Best Website Speed Test Tools and Optimization Plugins in 2024
Last updated on Nov 28th, 2024 | 15 min
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According to research conducted by Backlinko:
“The average page loading speed for a first-page result in Google is 1.65 seconds.”
However, the benefits of a website loading in less than 2 seconds spread out of just ranking in Google’s top 10 results.
Serving optimized content faster than your competitors means:
To achieve this level of web performance, you must strike the right balance between regular testing and applying site speed optimizations promptly.
That’s why in this article, we’ve gathered a list of the best website speed test tools and web performance optimization solutions to skyrocket your site in 2024.
Let’s begin!
The popular site speed testing tools have a similar UI and data visualization, but that doesn't mean the information they give you is the same.
For instance, you might use one tool for checking your Core Web Vitals. Another for testing your website from different locations. A third for inspecting your site’s waterfall chart.
Regardless, these are the three things you shouldn’t compromise with when using a testing tool:
And here are our top 3 picks that can provide you with all that.
Based on our experience, these three testing tools will help you analyze your site’s performance in the best possible way.
First on our list is no other than Google’s PageSpeed Insights. PSI has been the go-to site speed testing tool for years.
It has a very intuitive design which makes it equally easy to use by beginners as well as developers.
How to use it effectively
The report page is divided into sections, starting with the Core Web Vitals assessment.
Use the real-user experience data to assess how well your visitors perceive your website.
Next up are PSI’s Performance score and the Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO scores.
Since they are based on lab data, you can use them for testing and debugging purposes.
At the bottom of your PageSpeed Insights report, you’ll find the Opportunities & Diagnostics panel, where all improvement suggestions are listed.
Pros and Cons of PageSpeed Insights
Pro: A Google-developed speed-testing tool
Pro: The best way to monitor your Core Web Vitals
Pro: Granular data and informative improvement suggestions
Con: No waterfall chart analysis
Con: Cannot change the location from which your site’s tested
If you’re interested in learning more about it, jump to our beginner’s guide on how to use PageSpeed Insights.
WebPageTest is the perfect tool to monitor how your website performs globally, as it allows you to test from different locations, devices, and networks.
How to use it effectively
You can run Site Performance, Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse, Visual Comparison, and Traceroute tests.
Moreover, you can select from two configuration modes:
The Advanced mode allows for all kinds of configurations, but you will need to have a technical background to get the most out of it.
After running your site through WebPageTest, you will end up with a complete performance report that includes:
Pros and Cons of WebPageTest
Pro: Option to test your site from different locations, browsers, and devices
Pro: The advanced configuration mode allows for numerous different settings
Pro: Includes granular data and various performance reports
Con: The large number of reports could overwhelm you if you’re a beginner
Con: You’d need technical knowledge to get the most out of the advanced configuration
GTmetrix is another well-known speed-testing tool that is “kind of similar” to WebPageTest in terms of configuration settings.
How to use it effectively
The basic version of GTmetrix is free, and you can gain access to several options simply by signing up for an account.
You can choose from different locations:
The additional options include the ability to create a video that helps you debug issues as you can see how the page renders. And the AdBlock feature is excellent if you’re running 3rd party ad network and want to see the full impact ads have on your load times.
Also, you can send a cookie along with your request, use HTTP authentication, and the ability to allowlist and blocklist URLs.
GTmetrix’s performance reports are divided into different categories:
Pros and Cons of GTmetrix
Pro: Easy to navigate UI
Pro: Numerous performance reports
Pro: Option to test your site from different locations
Con: You can’t run mobile tests unless you have a paid subscription
Con: The Core Web Vitals report is based on lab data
Con: You need a paid subscription to unlock all features
Regularly testing your website’s performance is half of the job.
If you truly want to achieve “1.65 seconds load time” and join Google’s first page results and everything that comes with having a fast-loading site, you need to get your hands dirty.
In other words - you need to act on all of those improvement suggestions that PSI, WebPageTest, and GTmetrix provide you with.
Now here’s the thing:
Some of the enhancement opportunities might be complex and require dev work. However, most of them can be easily fixed with the right toolset.
With that being said, here’s a list of tools that can help you along the way:
It’s been proven time and time again that images increase user engagement. However, if unoptimized, they can massively hurt your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) score and slow down your page’s loading time.
