Autoptimize is a plugin installed over a million sites that does an excellent job optimizing the CSS, JS and HTML of your site.
I have installed the plugin several times and I could never fall in love with it because of the design and because I didn’t really need it .
The other reason I thought that using Autoptimize would be a good idea is because I am using full page caching all the time via CloudFlare or Ezoic Cloud Caching.
Table of Contents
Autoptimize Results
I know there are better ways to test the benefits of autoptimize but I prefer to give a try in a site that it is already working to see if it is worth using it.
The post using for this test has five requests;
| Post | HTML |
| Block Library Styles | CSS |
| Main CSS | GeneratePress |
| Menu Plus | GeneratePress |
| Main JS | GeneratePress |
These were the results I got using nothing but CloudFlare Full Page Caching, PerfMatters and common sense speed optimization practices.
GTMetrix Results without Autoptimize
These are the results of each one of those requests using GTMetrix and not using Autoptimize
| Post | HTML | 9.1 KB | 47 ms |
| Block Library Styles | CSS | 8.2 KB | 20.1 ms |
| Main CSS | GeneratePress | 4.6 KB | 17 ms |
| Menu Plus | GeneratePress | 848 B | 18.7 ms |
| Main JS | GeneratePress | 1.9 KB | 17.7 ms |
This is the GTMetrix score with a few more details
- Time to first byte: 46 ms
- Onload time: 103 ms
- FCP: 168 ms
- LCP:168 ms
- TTI: 168 ms
- FLT: 168 ms
I tested this several time and I got different numbers, these are the most important ones
| Requests | Onload Time | Fully Loaded Time |
| 24.6 KB | 115 ms | 173 ms |
| 24.6 KB | 122 ms | 135 ms |
| 24.7 KB | 98 ms | 176 ms |
As you see,I get different results every time I run a test . The HTML is 9.1 KB in each test.
GTMetrix Results with Autoptimize
I decided to inline all CSS from the and make sure the only JS file is not render blocking.
| Post | HTML | 20.2 KB | 64.2 ms |
| Main JS | GeneratePress | 1.9 KB | 11.6 ms |
- Time to first byte: 63 ms
- Onload time: 108 ms
- FCP: 125 ms
- LCP:125 ms
- TTI: 125 ms
- FLT: 125 ms
Now I am saving 2 KB but my HTML has grown in size but I knew that beforehand.
I am using CloudFlare Full Page Caching so everything is served from CloudFlare servers anyways.
Requests have been reduced to 2 and no render blocking messages in Google PageSpeed Insights.
I will keep learning more about Autoptimize and what it can do.
