Disabling wp-cron.php for Better Performance

Why disable wp-cron.php?
Disabling wp-cron.php
WordPress Hosting (Plesk)

Why disable wp-cron.php?

wp-cron.php runs every time someone visits your WordPress site. For small to medium websites, this usually isn't an issue.

However, on more heavily visited websites, it can cause performance issues because the file is triggered much more often.

Disabling wp-cron.php

Follow these steps:

Open your website’s wp-config.php file.
Add the following code right before the line /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */:

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

Then set up a cronjob that automatically runs wp-cron.php every 15 minutes ( /15 *).
📖 More info: Setting up a Cronjob (Web- and Reseller Hosting)

Use the following command:

wget -q -O - https://voorbeeld.cc/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1

📌 Important: Replace voorbeeld.cc with your actual domain name.

WordPress Hosting (Plesk)

Follow these steps if you have a WordPress Hosting package:

Log in to https://[servernaam].srvnl.nl:8443.
📖 More info: How to find out which server you’re on

In the right menu, click WordPress.
Find the WordPress installation where you want to disable WP_CRON.
Under the Toolkit section, enable Take over wp-cron.php.

wp-cron.php will now no longer be triggered on every site visit but will run in the background as a scheduled task (cronjob).

📌 Important:

Replace voorbeeld.cc with your actual domain name.
Replace [servernaam] with the server your hosting package is hosted on.

Updated on: 20/05/2025