While there are a lot of great plugins that can automatically optimize your images, in case you prefer one-off solutions, you can rely on online tools as well:
Compress JPEG is an online tool that compresses JPEG, PNG, GIF, and PDF files.
Regardless of the file type, Compress JPEG applies lossy compression.
How to use it effectively
It’s a straightforward process.
Upload a file, then the tool automatically determines the ideal compression ratio and optimizes it.
If you are ok with the compression ratio, you can instantly download it. If not - you can manually adjust it.
Once you’re happy with the results, you can download it.
Pros and Cons of Compress JPEG
Pro: Straightforward process
Pro: Easy to navigate UI
Pro: Instant results
Con: Lossy compression reduces both the size and quality of the optimized image
JPEG Optimizer is an online image compression and conversion tool.
How to use it effectively
Upload your file (JPEG format only) and configure the desired settings before starting the optimization process.
You can tweak the image quality after optimization, set a value for maximum size, and resize the compressed image.
Once you’re done, just click on Compress and Download all.
Pros and Cons of JPEG Optimizer
Pro: Easy to navigate UI
Pro: Optimization settings available
Pro: Option to convert the optimized image into another format
Con: You can only upload images in JPEG format
Although it has png in its name, TinyPNG isn’t limited to optimizing PNG files. You can also compress WebP and JPEG files.
How to use it effectively
Optimizing images cannot be easier.
After uploading the image and running the optimization, you will see the before and after sizes and an option to download the image:
That’s it!
Pros and Cons of TinyPNG
Pro: Simple optimization process
Pro: Can optimize WebP and JPEG images along with PNG
Con: Lossy compression reduces both the size and quality of the optimized image
Con: Can’t manually tweak optimization settings
Do it automatically: By installing NitroPack, you get all of our advanced image optimization features. This includes automatically applying lossy compression, converting all images to WebP, and ensuring images fit their containers perfectly.
Some of your CSS files might be render-blocking. When the browser encounters them, it must download, parse, and execute them before doing anything else.
Put simply - all of your other resources are put on hold, and your visitors are staring at a blank screen. Yikes!
To eliminate render-blocking resources like CSS, you have to optimize them. Here are three tools that could help you:
As the name suggests, CSS Minify optimizes your site’s CSS by applying minification.
How to use it effectively
You can paste your code, input your site’s URL, or load a file. After that, the tool starts optimizing your code by removing the spacing, indentation, newlines, and comments.
That’s it!
In some cases, your code might get up to 20% smaller after minification resulting in a faster download time.
Pros and Cons of CSS Minify
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: Different code uploading options
Con: Have to do it manually
CSS Beautifier & Minifier works similarly to our previous suggestion.
How to use it effectively
Simply paste your code, upload a file, or input your page’s URL. Then, the tool automatically starts optimizing your code. Then, all you have to do is copy and paste it back into your site.
Pros and Cons of CSS Beautifier & Minifier
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: Different code uploading options
Pro: CSS beautifying option
Con: Have to do it manually
CSS Optimizer is a code minification tool that is more suitable for advanced users as it provides you with a long list of optimization options.
How to use it effectively
The upload process is standard - you could paste your code or input an URL, but then you get to select from numerous options:
If you aren’t comfortable navigating through all options, we recommend you ask a developer to help. Otherwise, you risk breaking your site’s code.
Pros and Cons of CSS Optimizer
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: A large number of code optimization options
Con: Have to do it manually
Con: You’ll need to rely on a web developer if you don’t have technical skills
Do it automatically: Relying on NitroPack, you will automatically get your CSS files optimized. That includes Critical CSS, reducing unused CSS, and minification and concatenation.
Last year, Google announced that Googlebot will crawl up to the first 15MB of HTML of a page and then stop.
While having a 15MB HTML web page is unthinkable, it doesn’t mean that anything below this threshold is acceptable.
If your goal is a fast-loading site, your code should be as lean as possible.
And these tools could get you there:
It’s a pretty straightforward HTML Minifier and Compressor tool.
How to use it effectively
All you have to do is paste your page’s HTML. Then the tool will compress it and remove the unnecessary parts like whitespace and comments.
Pros and Cons of Toptal HTML Minifier
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: Instant optimization
Con: Have to do it manually
Con: Need to hire a developer if you’re not comfortable with tweaking your site’s code
The HTML Minifier runs your markup through a series of regular expressions written in PHP to optimize your code.
