.htaccess rewrites a little sluggish - apache

Question

I have the following .htaccess code that tells the server to point certain sub domains to to a sub folder and then also handles the rewriting of the root domains.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
ErrorDocument 404 ./404.php
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^secretplace\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /secretplace/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^payment\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /payment/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^login\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /login/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^signup\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /signup/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^fbauth\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /fbauth/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^masterapi\.testwebsite\.local
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /masterapi/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.testwebsite\.local$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://testwebsite.local/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^testwebsite\.local$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /account_redirect/$1 [P,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^testwebsite\.local$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^ref_([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?ref=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ api.php?function=$1&method=$2&extra=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ api.php?function=$1&method=$2 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ api.php?function=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ $1-$2.php [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule !.*\.php$ %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php [L,QSA]
</IfModule>
It works, but on my local apache install the page loading is real sluggish. It takes a few seconds just to switch between pages.
Just so you know the very last line of code allows me to remove the .php extension from pages. So instead of http://testwebsite.local/features.php, it loads http://testwebsite.local/features/.
RewriteRule !.*\.php$ %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php [L,QSA]
Is there something obvious in my code that I'm doing wrong? I'm not quite sure how to debug .htaccess.

Answer 1

Why are you using P flag instead of L flag ? This requires mod_proxy and can slow down htaccess execution. Seems to me you don't need it in your case.
If i had to write your code myself, it would look like this
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(secretplace|payment|login|signup|fbauth|masterapi)\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /%1/$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^testwebsite\.local$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /account_redirect/$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule . - [L]
RewriteRule ^ref_([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /index.php?ref=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /api.php?function=$1&method=$2&extra=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /api.php?function=$1&method=$2 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^api/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /api.php?function=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /$1-$2.php [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/([^/]+)/?$
RewriteRule ^.*$ /%1.php [L,QSA]