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  1. Home
  2. Plugins
  3. Heartbeat
  4. Heartbeat Control
Heartbeat Control icon

Heartbeat Control

Allows you to easily manage the frequency of the WordPress heartbeat API.

By WP Media·Heartbeat·Free
4.2(68 reviews)
·80K+ active installs·Updated 2 years ago
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As of April 2026, Heartbeat Control is a WordPress heartbeat plugin with 80K+ active installations and a 4.2/5 rating from 68 reviews. It has been downloaded 1.2M+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.6+ and PHP 5.3+. Available on WordPress.org since 2014. Last updated 2 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are down 28% this week. Top alternative: Dynamic Front-End Heartbeat Control.

4.2/568 reviews
80K+active installs
1.2M+total downloads
12 yearssince 2014

Overview

Heartbeat Control by WP Rocket allows you to manage the frequency of the WordPress heartbeat API in a few clicks.

The WordPress Heartbeat API is a great feature that provides real-time communication between the server and the browser when you are logged into your WordPress admin panel. It uses the file /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php to run AJAX calls from the browser. By default, AJAX requests are sent every 15 seconds on post edit pages, and every 60 seconds on the dashboard.

This is indeed helpful; but if you usually leave your WordPress admin open for long periods (for example when you write or edit posts), the AJAX requests from the API can pile up and generate high CPU usage, leading to server performance issues and even hosting account suspensions.

With Heartbeat Control by WP Rocket, you…

Read full description on WordPress.org

Screenshots

Ratings & Reviews

4.268 reviews
5 ★
50
4 ★
3
3 ★
3
2 ★
2
1 ★
10

Recent Reviews

No save new article
by Pierre236·1 year ago

Hi,

I started to use your extension after the end of Clearfy plugin.

And it does the job, but I have problem 3 times with new article not saved.

When I work on article, I often open many tabs and sometime, my browser, Firefox, block and I need to close it and reopen it.

Normaly, I can find a backup of the article on wordpress, but 3 times recently, the article had completely disappeared.

It’s terrible when you spend time on an article, sometimes more than an hour, to then discover that there’s nothing left, that all the work has to be redone.

I deactivated heartbeat on the dashboard and on the site, and kept it only for the editor.

I’ve changed the editor to 20, I imagine it’s 20 seconds, but will that be enough?

When I’m working on a new article now, I save it when I think of it, but sometimes I forget, like today.

What else can I do to make sure that the plugin doesn’t prevent WordPress from saving automatically?

Thanks a lot!

Finally fixed my 8-10sec delay in page load times
by invisionary·2 years ago

I was suffering from 8-10 second delays between page loads. I tried everything I could think of to track it down, and neither tech support at Elegant Themes (DIVI Theme) nor my web hosting company Inmotion Hosting could find anything wrong as to the cause. Finally, I thought I’d try this this plug-in on a whim to see if the Heartbeat API was the cause. It was.

I simply disabled the Heartbeat API on the front end using the Heartbeat Control plug-in and my pages were loading how they should without page caching in a fraction of a second. Later applied it to disable the back-end admin dashboard Heartbeat API and set the post editor heartbeat to 62 seconds (as many things seem to run on the exact minute). Simple to use interface, quick and convenient. This is an essential plug for WordPress.

used its premium version but had to install this version to minimize the load
by Web davo·2 years ago

i used wp rocket premium plugin for my site and had to install this as the load on my site was not optimizing, that means the feature in pro plugin is useless?

Plugin file size 4.2mbs for just controlling heartbeat api
by -·2 years ago

Plugin file size 4.2mbs for just controlling heartbeat api. Overengineer

  • This topic was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by -.
Thank you
by lakenetwork·2 years ago

Much appreciate this plugin which allows me to have more control over optimizing my site – and for free.

Download Trends

Today: 136Yesterday: 122This week: 904Period total: 52K

Compatibility

WordPress3.6+ requiredTested up to 6.3.8
PHP5.3+ required

Version Adoption

v2.0
96.6%
Other
3.4%

Top Alternatives to Heartbeat Control

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Frequently Asked Questions

Changelog

2.0.1

  • Fix PHP warnings & deprecated notices
View full changelog on WordPress.org

Contributors

WP MediaWP MediaWP RocketWP Rocket
Plugin Info
Version
2.0.1
Last Updated
Aug 31, 2023
WP Requires
3.6+
Tested Up To
6.3.8
PHP Requires
5.3+
Active Installs
80K+
Downloads
1.2M+
Added
Nov 16, 2014
Business
Free

Tags

heartbeatadmin-ajaxheartbeat apiserver resourcesheartbeat control

Developer

W
WP Media
8 plugins2.0M+ total installs
View all plugins →

Quick Compare

Heartbeat Control vs Dynamic Front-End Heartbeat Control→Heartbeat Control vs Heartbeat Controller→Heartbeat Control vs AJAX Heartbeat Tool→

Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.