Page speed is a measurement of how quickly your site is able to load content for your audience. Since Google has indicated that website speed will be counted as ranking factor, website owners are trying every possible means to speed up their sites.

However, for most people, it is still a big challenge to achieve the best website speed. And one great reason for that is, they do not use the best tools to test or optimize site speed. As a result, they don’t know which issue is causing slow website load and what should be the right solution to fix that error.

If you’re suffering from poor website loading speed, we have a list of top 5 tools you can use to test it. These tools will give you a comprehensive review along with possible solutions for the errors.

1.  Pingdom Website Speed Test

Pingdom is an advanced website speed test tool that lets you sign up for absolutely free. The tool gives you in-depth analysis of performance insights. Using this tool, you can easily come to know what areas of your site require improvement.

Moreover, the tool is quite a user-friendly, even novice will not find any difficulty with it. You just need to enter the URL of your site and select geography location from where you want to test its speed. Pingdom tool analyzes each and every part of your website such as script, CSS, Images, HTML, etc.

The tool helps you run a speed test from different locations with the help of real web browser and for that reason, it provides accurate test results. You can also save your test results so that you can analyze your performance history anytime.

Pingdom tool is capable of giving suggestions on various issues that can cause slow loading speed such as render-blocking JavaScript and CSS, query strings from static resources, cache validator, browser caching, etc.

Those who receive a suggestion for ‘eliminate render blocking javascript and CSS’ after using this tool may read 000webhost.com post on how to eliminate render-blocking JavaScript in above-the-fold content.

2. Bitcatcha Server Speed Check

Bitcatcha is another popular website speed testing tool that was founded by Daren, who is himself a web developer that’s why he better knows the requirements of web owners. Bitcatcha has been designed to check the speed of your web hosting. It discloses your response time of your hosting partner. The tool can analyze overall page load time of your site from multiple locations.

The tool keeps the capacity to measure the server response time for requests made from different locations, including United Kingdom, United States, India, Japan, etc. Besides this, Bitcatcha tool can help you determine whether or not your hosting provider is capable of fulfilling your requirements. It gives an overall rating to your site in the form of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’. If the speed of your hosting is good for your users, the tool will display success message -‘Your hosting server is exceptionally quick’.

3. Web Page Test

Web Page Test is a free website speed test tool that lets you run the speed test from multiple locations across the globe via real browsers. Each location will have one or more browsers (Chrome, FireFox, IE, etc.). It means you are going to get the most accurate results out of the test. Web Page Test tool breaks down the page load time so that you can better focus on the weak point. It breaks the page load time as below.
– First-byte time
– Document complete time
– Fully loaded time
– Time take to load on repeat view
– Content delivery network details

The tool has simple functionality, but you can use it to execute advanced testing such as content blocking,  video capture and much more. The test result will provide you rich analytical information such as page speed optimization checks, waterfall charts and much more. The tool also provides suggestions for possible improvements.

4. GTMetrix

GTMetrix is one of the most popular online speed testing tools that offer you detailed analysis report. It works on two different methodologies, i.e., PageSpeed and YSlow to grade the performance of your website.

By default, the tool runs speed test from Vancouver, Canada. However, if you sign up for free registration, you will be able to run a speed test from London, Dallas, HongKong, Sydney, Mumbai, etc.

Using this tool is exceptionally easy. You simply have to put your website URL on its main page and click on ‘Analyze’ button. It will give you a complete report on PageSpeed Score, fully loaded time, total requests, total page size, etc. The tool comes with both free and paid version, undoubtedly paid account users will enjoy more options and features.

GTMetrix tool provides request details in waterfall chart so that you can easily find which error is the real culprit for slowing down your website speed. It may give you suggestion on minimizing redirects, enabling keep alive, minimizing request size, Minifying JavaScript on the basis of the condition of your site.

5. YSlow Plugin

YSlow is not an online tool but a plugin which needs to be installed on a web browser as an extension. The plugin is available for Firefox, Safari, Opera and many other browsers. The plugin is capable of testing website performance on different parameters. It can provide your suggestions for minimizing HTTP requests, removing duplicate scripts, avoiding redirects, reducing DNS lookups, etc.

Some of its feature highlights are as per below.

– It summarizes the page’s components and displays statistics about the page
– It is featured with tools like Smush.it and JSLint that can be used for performance analysis
– As said before, it is capable of providing various suggestions for enchaining the page speed and performance

Final Words

If you have ever used any of these tools before, do share your experience with us. We would love to hear them.