Alternatives to GTmetrix?
There are several equally valid alternatives to GTmetrix, among the best I can only list:
- PageSpeed
- YSlow
- WebPage Test
GTmetrix is an online tool that allows you to measure the performance of websites regarding loading speed and resource optimization .
GTmetrix is intuitive to use, the results are easy to understand. Its strong point in my opinion is the clarity and simplicity in providing solutions to the problems that emerge in the analysis, sorted by priority and with many links for further information. For each factor analyzed, the best practices to follow to reduce page loading times are recommended, all enriched by very clear insights, explanations and guides.
Main functions
Page monitoring
- GTmetrix analyzes can be scheduled and scheduled daily, weekly or monthly in order to constantly check the performance of the web server.
- GTmetrix PRO (for a fee) allows you to schedule analyzes at any time.
- By registering (even for free) it is possible to have the history of our analyzes so as to be able to see the temporal evolution of our scores.
Notifications
- This feature allows you to receive email notifications when certain conditions occur.
- You can set different conditions based on PageSpeed and YSlow score, page load time, total page size and more, and receive an email as soon as the event occurs.
Test the page from different countries
- GTmetrix allows you to analyze the loading times of a web page from different countries to check the performance of the site internationally.
- The analysis can be launched from 12 servers in 7 areas of the globe
Speed analysis on mobile devices
- With GTmetrix it is possible to analyze the page loading speed even on Android devices.
- GTmetrix visits your page through an Android phone to get real data and loading values.
Video Capture
- GTmetrix records a video with the progress of the loading process highlighting the critical points.
- The video can be slowed down to four times its original speed to study the most important elements to be optimized.
How values are read
GTmetrix’s analysis is divided into three areas: Performance Score, Page Details and Recommendation.
Performance Scores
- Performance Scores are the scores the page received from the two algorithms used by GTmetrix: Google’s PageSpeed and Yahoo’s YSlow.
- Scores range from F for the worst to A for the best.
Page Details
- This box shows three very important information, we can define the KPIs of the analysis: the Page Load Time, Total Page Size and Requests.
- Page Load Timeis the loading time of the page, we tend to use 3 – 4 seconds as a usability limit, no more.
- Total Page Sizerepresents the page size measured in KB. When developing for mobile it is important to minimize the amount of data in HTML pages to make navigation fast. Generally I recommend not to exceed 1.5 MB, but it obviously depends on case to case.
- Requestsis the number of HTTP requests contained in the HTML page. In this value we count cookies, images, CSS and JS files, etc. An excessive number of requests slows down the loading of the page, so it is important to minimize HTTP requests, unify CSS and JS files, use sprites for icons and small images and so on.
Recommendation
- This section lists in order of priority all the factors that slow down the loading of the page.
- The recommendations are divided into tabs: PageSpeed and YSlow recommendations. In the other tabs you will find the waterfall graph, the video recording and the historical data.
- By opening the details of each factor it is possible to obtain more information, in some cases GTmetrix directly provides the code, the file or the optimized image to be replaced on the site.