If you are building a website, good website performance isn’t just about using the right analysis tools – it begins with a solid foundation, and having a well-configured and responsive server is essential.
Table of Contents
What is GTmetrix?
While GTmetrix offers a free version with many features, it also offers paid plans that unlock more advanced capabilities, such as increased test limits, monitoring, and detailed historical analysis. The free version is still functional but has limitations compared to the paid versions.Throughout this post, we’ve discussed various web performance analysis tools and explored the strengths and unique benefits each offers. We have compared and evaluated various tools, and whether you are looking for a one-time audit, ongoing monitoring of site speed and core web vitals, or debugging locally with browser tools, you can find something that fits your needs.
- Simulated User Experience: GTmetrix simulates a real user accessing your website from various locations and using different browser configurations (Chrome, Firefox). This allows you to understand how your site performs under different conditions and for a global audience.
- Performance Audits: GTmetrix runs a series of performance audits based on Google PageSpeed Insights and its own recommendations. These audits identify areas that need optimization and provide clear, actionable suggestions.
- Historical Data Tracking: You can save and track reports over time to monitor the impact of code changes and server configurations on performance. This allows you to detect regressions and fine-tune your website over time.
- Multiple Testing Options: GTmetrix allows you to run tests from different locations, simulating various user experiences. You can also specify connection speeds and devices.
- Integration and Automation: GTmetrix provides API access for integration with other tools and for automating performance testing as part of your CI/CD pipeline. This allows for continuous and repeatable testing.
Why it’s a great alternative: Calibre offers granular data over time and alerts you to performance regressions. It’s designed for teams that need to integrate performance testing into their CI/CD pipelines. This allows developers to observe trends, identify regressions after updates, and ensure long-term site health. This long-term trend analysis is particularly valuable because it allows you to make strategic decisions based on real user data. This continuous monitoring and integration approach complements GTmetrix’s ad-hoc analysis.DebugBear is best for projects that require ongoing, in-depth performance analysis and tracking, and is especially well suited for sites that must keep up with Core Web Vitals and performance regressions. DebugBear excels at providing a more detailed and actionable approach to performance monitoring.
Limitations of GTmetrix
The platform is not just a single tool but a collection of modular components, including Browsertime (for timing metrics), Coach (for best practice analysis), PageXray (for page resource analysis), and Throttle (for network emulation), all managed and unified by the primary sitespeed.io tool. This modular design enables users to assemble a performance analysis workflow that precisely meets their needs, making it suitable for both simple tests and complex, large-scale monitoring.
- Synthetic Tests are Not Real: GTmetrix relies on synthetic testing, which simulates a user experience through a virtual browser. This is great for controlled experiments and consistent measurements but doesn’t always perfectly represent real user behavior. Factors like network conditions, device capabilities, and user interactions affecting page load vary significantly. To get a complete picture, you should complement GTmetrix data with RUM tools (Real User Monitoring) that capture actual usage data.
- Focus on Front-End Performance: GTmetrix is heavily focused on front-end performance, which is how the browser delivers and renders the page. While it will identify server performance issues (like slow TTFB), it won’t provide insight into server-side bottlenecks, database performance, or application-specific code.
- Test Server Variation: While the tests are controlled, variations in test server load or network conditions may occasionally affect results. Run tests multiple times to verify consistency. Having highly variable results might indicate an external problem with the test or the tested website’s server.
- Limited Device Emulation: GTmetrix emulates a limited set of mobile devices and browsers. For in-depth testing on a wide range of devices, you still need to rely on other tools, such as browser device emulators and real device testing.
Why it’s a great alternative:It offers advanced configuration options for more complex testing requirements. Additionally, WebPageTest provides practical recommendations categorized into “Opportunities”, “Tips”, and “Pro” experiments. The “Is it Usable?” and “Is it Resilient?” sections give performance metrics for these key web factors often missed by other tools.
Top 8 GTmetrix Alternatives
Why it’s a great alternative:The depth of information offered by the Firefox Profiler goes beyond simple performance metrics. It captures low-level browser operations, which enable developers to diagnose issues that might not be apparent through other tools. This feature is especially useful for tracking how efficiently data is handled within a web application.
1 – DebugBear
Generally, a good website loading speed is under 3 seconds for the initial page load, with under 2.5 seconds being optimal; however, Core Web Vitals metrics such as LCP should be under 2.5 seconds.Start building lightning-fast websites today with RunCloud!
