Docs

⌘K
  2. Home
  4. Docs
  6. Site
  8. Site Sleep

Site Sleep

FlyWP’s Site Sleep feature lets you pause (“sleep”) a WordPress site on demand, reducing resource usage and cost. Sleeping sites consume virtually no CPU or RAM until you wake them, unlike always-on hosting. Available for both OpenLiteSpeed and NGINX setups.

Feature Overview

  • Put a website to sleep or wake directly through the FlyWP dashboard.
  • Suspends all server processes related to the website.
  • Save server resources
  • Easily spin up and down staging sites without any hassle

How It Works

  • You can find the Site Sleep option in the Action Menu.
Image
  • Alternatively, in the FlyWP dashboard, open your site’s dashboard, Manage → Site Sleep
  • Click Sleep Site to shut down the site’s processes
Image

While asleep:

  • No PHP execution or WordPress activity.
  • Dashboard shows Sleeping status.
  • To wake the site, click Wake Site in the dashboard.
Image

Is It Safe?

  • Data integrity is fully preserved: suspending server processes does not alter your database or file system.
  • No risk of file corruption or loss: all files and uploads remain intact on disk.
  • Background tasks and WP-Cron jobs are paused while the site sleeps—plan accordingly if you rely on scheduled events.
  • External integrations or webhooks will receive no response during sleep, ensure critical APIs or payment gateways are not disrupted.
  • Manual wake guarantees you control exactly when services resume, minimising unexpected downtime.

Why Use Site Sleep

  • Cost savings by paying only for active compute time, sleeping sites does not use server resources.
  • Resource efficiency as idle sites don’t occupy CPU or memory on the server. Allows other sites to perform much better due to freed up resources.
  • Simplified management for large portfolios of low-traffic sites.

Pros & Caveats

Pros

  • Dramatic cost reduction for infrequently visited sites.
  • Simplified resource management with on-demand suspension.
  • Seamless integration with FlyWP’s dashboard controls.

Caveats

  • Initial manual wake adds latency before visitors see live content. So plan accordingly
  • Site sleep is unsuitable for sites requiring 24/7 availability or real-time updates.

Typical Use Cases

  • Development, staging, or demo sites that aren’t used continuously.
  • Membership sites with limited business hours.
  • Seasonal campaigns or event microsites.
  • Portfolios of client sites with low baseline traffic.

Best Practices

  • Manually schedule wake-ups (e.g., at the start of business hours) to ensure availability when needed
  • Monitor warm-up latency and plan wake-ups in advance to minimise visitor wait time

By adopting FlyWP’s Site Sleep feature, you can lower hosting costs for low-traffic WordPress sites—trading off always-on availability for on-demand control over resource usage.