What do you usually do after visiting a poorly performing site? We assume that you’ll probably leave and forget about this website forever. Your platform can have outstanding design and aesthetics, as well as unique and helpful content.
Yet, your visitors may depart before they see any of it. Every extra second of waiting drives visitors away from your site. Do you want to avoid losing conversions and potential profit? Then, you should understand that speed is important. To improve it, you need to learn how to perform an accurate website speed test.
If you’ve been wondering how to check your website’s performance properly – you’ve come to the right place! Below, we are going to cover the importance of website testing tools and how speed benefits your platform.
Additionally, we’re going to show you how to check your site’s efficiency using 20 free website speed test tools. Let’s get started!
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20 Free Website Speed Test Tools For Analyzing Performance
Website speed test tools can effectively measure loading speed using various settings and different locations. In the end, you’ll get detailed reports and recommendations on how to reduce the load speed.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an advanced user or an amateur. Below, you’ll find a list of reliable and free website testing tools that everyone can handle. Let’s get to it!
1. Google PageSpeed Insights
There’s no better way to fire up our list than with Google’s own website analyzer.
Google PageSpeed Insights is a popular free tool for measuring your platform’s efficiency for both desktop and mobile devices. Not only that, but it can also make your site more appealing to Google’s search engine.
Enter the address of the platform. PageSpeed Insights will examine mobile and desktop variations of your page and give you a score from 0 to 100 points. Google’s free tool helps you achieve a perfect score by giving useful and detailed suggestions for improvement.
As we mentioned before, speed plays a crucial role in Google’s search engine. That’s why this tool is equally as effective in helping you boost your site’s search rankings.
2. GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a straightforward yet powerful service for testing page load speed. It assesses the performance using YSlow and Google PageSpeed tools and provides a detailed report.
You can examine the result more thoroughly by clicking on each recommendation. Additionally, you can compare reports by changing browsers and geographical locations in your account’s settings.
3. Pingdom
Pingdom holds the title of the world’s most popular site monitoring tool. Want to test websites from different regions of the world quickly? Pingdom makes it easy to get exhaustive information about the uptime and performance of your platform from over 70 global polling locations.
At the end of the website speed test, Pingdom gives you a score and a list of suggestions for speed improvement. You can easily access the history of all your tests from your account at any time.
4. Uptrends
Uptrends allow you to check website speed for free using various settings. For example, you can choose a screen resolution, a model of mobile device, and even bandwidth throttling speed.
Uptrends lets you choose from ten various locations for free. That’s nothing unusual. However, if you sign up – you get to pick from over 200 checkpoints worldwide.
5. WebPageTest
An open-source website performance test with the possibility to chose location and browser. Aside from its simplicity, WebPageTest has a tool for advanced users that require additional information.
This is an excellent option for users looking for detailed results about page load speed. WebPageTest gives a variety of loading reports. They include data for video capture, changes in the connection speed, content blocking, and other information that helps improve your platform and maximize conversion rates.
6. IsItWP
Do you want to find a true answer to the question: “How fast is my website?” IsItWP is a free WordPress-based service that allows you to test page load speed and gather accurate results.
Collect detailed information by running multiple speed tests and find out what slows down your site. With IsItWP, you’ll get a precise and nicely structured bits of advice for enhancing your site’s performance. You also can optimize your platform using additional features, such as Uptime Monitoring and WordPress Caching plugin.
7. Neustar
Monitor your website test speed with Neustar’s simple performance test. It’s a fine solution if you want to find and fix problems that slow down your platform.
Neustar locks some of the more refined features behind a free trial. Still, you should be more than satisfied with the amount of information that the Neustar instant test gives you for free.
8. Byte Check
A free website speed test that evaluates performance based on Time To First Byte (TTFB). What is it? TTFB is a type of measurement that gauges how fast end-users receive the first byte of the desired page. Byte Check is an efficient option for sites that run on WordPress-based hosting.
We advise you to run multiple tests and compare results. That way, you can get the fullest picture and find out what aspects require adjustments.
9. Geekflare
Geekflare offers a wide range of free website testing tools. It also has myriads of extra options for analyzing SEO, DNS, web hosting, and security measures.
As for the free tools, you can run a TTFB test, TSL scanner, and search for broken links to boost SEO. But that’s not the best part. You also get a free website performance audit with a thorough summary and conveniently organized suggestions for improvement in under a minute.
10. WhichLoadsFaster.com
It’s time to measure which site is the quickest! WhichLoadsFaster is an excellent and simple way to find out if you can beat your competitors.
You should know that this free tool uses your browser to test the speed. Therefore, you must run multiple tests on different browsers to get accurate results. It’s true that WhichLoadsFaster doesn’t offer much in terms of recommendations for getting your site quicker. Still, you can use it to check if your site outperforms its rivals.
11. Bitcatcha
Bitcatcha is a free website speed test tool that gauges your server’s engine response time based on 10 locations from over the world. And that’s basically it.
You won’t find a detailed report and a list of suggestions on what to improve. Bitcatcha is all about foundations. Want your site to become ultra fast? This tool reminds you that you should start with the base, which is your server speed.
12. Dotcom-tools
Dotcom-tools by Dotcom-Monitor has many tricks up its sleeve, including an effective and free website speed test tool. You can choose to test your platform from 25 geolocations in different parts of the world.
You’ll get a large and exhaustive report. It includes page load results for every location, as well as a list of advanced insights for optimization.
13. Chrome DevTools
How about an excellent tool for people who prefer Google’s browser (and Microsoft Edge Chromium in the near future)? Chrome DevTools is an incredibly popular free extension for analyzing your website.
