A look at serverless WordPress

These are the slides from a talk given at WordCamp Asia 2023.

Some of us love to manage servers. But for a lot of WordPress developers, servers are something we’d rather avoid. We’re happy to pay hosting providers, so we don’t have to worry about it.

WordPress hosting doesn’t remove all your hosting headaches. You still have to worry about scaling. You’re often overpaying for hosting because you have to worry about the worst-case scenario.

Well, that’s what serverless WordPress tries to solve. With serverless WordPress, you only pay for what you use. Meanwhile, you get an infrastructure that can scale from handling zero traffic to thousands in seconds.

This talk will go over serverless WordPress and how it works. You’ll learn how it differs from regular WordPress hosting with a traditional server setup and why it’s a game-changer for WooCommerce hosting. We’ll finish by going over tools and projects you can use to deploy your serverless WordPress site.

Transcript

1. A look at
   serverless
   WordPress
   

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2. 2
   Hi!
   2
   I’m Carl Alexander
   @twigpress
   
   
   carlalexander.ca
   

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4. “Servers. Can’t live with them.
   Can’t live without them.”
   - WordPress developer (when a server blows up)
   

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5. Server management
   

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6. Still responsible
   

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7. WordPress hosting
   

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8. Still need to
   over provision
   

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9. Serverless addresses
   these problems
   

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10. 1 What Is
    Serverless?
    

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11. “Are there really no servers
    with serverless!?”
    - Literally everyone I mention serverless to
    

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13. Marketing term
    

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14. Functions as a Service
    

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15. On-demand
    computing
    

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16. Upload code to a
    cloud provider
    

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17. Code gets executed in
    response to an event
    

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18. No mention of servers
    

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19. Outside your sphere
    of concerns
    

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20. 2How Does
    
    
    It Work?
    

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21. WordPress on a server
    

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23. Serverless WordPress
    is serverless PHP
    

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24. How does PHP work
    on a web server?
    

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26. How does serverless
    PHP compare?
    

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27. Both run code in
    response to an event
    

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28. So what’s different?
    

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29. Not just PHP that runs
    without a server
    

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30. Everything is
    serverless
    

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31. Service based
    architecture
    

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33. PHP runtime?
    

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34. Unique element of
    serverless PHP
    

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35. What does it do?
    

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36. Processes
    
    
    lambda event
    

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37. Figures out
    
    
    what the event wants
    

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38. Sends a result back
    
    
    (HTTP response)
    

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39. Mimics a web server
    

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40. Request a file,
    
    
    returns a file
    

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41. Creates FastCGI request,
    sends it to PHP-FPM
    

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42. Also manages
    
    
    the PHP-FPM process
    

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43. Only one
    
    
    PHP-FPM worker
    

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44. Lambda only handles
    one event at a time
    

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45. Serverless WordPress
    architecture
    

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47. 3Advantages of
    serverless
    

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49. No servers to
    manage
    

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50. Not everyone is
    comfortable with servers
    

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51. Still responsible
    

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52. WordPress hosting
    solves this issue
    

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53. New problem.
    Scaling.
    

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54. WordPress hosting
    is single server
    

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55. Each Lambda function
    is a PHP worker
    

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57. Scaling in seconds
    not minutes
    

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59. Need to plan for the
    worst with servers
    

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60. How much would
    that cost?
    

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61. None of that
    
    
    with serverless
    

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62. Usage based pricing
    

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63. Pay when your
    workers run
    

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64. Charged by
    
    
    the millisecond
    

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65. 4Drawbacks of
    Serverless
    

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67. Less predictable cost
    

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68. Paying for a server
    feels safe
    

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69. $X/month
    

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70. Need more
    performance? Pay more!
    

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72. How many requests?
    
    
    Average duration?
    

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73. Stressful and harder
    to budget for
    

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74. Costs less
    

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75. AWS lock-in
    

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77. Why not Azure or GCP?
    

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78. Not interchangeable
    

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79. Not just Lambda
    

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80. Need other services
    

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81. Equivalent ≠ Same
    

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82. Energy with AWS
    

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83. WordPress assumes
    you’re on a server
    

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84. Can’t install themes
    and plugins directly
    

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85. Media library
    

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86. WordPress plugins
    assume it too
    

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87. Potential
    compatibility issues
    

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88. 5Evaluating
    
    
    Serverless
    

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89. Tempting to only
    compare cost
    

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90. “Serverless is expensive. I
    could just get a $5/month
    droplet from DigitalOcean.”
    - Someone comfortable with servers
    

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91. Dishonest
    

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92. Intangible costs
    

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93. Mental health
    

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94. Your time
    

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95. 6Tools and
    
    
    Projects
    

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97. Serverless WordPress
    is open source
    

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98. github.com/ymirapp
    

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99. Need to fund
    development
    

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100. 100
     7
     Ymir
     https://ymirapp.com/open
     

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101. GitHub sponsor
     (github.com/carlalexander)
     

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102. 7Future of
     
     
     Hosting
     

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103. Would you buy a
     physical server?
     

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104. You get one in the cloud!
     

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105. Next step
     

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106. Serverless is
     
     
     deploy and forget
     

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107. Levels playing field
     

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108. What would you build?
     

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109. ?Questions
     

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110. 110
     Thank you!
     2
     @twigpress
     
     
     carlalexander.ca
     
     
     blog.ymirapp.com
     

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