The Lighthouse report breaks down the performance analysis into four key categories: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. The report begins with an overall performance and individual scores for each performance metric. It provides both numeric values and a visual grade indicating whether the metric is considered good, needs improvement, or is poor.Here are some of the most popular alternatives to GTmetrix, which can be used to evaluate the performance of websites and web applications.WebPageTest is best for developers who need highly granular control over testing environments and for in-depth debugging of performance issues. It presents both synthetic test results and real-user metrics. Furthermore, users can even inspect videos of each test run to identify any visual issues during page load. By breaking down the resources by type and size, WebPageTest makes it easy for developers to identify areas that need to be optimized. This powerful set of features gives developers all the tools they need to find performance bottlenecks.
2 – SpeedVitals
It produces real-world data, which is vital for understanding how your site performs for actual users. For example, in the above report we can see metrics are categorized as “Good”, “Needs Improvement”, and “Poor”, with a percentage breakdown to show the distribution. It also provides a 25-week trend graph for these metrics.
Suggested read: Website Load Testing – How To Test Website Performance At ScaleRunCloud gives you control over server configurations and optimizes your server-side processes. This can drastically reduce your site’s load time and improve the user’s experience.SpeedVitals is a performance testing tool that provides a user-friendly interface with in-depth performance analysis. It takes a visual approach to analyzing metrics such as FCP, LCP, and CLS. Additionally, it provides core web vitals and page speed scores. It also includes real user monitoring and continuous monitoring.By offering a 75th percentile view, Calibre reliably represents the user experience rather than relying on averages that outliers can skew. The histogram visualization gives developers a clear idea of the metric’s distribution, highlighting the range of user experiences.Ready to take your site’s performance to the next level?
3 – Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights provides both real-world user experience data and lab-based diagnostic information. At the top of the report, it presents a clear summary of “Core Web Vitals” based on real user data from the Chrome UX Report (CrUX). It also shows some additional user metrics, such as FCP and TTFB, which are useful in measuring the quality of user experience and provide a benchmark for performance improvements. It is important to note that this data is gathered from real Chrome users and will not be available for every website.Here are a few reasons why people use GTmetrix to evaluate their web performance:
Experts can dive even deeper to analyze which part of the page is the last to load, and it even shows animations of where page elements might shift around to help pinpoint the root of the problem. One of the best sections of the report is the “Code Coverage” area, which shows parts of the website’s code that aren’t even being used. This is helpful because eliminating unused code can make the site much faster.GTmetrix is a common tool for checking website performance, but it’s not the only one.
4 – Firefox Profiler
The Lighthouse analyzer is built into Chromium browsers and provides a comprehensive website performance audit. You can open it by navigating to the desired URL in your browser and switching to the Lighthouse tab in the Developer tools menu.Suggested read: Uptime Monitoring Tools: Why You Need Them, and What to Look forFurther, it emphasizes not being a “black box” solution by allowing the end user to configure different parameters through its command-line interface. This flexibility and control extend to deployment and integration – Sitespeed.io can be easily deployed using Docker, which provides a ready-to-go environment with necessary browsers and dependencies, drastically simplifying the setup process. It also offers traditional installation using npm, which opens up usage for many developers.
Why it’s a great alternative: It is integrated directly into Google Chrome and provides instant performance audits without leaving the browser. This is especially useful during development for iterative feedback loops.It also flags issues related to initial server response time, JavaScript execution, and network payloads, giving a full look at the site’s performance. For accessibility, the report identifies issues with names and labels, ARIA attributes, contrast, tables and lists, and navigation using headings, which developers can use to ensure a website is usable to everyone.As the name suggests, PageSpeed Insights was developed by Google, and it uses the same technology as Google crawl bots to track your website. It offers scores, audits, and specific recommendations based on Google’s web performance best practices, particularly relevant for SEO.It also uses data to measure specific metrics for elements on the page to further understand how the user experiences the site. For example, we can track how long it takes for the first piece of text or image to show up, how fast the page feels like it’s loading, and how long before the user can fully interact with the page. The report also breaks down the size of different types of files, like JavaScript, images, and CSS, to show which ones take up the most space and slow down the website.
5 – WebPageTest
PageSpeed Insights is a reliable tool for measuring web performance because it is based on the same methodology Google uses to assess website performance. The provided data and recommendations align with Google’s SEO ranking factors and best practices, making it a key tool for SEO optimization.Website speed matters – if your site loads slowly, people will leave.GTmetrix offers more granular detail with its waterfall analysis and is generally more flexible for testing various parameters. At the same time, PageSpeed Insights provides scores and recommendations directly relevant to Google’s ranking criteria. Which is better depends on your specific needs, such as deep performance debugging or general compliance with Google’s guidelines.
