{"id":691,"date":"2022-05-29T12:29:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T12:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2022-05-29T12:29:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T12:29:38","slug":"does-jetpack-slow-down-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Jetpack Slow Down Websites? (Tested)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have Jetpack activated on some websites but not on others. Recently, I was asked by another blogger whether the Jetpack plugin slows down WordPress websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I decided to test it. This article shows you my test results. We also explain how you can test the performance of Jetpack on your own website and decide for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-660193986caa2\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-660193986caa2\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#Summary_Of_Speed_Tests_On_Jetpack\" title=\"Summary Of Speed Tests On Jetpack\">Summary Of Speed Tests On Jetpack<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#How_To_Test_If_Jetpack_Slows_Down_A_Web_Page\" title=\"How To Test If Jetpack Slows Down A Web Page\">How To Test If Jetpack Slows Down A Web Page<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#Step_1_Create_a_test_page_or_use_an_existing_page\" title=\"Step 1: Create a test page or use an existing page\">Step 1: Create a test page or use an existing page<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#Our_Jetpack_Performance_Tests\" title=\"Our Jetpack Performance Tests\">Our Jetpack Performance Tests<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#Increase_In_%E2%80%9CTime_To_Interactive%E2%80%9D_And_%E2%80%9CFully_Loaded_Time%E2%80%9D\" title=\"Increase In \u201cTime To Interactive\u201d And \u201cFully Loaded Time\u201d\">Increase In \u201cTime To Interactive\u201d And \u201cFully Loaded Time\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#Jetpack_Increases_The_Number_Of_Requests\" title=\"Jetpack Increases The Number Of Requests\">Jetpack Increases The Number Of Requests<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/#What_About_Other_WordPress_Plugins\" title=\"What About Other WordPress Plugins?\">What About Other WordPress Plugins?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Summary_Of_Speed_Tests_On_Jetpack\"><\/span>Summary Of Speed Tests On Jetpack<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When you install the Jetpack plugin on WordPress, it increases the page load time and the number of requests with each additional feature that you enable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our tests on a fast-loading page added 300-400 milliseconds to the page load speed. This decrease in speed is too small to be noticeable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In general, Jetpack does not slow down a WordPress website.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the increased number of page requests when adding the related posts feature and the shares feature could be detrimental to a busy website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t think these Jetpack features are needed on your website, you should disable them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_To_Test_If_Jetpack_Slows_Down_A_Web_Page\"><\/span>How To Test If Jetpack Slows Down A Web Page<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The basic premise of testing is to compare the page speed of a web page when Jetpack is not installed and then after it is activated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We like to use the free GTMetrix tool to test page speed. There are other alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Step_1_Create_a_test_page_or_use_an_existing_page\"><\/span>Step 1: Create a test page or use an existing page<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our 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<p>The page also has eight images to give a bit of \u201cweight\u201d to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also posted and approved a couple of comments under the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the GTMetrix baseline speed score:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/baseline_gtmetrix_words_images.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/baseline_gtmetrix_words_images.jpg 650w, https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/baseline_gtmetrix_words_images-300x183.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Install and activate Jetpack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, I installed and activated the free Jetpack plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several plugins provided by the same developers with similar names. I\u2019m testing the one named \u201cJetpack \u2013 WP Security, Backup, Speed, &amp; Growth\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"423\" height=\"268\" src=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/install_jetpack.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-686\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/install_jetpack.jpg 423w, https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/install_jetpack-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>These are the most popular features in the free Jetpack:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Downtime monitoring<\/li><li>Site accelerator<\/li><li>Related posts<\/li><li>Social shares<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people will only use the site accelerator and never bother with related posts or social shares. But others will enable the full shebang (not necessarily recommended!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To cater for different configurations, I tested these combos in succession:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>monitoring + accelerator<\/li><li>monitoring + accelerator + posts<\/li><li>monitoring + accelerator + posts + shares<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>You enable and disable these options through the Jetpack settings dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick detour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, I hit a snag on this website that I hadn\u2019t hit before with the Jetpack plugin. When I enabled Site Accelerator, some of the images on the test page had disappeared. So, I had to go investigate that issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read about the solution in our article on<a href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/fix-broken-images-with-jetpack\/\"> how to stop Jetpack from breaking images<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Our_Jetpack_Performance_Tests\"><\/span>Our Jetpack Performance Tests<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>GTMetrix gives you plenty of results to mull over. But we like to focus on these three:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Time To Interactive<\/li><li>Fully Loaded Time (this one isn\u2019t as important as Time To Interactive)<\/li><li>Number of requests<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are our results averaged over several test runs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Test Page<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Time To Interactive (ms)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Fully Loaded Time (ms)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Number Of Requests<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Without Jetpack<\/td><td>382<\/td><td>590<\/td><td>16<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Monitoring + Accelerator<\/td><td>523<\/td><td>761<\/td><td>21<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Monitoring + Accelerator + Posts<\/td><td>588<\/td><td>800<\/td><td>23<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Monitoring + Accelerator + Post + Shares<\/td><td>663<\/td><td>955<\/td><td>25<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, let\u2019s explain what we\u2019re actually measuring!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Increase_In_%E2%80%9CTime_To_Interactive%E2%80%9D_And_%E2%80%9CFully_Loaded_Time%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>Increase In \u201cTime To Interactive\u201d And \u201cFully Loaded Time\u201d<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a quick explanation of the time measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\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<p>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<p>\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<p>In our testing, the page without and with Jetpack were both interactive and fully loaded in under one second. Although it was a tight squeeze for the fully loaded time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each additional Jetpack feature saw a small increase in the load times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jetpack_Increases_The_Number_Of_Requests\"><\/span>Jetpack Increases The Number Of Requests<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Each Jetpack feature increased the number of requests made by the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll show how you can tell by looking in more depth at the first test of adding the Site Accelerator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The waterfall tab of GTMetrix shows you what\u2019s going on. Part of the Site Accelerator feature switches the call to some CSS scripts from your site to the WordPress servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see the \u201cwp.com\u201d domain highlighted in the screen capture below.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"462\" height=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jetpack_waterfall.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-692\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jetpack_waterfall.jpg 462w, https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jetpack_waterfall-300x267.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a trade-off to be made here. The page is making extra requests to an external site, but the idea is that the powerful WordPress servers will serve those scripts faster than your host can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, that\u2019s all good for the Site Accelerator feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what about the extra requests for the \u201cRelated Posts\u201d and \u201cShares\u201d features? I advise that you consider carefully whether your website needs these features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can save a few extra page requests by turning them off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_About_Other_WordPress_Plugins\"><\/span>What About Other WordPress Plugins?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you use other plugins on your WordPress site? We\u2019ve tested some of the more common ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-rank-math-slow-down-websites\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"678\">does Rank Math slow down WordPress?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-yoast-slow-down-wordpress\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"669\">does Yoast slow down WordPress?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-elementor-slow-down-a-website\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"629\">does Elementor slow down WordPress?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have Jetpack activated on some websites but not on others. Recently, I was asked by another blogger whether the Jetpack plugin slows down WordPress websites. So, I decided to test it. This article shows you my test results. We also explain how you can test the performance of Jetpack on your own website and &#8230; <a title=\"Does Jetpack Slow Down Websites? (Tested)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/does-jetpack-slow-down-websites\/\" aria-label=\"More on Does Jetpack Slow Down Websites? (Tested)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandittracker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}