From 1.7 to 1.2 seconds: Debugging a slow Magento store with RUMvision and Tideways
Tideways-News
Frontend meets backend monitoring: Together, RUMvision and Tideways cover both sides of the performance coin.
Core Web Vitals aren’t just a frontend issue. Time to First Byte (TTFB) usually makes up a fair share of the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), so a slow backend has a significant impact on performance. Read our recently published article on “How backend performance affects Google PageSpeed Insights and WebVitals”.
To turn dry theory into vivid reality, we teamed up to investigate a slow TTFB in a real Magento store: Dutch Label Shop, built and maintained by elgentos, who use both RUMvision and Tideways.
Tideways revealed that product pages spent a large share of their time waiting on the Yotpo review API. A small caching bug meant the cache was never hit. Using Tideways’ AI-assisted analysis, a coding agent found the bug and suggested a fix. From flagging the issue to reviewing the fix, the team spent about 20 minutes in total.
The TTFB dropped from 1.7 to 1.2 seconds, and RUMvision confirmed within a few hours that real visitors were benefiting.
Last week we had a webinar with our partners at RUMvision about this topic that you can watch in a replay here:
When you meet time and again, you start to wonder if it’s a coincidence. It wasn’t just at community events that we met with RUMvision; we also noticed that we have customers in common. That’s when we realized that for many shops it makes sense to consider insights from both perspectives, the frontend and the backend.
About the author
I’m a Content and Marketing Manager at Tideways, where I focus on content marketing, community building, and developer-focused communication. I enjoy turning complex technical topics into engaging content and creating meaningful connections within the PHP ecosystem.
As a passionate content creator and published author, I believe that great content starts with curiosity, authentic stories, and a genuine interest in the people behind them. Whether I’m working on marketing campaigns, building communities, or writing, I enjoy thinking outside the box and finding creative ways to engage and inspire others.