THE MOST IMPORTANT FIX — PHP Memory Limit

Go to: Cloudways Dashboard → Applications → Your App → Application Settings → PHP FPM tab

You will see a block of settings that looks like this:

;php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 32M

The semicolon at the start means the setting is DISABLED. To fix it, remove the semicolon and increase the value.

Change it to: php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 512M

WordPress with Elementor Pro, ACF, and multiple plugins needs at least 512MB. The default of 32MB is far too low and will cause slowness, timeouts, and crashes.

SECOND MOST IMPORTANT FIX — Max Input Variables

In the same PHP FPM settings block, find:

;php_admin_value[max_input_vars] = 3000

Change it to: php_admin_value[max_input_vars] = 10000

This prevents issues with Elementor and ACF losing settings on save.

THE SEMICOLON RULE

This is the most important thing to remember when editing PHP FPM settings in Cloudways:

Line starting with ; (semicolon) = DISABLED. The setting does nothing.
Line without a semicolon = ACTIVE. The setting is applied.
To activate any setting, simply delete the semicolon at the start of the line, then change the value if needed.

SERVER-LEVEL SETTINGS

Go to: Cloudways Dashboard → Server → Settings & Packages → Advanced tab

Change these:

OPCache Memory: change from 64 MB to 256 MB. This dramatically improves PHP performance for sites with many plugins.
Max Input Time: change from 60 to 300 seconds. This prevents timeout errors on long operations.
Click Save Changes after updating.

BREEZE CACHE SETTINGS

Go to: WordPress Admin → Breeze → Settings

Basic tab — turn ON:

Enable Page Cache
Cache Expiry Time: set to 1440 minutes (24 hours)
Enable Gzip Compression
Enable Browser Cache
File Settings tab:

Minify HTML: ON
Minify CSS: ON
Combine CSS: try it, turn OFF if the layout breaks
Minify JavaScript: ON
Combine JavaScript: KEEP THIS OFF — it breaks Elementor
Move JS to Footer: ON
Lazy Load Images: ON

VARNISH CACHE

Varnish is a server-level cache that makes your frontend extremely fast. On Cloudways it is already running if you can see the Varnish tab under Application Settings. No action needed — just confirm the tab is there.

CHECKLIST FOR EVERY NEW CLOUDWAYS WORDPRESS SITE

Step 1 — Server settings (once per server):

OPCache Memory = 256 MB
Max Input Time = 300 seconds
Memcached = ON (under Manage Services)
Step 2 — Application settings (once per app):

PHP FPM: memory_limit = 512M (remove the semicolon)
PHP FPM: max_input_vars = 10000 (remove the semicolon)
Confirm Varnish tab is visible under Application Settings
Step 3 — WordPress (once per site):

Configure Breeze as described above
Elementor → Tools → Regenerate CSS & Data (run after any major change)
Clear Breeze cache after any plugin update or PHP setting change

SETTINGS TO LEAVE ALONE

These are fine at their defaults — do not change them:

max_execution_time = 120 (good as-is)
max_input_time = 300 (good as-is)
post_max_size = 25M (good as-is)
upload_max_filesize = 20M (good as-is)
display_errors = off, disabled with semicolon (correct — never show errors on live sites)

Hope that helps! Feel free to ask if you’d like any section expanded or reworded.