Founder of Goodspeed
Framer’s powerful design capabilities allow you to build stunning websites quickly, but ensuring speed optimisation and site optimisation requires careful monitoring. A slow website leads to higher bounce rates, lower conversions, and weaker search rankings. While Framer offers pre-rendering and built-in optimisation, additional performance monitoring tools help ensure your site remains fast and efficient.
This guide highlights the best tools for optimising Framer website performance, helping you track speed, identify bottlenecks, and enhance user experience. Whether you're a startup founder, marketer, or non-technical site owner, these tools will help you improve Framer performance and ensure your website remains competitive.
1. Why Consider Tool-Based Performance Monitoring for Framer Sites
A visually engaging Framer site is great, but if it loads slowly, users won’t stick around. Performance issues often go unnoticed until they impact user experience and SEO rankings. Monitoring tools provide real-time insights into what’s slowing your site down and offer clear steps to improve it.
1.1 Visibility into Load Times & User Experience
Framer’s drag-and-drop interface makes site-building accessible, but this ease can mask performance pitfalls. Unoptimised images, videos, animations, and third-party scripts may slow down your pages, increasing bounce rates.
Learn more about the common mistakes that slow down Framer sites and how to avoid them to ensure a smooth experience.
Research shows that 53% of mobile users leave if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, highlighting the need for continuous speed monitoring.
By using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix, you can diagnose issues before they affect visitors and apply speed optimisation techniques to keep your site running smoothly. For instance, Formula Bot improved its landing page speed by 75% by identifying and fixing unoptimised elements during its transition to Framer.
1.2 Continuous Improvement vs. One-Time Checks
Website speed isn’t a one-time fix—every design update can introduce new performance issues. Instead of reacting to slowdowns after users complain, ongoing monitoring ensures your site remains fast even as you make changes.
For instance, Lighthouse audits can track performance before and after Framer updates, helping prevent regressions. Similarly, premium tools like SpeedCurve provide automated alerts if your load times exceed performance benchmarks. Goodspeed’s expertise in maintaining fast Framer sites is reflected in this testimonial from an AI education platform: "I was impressed by how quickly Goodspeed operated and how receptive they were to feedback."
2. Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is one of the easiest ways to measure your Framer website’s performance. It provides a performance score, flags slow-loading elements, and offers actionable suggestions for improvement.
2.1 What It Does
This tool measures Core Web Vitals—Google’s key performance metrics that influence search rankings and user experience. These include:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly the main content loads.
First Input Delay (FID): Measures responsiveness to user interactions.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Checks for unexpected layout movements.
PageSpeed Insights is ideal for non-technical site owners looking for a quick snapshot of their website’s performance and overall site optimisation strategy. Since Google gives Core Web Vitals a 25% weight in its Lighthouse Performance Score, optimising for these metrics directly improves SEO. Read more about how to improve your Framer site’s Core Web Vitals to boost performance.
2.2 How to Use It for a Framer Site
Using PageSpeed Insights is simple:
Copy your Framer site URL and paste it into PageSpeed Insights.
Run the test and review both the Lab Data and Opportunities sections.
Address flagged issues like unoptimised images, excessive JavaScript, or slow server response times.
For example, The Financial Services Site improved its SEO rankings and search visibility with Goodspeed by fixing PageSpeed Insights recommendations, ensuring its site met Google’s performance benchmarks.
3. Lighthouse
While Google PageSpeed Insights offers a high-level view of your Framer site’s performance, Lighthouse provides a more detailed audit, covering Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. This tool is especially useful for developers and marketers who want deeper insights beyond a simple speed score.
3.1 Lighthouse Basics
Lighthouse is one of the most effective tools for optimising Framer website performance, offering detailed audits within Chrome DevTools. It evaluates your website on multiple parameters, including:
Performance: Measures speed, resource loading efficiency, and responsiveness.
Accessibility: Ensures your site meets usability standards for all users.
Best Practices: Checks security, HTTPS usage, and code quality.
SEO: Reviews metadata, structured data, and mobile-friendliness.
Since 25% of Lighthouse’s Performance Score is based on Core Web Vitals, optimising for LCP, FID, and CLS directly boosts both user experience and SEO rankings.
3.2 Using Lighthouse with Framer Previews
To audit your Framer website using Lighthouse:
Publish your Framer project to a live URL.
Open Chrome DevTools (Right-click → Inspect → Lighthouse panel).
Select Performance & SEO categories and run the test.
Review the report for areas needing improvement, such as slow scripts or excessive DOM size.
For example, after analysing its Framer site with Lighthouse, The Nations significantly improved its load times with Goodspeed, ensuring a seamless browsing experience across all devices.
4. GTmetrix
While Lighthouse provides audit-based insights, GTmetrix is useful for real-time performance tracking with waterfall breakdowns and historical reports. It helps Framer site owners pinpoint specific elements slowing down their pages.
