Since we released our PHP Vitals plugin last year, thousands of WordPress sites have run PHP performance benchmarks and helped contribute to an ever-growing global leaderboard.
Now we've rolled out PHP Vitals v1.6, which you can install from the WordPress Plugin Directory. The big news with this latest release is that we’re not just benchmarking your PHP performance, we’re now helping you improve it.
From benchmarking to tailored PHP optimization tips
Rather than expecting everyone to identify ways to hand-tune based on 29 different tests, this update now packages each benchmark you run into a copy-pastable prompt to feed into an LLM (Claude, ChatGPT etc.) for summarized tuning suggestions.
The prompt then instructs the LLM to give you a quick, easy-to-read summary and to suggest code snippets that you can paste into your site’s php.ini, the main PHP configuration file.
It's a quick way to turn raw numbers into suggestions for improvement. If you're wondering about OPcache settings, memory limits, or why one test category lagged behind the others, these adjustments all add up to faster PHP.
We’re careful about data privacy, so you can be assured that:
No data is sent to any AI service unless you choose.
If you do use the pre-prepared AI prompt, nothing identifiable is included. No IP addresses, no hostnames, etc.
It’s your choice whether you use this feature and you stay in control of what you share and where.
These privacy principles are the same as when you submit results to the leaderboard. It’s your choice, and while your hosting provider is identified, you stay anonymous.
A history of benchmarks, stored on your site
Many of you want to run benchmarks regularly and keep a record on your own site, without necessarily sharing every result. Others want clearer context for what grades actually mean. We’ve made upgrades based on both of those suggestions.
A single PHP Vitals test is useful, but a series of tests over weeks and months is much more valuable. In earlier versions of the plugin, benchmark history was tied to leaderboard sharing. In v1.6, every completed run is saved locally in your WordPress database (whether or not you share results with the leaderboard). The admin screen shows your most recent runs, with dates, total time, and grades, helping you track trends at a glance.
Explaining your grade
Letter grades from A+ to F are obviously easy to read at a glance, but it's more helpful knowing where you sit on the scale compared to others. So we’ve built v1.6 to add a visual grade rail that marks your exact position from A+ to F, with a short description (Exceptional, Excellent, Good, etc.). You'll also get a plain-language comparison of your host server’s performance to the rest of the leaderboard. For example, "Your server is faster than 72% of servers" or "Your server is slower than 61% of servers.". That info now appears directly in the results screen, so you don't have to infer it just from the letter grade.
PHP Vitals v1.6 is available now
Upgrade the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory or install PHP Vitals for the first time today. Run a benchmark, check your history, and see how your hosting compares.
Once you've given the new update a go, we'd love to hear what you think. Email support@phpvitals.com with feedback, or leave a review on the Plugin Directory.