PAUL BUNYAN
Paul Bunyan case studies
First-hand records of Paul Bunyan finding real problems on WordPress builds: what it showed, what each problem turned out to be, and what we changed.
Real problems, recorded as they happened.
Each case study comes from a WordPress site our team built and tested with Paul Bunyan running the whole time. We report what Paul Bunyan showed, what the problem turned out to be and what we changed, and we say plainly what each test did not prove.
How these are written: every number comes from Paul Bunyan’s own screens or a measurement we describe on the page. Sites use sample data; no customer names or customer data are published. Because Paul Bunyan is our own tool, these are first-hand development records, not independent reviews.
Case studies.
Paul Bunyan showed WooCommerce running on pages that sell nothing
Paul Bunyan’s Plugins screen showed WooCommerce, Subscriptions and Stripe starting up on every docs page. A small must-use plugin now loads them only on store pages, for logged-out visitors outside the shop.
- Uncached server time: 296.5 → 171.4 ms (42% less)
- Peak memory: 46 → 20 MB; processor time 37% less
- The rules, the 23-request test and the trade-offs are on the page
- The loader is a free plugin download
Nine problems Paul Bunyan found in a custom WooCommerce build
Two days of building and testing a custom ordering, accounts and report-printing plugin on a large legacy theme. Paul Bunyan found a fatal error in report printing, warnings from four places in the theme, a checkout warning after WooCommerce’s order-storage migration and three performance problems.
- Slowest store-manager page: 551 → 213 ms
- Codes: PB-2201, PB-2202, PB-2401, PB-2805
- Includes the false leads and the one problem Paul Bunyan could not see
How we tested ConferenceAxis with Paul Bunyan
A narrow pre-launch check of a WordPress marketing site: seven logged-out page profiles, two contact-form email tests and a missing-page check, with what the records showed and what they did not prove.
- Seven public pages returned HTTP 200 in 142.0–159.7 ms
- Form email work: 165.6 ms and 149.6 ms inside the request
- Branded error page confirmed to still return HTTP 404
Find a case study by problem.
Start from the symptom you are seeing. Each row links to where it happened in a case study and to the matching Paul Bunyan documentation.
Find your own site’s problems.
Paul Bunyan is free on WordPress.org. Install it, use the site normally, then open Fix first for the last 24 hours to see what it ranked.
Get Paul Bunyan free on WordPress.orgQuestions about the case studies
Are these case studies from real sites?
Yes. Each one is a first-hand record from a WordPress site our team built and tested with Paul Bunyan running. The errors, warnings and timings are what Paul Bunyan actually recorded. Development sites use sample data, and no customer names or customer data are published.
Who writes the Paul Bunyan case studies?
The Web Design Ninja team, which builds Paul Bunyan and Diamond Sierra. Because it is our own tool, these are development records, not independent reviews, and each one says what the test did not prove.
Can I run the same diagnosis on my own site?
Yes. Install the free Paul Bunyan plugin from WordPress.org, use the site normally, then open Fix first for the last 24 hours. Each case study ends with the steps we followed.