Before you add that speed booster app to your Shopify store, you might want to read this!
Optimizing your Shopify site speed yourself is tricky but not impossible. A simple Google search, YouTube tutorial, or an app should tell you how to improve your site speed at no extra charge; you only need to do some research.
If you are serious about optimizing your store speed, have the budget, and making significant income from it, then we strongly recommend that you hire Shopify experts specialized in speed optimization.
You can easily find some of the best free Shopify speed optimization apps by looking at forums, Google results, community discussions, and app ratings. Remember, with Shopify speed optimization; the results mean everything!
If not, you should be on the lookout for apps that promise to do all the work of optimizing your Shopify site speed, removing unused code and making sure your page loads fast. In this piece, we have carefully sourced and curated some of the best FREE Shopify speed optimization app to help you pick the best app for your store.
What We Did
The first step was to ensure a mutual test ground for testing by creating new demo stores, so we created two similar stores. Next came the process of customizing their homepages and adding products. Each store featured the same homepage and products list to ensure optimal reports.
We designed each store with the same images, apps and themes then installed 18 apps on each store. The apps added included:
- Automizely Page Builder
- Avada Size Chart
- Exit Intent Popup by OptiMonk
- Look Photo Reviews
- Loyalty & Referrals by Yotpo
- LoyaltyLion Rewards & Referrals
- ModeMagic Badges: Sales Booster
- PageFly Landing Page Builder
- POWR Social Media Icons
- Privy- Pop-Ups, Email & SMS
- Product Reviews
- Retail Barcode Labels
- Sales Pop- Live Notifications
- SharpSpring Ads
- Spocket
- Tidio Live Chat
- Vimotia - Shoppable Videos
Once installed and set up, the next step was to throw in some large images; find high-resolution images, and upload them directly to the store. The intent behind this was to figure out every possible way to crash the stores' site speed score under 50 by doing everything wrong for site speed.
Moving on, it was time to throw in random lines of code. To make sure we used the correct codes, we placed ourselves in the shoes of Shopify merchants, identifying different functions they would like for their stores and including codes that do those exact things on our demo stores.
To ensure results were accurate, multiple speed tests were run on the store using Pagespeed insights each time we added an app, code, or image to the store.
Crash Results
Demo Store 1 had a desktop speed score of 42 and a mobile speed score of 46 once all of this was done.
Fixing It
Once we created the problem, the next step was to begin fixing it. We identified 4 of the most popular free Shopify page speed apps using forum discussions, Shopify app ratings and community searches. Next, we added these apps to our demo stores, set them up and ran speed tests a week after to measure how they improved Shopify site speed.
- Booster Page Speed Optimizer App:
With 4.7 stars on the Shopify app store, the Booster Page Speed optimizer app at first glance seems pretty confident, promising to "improve the speed of your store and increase conversions." However, it also notes that it does nothing to improve speed scores; it claims that your site would be faster, but speed test tools like Gmetrix or Google Page Speed would have no increase or decrease in score.
Once installed and set up on every page, we ran another speed test after a week on the demo stores to see how much impact the app had on its speed.
Demo store 1 mobile score dropped down to 27, its desktop score, however, went up to 92.
Next, we tried it on Demo Store 2.
Similar to Demo Store 1 results, Demo Store 2 mobile score was 48, its desktop score was 94.
- Page Speed Optimizer Pro - SEO
With 4.7 stars on Shopify’s app store, the Page Speed Optimizer Pro app boasts of being the no 1-page speed and automatic SEO optimizer.
Once installed, all that had to be done was to turn on the app and immediately, a popup appeared noting that the “website speed was improved.”
Demo store 1 mobile speed score was at 45 after a week of installing the app, while it’s desktop speed score was at 94.
Demo Store 2 speed score went up to 50 and a desktop speed score of 94.
- Page Speed Booster by Roar Theme
Another Shopify speed booster app with a 4.7 star rating, the Page speed booster app promises to make your site's pages instant in JUST 30 seconds and improve your Conversion Rate.
After installing the app on the demo stores and running speed tests a week later, these were the results.
Demo store 1 mobile speed score was 38, it’s desktop score was 93.
Demo store 2 mobile speed score was 47 with its desktop score at 95.
- Jumbo Page Speed Optimizer
This app has a 4.5 star rating on the Shopify app store. However, its free plan only allows you to optimize only your homepage speed.
When tested on the demo store 1, the mobile speed score was 52 and the desktop speed score was 71.
Demo store 2 had a mobile speed score of 46 and a desktop speed score of 91.
Conclusion
Google recommends that sites load in under 4 seconds, which means you have under 4 seconds to impress a site user.
When it comes to Shopify site speed optimization, mobile speed and desktop speed are paramount to the health of every Shopify store. Shopify speed apps can be very helpful in managing your site speed especially if you're on the lookout for a quick fix to a small problem. What's even better many of them are completely free, but there's only so much they can do.
For optimal speed performance, it’s best to get your site optimized by a leading speed optimization agency like EcomExperts. By hiring us, you can be sure of excellent speed, clean lines of code and excellent mobile and desktop speed scores.