Website Speed Test

Check load time, TTFB, DNS, connect time, and performance rating for any URL

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Frequently Asked Questions

TTFB (Time to First Byte) is the time from when a client sends an HTTP request to when it receives the first byte of the response. It includes DNS lookup, TCP connection, TLS handshake, server processing, and the start of the response transfer. A good TTFB is under 200ms. TTFB is one of the most important indicators of server performance and is used as a Core Web Vital signal by Google.

Google recommends a total load time under 2.5 seconds (LCP). For server response (TTFB), under 200ms is excellent. For most websites: under 500ms total is excellent, 500ms–1.5s is good, 1.5s–3s is average, 3s–5s is slow, and over 5s is very slow. Faster pages have lower bounce rates and better SEO rankings.

DNS lookup time is how long it takes to resolve the domain name to an IP address. This usually takes 10–100ms. A slow DNS (over 200ms) can be improved by switching to a faster DNS provider (e.g. Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Google 8.8.8.8) or using DNS caching / CDN services.

This tool measures server-side TTFB and response time using a direct HTTP request — it does not render JavaScript, CSS, or images. Tools like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights measure full browser rendering (including all assets). Use this tool to check raw server performance and TTFB, and browser-based tools for full page render metrics.

Key improvements: use a CDN (Cloudflare, BunnyCDN), upgrade your hosting plan, enable gzip/brotli compression, use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, enable server-side caching, reduce TTFB by optimising database queries, minimise redirect chains, and keep your DNS TTL low. For front-end speed, minify JS/CSS, optimise images, and use lazy loading.

Website load speed is influenced by many factors: server response time (TTFB) — slow databases, unoptimised server-side code, or under-powered hosting; image sizes — uncompressed or oversized images are the most common bottleneck on content-heavy sites; JavaScript — large JS bundles block rendering; CSS — render-blocking stylesheets delay the first paint; number of HTTP requests — each resource (script, stylesheet, image, font) adds overhead; hosting quality — shared hosting on a congested server will be slow regardless of front-end optimisation; and geographic distance — a server in the US will respond slowly to users in Asia without a CDN.

Google's Core Web Vitals target an LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) under 2.5 seconds for a "good" rating. Research from Google shows that 53% of mobile users abandon a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load. As a general benchmark: under 1 second is excellent, 1–2.5 seconds is good, 2.5–4 seconds is needs improvement, and over 4 seconds is poor. For e-commerce, every 100ms of improvement can increase conversion rates by up to 1%. For TTFB specifically, under 200ms is the target.

Core Web Vitals are Google's set of real-world performance metrics used as a ranking signal. There are three: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — measures loading performance; the time until the largest image or text block becomes visible. Target: under 2.5s. INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — measures responsiveness; the delay between a user interaction (click, tap, keypress) and the next frame painted. Target: under 200ms. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — measures visual stability; how much the page layout unexpectedly shifts during loading (e.g. an image loading and pushing text down). Target: under 0.1. Failing Core Web Vitals can hurt your Google search rankings.

Server response time (TTFB) is a server-side metric — the time from when the browser sends an HTTP request to when it receives the first byte of the HTML response. It reflects server performance: hosting speed, database query time, application code efficiency, and CDN caching. Total page load time is a browser-side metric — the full time from navigation start until all page resources (scripts, styles, images, fonts) have loaded and rendered. A server can have a 100ms TTFB but a 5-second total load time due to 4MB of unoptimised images. This tool measures TTFB only; use Google PageSpeed Insights or WebPageTest.org for full render metrics.

Reducing page size delivers faster downloads and lower bandwidth costs: compress images — convert to modern formats like WebP or AVIF, and use tools like Squoosh or ImageOptim; resize images to the actual display dimensions rather than serving full-resolution photos; minify CSS and JavaScript — remove whitespace, comments, and dead code using tools like Terser (JS) and cssnano; enable server-side gzip or Brotli compression — Brotli achieves 20–26% better compression than gzip; use a CDN to serve assets from edge locations close to the user; lazy-load images and off-screen content with loading="lazy"; and remove unused dependencies from your JavaScript bundles.

About This Website Speed Test

This free Website Speed Test sends a real HTTP request from our server to any URL and measures every phase of the connection — DNS resolution, TCP handshake, TLS negotiation, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and total response time. Results also include response size, HTTP status code, server headers, and an overall performance rating. Results reflect raw server performance, not browser rendering time.

When to use this tool

  • Check how fast a website responds from a data-centre connection
  • Diagnose high TTFB caused by slow server-side processing
  • Compare hosting providers or CDN configurations objectively
  • Verify that caching headers or a CDN are reducing response time

Timing Metrics Reference

MetricExcellentGoodPoor
TTFB< 200 ms200–800 ms> 800 ms
Total Load Time< 1 s1–3 s> 3 s
DNS Lookup< 100 ms100–300 ms> 300 ms
TLS Handshake< 100 ms100–300 ms> 300 ms

Standards & References

Related Internet Tools

Ping
Traceroute
HTTP Headers
Port Scanner

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