An intranet has no anonymous visitors at all. That removes the technique every other WordPress site leans on, and changes what the hosting has to be good at.
The usual first move — cache the front end — does not exist here, so the work goes everywhere else.
There is no anonymous view of anything, including search results and uploaded files. Access is checked before content is assembled rather than hidden in the template.
Internal search has to exclude what the person searching is not allowed to see. Filtering results after retrieval leaks titles, so permissions are part of the query.
With no page cache to lean on, the object cache and a tuned database are what make an intranet feel quick — every page is generated for the person asking.
Policies, contracts and handbooks are served through access checks, so a link forwarded outside the company does not work for whoever receives it.
Intranet traffic arrives in a narrow band each morning rather than spread across a day, and capacity is planned for that shape.
Most WordPress privacy plugins hide content in the template while leaving it in search results, feeds and uploads. On an intranet each of those is a leak.
With page caching off the table, an intranet's speed comes entirely from how fast it can assemble a page that only one person will ever see.
One property drives all of it: there is no anonymous traffic, so there is nothing a page cache can hold and nothing that may leak.
| Setting | What we do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Page cache | Off across the site rather than bypassed per route | With no anonymous visitors there is nothing to cache, and a rule that only bypasses some routes is a rule that will eventually miss one. |
| Search | Permissions applied inside the query | Filtering results after retrieval still exposes titles and excerpts of documents the searcher is not cleared for. |
| Uploads | Served through access checks with no direct path | A forwarded document link that works outside the company is the most common intranet leak and the easiest to prevent. |
| Feeds and archives | Closed alongside pages | Privacy plugins routinely secure the page template and leave the feed serving the same content to anyone. |
| Capacity planning | Sized for a concentrated morning peak | Staff sign in within the same half hour, so an intranet's daily load is a spike rather than a curve. |
Every plan includes free migration, daily backups, SSL and 24/7 support.
Move the intranet across — migration is free, permissions included.