<\/span>How To Test If Akismet Slows Down A Web Page<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe basic premise of testing is to compare the page speed of a web page when Akismet is not in use and then when it is activated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Akismet comes pre-installed with a fresh WordPress site but it is not activated by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As comments can also be disabled on posts, I added an extra scenario to make three tests:<\/p>\n\n\n\nTest<\/strong><\/td>Comment Added<\/strong><\/td>Akismet Activated<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Web page with no comments<\/td> N\/A<\/td> No<\/td><\/tr> Web page with a comment<\/td> Yes<\/td> No<\/td><\/tr> Web page with a comment<\/td> Yes<\/td> Yes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe like to use the free GTMetrix tool to test page speed. There are other alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Step 1: Create a test page or use an existing page<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nOur test page was created using the Gutenberg editor. It has eight hundred words broken up into multiple subheadings, standard paragraphs, and bullet points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The page also has eight images to give a bit of \u201cweight\u201d to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Run a speed test on a web page without comments and with Akismet deactivated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Are you planning to enable comments on WordPress and activate Akismet to protect the site from spam?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then your first test should be the baseline of a page with no comments and no Akismet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Run a speed test on a web page with comments but Akismet still deactivated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n If you disabled comments on your website, you may have forgotten how to put them back again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There can be several settings involved, but it\u2019s easy to forget the checkbox when you quick-edit a post. This image shows where you can enable comments on a specific post:<\/p>\n\n\n
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For our tests, I followed these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enabled comments on a post<\/li> Opened a different browser page and entered comments on the web page<\/li> Used the WordPress dashboard to approve the comments<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\nAt this point, I ran a Speed Test to get the metrics for a web page with comments but without Akismet activated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Activate Akismet<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Akismet is installed by default on your WordPress site. If you deleted it at some point, you can simply search for it in the Plugins library and install it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next step is to activate the plugin. The image below shows the link to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Then you can post another comment in one browser and approve it in the dashboard. This ensures that you\u2019ve made Akismet do some work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Test the speed of the web page with Akismet enabled<\/h3>\n\n\n\n This is the third and final speed test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that we\u2019ve discussed the basic testing process, I\u2019ll run through our results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Our Akismet Performance Tests<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nGTMetrix gives you plenty of results to mull over. But we like to focus on these three:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time To Interactive<\/li> Fully Loaded Time (this one isn\u2019t as important as Time To Interactive)<\/li> Number of requests<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nHere are our results averaged over several test runs:<\/p>\n\n\n\nTest Page<\/strong><\/td>Time To Interactive (ms)<\/strong><\/td>Fully Loaded Time (ms)<\/strong><\/td>Number Of Requests<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>No comments<\/td> 382<\/td> 590<\/td> 14<\/td><\/tr> Comments<\/td> 423<\/td> 663<\/td> 16<\/td><\/tr> Comments + Akismet<\/td> 534<\/td> 798<\/td> 16<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\nI\u2019ll just say now that these increases of 70 to 80 milliseconds are almost negligible. No user will notice a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, let\u2019s explain what we\u2019re actually measuring!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Negligible Increase In \u201cTime To Interactive\u201d And \u201cFully Loaded Time\u201d<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s a quick explanation of the time measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTime To Interactive\u201d basically means how long it takes for the web visitor to be able to scroll around the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s more of a \u201cquality\u201d metric. If it\u2019s above two seconds, we should be worried that the user will perceive that the website is slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFully Loaded Time\u201d is when all the resources have been loaded by the page. That includes every image, all scripts, and any external calls to other sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our testing, the page without comments and Akismet were both interactive and fully loaded in under one second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The addition of Akismet saw a small increase in milliseconds, but the load time was still under a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is in line with tests I\u2019ve read elsewhere that report differences between 50 and 100 milliseconds with the addition of Akismet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n