Installation guide
Ten minutes to install.
One week to see the full picture.
This guide walks every step from the activation click to the moment you read your first Impact card. Plain English, no skipped surprises.
Before you start
WordPress 6.5+, PHP 8.1+
Admin access, on a host that meets the minimum versions. Most managed WordPress hosts already do.
The plugin .zip from your purchase
Download from your account on for-wordpress.org after checkout. Standard .zip upload — same flow as any other plugin.
A coffee's worth of attention
Roughly 15 uninterrupted minutes for the install + wizard. The site keeps serving traffic the whole time; no maintenance window required.
A backup is optional
Wizard rules go through a soak observation period before they affect real traffic. Other modules are designed to be invisibly safe. Take a backup if you prefer the comfort.
Install the plugin
It uploads like any other WordPress plugin. The only twist is the one immediately after — read it before you panic.
- 1. Log into the WordPress admin panel.
- 2. Go to Plugins → Add New and click Upload Plugin.
- 3. Choose the
accelerator.zipfile from your purchase. - 4. Click Install Now, then Activate.
One-time surprise
After activation, Accelerator disappears from the Plugins list. This is intentional. The plugin loads earlier than a normal plugin would, in a separate WordPress directory; the regular Plugins list does not show items from there.
Look for an Accelerator item in your admin sidebar instead. If you see it, the install worked.
Run the Setup Wizard
Click Accelerator in the admin sidebar. The wizard launches automatically the first time. Pick the path that matches how much detail you want — the rest of the wizard adapts.
Just make my site faster
Fewest questions. Strongest defaults. Pick this if you want the result without reading much.
Walk me through it
Same number of clicks as the simple path, with a plain-language explanation at every step. Recommended for most users.
Developer path
Unlocks an extra step for hand-crafting per-page rules and exposes raw match-mode controls.
Whichever path you pick, the wizard then walks through six steps:
Site Type
Pick the closest match to your site shape — WooCommerce, LMS, Membership, Corporate, Blog, Forum, Digital Downloads, or Custom. Scopes the rule recommendations to what your site actually does.
Page Benchmarker
Measures your current page speed across representative pages. Takes about two minutes. Leave the tab open until it finishes.
Plugin List
Lists every active plugin and matches each one against the rule library. Already-known plugins get safe default rules; unknown ones are marked for review.
Rule Generation
Shows you the proposed rules, grouped by request type. Accept the defaults unless you have a specific reason — the library is curated for safety.
Per-Page Overrides
Optional, Developer path only. Lets you target specific URLs with custom rules. Skip this on first install — you can always come back.
Apply & Soak
Click Apply. Rules are saved and enter shadow mode immediately — they record what they would have done without affecting real traffic yet.
The soak window
Once the wizard finishes, Accelerator does not start unloading plugins immediately. It first observes — measuring exactly what it would have done — for the soak window you picked. This is the safety net.
Simple path
15 minutes
Fast feedback for low-risk sites
Walk me through
1 hour
Default — enough to catch obvious problems
Developer path
24 hours
Full traffic cycle through a workday
Visitors see the live site exactly as before
Nothing is unloaded for real during the soak. Every request runs the same as it did before the wizard.
The plugin records what it would have done
On every request, the rule engine measures which plugins it would have skipped and counts them in the Telemetry → Shadow Soak section. Numbers there confirm the rules are reaching real traffic.
Dependency safety stops bad rules
Before any rule is applied, Accelerator checks whether other active plugins still need the one being skipped. If they do, the rule is refused at runtime and the affected row on the Per-Page Rules page shows you which plugin held the dependency.
During the soak window, keep using your site normally. Nothing to do, nothing to watch.
Going live
At the end of the soak window the rules flip from observation to enforcement. The same rules that have been measured for the last hour or day are now actually applied — non-essential plugins stop loading on requests that don't need them.
The flip is automatic. The status badge on the Modules page changes from Shadow to Live, and the Telemetry page starts counting real plugin offloads.
Want to flip early?
During the soak window, open Accelerator → Setup Wizard (or the Welcome page). You will see an Activate now button that ends the observation immediately. The dependency safety net runs the same way whether you wait or activate early.
What to watch in the first week
With rules now live, the Telemetry page is where the real numbers accumulate. Open Accelerator → Telemetry any time.
Impact card
Compares the latest window of traffic against the same length of traffic right before it, at p50 / p95 / p99. A negative percentage is a speedup. Needs about 100 requests in each window before it shows numbers.
Breakdown by request type
Splits the traffic by frontend, REST, admin, ajax, cron. Shows which lane is dominating your site and where the optimisation effort matters most.
Recent requests
The most recently measured requests, newest first. The Offloaded column shows which plugins were kept out of each one — useful for spot-checking that a rule is firing.
Path filter
Narrow the Summary, Breakdown, and Recent sections to a URL pattern. Drill into /checkout/*, /shop/*, or whatever section matters to you.
Optional: share your numbers
At the end of the week, take a few screenshots of Telemetry — the Summary card and the Impact card are the most useful. If you are willing, send them to [email protected]. Real numbers from real installs help tune the rule library and let other site owners know what to expect on stacks like yours. Zero pressure either way; your data stays yours.
Troubleshooting
The five questions that come up most often. If yours is not here, email me — I read every message.
I don't see Accelerator in the Plugins list after activating.
I don't see Accelerator in the Plugins list after activating.
Expected. The plugin moves itself to a directory that loads earlier than the regular plugins folder, and that directory does not show in the Plugins list. Look for the Accelerator menu in your admin sidebar instead. If the sidebar menu is also missing, the install did not complete — email me with any error from your error log.
The Setup Wizard didn't start automatically.
The Setup Wizard didn't start automatically.
Click Accelerator in the admin sidebar. If the wizard has already finished once, the dashboard opens instead — you can re-run the wizard from there any time.
A page looks broken after going live.
A page looks broken after going live.
Open Accelerator → Safe Mode and click Pause. Every rule is bypassed immediately, every saved setting and license state is preserved, and the site reverts to unoptimised behaviour in one click. Resume when you are ready. Then send me the broken URL and I will help identify which rule to disable.
How do I completely uninstall?
How do I completely uninstall?
Deactivate Accelerator from the regular Plugins screen the same way you would deactivate any other plugin. The plugin removes its own files and saved data on uninstall — no leftovers.
Will Accelerator produce errors or warnings in my error log?
Will Accelerator produce errors or warnings in my error log?
It should not. If you see anything from Accelerator in your PHP error log, treat it as a bug and forward me the line — I will ship a fix.
Stuck or curious?
Direct line to the person who built this. Replies usually within 24 hours.