This tool digs into each of your assets and generates an extensive waterful summary. Chrome DevTools also offers a variety of additional features. For example, you can turn off the Cache and block requests to examine factors that reduce TTFB.
14. New Relic
New Relic is great for users who want to examine and effectively increase their website’s uptime. Furthermore, this tool can dissect your WordPress plugins to show you which ones take the longest time to respond.
This is a top-quality premium software with limited, but helpful free functionality. You can test page loading speed using New Relic’s server, mobile, and performance monitoring apps.
15. Web Page Analyzer
Web Page Analyzer is one of the Web’s earliest website speed checkers. It measures each component of your page and provides succinct advice on the improvement of load time optimization.
It’s a proven and straightforward tool that serves users worldwide since 2003. If its old school interface doesn’t put you off, you should definitely give it a go.
16. Dareboost
Dareboost gathers in-depth data about your page and presents it to you in a thorough report with metric scores, tips, and recommendations for optimization.
All of the results and tips are neatly categorized for your comfort. Furthermore, you can run tests from various regions of the world for both mobile and desktop versions of the site.
17. WebSitePulse
With a free version of WebSitePulse, you can check website speed from three global servers (one is in the US, while others are in Germany and Australia). Still, it’s a powerful and reliable tool for testing URL availability and analyzing internal web objects.
Verified data includes time for DNS, Connect, Redirect, as well as First and Last Bytes. You can select how the information is displayed at the end of the website speed test. For example, the chart could be in Java or Flash, or you can choose to save it as a PNG file.
18. Site 24×7
Site 24×7 is an amazing free website performance test that runs from up to 88 locations all over the world.
Just type the URL of your site, and you’ll get exhaustive info about DNS, First Byte, and Render Data. Site 24×7 display that info for each of its 88 server locations.
19. Pagelocity
Pagelocity is a free web app that you can use to optimize your page load speed. It gathers important information about the platform’s content and the ways in which it affects performance.
At the end of the test, Pagelocity gives three separate ratings for the site’s efficiency, code insights, and even on-page SEO. And, as you might expect, it offers suggestions for the improvement of each aspect.
20. Nibbler
We are ending this top with another straightforward yet powerful analyzer tool. Nibbler will perform a quick test and score essential areas of your site.
Nibbler’s free website speed test shows info about your platform’s accessibility, user-friendliness, the technological side of things, as well as search engine optimization. However, you’ll need to get the Pro version if you want to get access to an advanced website audit feature.
How Website Speed Affects Its Performance?
What do visitors expect to see after following on a link? You might expect that they would like to find new useful information. Perhaps, they are going to enjoy the website’s aesthetics and neat functionality.
And you’ll be right!
But do you want to know what they definitely don’t want to do on a website? The answer is simple: to wait while it loads.
Website speed is one of the main driving factors for user retention, conversion rates, and SEO ranking. If you own a website, you need to understand the importance of website load speed and how crucial it is for users.
- Slow-loading sites drive users away. Statistics show that every fourth visitor leaves a platform that takes over four seconds to load.
- It negatively impacts conversion rates. Every extra second wasted waiting for a platform means 7% less in conversions. If that doesn’t paint you a gloom picture, think about this way. For every $10,000 you make per month, one extra second takes away another $700.
- Slow performance is disastrous for online shopping platforms. Cart abandonment directly links to website performance. Slow speed is the main cause of 75% canceled and uncompleted online purchases.
- Speed impacts reputation. The first impression is paramount for businesses. Studies found that over 2/3 of users perceive businesses based on their site’s performance. If your goal is to have a positive impact on your visitors, you must ask yourself: “How fast is my website, and what can I do to improve it?”
- Fast sites improve Search Engine Optimization. Based on Google Webmaster Blog, search engines factor page load speed during ranking. That’s why you should strive to make your site faster if you want a boost in SEO and incoming traffic.
Also Read
- Best online tools to check website status
- Self-hosted server monitoring tools
- Webserver diskspace explained
Why Is It Important to Check Website Speed Properly?
What is the optimal page load time for maximizing the conversion rate? As experts at skilled.co have found, webpages that load in under 2 seconds have the best results with over 1.9% conversion rate!
Unfortunately, you won’t reach lightning-fast speed easily.
First, you must learn how to run a website performance test correctly. To get precise results about your platform’s efficiency, you should follow our guidelines below.
Check Cache and CDN before performing tests
It’s essential to configure Caching, Firewall, and enable Content Delivery Network on your platform prior to checking website speed. Contacting your hosting provider is the easiest way to do it. Moving site to web hosting vendors with data centers in other locations can significantly improve page load time without additional adjustments.
Test a website from different geolocations
We advise you to use online tools that allow testing speed using various locations worldwide. Aside from providing you with more accurate results, it can help you see how much difference data center location makes for the site’s performance.
Use a website speed test tool several times
Laziness is out of the question if you want to get concrete data. You must test page load speed from different browsers, geographical positions, and at different times of the day. That way, you can see the full picture and identify real problems with your site.
Different tools for different sites
Every website speed tool has its way of analyzing efficiency. Needless to say, you have to try as many platforms as possible if you want to gauge real performance.
Final thoughts
Let’s recap. People hate to wait while a site loads on their devices. Every website owner must understand a simple rule. If you want to retain visitors and maximize conversion rates – every millisecond counts. Literally.
If you strive to achieve lightning-fast performance – learn how to check website speed the right way. That includes configuring your site beforehand, running tests from different geolocations, and using various website analyzers to compare results. And there ain’t a better way to do it than with free website speed test tools we described above.
We hope that you now understand how to run a precise website speed test! Let us know what you think about the above mentioned tools in the comments below.
