50,000 Full Update — with Scalability Pro

With Scalability Pro active, WP All Import Pro applied a full 50,000-product update in 2h 23m — about 8× faster than the same update without it (20h 11m). Scalability Pro has long been how stores keep WP All Import usable at scale, and this benchmark confirms the boost is real and large. For context on the same server, Super Speedy Imports does the identical update in about 60 seconds. Full numbers, dataset and reproduce steps below.

Summary

• WP All Import + Scalability Pro: 2h 23m (8,619s) for a full 50,000-product update, ~5.8 products/sec.
• The SPRO effect: ~8× faster than WP All Import alone (20h 11m → 2h 23m). If you stay on WP All Import at this scale, Scalability Pro is close to essential.
• Scenario: full update of an existing 50,000-product catalogue — 47,500 kept (5,000 changed), 2,500 added, 2,500 removed.
• Config: WP All Import Pro 5.0.6 + WooCommerce add-on 4.0.6, with Scalability Pro active and its database indexes + performance options applied and verified before the run.
• Compared with: Super Speedy Imports — about 60s on identical hardware and data (still ~140× faster than WP All Import + SPRO).

Results

Metric	WP All Import Pro	WP All Import + SPRO	Super Speedy Imports (+ SPRO)
Total time	20h 11m (72,685s)	2h 23m (8,619s)	~60s
Records / sec	~0.69	~5.8	~820–847
Time per product	~1.45s	~0.17s	~0.0012s
Speed vs WP All Import alone	1×	~8× faster	~1,100–1,200× faster

Where the time goes

An un-tuned WP All Import update is dominated by per-row database work — and at 50,000 rows that work hits unindexed lookups against a large wp_postmeta table, which is what makes the plain update take 20+ hours. Scalability Pro adds the database indexes and query/cache optimisations that remove those slow lookups, cutting the update to 2h 23m — an ~8× win. What it doesn’t change is WP All Import’s fundamental row-by-row model, so the floor is still per-product processing across 50,000 rows. Super Speedy Imports matches and writes in bulk SQL across parallel workers, which is why it lands at ~60s rather than hours.

Key findings

• Scalability Pro delivers a real, large speed-up to WP All Import on updates — ~8× here. If you run WP All Import at this scale, it’s a genuinely worthwhile pairing.
• Even tuned with SPRO, WP All Import’s 2h 23m is ~140× slower than Super Speedy Imports’ ~60s. SPRO accelerates WP All Import’s per-row work; it doesn’t replace the row-by-row model, which is the real ceiling.
• WP All Import + SPRO produced the correct catalogue (50,000 products, 2,500 trashed); the difference is purely time.

↔ Compare: the same update without Scalability Pro (20h 11m), or from Super Speedy Imports’ side (~60s).

Methodology

Environment

• Server: Hetzner CPX32 — 4 vCPU (AMD), 8 GB RAM, 160 GB SSD, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
• Stack: WooCommerce 10.3, PHP 8.2, MariaDB 10.6, WordPress 7.0.
• Plugins: WP All Import Pro 5.0.6 + WooCommerce add-on 4.0.6 (single process); Scalability Pro active with indexes + performance options applied. Super Speedy Imports 2.55.7 (8 workers) for comparison.

Test setup

• Source: a 50,000-row update feed derived from the original 50k catalogue (47,500 kept + 2,500 added + 2,500 removed + 5,000 changed).
• SPRO state: from a clean wpai-50k-loaded base, Scalability Pro was activated and its indexes + performance options applied and verified present before timing.
• State: update applied over the existing loaded 50k catalogue; snapshot-reset between runs.
• Images: already present from the initial load — not re-downloaded during the update.

Rules & measurement

• Same update feed, same hardware, same scope, same expected end-state (50,000 products, 2,500 trashed) as the no-SPRO and Super Speedy Imports runs.
• Headline figure is total wall-clock duration; records/sec and time-per-product are derived from it.
• This run is a clean, verified re-measure — it supersedes an earlier indicative ~2h figure whose SPRO configuration was never confirmed.

This is not intended as a universal benchmark — your data shape, hardware and hosting will differ. It is one carefully controlled, fully reproducible scenario.

Dataset

• Products: 50,000 existing, of which 5,000 changed, 2,500 added, 2,500 removed.
• Taxonomies: product_cat, product_brand, plus variation attributes pa_color and pa_size.
• Metadata: SKU, regular/sale price, weight.
• Images: already present from the initial load — not re-downloaded during the update.

Reproduce

The update feed and the exact WP All Import Pro template are in the bundle below. To reproduce the SPRO result you also need Scalability Pro active with its indexes and performance options applied.

• Download: wpai-benchmark-50000-update.zip
• Contains the update + original feeds, wpai-template-export.json, taxonomies.json, results JSON and a HOW-TO-REPRODUCE.md.

Steps (WP All Import Pro + Scalability Pro)

1. Start from a loaded 50,000-product WooCommerce catalogue.
2. Activate Scalability Pro and apply its database indexes + performance options (Scalability Pro does nothing on activation alone — the indexes and options must be applied).
3. wp-admin → All Import → re-run the import with the update feed; map columns or import wpai-template-export.json.
4. Run for a clean timing: time wp all-import run <id>.

If your results differ significantly, tell us — we’d like to know.

FAQ

Does Scalability Pro really speed up WP All Import?

Yes — about 8× on this 50,000-product update (20h 11m down to 2h 23m). It adds the database indexes and optimisations that an un-tuned WordPress lacks at this scale. If you’re staying on WP All Import, it’s a recommended pairing.

Then why move to Super Speedy Imports?

Because even SPRO-tuned WP All Import (2h 23m) is ~140× slower than Super Speedy Imports (~60s) on the identical update. SPRO speeds up WP All Import’s per-row work, but SSI avoids the row-by-row model entirely with bulk SQL — and SSI + Scalability Pro is faster and more stable still.

Is this the same Scalability Pro?

Yes — the same plugin, applied with its indexes and performance options (and verified present before the run).

Can I reproduce this locally?

Yes — download the bundle above and apply Scalability Pro. Absolute times depend on your hardware, but the ~8× SPRO improvement and the gap to Super Speedy Imports should hold.