Running an online store on Magento 2.4 can be a great choice for many businesses. It offers strong features that help you manage large numbers of products, handle busy traffic, and keep everything organised in one place. But when Magento 2.4 is not set up or maintained properly, the website can start to slow down. This can lead to frustrated customers, lower search rankings, and fewer sales. Even a one-second delay in page loading can make shoppers leave before they finish buying.
The positive part is that improving performance is possible with a few clear steps. You don’t need to rebuild your store or spend a fortune to make it faster. In this guide, we’ll go through simple Magento 2.4 performance fixes that can make your store load quicker, run smoother, and give customers a better shopping experience.
Common Performance Problems in Magento 2.4
Before applying any fixes, it helps to understand what might be slowing down your Magento 2.4 store. Here are some of the most common causes:
- Pages take too long to load or slow server response
- Cache is not set up or not working properly
- Too many unoptimised images and heavy scripts
- Poor hosting or outdated PHP version
- Database is overloaded or not indexed efficiently
- Too many third-party extensions or plugins
- The website is running in developer or default mode
Once you know where the slowdown comes from, it becomes much easier to apply the right solutions.
Key Fixes to Improve Magento 2.4 Speed
Now let’s go through the most effective and reliable fixes that can make your Magento 2.4 store perform at its best. These are practical steps that real store owners can apply without deep technical knowledge.
1. Keep Magento 2.4 Updated
The easiest way to improve performance is to make sure your store is running the latest Magento 2.4 version. Each update includes important improvements in performance, security, and stability.
For example, Magento 2.4.3 improved product and catalog rule indexing, while Magento 2.4.4 made big gains in caching and frontend loading times. Adobe’s development team is always working to reduce database load and speed up API responses in newer releases.
Before updating, always back up your site and test the update in a staging environment. Once you confirm that everything works smoothly, push the update to your live store.
You can check the latest release notes on Adobe’s Experience League.
2. Choose the Right Hosting Setup
Hosting is the foundation of your store’s performance. No amount of code optimisation will help if your hosting is slow or underpowered.
When choosing a Magento 2.4 hosting plan, look for:
- SSD or NVMe storage for faster data access
- At least 4 to 8 GB of RAM
- PHP 8.1 or higher, with OPcache enabled
- Nginx or LiteSpeed web server
- Redis and Varnish configured correctly
- A database server with tuned query settings
Shared hosting is often not powerful enough for Magento 2.4. A dedicated or cloud VPS environment gives you more control and better performance.
If you want a managed hosting setup that’s built for Magento, 5MS offers Magento support and hosting services designed to handle performance at scale.
3. Enable and Optimise Caching (Varnish, Redis, Full-Page Cache)
Caching can dramatically speed up Magento 2.4. It stores pages and data so they do not need to be generated from scratch each time a visitor loads them.
Here’s what you should enable:
- Redis: Use it for sessions and cache storage.
- Varnish: Use it for full-page caching.
- Browser Cache: Enable long expiry times for static assets.
- Cache Warming: Preload key pages like homepage, category, and product pages.
When caching is set up correctly, your pages can load in milliseconds rather than seconds.
You can enable and configure caching in the Magento admin under System → Cache Management or by editing the env.php file for Redis setup.
4. Optimise JavaScript, CSS, and Static Content
Magento 2.4 can load a lot of CSS, JS, and image files by default. If these are not optimised, they can slow down your entire store.
Here are some simple steps to fix this:
- Minify all CSS and JS files
- Combine smaller files where possible
- Defer non-critical JavaScript so it loads after the page content
- Use async or defer attributes for scripts
- Use image formats like WebP instead of JPEG or PNG
- Enable lazy loading for images below the fold
- Remove unused CSS with a cleanup tool
After optimising, redeploy static content with:
bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
These steps make your frontend lighter and your store more responsive.
5. Improve Database and Indexing Performance
The database plays a big role in Magento 2.4 speed. A poorly configured database can slow down every part of your store.
