Getting Started

Overview & Architecture

Learn how Clockwork Offloader decouples WordPress uploads to Amazon S3 and delivers them via CloudFront CDN without vendor lock-in.

What is Clockwork Offloader?

Clockwork Offloader is a high-performance WordPress plugin engineered to offload your WordPress media library (images, PDFs, videos, and generated responsive thumbnails) to Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and serve them through Amazon CloudFront or a custom CDN domain.

Traditional WordPress installations store all uploaded media on the local web server filesystem under wp-content/uploads/. As websites grow, this creates massive disk bloat, slows down server backups, and increases hosting tier costs.

Core Design Principle: Clockwork Offloader operates with zero proprietary database lock-in. Your files in S3 strictly mirror your standard WordPress folder hierarchy (e.g. uploads/2026/09/image.jpg or uploads/sites/2/2026/09/image.jpg on multisite). If you ever deactivate the plugin, your media remains standard and intact.

High-Level System Architecture

Here is how media flows when Clockwork Offloader is active:

[ WordPress Admin / User Upload ]
               │
               ▼
   [ WordPress Generates Thumbnails ]
               │
               ▼
[ Clockwork Offloader Background Streamer ]
         │                        │
         ▼ (Immediate)            ▼ (Configurable)
 [ Upload to Amazon S3 ]   [ Delete Local Disk File ]
         │
         ▼
[ Amazon CloudFront Global CDN Edge (< 25ms) ]
         │
         ▼
   [ Public Visitor ]

Lite vs. Pro Feature Comparison

Clockwork Offloader is available as a free, open-source Lite edition and a fully featured Pro edition for power users, agencies, and multisite networks:

Feature	Lite Edition	Pro Edition
Automatic Media Upload to S3	✓ Supported	✓ Supported
CloudFront CDN URL Rewriting	✓ Supported	✓ Supported
Reclaim Web Server Disk Space (Delete Local)	✓ Supported	✓ Supported
WordPress Multisite Network Auto-Sync	✗ Manual / Single	✓ Automatic Inheritance
Bulk Media Library Offload & Verification	✗ Basic	✓ High-Speed Batch Engine
WP-CLI Enterprise Command Suite	✗ Not included	✓ Full CLI Support
CloudFront Cache Invalidation	✗ Manual	✓ Automated 1-Click
1-Click Automated Plugin Updates	WordPress.org	✓ Instant Dashboard Updates

Next Steps

Ready to get started? Follow the step-by-step guides to install the plugin and connect your Amazon S3 bucket:

Next Article → Installation & Setup