optimization tricks that I might be missing?

See below for system information output from EC.
—-

url

The Knoxville Mercury

install keys

events-calendar-pro = [removed]
events-community = [removed]
tribe-filterbar = [removed]

WordPress version
4.1.1
PHP version
5.4.37
plugins

BackWPup version 3.1.4 by Inpsyde GmbH(http://inpsyde.com)
Display Posts Shortcode version 2.4 by Bill Erickson(http://www.billerickson.net)
The Events Calendar PRO version 3.9.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/20)
EWWW Image Optimizer version 2.2.2 by Shane Bishop(http://www.shanebishop.net/)
Media Credit version 2.4.1 by Scott Bressler(http://www.scottbressler.com/blog/)
P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) version 1.5.3.8 by GoDaddy.com(http://www.godaddy.com/)
Revolution Slider version 4.6.5 by ThemePunch(http://themepunch.com)
StarBox version 3.0.2 by Squirrly UK(http://www.squirrly.co)
The Events Calendar: Community Events version 3.9 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/21)
The Events Calendar: Filter Bar version 3.9 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/25)
The Events Calendar version 3.9.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/1x)
Varnish HTTP Purge version 3.7.1 by Mika Epstein(http://halfelf.org/)
X – Facebook Comments version 1.0.0 by Themeco(http://theme.co/)
X – Shortcodes version 3.0.5 by Themeco(http://theme.co/)

network plugins
–
mu plugins

p3-profiler.php

theme
X – Child Theme
multisite
–
settings

recurring_events_are_hidden = exposed
tribeEventsTemplate =
tribeEventsBeforeHTML =
tribeEventsAfterHTML =
previous_ecp_versions =

Array
(
[0] => 0
)

latest_ecp_version = 3.9.1
last-update-message = 3.9.1
earliest_date = 2015-03-11 10:00:00
latest_date = 2015-11-01 20:00:00
viewOption = list
defaultValueReplace =
disable_metabox_custom_fields = show
pro-schema-version = 3.5
events_filters_layout = vertical
events_filters_default_state = open
stylesheetOption = full
tribeEnableViews =

Array
(
[0] => list
[1] => month
[2] => week
[3] => day
[4] => map
[5] => photo
)

tribeDisableTribeBar =
hideLocationSearch =
hideRelatedEvents =
monthEventAmount = 3
dateWithYearFormat = F j, Y
dateWithoutYearFormat = F j
monthAndYearFormat = F Y
weekDayFormat = D jS
dateTimeSeparator = @
timeRangeSeparator = –
datepickerFormat = 0
donate-link =
postsPerPage = 5
liveFiltersUpdate =
hideSubsequentRecurrencesDefault =
userToggleSubsequentRecurrences =
recurrenceMaxMonthsBefore = 12
recurrenceMaxMonthsAfter = 12
showComments =
showEventsInMainLoop =
eventsSlug = events
singleEventSlug = event
multiDayCutoff = 00:00
defaultCurrencySymbol = $
reverseCurrencyPosition =
embedGoogleMaps = 1
geoloc_default_geofence = 25
geoloc_default_unit = miles
embedGoogleMapsZoom = 10
debugEvents =

WordPress timezone
America/New_York
server timezone
UTC

[knoxmercury]

Minor update: P3 actually reports TEC add-ons separately, but I didn’t even notice due to the fact that the filter bar and community add-ons were showing up as around .2 seconds combined in reports. Disabling these widgets changes nothing in our situation re: TEC and ECP’s contribution to site load times.

[Geoff]

Hi there, Matthew! Thanks for getting in touch and reaching out here.

I’m sorry to hear that the plugins are contributing to heavy load times on your site. We definitely pride ourselves on the work we’ve done to make the plugin as performant as possible, so seeing this feedback is disappointing for sure, but also helpful.

Can you approximate the number of events that are currently published in your calendar and how many of them are recurring events?

I’m also interested in knowing more about your hosting package. Would you be willing to share details about it–perhaps a link to details about it, whether it’s a shared or dedicated server, and how many other sites it is hosting?

Thanks again!
Geoff

[knoxmercury]

Do you have a non-public channel for that? I’d prefer not to share hosting details publicly.

[Geoff]

For sure. There’s an option to mark your reply as private before submitting.

[Geoff]

Hey there Matthew! This thread has been quiet for a couple of weeks, so I’m going to go ahead and close it. Please feel free to start a new thread if you still have questions here and we’d be happy to help. 🙂

Cheers!
Geoff

[Author]

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