To keep it running smoothly:
- Use Elasticsearch or OpenSearch (required in Magento 2.4)
- Clean old logs and reports regularly
- Run indexing on a schedule to keep data fresh
- Avoid flat tables in newer versions (they can slow things down)
- Enable query caching and monitor slow queries
- Make sure cron jobs are working properly
A well-optimised database keeps your backend responsive and your search results fast.
6. Review Extensions and Custom Code
Extensions add features, but too many can harm performance. Poorly written extensions often create unnecessary database queries or load extra JavaScript on every page.
To fix this:
- Disable any extensions you don’t use.
- Test your site’s performance before and after adding a new extension.
- Check for duplicate functionalities.
- Ask your developer to review custom code for efficiency.
- Use tools like Blackfire, Tideways, or New Relic to find slow modules.
Every extension you remove or optimise can make your site a little faster.
7. Use a CDN to Deliver Content Faster
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps load your media files from servers that are closer to your users. This reduces the distance between the visitor and your site’s server, which cuts down on load time.
You can set up a CDN in Magento by going to: Stores → Configuration → Web → Base URLs (Secure and Unsecure) and entering your CDN URLs for static and media files.
CDNs like Cloudflare, Fastly, and AWS CloudFront also offer image optimisation and HTTP/3 support, which makes them even faster.
8. Run Magento 2.4 in Production Mode
Magento 2.4 has three modes: Default, Developer, and Production. Production mode is designed for live websites and is the fastest because it disables unnecessary debugging and generates all static content in advance.
To switch to production mode, use these commands:
bin/magento deploy:mode:set production
bin/magento setup:di:compile
bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
Running your site in production mode ensures that no unnecessary code is loaded during page rendering.
Example: The Results After Optimising Magento 2.4
Here’s a real-world example of what can happen when a Magento 2.4 store is properly optimised.
After upgrading Magento, turning on Varnish, removing unnecessary extensions, and moving to a stronger hosting setup, the store became more responsive and saw a 12% boost in conversions.
Keeping Your Magento 2.4 Store Fast Over Time
Optimising your site once is not enough. Magento stores grow, and new changes can introduce new problems. To keep your site fast, follow these regular habits:
- Test your site using tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights
- Monitor slow queries in your database
- Clean cache and logs regularly
- Reindex your data every few days or after large updates
- Check extensions for updates and remove outdated ones
- Keep your server software up to date
- Use a staging environment for testing before applying changes to live site
Consistent maintenance keeps your Magento 2.4 store running smoothly all year round.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Does Magento 2.4 require Elasticsearch?
Yes, Magento 2.4 needs Elasticsearch or OpenSearch for its search and indexing features. It helps your store process product data faster and deliver accurate results to customers. Without it, search performance and site speed can drop noticeably.
Q2: How often should I optimise my store?
It’s a good idea to check your store’s performance every three to six months. This helps you catch any issues early and keep everything running smoothly. You should also review performance after installing new extensions or changing your hosting setup.
Q3: What is the best hosting setup for Magento 2.4?
A VPS or cloud server using Nginx, PHP 8, Redis, and Varnish usually works best for Magento 2.4. This type of setup provides the speed and stability that large stores need. Shared hosting, on the other hand, often struggles to handle Magento’s resource demands.
Q4: Can I do these fixes myself?
Some performance improvements are simple enough for store owners to manage on their own. However, technical steps like caching, server tuning, or database clean-up can be tricky. It’s often safer to let a Magento support team such as 5MS handle the advanced work for you.
Final Thoughts
A fast Magento 2.4 store gives customers a better experience and helps your business grow. You can make your site quicker and more reliable with a few simple steps. Update Magento to the latest version, set up caching, remove unused extensions, and check your server and database settings. These small changes can make a big difference to how your store performs. With the right Magento 2.4 performance fixes, your store can stay fast, stable, and ready to handle more customers every day.