Speed up your local WordPress development with Docker on Windows

#docker #wordpress #container

If you prefer watching the experiment, here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SET8P5OeBfo

Most of us when beginning developing with Docker usually mount from a local path to a path inside the containers since it's the simplest solution. However, this simplicity comes with a cost:

Speed!

Especially when you are developing on Windows.

You see, Docker on Windows, despite all the efforts cannot compare to what it's like on Linux. I have my WP sites on Linux and it loads super fast.

From what I learn, mounting the local directory to a container on Windows can make app loads very slow, not just WordPress.

So, I decided to give it a try: move codes, database to a volume.

And guess what? Speed improved immensely.

The old setup

Here is the old setup:

version: '3.8'

services:
  wp:
    image: webdevops/php-apache:7.4
    container_name: wp
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - D:\Data\dev\wordpress\main\:/app
    ports:
      - 8888:80
  db:
    image: mariadb:10.5.3
    container_name: db
    restart: always
    volumes:      
      - ./db:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root

You see the problem? Both db and the WordPress code are mounted from a local directory on the host machine. Thus, the site loads super slow.

The new setup

version: '3.8'

services:
  wp:
    image: webdevops/php-apache:7.4
    container_name: wp
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/app

    ports:
      - 8888:80
  db:
    image: mariadb:10.5.3
    container_name: db
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql

    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root

volumes:
  db:
  wordpress:

Now, I created two volumes, one for db and one for the WordPress code. Guess what? The site isn't slow anymore.

Give it a try

Top comments (5)

Walled Mahmoud Soliman • Aug 5 '23 • Edited

if this is my directory and inside the wordpress folder is the wordpress files

and my composer yml is :

version: '3.4'
services:
  wordpress:
    build:
      context: ./dockers/wordpress/
      target: dev
    command: [/start.sh]
    volumes:
      - ./wordpress/:/var/www/html
    env_file: ./dockers/wordpress/.env
    ports:
      - "8010:80"
    links:
      - mysql
    environment:
      LANG: C.UTF-8
  mysql:
    image: public.ecr.aws/docker/library/mysql:8.0
    command: mysqld --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
    platform: linux/amd64
    volumes:
      - ./dockers/mysql/:/etc/mysql/conf.d
    ports:
      - "3310:3306"
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: #
      MYSQL_DATABASE: #
      LANG: C.UTF-8

volumes:
  db:

How i can apply your idea? I am stuck with it.

Thanks in advance.