It is well-suited for users who want a tool that offers a very rich visual representation of page performance and an easy-to-grasp summary of common metrics. The SpeedVitals report gives a good overview of how well a website performs, using a combination of easy-to-understand grades and numbers alongside technical analysis for those who want more details.A clean and concise interface provides developers insights into critical metrics such as TTFB, FCP, Speed Index, LCP, CLS, and TBT. These metrics are further enriched by an “Is it Quick?” assessment, which highlights key aspects like render-blocking requests and identifies if the largest content is rendered too late.
6 – Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools)
Suggested read: 15 Best Performance Testing Tools to Improve Your Site in 2021Why it’s a great alternative:It provides a perspective on what impacts SEO rankings and offers actionable guidance. Although GTmetrix has PageSpeed Insights data, using it directly allows for more frequent updates.
This allows technical users to target specific performance challenges, such as optimizing resource loading, image delivery, and JavaScript processing. The platform also generates a detailed filmstrip showing page load progression, which lets developers visualize the website’s rendering over time.
GTmetrix provides a rich data set to help developers understand why a website is performing the way it is and guide them to specific areas for performance optimization, but it still has a few limitations.
7 – Calibre
Sitespeed.io is a comprehensive, open-source web performance monitoring and testing platform that prioritizes user control and data ownership. Unlike many commercial offerings, it allows users to run their own performance tests, store their own data, and customize the analysis process. This commitment to transparency and flexibility is a core differentiator.A powerful hosting environment can significantly improve TTFB and reduce the time it takes for your site to begin loading.Yes, GTmetrix incorporates Lighthouse data into its reports. It runs a Lighthouse audit to generate its PageSpeed and other associated performance scores. GTmetrix is a wrapper around Lighthouse and other performance analysis tools, providing additional metrics and functionality.
The “Call Tree” provides a hierarchical breakdown of function calls, allowing developers to pinpoint exactly where the code spends its time. The “Flame Graph” visually represents these calls as stacked bars, making it easy to identify performance bottlenecks at a glance.
8 – SiteSpeed.io
What truly sets it apart is its ability to provide a holistic view of a website’s performance from your own network on your own computer. This is different from most other tools that use virtual machines on the cloud to test your website. DebugBear is a performance auditing suite focusing on real-user data and lab-based tests. It can pinpoint areas where a website is underperforming by providing a multi-faceted view. First, it gathers data from Google’s Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which tests represent actual user experiences. It shows the distribution of core web vital metrics including First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP). It presents this data not just as a single data point but provides a view of how the metrics change over time. This long-term perspective allows developers to detect changes in performance over the long term and make informed optimization decisions. Additionally, a clear indication of whether the site is passing the core web vitals assessment provides a quick, high-level overview of the website’s status.DebugBear focuses more on continuous monitoring and detailed performance tracking over time, making it excellent for catching performance regressions. GTmetrix is primarily used for point-in-time performance analysis, offering detailed waterfall charts and audits.
Suggested read: How to Optimize Your Site for Google’s Core Web Vitals
Final Thoughts
It supports visualization integrations with time-series databases such as Graphite, InfluxDB, and Grafana. These are industry-standard tools that allow the creation of custom performance dashboards and long-term trend analysis. Additionally, the ability to run tests on Android phones and through custom scripting means sitespeed.io adapts to different testing needs.The “Stack Chart” provides insight into the call stack and functions. The “Marker Chart” provides an overall timeline with specific markers for rendering, javascript execution, and other key processes, allowing developers to visualize how these different processes interact.This post examines different ways to test your website’s performance, including exploring several GTmetrix alternatives we recommend considering. We’ll also cover options if you’re looking for a free website performance evaluation tool or just want to find the best website performance analyzer for your specific needs.Why it’s a great alternative: SpeedVitals combines GTmetrix’s performance tracking features with easier visual analytics and in-depth monitoring for real users. The report provides a visual timeline showing how the website appears to the user during load, which helps identify performance bottlenecks.Suggested read: How To Optimize Laravel for Performance (8 Expert Tips)While GTmetrix is incredibly useful, it’s essential to understand its limitations to ensure you interpret results accurately and use the tool effectively.This is where RunCloud comes in.
