What is Magento Performance Monitoring?

When it comes to creating an online business, Magento is one of the greatest options. Magento is used by 31.4% of the top 100,000 eCommerce stores, according to data. 15 percent are utilizing Magento's community edition, and 5% are using Magento's enterprise edition, which is also known as Adobe Commerce.

Magento offers a wealth of features, out-of-the-box functionality, and customization options to help businesses attract and convert more leads. That is why entrepreneurs put their faith in Magento to launch their dream businesses.

However, taking advantage of Magento's incredible features is not simple. Greatness is accompanied by increased duties. Unlike other eCommerce platforms, Magento does not impose limitations on you in terms of SKU numbers or personalization. It's a versatile yet demanding (for a new developer) tool that necessitates reliable hardware and constant performance monitoring.

We will cover the following:

1. What is Magento?
2. What is Magento Performance Monitoring?
3. Why Magento Performance Monitoring is Important?
4. Types of Magento Performance Monitoring
5. Benefits of Magento Performance Monitoring
6. Challenges in Magento Monitoring
7. Practices to Improve Magento Performance
8. Tools for Magento Performance Monitoring

#1 What is Magento?

Magento is a PHP-based open-source e-commerce platform. Laminas and Symfony are two other PHP frameworks that are used. Its source code is distributed under the Open Software License (OSL) v3.0. In 2018, Adobe bought Magento for $1.68 billion.

Varien Inc., a private company based in Culver City, California, originally developed the software with the help of volunteers. On this platform, over 100,000 online stores have been launched and sold $155 billion worth of goods in 2019. Over 2.5 million people have downloaded the platform code.

Magento is built on relational database management systems such as MySQL and MariaDB, as well as the PHP programming language and Zend Framework components. It follows object-oriented programming and Model–View–Controller (MVC) architecture standards.

Magento employs the Entity–Attribute–Value (EAV) model to store data, and its catalogue search capabilities require Elasticsearch as of version 2.4. Furthermore, Magento 2 used the JavaScript package Knockout.js to add the Model-View-View Model paradigm to its front-end code.

#2 What is Magento Performance Monitoring?

Magento is a web application framework and CMS (Content Management System) that focuses on e-commerce software and online shopping carts. Magento uses an MVC architecture and an EAV database model to store information. It was built using components of the Zend Framework.

It's a procedure for ensuring that your Magento application runs as planned. Magento Performance Monitoring entails identifying, measuring, and assessing Magento's performance. It entails anticipating difficulties and planning ways to address them.

Monitoring the CPU of the servers, tracking and monitoring application error rates, using Google Analytics to alert about sluggish page speeds, monitoring web server requests, monitoring network traffic to discover slowdowns, and tracking SQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, and other databases are all part of basic Magento Performance Monitoring.

#3 Why Magento Performance Monitoring is Important?

Speed is becoming increasingly important in the commercial world. Companies that have a speedier website sell more.

Users who face even a two-second slowdown from the speed they've come to anticipate are dissatisfied with the performance and simply do less on the site, according to the survey "Need for Speed, 1&1 Internet. 2011" of 1500 internet subscribers. If your store is slow, you are losing sales.

• Downtime Equates to a Loss of Revenue
  You're losing customers if your website is down. Only your most loyal customers will return to buy from you. The rest will go to your competition. We can discover the problem and fix it right away with continual Magento monitoring. You will be protected from revenue loss by monitoring all the time.
• Malware Attacks Damage Reputation
  Hackers frequently target e-commerce sites. They will use malicious code to attack your website and gain access to your customers' personal information. If clients make purchases on your website and you save their credit card information, it is your responsibility to keep that information secure. If something goes wrong, they can even sue you.
• Remote Monitoring Reduces Costs
  An in-house monitoring team may cost more than professional Magento services if you want to monitor a Magento website.
• Effectiveness in Terms of Time
  The most valuable resource is time. Outsourcing important chores like Magento security and monitoring relieves stress and allows you to focus on your core business.

#4 Types of Magento Performance Monitoring

Internal and external monitoring are the two main types of website performance monitoring.

1. Internal Monitoring

Internal monitoring is required to detect when your server's memory is running low and to keep track of network traffic.

It is mostly a safety net. It assists you in keeping track of all of your web resource settings. This includes monitoring server memory, CPU use, network traffic, and disc storage, among other things.

2. External Monitoring

External monitoring examines the performance of a website outside of the company's firewall. This includes interactions with customers. External website monitoring evaluates and monitors the website's performance in order to improve the end-user experience.

1) Application Performance Monitoring

• The most important aspect of Magento monitoring is this. Experts check for availability on a regular basis. Additionally, the response speed of a website is tested from a different location.
• If the page isn't online, your business is down, and you're missing out on some valuable revenue. Instead of coming to you, your potential customers will go to your competitors.

