PrestaShop support: managed hosting, performance and security

PrestaShop is a powerful but demanding platform: large catalogues, dozens of modules and traffic spikes put real pressure on servers and databases. We handle the side that decides whether orders go through - infrastructure, performance and security - so the store stays fast and stable even as sales grow.

Need custom development instead - modules, integrations, checkout? See e-commerce development.

Overview

A slow or shaky PrestaShop store loses orders, and the theme is almost never to blame: far more often it’s servers left on default settings, missing caching and queries scanning tables with no indexes. We work exactly on those layers, with a simple method: first we measure how the store is set up, then we remove the bottlenecks one by one, and finally we secure what’s still exposed.

We can host the store on a stack we manage ourselves, or work on the hosting you already use: either way, we’re not a hosting company with its own datacentre but a technical consultancy, so no black boxes. You get a single point of contact, readable reports after every job, and configurations - documented - that stay yours. If you ever want to switch providers, you can do it without asking our permission.

Typical problems we solve

• Category pages crawl with catalogues of tens of thousands of products → we analyse the slow queries and add the missing indexes and caching.
• A 500 error after an update or a new module → we read the logs, isolate the conflict and bring the store back online.
• Checkout stalls during sales and promotions → we size PHP-FPM and the database for peak traffic, not average traffic.
• The back office grinds to a halt with lots of orders and customers → we optimise queries, cron and queues so staff preparing orders aren’t left waiting.
• Order emails land in spam or never arrive → we fix SPF, DKIM and DMARC and set up reliable sending.
• A compromised store or exposed admin area → we clean up the files, close off access and raise the defences with a WAF and hardening.
• Shared hosting that’s hit its limit → we migrate to a properly sized server, with minimal downtime and a rollback ready.

What’s included

• Managed, optimised hosting: a stack built for PrestaShop on Debian or Ubuntu, with multi-level caching and resources sized to your real catalogue and traffic.
• Performance tuning: object cache, full-page cache, PHP-FPM and MySQL/MariaDB tuning, indexes and slow queries, image and asset optimisation to cut TTFB.
• Security hardening: correct permissions, protected admin area, WAF, HTTPS, module hardening and file-change monitoring.
• Updates with no surprises: core and modules updated on staging first, tested against checkout and integrations, then promoted to production with a rollback ready.
• Migration: files, database and configuration moved between servers or providers, with URL, SSL and payment checks before traffic switches over.
• Monitoring and backups: uptime, error and disk-space checks, verified backups and restore tests, so the fallback plan actually works.
• Troubleshooting: 500 errors, module conflicts, cron and queues, transactional emails, sessions and carts that get lost.

Stack and technologies

Our reference stack for PrestaShop starts with Debian or Ubuntu (AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux on request), with Nginx in front, PHP-FPM and OPcache on the version your release supports, and MySQL/MariaDB configured for the real workload. For caching we use Redis or Memcached for the object cache and Varnish for full-page caching, with Cloudflare acting as CDN and first filter against bots and abnormal traffic. Transactional email goes through Exim configured with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, or an external relay when volumes justify it. On the cloud side we work mainly with Google Cloud, with AWS and DigitalOcean as alternatives; Azure, Hetzner and OVH on request. If the infrastructure grows enough to justify it, we describe it as code with Terraform - but we never force that on a store that runs perfectly well on a single server.

A real-world example

A spare-parts store with around forty thousand products was coming from shared hosting: category pages over four seconds, checkout timing out on every promotion, a back office so slow it held up order preparation. We migrated the store to a dedicated Debian VM, turned on Redis for the object cache and put Varnish in front of the catalogue pages, then switched on the slow query log: two tables used by the navigation filters were missing indexes, and a statistics module was writing to the database on every pageview. After adding the indexes and replacing the module with an external solution, category pages dropped stably below one second and the next promotion went through without a single error. The client received documented configurations and a report explaining every change.

Who it’s for

• PrestaShop stores with large catalogues or growing traffic that are starting to show slowdowns.
• Businesses and makers selling online who want a reliable store without having to deal with infrastructure.
• Agencies and web studios that handle theme and design and are looking for a technical partner for servers, performance and security.
• Anyone coming from shared hosting who needs a stack that can handle sales, promotions and campaigns.

How we work

We start with a check of store and server: PrestaShop version, active modules, cache and database configuration, response times and the main security weak points. From there we propose a plan with clear priorities and a quote - always free, with a reply within one working day - and agree every maintenance window with you. Ordinary coverage runs Monday to Friday, 10:00-18:00 , with P1-P4 triage: a store that’s down is a P1 and gets picked up within one working hour; for out-of-hours emergencies there are on-call retainers; pickup times are described on the response times page. For ongoing maintenance, many clients use hour packages, which never expire. Every job ends with a readable report: what we changed, why, and how to verify it.