Founder of Goodspeed
Framer makes it easy to build visually stunning, high-performing websites, but simple mistakes can slow your site down significantly. Whether it’s unoptimised images, excessive animations, or third-party scripts, these small oversights can impact page speed, user experience, and SEO performance. Given that 53% of mobile users leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load, ensuring your Framer site runs smoothly isn’t just about convenience—it’s essential for engagement and conversions.
This guide walks you through the most common mistakes slowing Framer websites, explaining their impact and providing quick, actionable fixes. By avoiding these issues, you can create a fast, responsive website that enhances Framer performance and search rankings.
1. Oversized or Uncompressed Images
Large, unoptimised images are one of the biggest contributors to slow page load times. While high-resolution visuals enhance your design, failing to compress or properly format them can lead to longer load times and poor Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) scores.
1.1 Issue: High-Resolution Visuals Everywhere
Symptom: If your homepage takes several seconds to load, your images might be the culprit.
Why It Happens: Many Framer users upload 2K or 4K images directly into their sites, assuming higher quality equals a better experience. However, these massive files take longer to load, especially on mobile devices, where performance is already compromised.
Fix: Before uploading, always compress images using TinyPNG or convert them to WebP format, which reduces file sizes by up to 30% compared to PNG or JPG without sacrificing quality. Using WebP ensures your images load faster while maintaining visual clarity.
If you’re looking for optimisation tips, check out our guide on Optimising Your Framer Template for Speed and Performance: Tips and Tricks.
1.2 Mistake: Not Using Lazy Loading for Large Image Sections
Impact: When all images load at once, even those below the fold, your site forces users to download unnecessary assets upfront, slowing down the entire page.
Fix: Implement lazy loading, which delays off-screen images until a user scrolls to them. This technique significantly improves first paint times and reduces bandwidth usage, particularly for image-heavy pages.
Formula Bot’s load times improved by 75% after Goodspeed implemented image and animation optimisations.
2. Too Many (or Overly Complex) Animations
Framer allows for beautiful animations and interactions, but too much movement can overwhelm both your audience and your site’s performance. Poorly optimised animations consume CPU/GPU resources, leading to lag and stuttering, especially on mobile devices.
2.1 Layering Animations Without Performance Checks
Problem: You’ve added smooth scrolling effects, hover animations, and interactive transitions, but now your site feels slow and jittery, particularly on lower-end devices.
Solution: Use animations strategically. Avoid layering multiple transitions on the same elements and opt for GPU-accelerated animations like transform and opacity changes, which are faster than animating width or position. Always test new animations on real devices to check for smooth performance.
2.2 Long Page-Load Animations
Impact: A long intro animation might look impressive, but if visitors have to wait several seconds before they can interact with the page, they’ll likely leave.
Fix: Minimise entry animations so users see important content instantly. Keep effects subtle and lightweight, ensuring they enhance rather than hinder speed optimisation and usability.
3. Neglecting Mobile-First Layout Adjustments
Since mobile pages load 70.9% slower than desktop pages, neglecting mobile-specific optimisations can severely impact site speed and user experience.
3.1 Only Designing for Desktop Screens
Consequence: Large desktop layouts, oversized hero images, and wide margins create issues on smaller screens, increasing bounce rates.
Fix: Use Framer’s breakpoint features to create mobile-friendly layouts with smaller image sizes and streamlined sections. Test your site on multiple screen sizes using tools like PageSpeed Insights to ensure responsiveness and speed.
3.2 Large Fonts and Margins
Symptom: Jumbo-sized fonts and excessive white space inflate page size, leading to slower rendering speeds.
Fix: Use system fonts instead of heavy custom typefaces and limit the number of font variations. This reduces font load time and ensures faster rendering across all devices.
4. Excessive Third-Party Scripts or Embeds
Third-party scripts like chat widgets, analytics tools, and social media embeds can add valuable functionality, but excessive external requests can drastically slow down your Framer website. Each script introduces new dependencies, increasing server response times and rendering delays.
4.1 Embedding Multiple External Widgets
Examples: Chatbots, live chat pop-ups, multiple tracking scripts, or overlapping Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, and Hotjar.
Why It Slows Down: Each script sends requests to an external server, increasing the time it takes to fully load a page. If your site relies on too many scripts, it results in render-blocking elements, causing noticeable delays.
Fix:
Audit your third-party scripts and remove anything non-essential.