2) Synthetic Transaction Monitoring

• This type of Magento monitoring is useful for checking the operation of web pages. When someone comes to your store, they will almost probably do things like go to your website, register or login, browse the site, pick some products, add them to the basket, and pay for them using your payment methods.
• If any one of these steps fails, you will lose money and clients.
• Synthetic Transaction Monitoring is carried out here. Regularly testing and completing the same actions as your visitors can aid in the detection of errors and ensure that your website is available all the time.
• Manually performing this task could be tedious. As a result, we've automated this process for our customers. You can use our Magento Performance Monitoring to simulate the steps as if you were a real user, and it will send us an alert if anything goes wrong.
• Server-side issues are handled quickly before they have a negative impact on income, while all information about code-level issues is given to the client's developer.

3) Real User Monitoring

• It gathers information from real users and provides insight into the website's performance. This form of Magento monitoring analyses real user interaction with your website and determines whether users are able to access different pages on your website fast and without mistakes.
• It aids in the detection and resolution of performance issues.
• From the moment a visitor enters your website URL until the web page is completely generated, it collects data such as website page views, where the visitor spends their time, and load time.

4) API Monitoring

• Remote machines are used by monitoring services to submit test requests to an API.
• The speed, content, and response codes of the call will be evaluated by this remote computer.
• Any deviation from the specified minimum limit is logged as an error, and the monitor will repeat the test from a new point.
• If the problem occurs again, the monitor will notify the provider or client that their API is down.

#5 Benefits of Magento Performance Monitoring

These are the benefits include in Magento Performance Monitoring:

• Better Performance
  While Magento Performance Monitoring tools, by definition, monitor the performance of a specific Magento, the direct benefits of that monitoring are an insight into both production-level and application performance indicators in other contexts. It also gives you a way to diagnose performance issues without jeopardizing production stability.
• Increase Customer Satisfaction
  Happier customers attract others, and they are more likely to become brand-loyal, long-term users. The primary goal is to have fewer issues and crashes so that we can deliver a platform that is enjoyable for our users.
• Improve End-User Experience
  The foundation of UX is fast and responsive software, and Magento Performance Monitoring software can assist you in identifying any associated issues.
• Reduce Downtime
  If 1% of a million customers can't connect, that's 10,000 angry customers, which can be avoided if Magento's performance is monitored and downtime is minimized.
• Increase Your Objectivity
  Data can be used to help you decide what needs to be corrected first. Instead of a hunch, statistics should be used to prioritize the backlog. Using a Magento Performance Monitoring tool will help you prioritize tasks based on what matters most to your users, allowing you to improve user experience and customer satisfaction.
• Boost Your Google PageRank
  In short, getting recognized is difficult, and visibility is one of the most important aspects of growth. With this in mind, by boosting your Magento performance, you will naturally raise your Google rating, resulting in more market visibility.
• Reduce Expertise Expenses
  As a result of the Magento Performance Monitoring tool providing you with insights to identify the problem and outline the solution, your senior team can focus on executing a solution rather than spending days on inquiry.
• Reduce Operating Costs
  The less money it costs to design and manage your Magento website, the more efficient your team works.
• Increase Sales and Revenue
  We can gain increased user growth as a result of enhanced customer satisfaction and visibility, which can result in higher revenue. Better team performance, on the other hand, may result in lower operating expenses. Overall, the Magento Performance Monitoring tool helps you improve your market competitiveness and profitability.

#6 Challenges in Magento Monitoring

These are the challenges in Magento monitoring:

• Abruptly Traffic Increase
  When the website starts to generate more revenues and visitors, the problem worsens. If the server is not set correctly, traffic growth might easily lead to a server crash. As a result, sales are halted until the server is restored. The bounce rate skyrocketed due to the slow server during peak traffic periods.
• Inappropriate Hosting
  When the owner wishes to keep the costs of a Magento start-up to a minimum. He'll most likely choose a server with low productivity and default settings. Unfortunately, these options will not work with Magento. Hosting platforms aren't always scalable enough to meet the demands of an expanding eCommerce company. As a result, the Magento site is hosted on a server that is outdated in terms of software and hardware.
• Too Many Extensions
  The Magento backend is much slower than the frontend as a result of too many unneeded extensions installed on an inefficient server. It increases the amount of time it takes to operate the website greatly. As a result, you'll need to figure out which extensions you use the most and get rid of the ones that aren't working. Your website should be powered by only proven and highly effective Magento extensions to win the competition.
• Visual Aspect
  For eCommerce websites, a heavy focus on visual display is essential (online shoppers hardly expect and welcome tonnes of textual information). Naturally, retailers prioritize multimedia in their content strategy. However, as much as rich imagery improves the consumer experience, it also adds to the weight of the web page and can cause it to load slowly.

#7 Practices to Improve Magento Performance

Conversion rates, online exposure, and your bottom line can all be affected by the performance of your website. According to statistics, over 50% of online consumers want a website to load in less than 2 seconds, and 40% of visitors will leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to open.

These are the practices that you should make with your business if you want to improve Magento Performance:

1) Check for the Latest Version

It is critical that you constantly have the most recent version of Magento installed, as upgrades frequently include bug fixes and speed improvements. A Magento installation can be upgraded in three ways:

• Install the Magento file tree from scratch (the version you are trying to upgrade to)
• Run the installer from the top of the outdated database's file tree (thereby upgrading the database)
• Upgrade themes and custom extensions from an earlier version to the latest

It's a little more difficult to upgrade Magento than it is to upgrade WooCommerce or Shopify. Magento also sends you important notifications via your notifications/messages mailbox.

