In this article, we will cover how to disable WP-Cron in WordPress to reduce server load and increase your website speed and performance.
WP-Cron.php is the WordPress task schedule, which simulates normal cron-jobs like checking for updates and publishing scheduled posts.
We call wp-cron.php because some jobs may take time to complete and the user requesting the WordPress page cannot be made to wait.
In the situation given above, we can call the wp-cron.php function because it runs as a separate process in the background without delaying the page load time for the user.
Cron jobs can be set to be executed per minute, 5 min, or as per your requirement. But running too many cron jobs consumes high server resources resulting in slow website performance.
How is WP-Cron affecting the performance of your website?
It is very important for you to understand that WP-Cron.php is not a real cron job, it’s simply what WordPress has created to mimic what a system cron does.
WP-Cron does not run continuously but wp-cron.php runs on every page load. If there is high traffic on your sites, wp-cron.php can cause problems as it will run on every page load.
The opposite scenario is also true that if your website doesn’t have traffic, schedules cron jobs could be missed as no one has loaded a page and wp-cron.php executes at every page load.
So, to avoid this, a better approach will be to disable wp-cron in WordPress.
How to disable WP-Cron in WordPress from wp-config.php
1) Login into your control panel (DirectAdmin or cPanel) and navigate to File Manager and open wp-config.php.
Click here to learn how to edit wp-config.php in DirectAdmin and cPanel.
2) Add the following code into your wp-config.php file to disable WP-Cron:
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
There is some problem as well with disabling the WP-Cron. Some features of WordPress will stop running like scheduled posts because it is directly dependent on the crown.
If you face any issues after disabling the corn job, you can contact YouStable support, and our expert support team will resolve your issue in a go.