Background of the issue:
I am experiencing serious performance issues after activating WPML on my multilingual site hidden link. Extensive tests confirm that WPML causes a significant TTFB increase and initial backend slowness even when no language switcher or translated content is visible. The site is hosted on WEDOS (shared hosting, Czech Republic) using the Divi theme, PHP 8.2, and WordPress 6.5.5. All WPML plugins are the latest versions, and other plugins were deactivated during testing. LiteSpeed Cache is configured, and all recommended PageSpeed optimizations are done. CDN is not in use.
Symptoms:
When WPML is enabled, TTFB increases to 4–5.5 seconds, the backend is slow to load, and the frontend loads slower, even in English-only mode. When WPML is disabled, TTFB drops to ~1.3s, the backend becomes fast again, and the frontend loads in ~1.2s.
Questions:
Why is TTFB 3–4x slower even without showing translations?
Does WPML load string tables or queries globally?
Any known conflicts with Divi or LiteSpeed?
Can WPML be disabled for specific pages (e.g. homepage)?
Are there performance tweaks (DB, Redis, config) you recommend?
Would using ATE or limiting languages improve performance?