2) Optimize Javascript and CSS

Javascript and CSS are another factor that contributes to Magento poor performance. To improve Magento performance, follow the steps below to reduce Javascript and CSS.

• Navigate to Store > Configuration > Advanced on the Admin panel
• Click Developer on the Advanced tab. Change the settings in three fields in the Javascript Settings section to Yes: Merge JavaScript Files, Enable JavaScript Bundling, and Minify JavaScript Files
• Then, on the CSS Settings tab, select Yes for Merge CSS Files and Minify CSS Files

3) Enable Flat Categories and Products

The read speed of the database is one of the most common factors that affect Magento performance. You can fix this problem by enabling Flat Catalog. Here's how you can go about doing it:

• Log in to the admin panel of your Magento store
• Then go to Store > Configuration > Catalog to complete the process
• Then, under the Catalog menu, click on Catalog. The Storefront section will be visible for this stage
• When you've seen it, look for the Use Flat Catalog Category and Use Flat Catalog Product fields and update them to Yes

4) Enable Varnish Cache

There are a few things that can be done to increase Magento performance, one of which is to use the cache. To improve Magento performance, follow the instructions below to enable Varnish Cache.

• Go to Store > Configuration > Advanced on the Admin panel
• Click System under the Advanced menu to access the Full Page Cache feature
• The Caching Application field value is changed from Built-in Cache to Varnish Caching in this section

5) Image Optimization

The image is an essential component for improving the performance of your Magento website. However, one of the major causes of the overload page is an image that is too large to upload on your site.

As a result, before sending any image, it is necessary to compress it. Product photos should be saved in JPEG format, while the layout and logo should be saved in PNG or SVG.

6) Configure Memcached

Reducing the database load is another technique to increase Magento speed. Configuring Memcached, a free and open-source networked memory object caching system, is one way to do so.

7) PHP Accelerators

Another method of caching is to use a PHP accelerator. By caching PHP scripts in their compiled state, they help to improve their performance.

Alternative PHP Cache (APC), Zend Optimizer+, or Xcache are some of PHP accelerators.

8) Content Delivery Network

One of the simplest ways to notice faster load times with Magento is to use a content delivery network (CDN). This manner, you can ensure that your assets (product photos, JavaScript, and CSS) are served from several locations throughout the world, allowing them to reach your customers faster.

9) Check Website Performance Regularly

The performance of the website should be monitored on a frequent basis. This is an important component because it allows you to see what influence new extensions or plug-ins have on your website's loading times and how they should be intergraded.

10) Fast Web Hosting

Last but not least, selecting a reliable and fast web hosting provider might be one of the most important factors in enhancing Magento performance and providing a positive user experience.

Avoid cheap shared hosting since they tend to overcrowd their servers, forcing you to share resources with hundreds of other individuals.

#8 Tools for Magento Performance Monitoring

We strongly recommend four tools for your Magento website:

• Atatus – Without requiring you to update your source code, Atatus captures all requests to your Magento websites. It can give a clear picture of how your methods, database statements, and external requests effect your users' experience.
• New Relic – New Relic can more easily monitor the performance of Magento sites they're working on, allowing them to address performance issues more quickly and effectively.
• Blackfire – Blackfire is a monitoring tool, PHP profiler and performance testing tool that's automated. It's great for keeping track of how your code behaves and consumes resources.
• Tideways – With real-time notifications, Tideways is designed to help you uncover broken code, slow pages, errors, and crashes.

Additional Tools

• Cloudflare – Cloudflare is well known for their content delivery network (CDN), but they also provide services such as web application firewalling and load balancing.
• GTMetrix – GTMetrix data can help you identify a variety of speed issues, including portions of your website that are failing to load or redirecting, as well as pictures that should be optimised.
• Varnish – To provide a properly optimised experience for customers, Magento sites use a variety of caching technologies. Varnish improves site performance while also conserving server resources.
• Redline13 – When you don't have access to a fully managed host, Redline13 provides an open architecture for building and performing load tests.
• Apache JMeter – Apache JMeter is a Java application that can be used to load test functional behaviours and measure performance.

Conclusion

The success of an eCommerce store is largely determined by its speed. A quick-loading Magento website responds quickly, converts better, and makes customers happy, all of which leads to increased sales and revenues. To stay ahead of the competition, your website must be monitored and cared with a proper Magento Performance Monitoring tool.

You don’t have to search for the tool to monitor your Magento website, just a click will land you to the right place.

Monitor your Magento Websites with Atatus

Atatus provides a set of performance measurement tools to monitor and improve the performance of your frontend and backends of Magento Websites in real-time. Our platform can capture millions of performance data points from your websites, allowing you to quickly resolve issues and ensure digital customer experiences.

Atatus can be beneficial to your business, which provides a comprehensive view of your website, including how it works, where performance bottlenecks exist, which users are most impacted, and which errors break your code for your frontend, and backend.

Try your 14-day free trial of Atatus.