Use asynchronous loading so scripts don’t interfere with page rendering.
Consolidate analytics tools—if you’re using multiple platforms, determine if one tool can provide all the data you need.
Stat: 45.4% of users are less likely to purchase on slow sites, making speed a critical factor in conversions.
4.2 Heavy Video Embeds
Problem: You’ve embedded multiple high-resolution YouTube or Vimeo videos directly on your pages. This forces the browser to load external video players and autoplay scripts, delaying other content.
Fix: Instead of embedding full video players, use a static thumbnail with a “click-to-play” option. This ensures that the video only loads when a user interacts with it, significantly improving page speed.
5. Underusing Framer’s Built-In Hosting Optimisation
Framer’s built-in hosting is designed to deliver high performance without external optimisation tools, but many users fail to leverage these features properly.
5.1 Forgetting to Check Publishing Options
Mistake: Updating your design but failing to re-publish the site can leave outdated, cached versions visible to users. This can lead to discrepancies in performance and content visibility.
Fix:
Always re-publish your site after making significant changes.
Test performance using an incognito window to ensure you’re seeing the latest version.
Use Framer’s pre-rendering features, which optimise static content for faster delivery.
A Financial Services Site saw improved SEO rankings and faster load times after proper hosting and site optimisation with Goodspeed.
5.2 Skipping Framer Updates
Problem: Framer frequently rolls out performance enhancements, but many users don’t update their sites to take advantage of these improvements.
Fix:
Check Framer’s release notes regularly—some updates include automatic optimisations that improve Framer performance without manual effort.
Enable auto-updates when possible to ensure your site benefits from Framer’s latest speed and hosting improvements.
If you still need more detailed information on speed optimisation, read our Ultimate Guide to Speed Optimisation for Framer Websites.
6. Lack of Ongoing Performance Checks
Speed optimisation isn’t a one-time task. Many Framer users assume that once a site is optimised, it stays fast forever, but new content, features, and design changes can gradually slow it down.
6.1 Relying on "One-Time Optimisation"
Trap: You optimise your images and animations once, assuming your Framer website will remain fast. However, adding new elements over time—like new product pages, blog sections, or embedded content—can cause performance to degrade.
Fix:
Run monthly performance audits using Google PageSpeed Insights or Framer’s built-in performance tools.
Track Core Web Vitals to see if your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), or Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) scores are declining over time.
Stat: Only 12% of mobile sites and 13% of desktop sites pass all three Core Web Vitals thresholds, making it essential to monitor and optimise performance continually.
Need a detailed analysis of your website performance? Read- How to Use Google PageSpeed Insights to Analyse Your Framer Site’s Speed.
6.2 Ignoring User Feedback
Clue: Visitors mention that pages feel slow, animations are lagging, or the site loads inconsistently.
Action:
Monitor real-world user behaviour with session replay tools like Hotjar.
Run performance tests on different networks and devices, especially mobile connections.
7. Rapid-Fire Checklist of Mistakes to Avoid
Even with careful site optimisation, it’s easy to overlook critical speed factors. Before launching or updating your Framer website, use this quick-reference checklist to catch performance bottlenecks.
✅ Optimise images: Compress all images and use WebP format where possible.
✅ Limit animations: Use only essential transitions and avoid overlapping effects.
✅ Design for mobile: Ensure mobile breakpoints are fully optimised.
✅ Minimise third-party scripts: Remove unnecessary widgets and use asynchronous loading.
✅ Use Framer’s hosting features correctly: Always re-publish after updates and enable pre-rendering.
✅ Run regular speed tests: Monitor performance using Google PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals metrics.
✅ Implement speed optimisation techniques: Continuously refine animations, scripts, and images to maintain fast load times.
Conclusion
A fast, responsive website isn’t just about a one-time fix—it requires ongoing care and best practices. By avoiding these common mistakes slowing Framer websites, you can ensure long-term speed, better SEO rankings, and a seamless user experience.
Framer provides powerful built-in performance features, but their effectiveness depends on how well you implement and maintain them. Whether you’re focusing on speed optimisation, refining animations, or minimising third-party scripts, staying proactive will prevent slowdowns before they happen.
If you're unsure whether your Framer website is fully optimised, a professional performance audit can help identify hidden speed issues and provide customised solutions.
🚀 Need expert advice? Book a free consultation to optimise your Framer website speed and download our Framer migration checklist for guidance.
Written By
Harish Malhi
Founder of Goodspeed
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