WordPress has its own scheduling system, WP-Cron, which runs scheduled tasks – publishing posts, checking for updates, sending mail. It works by running those tasks when someone visits your site.
Why that is a problem
On a busy site it means the work runs far more often than necessary, slowing pages for real visitors. On a quiet site the opposite happens: nobody visits, so nothing runs, and scheduled posts do not publish. Either way it is unreliable, and it is a common cause of a site suddenly feeling slow.
What we do instead
On sites we set up, WP-Cron is switched off in the configuration and replaced with a real scheduled task on the server which calls WordPress directly at a fixed interval. The tasks then run on a predictable schedule regardless of traffic, and visitors never wait for them.
What this means for you
- Scheduled posts publish on time even with no visitors
- Pages are faster because visitors are not doing background work
- Some plugins report that WP-Cron is disabled. That is expected and is not a fault.
If a plugin insists on WP-Cron
A few plugins check for WP-Cron and refuse to run without it. Tell us which one and we will look at whether it can be pointed at the real scheduled task instead, rather than turning WP-Cron back on.
If you have set your own site up and want this arrangement, open a ticket and we will configure it.
