Why should you care about web performance you may ask? Well there many reasons but there are four vital reasons that will peak your interest. Firstly you want your website to be able to retain your users. Secondly, it'll improve your conversions meaning fast sites has a positive impact on your revenue, and the opposite is true as well. Thirdly, it's about providing a good user experience and lastly, it's about the people, meaning poorly designed websites will pose real cost to the people who use them. We have picked out 10 best web performance tests that you can use on your web application.
10 Web Performance Tests
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is a website speed test tool that grades your website on a scale out of 1 to 100 and giving you the option to test it on either mobile or desktop. The higher the number the better optimised your site is. As a rule of thumb anything that is above 85 is a good indication that your website is performing well. With the results of the information it also allows you to view recommendations for improvements.
KeyCDN
KeyCDN is another website speed test tool out there that gives you detailed information about your website performance. It also allows you to choose from 14 locations around the world when testing and allows the test results to be public or private. Additionally, it includes a waterfall breakdown and preview of your website, and works great on mobile devices and is responsive.
Pingdom
Pingdom is one of the more well-known website speed test tools, it provides reports that are divided into four different sections which includes waterfall breakdown, performance grade, page analysis, and history. It allows you to test from their provided four main locations, the page analysis offers great overview and similar to Google PageSpeed Insights it'll outline parts where you can make improvements.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix similar to Google PageSpeed Insights, instead of giving you a score out of 100 it assigns your site with a grade from F to A. The reports are split into five different sections including PageSpeed, YSlow, waterfall breakdown, video, and history. By default, location is set to Canada however if you pay you can also test from seven different locations and choose the type of browser to test, Chrome vs Firefox. Additionally, it allows for performance testing against various connection types and also the ability to run Adblock.
Uptrends
Uptrends has servers worldwide within 9 cities and provides the essential metrics into two sections, a waterfall breakdown and a domain breakdown. It also allows to test on different devices and browser to tests which includes Chrome, Firefox, IE and Phantom JS.
WebPageTest
Although the design is outdated, WebPageTest is another web performance tool which has over 40 locations to choose from and over 25 browser. Similar to GTmetrix it assigns you a grade from F to A based on their performance tests. It's report is split into six sections which includes summary, details, performance review, content breakdown, domains, and screen shot.
Varvy Pagespeed Optimization
Varvy Pagespeed Optimization reports broken into 5 different sections including a resource diagram, css delivery, javascript usage, page speed issues found, and services used. This tool also includes documentation and tutorials on how to further optimise your site.
Dotcom-Monitor
Dotcom-Monitor allows you to test your website speed results from up to 22 locations simultaneously. It also enables you to test it from different browsers and devices which include Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, Android and Blackberry. The reports is split into five different sections this includes a summary, performance, waterfall breakdown, host, and errors.
SUCURI Load Time Tester
SUCURI Load Time Tester similar to Dotcom-Monitor it allows you to check your website simultaneously from 15 locations and provides average response time and a performance grade.
Website Grader
Website Grader is a quick and simple tool to use with a report that splits into four sections the performance, mobile, SEO and security. Also provides links to reduce your issues and give a guideline of where your website should be trying to aim for.
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References
Jeremy Wagner. (2019). Why Performance Matters. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/why-performance-matters/
Brian Jackson. (2018). Top 15 Free Website Speed Test Tools of 2018. Retrieved from https://www.keycdn.com/blog/website-speed-test-tools
Martin Williams. (2016). KeyCDN Tools - Analyze Website Speed and Performance. Retrieved from https://www.keycdn.com/blog/keycdn-tools-analyze-website-speed
Joe. (2018). Google PageSpeed Insights Explained. Retrieved from https://speedboostr.com/google-pagespeed-insights-explained/
GTmetrix. (2019). Gtmetrix. Retrieved from https://gtmetrix.com/
Saurabh Saha. (2013). Top 10 Free Online Tools To Check Website Speed for Desktop / Mobiles. Retrieved from https://www.techgyd.com/top-10-free-online-tools-to-check-website-speed-for-desktop-mobiles/2362/
Chandan Kumar. (2018). 10 Best Tools to Test Website Load Speed Worldwide. Retrieved from https://geekflare.com/test-your-website-load-time/
Dotcom-Monitor (2019). Measure Performance in the Latest Browsers. Retrieved from https://www.dotcom-monitor.com/website-speed-monitoring/
