httparchive.org VS webpack

Astro didn't capture the data themselves, it's data from The HTTP Archive.

Based on HTTP Archive real-world performance data (Lighthouse, P90) • Read the full report

A longstanding problem in the HTTP Archive dataset has been extracting insights from blobs of HTML in BigQuery. For example, take the source code of example.com:

The data for this chart came from the wonderful httparchive.org. Tools used to make the chart: Python, Pandas, Matplotlib.

First of all, web development hasn't really evolved that much in the last decade, or it all depends on what you mean by “evolved”. Sure, there’s webpack and React and ES6, but according to data from httparchive.org the median page load time has remained about the same over the past 10 years, even though internet speeds have been steadily increasing, along with rapid advancements in hardware. So it’s safe to say that the internet is faster, but websites aren’t. In addition, as the team behind the Skypack utility has pointed out, “building for the web has never been more complicated.”

The technologies you use to build your website can have an effect on your ability to deliver good user experiences. Good UX is key to performing well with Core Web Vitals (CWV), a topic which is probably top of mind for you, as it is for many other web developers now that these metrics play a role in Google Search ranking. While web developers have had tools like Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to get data on how their sites are performing, the web community has been lacking a tool that has operated at the macro level, giving us something more like WebSpeed Insights. By combining the powers of real-user experiences in the Chrome UX Report (CrUX) dataset with web technology detections in HTTP Archive, we can get a glimpse into how architectural decisions like choices of CMS platform or JavaScript framework play a role in sites' CWV performance. The merger of these datasets is a dashboard called the Core Web Vitals Technology Report.

One of the main things that affect performance and is not so easy to optimize in a web application is assets such as images and videos. Images form almost half of all web content, and so optimizing them goes a very long way to improve experiences with applications. Images are unique because they are not usually compressed in an optimal way and they load all at once on the web and so the Next team decided to solve this. An image component in Next abstracts and enables images to be optimized without any input from you, the developer. Great right? All you have to do is replace the img element with Image from Next. Here is how it is done. Let’s say your image tag is like this:

The HTTP Archive runs Lighthouse audits for approximately 7.2 million websites every month. In the May 2021 dataset, Lighthouse was able to identify an LCP element in 97.35% of the tests. Since we have the ability to query all of these Lighthouse test results, we can analyze the result of the LCP audits and get more insight into what drives this metric across the web.

A good place for data around this is the HTTP Archive (https://httparchive.org/). It has collected data and reports.

There are various tools available that manage the size of bundled assets. We are going to use the example of a popular and widely used bundler named Webpack, and practically look at many of the optimization techniques it offers.

Homepage: https://webpack.js.org/

Click "Start Test." WebPageTest generates a comprehensive report with details about the loading process, including time to first byte (TTFB), page load time, and visual progress. ### Setting Benchmarks with Lighthouse Start with Lighthouse audits to maximize the performance of your React application. Evaluate Lighthouse's scores and suggestions with careful consideration. Next, set benchmarks that are in line with industry norms or customized to meet your unique performance goals. Lastly, pay close attention to the places in your application where it needs work. You can improve your React application's effectiveness by carefully following these procedures, which will guarantee that it satisfies the required performance requirements. ### Analyzing Performance Results with WebPageTest In order to fully evaluate your webpage's performance, launch WebPageTest with a variety of systems, simulating a variety of user scenarios. Examine the waterfall chart carefully to identify loading patterns and bottlenecks, which are essential for improving the user experience. To see the page's rendering process over time and do a thorough examination, use filmstrip views. To effectively assess performance, pay special attention to measures such as time to first byte (TTFB), start render time, and fully loaded time. Also, a better understanding of performance variances is made possible by comparing findings across various test designs, which helps make well-informed recommendations for improving webpage responsiveness and efficiency. ## Impact of third-party libraries on React app performance Third-party library integration can speed up development while improving functionality in our React application. It's crucial to consider the possible effects on performance, though. Because heavy or poorly optimized libraries might negatively impact the speed and usability of our application. ### Bundle Size Look at the distribution file sizes related to the library, and use tools such as Bundlephobia or Webpack Bundle Analyzer to fully evaluate their impact on your bundle size. This thorough analysis enables you to make well-informed decisions about whether to include the library, making sure that its contribution minimizes superfluous bulk in your application's codebase and is in line with your optimization goals. ### Network Requests Analyze how the third-party library affects network requests to maximize performance. Reduce the number of requests made overall by minimizing external dependencies. This will enhance the user experience and loading speeds. Select appropriate libraries, maximize asset delivery, and leverage code splitting to load components asynchronously. You may improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of your application and provide users with a better experience by cutting down on pointless network queries. ### Execution Time Examine the library's code for any possible performance problems or bottlenecks in order to analyze the runtime performance of the library. Look for places where the code may execute slowly or inefficiently. You may ensure smoother operation inside your application by identifying and addressing any areas of the library's implementation that may be impeding ideal performance by doing a comprehensive assessment. ### Code Splitting for Third-Party Libraries Implementing code splitting is an effective strategy to load third-party libraries only when they are required, reducing the initial page load time. Use dynamic imports to load the library lazily:

Thanks for the thorough answer!

I confess I wasn't thinking about a particular build tool. My recent experience has been with Vite, where I took a similar approach to what you describe, but haven't had to dig deep into bundle performance because that's not a bottleneck for our application. The last time I did deeper work on the subject was years ago with Webpack.

I thought Webpack at least did dead-code elimination before splitting things into chunks. If I'm reading this random GitHub issue[1] right (and the asker is also right), Webpack does partially behave as I expected, but the pre-chunking optimization pass occurs before things like constant expression evaluation.

[1] https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/16672

Webpack is a powerful and widely-used module bundler for JavaScript applications. It’s known for its flexibility and extensive plugin system, making it a popular tool in complex web development projects.

Thats all about Webpack Basic, there are lots of feature of webpack, You can check here: https://webpack.js.org/

Many web pages use CSS and JavaScript files to handle various features and styles. Each file, however, requires a separate HTTP request, which can slow down page loading. Concatenation comes into play here. It involves combining multiple CSS or JavaScript files into a single file. As a result, pages load faster, reducing the time spent requesting individual files. Gulp, Grunt, and Webpack are some of the tools that can assist you in speeding up the concatenation process. They enable seamless merging of many files during development, ensuring deployment readiness.

Once you build a simple Vite backend integration, try not to complicate Vite's configuration unless you absolutely must. Vite has become one of the most popular bundlers in the frontend space, but it wasn't the first and it certainly won't be the last. In my 7 years of building for the web, I've used Grunt, Gulp, Webpack, esbuild, and Parcel. Snowpack and Rome came-and-went before I ever had a chance to try them. Bun is vying for the spot of The New Hotness in bundling, Rome has been forked into Biome, and Vercel is building a Rust-based Webpack alternative.

Webpack is a module bundler, the main purpose of which is to bundle JavaScript files to make them usable in a browser.