Prestashop Optimization: a faster and more efficient site

Rely on recognized experts to evolve your technical stack towards current best practices!

< Our web performance experts optimize your PrestaShop store to meet the highest standards />

Security and traceability of developments

We intervene on a pre-production or development version of the e-commerce site. Fixes are implemented via FTP or via a project versioning tool like Git (Github, Gitlab…). This allows us to keep a trace of all modifications, which are carefully commented. Developers and project stakeholders thus validate the optimizations before their final deployment.

Proven levers, sustainable efficiency

The performance fixes deployed as part of our PrestaShop optimizations are based on native browser APIs and features. This applies to JavaScript, CSS, images, and HTML. This ensures the lasting effectiveness of our interventions: there are no tools to update, no licenses to renew, and no risk of security vulnerabilities being discovered in our code.

Transparent explanations

Every modification made to the theme and modules is recorded and detailed in a deliverable. We explain what was modified, why it was modified, and the performance metrics it impacts. Points not addressed, which can only be implemented in the production environment, are the subject of specific slides within the deliverable. They are also shared with the teams as part of the report.

Premium Support

Some of the 308 clients supported by Agence Web Performance since 2022 have had e-commerce related issues. Naturally, we have intervened multiple times on PrestaShop to boost its performance. If your store is not meeting your customers' expectations, contact our teams: we will define an action plan together.

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Send a strong signal to Google and your visitors: focus on Core Web Vitals

A fast shop ensures visitor satisfaction, thus maximizing your chances of turning them into customers. Because we know: internet users don't like waiting for a page to load, and if you're not up to par, your competitors might be... By entrusting us with the optimization of your PrestaShop online store, you will remove the bottlenecks that are hindering its loading times.

Product listing and description pages that load quickly are also a guarantee of visibility in Google's results pages. Server response times, represented by the TTFB metric, have a very significant impact on how search engines use the Crawl Budget they have allocated to you. The more performant your PrestaShop site, the better it will be indexed... and therefore visible in the SERPs.

A shopper pays for her order online on a computer

A service in 4 key steps

Our PrestaShop optimizations are broken down into several key stages.

A videoconference call as part of a service

Technical Alignment

To maximize the potential of our technical intervention, it is essential that we understand how your e-commerce site works. This initial video conference meeting is an opportunity to understand its history, its evolutions, its shortcomings in terms of speed, or even your web performance goals.

Tracking Implementation

We place a tag on your site that collects performance data from your real users. This "RUM" data is used to precisely identify bottlenecks. Thanks to this data-driven approach, we operate with maximum visibility on your issues.

We deploy Lighthouse monitors on your key pages to provide you with a synthetic view of performance evolution. Launched every 8 hours, they allow us to put numbers on mobile and desktop gains. Practical for those who track Core Web Vitals metrics in a tool like PageSpeed Insights.

PrestaShop Optimization

After a complete audit of your PrestaShop site, we deploy performance fixes within its theme. This stage, which takes place over 3 days, is the key to the intervention's success: we modify HTML, CSS, JavaScript, webfonts, images, and server configuration to sustainably improve your store's Core Web Vitals.

Intervention Report

We will meet via video call to present the results of our work. The deliverable will be presented with detailed information on the deployed changes and their impact on performance metrics (LCP, CLS, or INP) for each optimization implemented. This is an ideal time for discussion to answer your questions and share best practices that will ensure the long-term success of your PrestaShop store.

They entrusted us with the optimization of their PrestaShop

Why is a PrestaShop site slow ?

A PrestaShop store slows down for five main reasons: undersized hosting, a heavy theme, stacked modules, a large, poorly indexed catalog, and poorly configured caching. The size of the catalog is the e-commerce specificity: where a showcase site serves a few dozen pages, a store generates thousands.

Modules are the first area we examine to optimize PrestaShop. Each adds its own stylesheets and scripts, often loaded on all pages when they are only needed on one: a payment module loaded from the homepage weighs down visitors who will never reach the checkout process.

The catalog then poses a different kind of problem. Calculating prices, variations, discount rules, and the cart mobilizes the database with each display, and these queries are not cached like static HTML. Listing and search pages are the most exposed, precisely those that carry organic traffic.

Added to this is the issue of the theme. Commercial themes prioritize functional richness over code simplicity, with embedded JavaScript libraries and homepage sliders. Switching to a modern theme changes the order of magnitude, but it requires a front-end overhaul that not all stores can afford immediately.

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Consult the FAQ for details about the service.

What does the PrestaShop Expert certification bring?

The PrestaShop Expert certification officially validates our mastery of the CMS: core architecture, theme and module functionality, and specific e-commerce front-end constraints. It guarantees safe interventions, compliant with ecosystem standards and compatible with future updates to your store.

How much does PrestaShop site optimization cost?

PrestaShop optimization costs between €2,500 and €3,500 excluding tax, depending on the catalog size, the number of modules, and the theme in place. This service is offered as a package that includes the initial technical alignment meeting, the intervention itself (3 full days), and the writing and video presentation of a detailed report.

To find out the price, we invite you to contact our account manager Marylise by email or phone. She will get back to you quickly with a detailed quote that meets your expectations.

Should we prioritize optimization or an audit?

Our web performance experts have the necessary skills to intervene directly on the most complex PrestaShop installations, safely. This can be very useful if you do not have experienced front-end developers.

If you have your own teams or an external provider who knows the project, an audit is a relevant alternative to PrestaShop optimization: instead of implementing the optimizations ourselves, we will provide them with a list of actionable recommendations. We can even oversee the production rollout through acceptance testing, included in the audit service.

How to speed up a PrestaShop store?

Start with the server and cache, then address modules and the theme. On PrestaShop, native caching, Smarty compilation in production mode, and resource aggregation are the first settings to check: they are often left in development configuration, which multiplies the workload with each display.

The second task is to optimize PrestaShop on the module side: disable those that are no longer used, limit the loading of others to the pages where they actually intervene, and remove duplicate libraries. A disabled module sometimes continues to load its resources as long as its files remain referenced by the theme.

The fundamentals common to all sites remain: modern image formats, prioritization of the first screen image, reserved dimensions to avoid layout shifts, and deferred third-party scripts. On a store, these actions are replicated across thousands of pages, which changes the scale of the gain compared to a showcase site.

Which version of PrestaShop is the most performant?

Branch 9 is currently the most performant. PrestaShop 9.1 is based on Symfony 6.4 LTS, supports PHP 8.1 to 8.5, and includes Hummingbird 2.0 as the default theme, a complete front-end redesign designed for performance and accessibility, whereas the Classic theme carried an old technical legacy.

The PHP version matters as much as the PrestaShop version. Moving from an old version to PHP 8.3 or higher significantly reduces generation time without touching the store's code. This is the cheapest gain in the entire chain, provided that the installed modules are compatible, which is verified before switching.

A major update is not to be improvised: moving to branch 9 involves checking the compatibility of each module and, if necessary, changing the theme. We audit this compatibility before any migration recommendation, because a broken store costs more than a few hundred milliseconds.