Using Redis Cache on Shared Hosting with WordPress Example

Redis server is available on all our web hosting plans.
Redis server stores data in memory and is often used for caching in web applications for fast data retrieval. For example, it is regularly used in WordPress as a Persistent Object cache to improve speed.

It should be noted that using Redis as a Persistent Object Cache in WordPress does not necessarily mean your website will run faster, as all our hosting plans have multiple database optimizations that serve performance excellently, so in many cases using Object cache does not provide noticeable benefits. Our recommendation on this matter is to test enabling Persistent Object Cache if you wish and see if you have measurable speed loading benefits. If not, then you can disable it to avoid unnecessarily increasing the plugins on your website.

For dedicated servers, Redis has already been configured in your application by us, and of course you can contact us for anything related.

1. For shared hosting plans, in your panel you can enable the Redis server within the DirectAdmin panel. This Redis server is unique to your user and is not accessible by other users on the server. To enable it, simply click on the “Redis” option in the “Advanced Features” menu in the panel, and click once to enable it.
2. Upon activation it will give you a ready-made path (unix socket file), which you should keep as you will need to pass it to the settings in your application later.
   Example given: /home/USERNAME/.redis/redis.sock (where USERNAME will be your username)
3. You also need to enable (if not already active) the “redis” PHP extension. For this purpose, go to the “Extra Features” menu in the “Select PHP Version” option and select “redis” if it is not already selected.
   
4. Next, for WordPress as an example, you can install the free “Redis Object Cache” WordPress plugin (or equivalent). Install and activate it.
   
5. For the Redis Object Cache plugin mentioned in our example, simply add the following settings to wp-config.php to enable your Redis server for Object cache (the first line here is from step 2):

   define('WP_REDIS_PATH', '/home/USERNAME/.redis/redis.sock');
   define('WP_REDIS_SCHEME', 'unix');
   define('WP_REDIS_READ_TIMEOUT', '8');
   define('WP_REDIS_TIMEOUT', '3');
   define('WP_REDIS_DATABASE', '1' );
   

6. Then you can enable Redis Object Cache in the WordPress admin area, in the Redis Object Cache plugin settings.
   
7. Your website will now use Redis as Object cache.

Technically, each user in the panel has their own (private) Redis instance. This means that if you have multiple users, then each of your users will have a separate Redis instance. If you have multiple websites under the same user that you want all to write to Redis, then it is important to change the WP_REDIS_DATABASE above so that it is different for each of your websites.