4.1 Key Features
GTmetrix goes beyond simple scoring by allowing you to compare performance over time, making it an essential tool when conducting a comprehensive performance audit on your Framer website
Key features include:
Waterfall charts: Show how each resource (images, scripts, fonts) loads over time.
Historical tracking: Compare performance over time, especially after making updates.
Page load breakdowns: Identify which third-party scripts or large assets are slowing down the site.
Since 1-second load times yield 2.5-3x higher conversion rates, GTmetrix helps ensure your Framer site doesn’t lose potential customers due to slow speeds.
4.2 Setting It Up
To start using GTmetrix for your Framer website:
Enter your site’s URL into GTmetrix.
Run a speed test and review waterfall charts.
Optimise slow-loading resources (e.g., compress images, defer JavaScript).
Monitor historical data to ensure ongoing improvements.
5. WebPageTest
For advanced performance diagnostics, WebPageTest provides in-depth global testing to analyse your site’s load time from different geographical locations and device types.
5.1 Best Use Cases
Unlike GTmetrix, which focuses on historical tracking, WebPageTest provides advanced site optimisation diagnostics by analysing performance globally. It offers:
Multi-location testing: Evaluate how your Framer site performs in different countries.
Performance timelines: A step-by-step breakdown of how a page loads.
Network throttling: Simulate mobile connections to identify potential slowdowns.
This tool is especially valuable for businesses targeting global audiences with mobile network simulation, as mobile pages load 70.9% slower than desktop on average, making mobile optimisation a priority.
5.2 Quick Start Steps
To test your Framer site’s performance:
Enter your URL into WebPageTest.
Select a test location and device type (e.g., New York, London, Singapore).
Run the test and analyse the filmstrip view to see how content loads visually.
Address key slowdowns (e.g., reduce server response time, enable caching).
6. SpeedCurve & Calibre (Premium Solutions)
While free tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse provide valuable performance insights, SpeedCurve and Calibre offer continuous monitoring with automated alerts, making them ideal for teams that require ongoing performance tracking.
6.1 Continuous Monitoring
Unlike one-time speed tests, SpeedCurve and Calibre allow you to:
Set performance budgets: Define acceptable load times and receive alerts if your Framer site exceeds them.
Monitor performance trends: Track site speed daily or hourly to catch regressions.
Analyse competitor benchmarks: Compare your site’s speed against industry leaders.
This proactive approach ensures that speed optimisation is maintained, preventing slowdowns from affecting SEO rankings and conversions. For example, a 1-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% drop in conversions, highlighting the importance of real-time performance tracking.
6.2 Setup & Dashboard Highlights
To use SpeedCurve or Calibre for your Framer website’s performance monitoring:
Sign up and integrate your Framer site URL into the dashboard.
Set performance budgets based on your ideal load time.
Schedule automated tests to track speed daily or weekly.
Review alerts and performance trends to catch slowdowns.
Teams rolling out frequent Framer design updates benefit greatly from continuous tracking, ensuring that site changes don’t negatively impact user experience.
7. Interpreting the Data & Applying Fixes
Running speed tests is just the first step—the real challenge is translating insights into action. Understanding the most common tool alerts and knowing how to prioritise fixes ensures your Framer site stays fast and efficient.
7.1 Identifying Common Tool Alerts
Most performance monitoring tools flag similar problem areas, such as:
"Optimise images" – Large image files slow down the load times. Converting images to WebP can reduce file sizes by up to 30%, improving speed.
"Remove unused JavaScript" – Excessive scripts delay rendering, increasing load time.
"Reduce initial server response time" – Slow hosting or unoptimised backend processes can cause delays.
"Minimise render-blocking resources" – Unnecessary CSS and JavaScript should be deferred or optimised.
Many Framer websites suffer from these issues, making proactive site optimisation essential for maintaining fast load times and strong SEO performance.
7.2 Prioritising Based on Impact
With multiple recommendations, it’s important to focus on high-impact fixes first. A good approach is:
Start with the biggest performance bottlenecks flagged by multiple tools.
Address high-impact Core Web Vitals issues like LCP, FID, and CLS.
Optimise large assets (images, videos, scripts) before fine-tuning smaller elements.
Conclusion
Not every Framer site needs every tool—choosing the right mix depends on your goals.
If you need a quick performance overview, start with PageSpeed Insights.
If you want in-depth audits, use Lighthouse.
If you need historical tracking, GTmetrix is the best option.
If you require real-time monitoring and alerts, invest in SpeedCurve or Calibre.
Using the right tools for optimising Framer website performance ensures that your site remains fast, user-friendly, and SEO-friendly.
Looking for expert guidance? Book a free consultation to optimise your Framer website speed, or download our Framer migration checklist for more guidance.
Written By
Harish Malhi
Founder of Goodspeed
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