Salesforce Developer Console, Metadata API, or Salesforce CLI Is Slow — Causes and Resolutions

Reason for Operation Latency

• Unmanaged code volume: The Apex compiler compiles all code dependencies each time a class or component is saved. If the org has a large amount of Apex code (more than approximately 2 MB), compile times increase significantly on every save or push to the platform.
• Asynchronous dequeue delay: Save operations initiated from IDE tools such as Visual Studio Code, Salesforce CLI, or the Developer Console are processed asynchronously. There is an inherent delay between submitting the operation and it being picked up and completed by the platform's deployment queue.
• Large codebase deployments: For large codebases, consider using Apache Ant build scripts with the Salesforce Ant Migration Tool to manage deployments in a more controlled and performant manner. See the Cumulus CI build instructions for an example of how ANT-based deployments can be structured.

Alternative Development Tools with Better Performance

The following development tools offer improved performance compared to the Salesforce Developer Console for large codebases. The Developer Console is optimized for small, targeted edits and is not recommended for large-scale deployments.

• Visual Studio Code with Salesforce Extensions — the recommended IDE for Salesforce development. See Trailhead: Set Up Visual Studio Code.
• Ant Migration Tool — use Apache ANT for deploying and retrieving metadata from your org. ANT-based deployments are faster for large codebases than interactive IDE tools.