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Stop Jetpack from Slowing Down Your WordPress Site

When you install Automattic’s Jetpack plugin, it comes with a ton of features enabled by default. While it has a lot of great features, you probably don’t need all of them.

I recently installed it for a client in order to use WooCommerce Services and USPS shipping calculation. I got the shipping information just like I wanted, but the site was significantly slower. What gives?

I noticed my site was often “Waiting for pixel.wp.com”. Some quick research led me to Jetpack’s Stats module as the source of this slowdown. But I couldn’t figure out how to disable it in the new Jetpack interface!

Don’t worry, I found it, and I’m here to show you how to disable modules you aren’t using and speed your site back up.

Hint: It Isn’t in the Settings

Activating and deactivating modules isn’t located in Jetpack’s settings. It’s hidden pretty well in some debug menus. Go to your Jetpack dashboard and scroll all the way to the bottom.

The link to Jetpack's debug screen

Click that link there and it’ll take you to a screen with diagnostic information about your Jetpack installation, like your connection status to WordPress.com. Scroll to the bottom again to find another link.

Link to Jetpack's modules page

Navigate through here to find a full list of Jetpack’s enabled modules.

Deactivate All Modules You Aren’t Using

Here’s an example of what this page looks like. If you’ve never been here, you probably have a ton more modules enabled. I’ve already disabled most of mine, but turned a few back on to show what it looks like. Use the “Active” toggle on the right side to filter down to those currently enabled.

A list of active modules on a Jetpack-enabled site

If you’re here specifically about the “Waiting for pixel.wp.com” slowdown, be sure to disable “Site Stats”. To be safe, however, you should disable anything you aren’t explicitly using. I left JSON API, Extra Sidebar Widgets, Spelling and Grammar, and Widget Visibility enabled. That’s it.

Enjoy Your Faster Jetpack Site

You should immediately notice things return closer to normal after hitting save. Congrats!

 


Comments

27 responses to “Stop Jetpack from Slowing Down Your WordPress Site”

  1. This was so helpful. As soon as I installed Jetpack, my website was so slow. This article helped me to fix the problem. Thanks for posting.

  2. I left Jetpack as it is after installed, then test the performance before and after, I wrote the result here: https://kevinhq.com/plugin-review/jetpack-slows-down-my-site/

    My conclusion is, it did not slow down my site ( according to Gtmetrix, it slowed down a bit but I did not notice it).

    So, in my case, performance is fine.
    Will try your tips on deactivating some modules, and will see how it goes with the tests…

    1. Ethan Clevenger Avatar
      Ethan Clevenger

      Yeah, I’m not surprised this varies per installation, and certain modules will certainly be advantageous compared to others. Not sure which module was triggering the tracking pixel my install was waiting on, but it’s hard to argue against lazy loading images and serving them up via CDN!

    2. You actually won’t know, you’d have to run the rests multiple times to be sure that your sites cache is cleared and the cache at gtmetrix’s end is clear too

  3. Regarding Photon CDN module, unless you had a bunch of large images, it won’t make any significant performance difference.

    I also updated my Jetpack experiment here: https://kevinhq.com/plugin-review/jetpack-slows-down-my-site/

    For now, I only enabled two modules: Stats and the one that publishes the post to wordpress.com firehose.

    I am still evaluating this, and will see how it goes…

  4. I followed your mentioned tips and it really helps me to improve my website speed. jetpack is slowing down websites only when you have extra modules enable. Just disable unwanted modules and enjoy features of jetpack.

  5. Sorry but for several reasons, I am not using WordPress anymore on my site. It’s just an overkill for the site.

    Here are the story: https://kevinhq.com/when-wordpress-is-not-for-your-project.html

    So, please disregard my earlier comment about Jetpack, etc… because I don’t use WordPress anymore so the final conclusion is still Jetpack is slowing down your site :)

  6. Even without the stats module active, Jetpack contacts the pixel.wp.com box… So, I guess the only way to not wait for that … is to not use Jetpack.

    1. Ethan Clevenger Avatar
      Ethan Clevenger

      I haven’t noticed this, but also haven’t tested it. But yeah, I’ve usually erred on the side of “How can I not use Jetpack?”

  7. good solution. thnks

  8. Jetpack slowed my website also. Even i disabled almost all modules, mostly Related posts are CPU hungry. After all i disabled plugin. For site stats i use Google Analytics anyways.

    1. Efe Michael Avatar
      Efe Michael

      But if you disable jetpack so many features won’t work on WordPress APP for mobile

      1. Ethan Clevenger Avatar
        Ethan Clevenger

        Hey Efe, the Jetpack plugin shouldn’t be required for using the WordPress mobile app at all. Are you using WordPress.com or a self-hosted WordPress.org install?

        1. A self-hosted WordPress. If i disable jetpack Plugin the statistics on WordPress app will stop working.

          1. Ethan Clevenger Avatar
            Ethan Clevenger

            Ah, yes, looks like that particular feature is locked behind Jetpack. I don’t know what kind of stats that includes, but I generally rely on Google Analytics for most things I consider “website statistics”.

  9. F. Martins Avatar
    F. Martins

    Thanks for sharing this! Huge help :)

  10. Awesome stuff. Thank you. I think this solved my issue. I appreciate you taking the time to write this and for making it so easy to fix!

  11. Thank you very much, this is what I was looking for, why is there a smile icon on footer

  12. Mummygeek Avatar
    Mummygeek

    Very valuable info – Thank you. My browser was constantly Waiting for pixel.wp.com whenever I attempted to edit a page in the backend of my wordpress site – got 500 int svr error everytime. Theme Authors and hosts didn’t come up with a solution to this so I’m v glad for your article. Thank you.

  13. Great solution. finally i found this article. God Bless u

  14. thank you so much, really grateful find this article

  15. its really helpful sir i am facing this same problem. jetpack causing my website slow many times.

  16. wow, who thought a plugin made for speeding your website ACTUALLY slows down Your page!!!

    with Jetpack my checkout page takes between 13 to 19 seconds!!
    Jetpack Removed, Checkout takes 3 SECONDS.

  17. Thank you for this article! My website suffered enough.

  18. OMG! Almost 4 years later, this tip is still good! Thank you!

  19. Thanks for posting. We switched to Pressable and have been using the JetPack Premium you get as part of hosting there. However, a recently migrated site I kept seeing the WP Admin taking a while to load or waiting for something. Then saw that pesky “Waiting for pixel.wp.com” in the lower corner of my browser.

    Thanks for posting how to deactivate specific module in that Debug link. ONce I disable the stats module, WP admin running fast again. Left everything else we’re using.

  20. I want to optimize stats.wp.com without shutting it completely

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