Frequently Asked Question about Kitt

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Almost everything you want to know about Kitt Cache Crawler


What is Kitt Cache Crawler?

Kitt is an application that automatically requests all URLs on a website. This process is also known as crawling. However, Kitt does not index any content like a search engine crawler, but leaves it with a request. This crawling serves the sole purpose of warming up the page cache. Thanks to the multithreading mode, Kitt is able to request up to 200,000 URLs within 1 hour without overloading the server. However, Kitt is not a universal crawler like almost every other external crawler or crawler service. On the one hand, Kitt imitates a natural user, which is particularly important, but not only important for LiteSpeed LScache. On the other hand, each Kitt Cache Crawler version is individually adapted to the respective page cache of an application, because not all page caches are the same.

Is Kitt Cache Crawler a Plugin or an Extension?

Kitt is neither a plugin nor an extension. Kitt is an independently functioning application that is installed parallel to the respective main application.

Can Kitt Cache Crawler be used to crawl external Hosts?

No, you can only use Kitt to crawl the URLs on your own host (domain). Each domain requires its own Kitt Cache Crawler installation.

Can Kitt Cache Crawler be used for other Cache Plugins?

The Kitt Cache Crawler is available for various applications and is not limited to a specific page cache or application.

Why do I need a Cache Warmup Crawler?

The answer is simple. Without warming up the Cache with a Crawler each URL must be requested first by User. Depending on number of daily users it can take a lot of time until all URLs are cached.

Is Kitt able to warmup the Cache for logged in Users?

Yes and No. This depends on Application, Cache Plugin or how the Cache works.

Has Kitt really no Timeout Limit?

Yes, it has, but for this feature an Application must be installed on a Server where LiteSpeed Web Server is running. However, the well-known timeout limit is limited to PHP scripts that are executed outside of the command line interface. Even if you don't run a LiteSpeed web server, there is no risk of a timeout when using an Apache web server, since you can also run the Kitt Cache Crawler in the CLI. In the Command Line Interface there is usually no limit to the script execution time.

Why can't Kitt overload the server?

There are 2 main reasons for this. In the case of external crawlers, which are mostly only universal crawlers, they do not receive any feedback from the server about the respective load status. In order not to overload the server, the crawl interval must be very low. This is why external crawlers are always very slow.

The second and even more important reason is that Kitt has an adaptive and dynamic load control that checks the load state in real time while crawling. If this exceeds a limit, Kitt automatically reduces the crawl speed and increases it again if the limit is undershot. As a result, there can never be an overload. The presumably decisive advantage is that Kitt can be run at any time of the day because the frontend operation is not affected by the automatic load management.

What are the Requirements to run Kitt Cache Crawler?

The Requirements depend on which Version for which Application is used, because each Crawler Version is different. That's why the requirements are different. The respective requirements are listed in the description of each Kitt Cache Crawler version. There you will also find a test program that you can download with which you can find out in a matter of seconds whether the server meets the necessary requirements.

Is Kitt Cache Crawler Multisite ready?

No, but we don't want to generally rule out the possibility that there may also be crawler versions in the future that are multisite ready.

Why is Kitt Cache Crawler so fast?

Kitt works in the so-called multithreading mode. This means that Kitt does not request the URLs serially, i.e. not one after the other, but requests many URLs simultaneously. The number of URLs to be accessed simultaneously can be set. But you should stick to the preset ones, as they have been tested several times for different server types. A (too) high number of simultaneous requests does not necessarily increase the crawl speed, since Kitt only increases the speed if the increased speed does not result in erroneous requests.

There is no Kitt Version for my Application available

If there is no Kitt Cache Crawler version available for your page cache or application, you can still be confident that we will offer other versions. But we have to make further versions dependent on interest. If you are urgently looking for an individual solution to warm up your cache, then simply contact us.

Is it difficult to install Kitt Cache Crawler?

Not at all! Kitt comes with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) Installer. You only have to transfer the Kitt Install Directory from the Download Archive via FTP to your Server where you Application is installed and run the Installer GUI in Browser. There you only have to enter Database Parameters to install Kitt in the same database of your Application. That's it. It takes less than a minute to install Kitt and can be done by everyone.

Why doesn't Kitt support DirectAdmin?

DirectAdmin uses a configuration for server administration that has been considered obsolete for more than 10 years. Kitt is backwards compatible, but not infinite. Because of this, Kitt cannot support DirectAdmin server management.

Is Kitt Cache Crawler free?

Yes and no. Basically Kitt Cache Crawler is free to download and free to test without any limitations. For a trail periode of 14 days you can test Kitt without any limits. If you are happy with Kitt just buy a license that you can order within Kitt Control Panel. You should use the trial period because during this trial period you get a discount of up to 70%. Depending on the version used, you can save up to 70% of the regular purchase price. The discounted price starts at €29.

For the purchase of a license you get unlimited 1st level support and updates! Support requests are processed within 24 hours, even on weekends.

Why isn't LiteSpeed LScache crawler as fast as Kitt Cache Crawler?

There are several reasons for this. Basically, both crawlers use the same technology, but with different applications. LiteSpeed treats the LiteSpeed Cache Crawler rather neglected, although warming up the cache actually has the highest priority. The Kitt Cache Crawler, on the other hand, uses the full potential of this technology and thus achieves crawl times that exceed the built-in crawler many times over without overloading the server. Kitt is therefore unique and unmatched by any other cache warmer.

In addition, Kitt is not bound by the inherent limitations of WordPress. If the Kitt Cache Crawler were a plugin, Kitt would only perform slightly better than the respective main application. So there is a profound reason why Kitt is an application in its own right.