How to use it effectively
Again, it’s a straightforward process - copy and paste your code and hit ‘Minify.’ That’s it.
Pros and Cons of HTML Minifier
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: Instant optimization
Con: Have to do it manually
Con: Need to hire a developer if you’re not comfortable with tweaking your site’s code
Code Beautify will minify your HTML code and brush off some KBs.
How to use it effectively
Paste your code, upload a file, or input your page’s URL. Then, hit ‘Minify.’ You’re done!
Yes, it’s that easy!
Pros and Cons of Code Beautify
Pro: Easy to use
Pro: Instant optimization
Pro: Multiple HTML uploading options
Con: Have to do it manually
Con: Need to hire a developer if you’re not comfortable with tweaking your site’s code
Do it automatically: You don’t have to think about your site’s HTML size. NitroPack will compress and minify it for you. All you have to do is install it in less than 3 minutes.
All your visitors outside of where your site’s hosting report that it takes ages for a page to load? You need a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
A CDN consists of many geographically distributed servers at different locations around the world. Its main job is to shorten the physical distance between your visitor and the web server, resulting in faster load times.
And these are some of the best options for your to explore:
Cloudflare is one of the leading CDN providers in the world. They are trusted by companies like IBM, L’Oreal, and Garmin.
Their CDN network is one of the fastest on the planet, reaching 95% of the world’s population within approximately 50 ms.
Their servers are positioned in 275 cities in 100+ countries worldwide, which means you’ll be near your customers regardless of their location.
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service built for high performance, security, and developer convenience.
It can help you reduce network latency by delivering data through 450+ globally placed Points of Presence (PoPs) with automated network mapping and intelligent routing.
Companies that trust CloudFront include Hulu, Slack, Reuters, and more.
KeyCDN is a high-performance content delivery network allowing you to deliver content to your users quickly.
Its coverage includes 60+ data centers in 40+ countries spread across 6 continents.
Some of the biggest companies in the world serve their content through KeyCDN’s global network - Intel, Sennheiser, and GoDaddy.
Everything included: Installing NitroPack means you get access to 35+ industry-leading web performance optimization features and a built-in CDN provided by Cloudflare. All are included in the price.
The tools listed in this article are just a drop in the bucket of all the available solutions out there.
There are a ton of free plugins, paid solutions, and online tools to choose from. It’s a bit overwhelming.
So here are three general rules we believe you should follow when selecting a tool:
The whole idea behind relying on a tool is to streamline a process. It doesn’t matter if you want to optimize images, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript - it has to be fast, effective, and efficient.
You don’t want to spend a couple of hours getting used to a solution just to realize it’s not what you’re looking for.
All the free online site speed optimization tools out there might not be free after all.
If you don’t have the tech skills to manage your site’s code, it’s risky to update it single-handedly. Hence, you will need to hire a developer who can do it for you.
On the other hand, installing multiple site speed plugins might be tempting if you’re using one of the popular content management systems like WordPress.
But remember - that’s a double-edged sword.
You might end up dealing with compatibility issues, bloated databases, and a massive increase in HTTP requests.
Put simply, instead of speeding up your website, you will achieve the opposite.
A tool’s price is something you should definitely consider.
You probably think:
“I’ve just started. I don’t have enough resources to pay for speed optimization tools.”
We get it. At the beginning of your journey is normal to rely on free solutions.
However, as time passes, you’ll understand that it’s always better to rely on premium solutions as they come with premium features, better support, and better results.
When that time comes, make sure to get the best value for your money.
Using free online tools or installing multiple plugins aren’t the only site speed optimization options.
There’s a third way - relying on a powerful all-in-one solution like NitroPack.
NitroPack is a cloud-based web performance optimization solution that combines more than 35 site speed features:
It requires no coding or technical skills, and you’ll need no more than 3 minutes to install it on your website. Then, all optimizations are applied automatically.
No manual work.
No bloating your website with multiple, incompatible plugins.
Install. Connect. And see all your website’s performance issues gone.
Niko has 5+ years of experience turning those “it’s too technical for me” topics into “I can’t believe I get it” content pieces. He specializes in dissecting nuanced topics like Core Web Vitals, web performance metrics, and site speed optimization techniques. When he’s taking a breather from researching his next content piece, you’ll find him deep into the latest performance news.