www.thestar.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 13:52 UTC. Grade B (86/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 78 ms 19%
- TCP connect 67 ms 16%
- Server wait 262 ms 64%
Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.
How this page compares
Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.
What these numbers mean
- The first byte arrived in 408 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 409.3 KB over 26 request(s). Javascript files are 62% of it, so defer what is not needed for the first screen, and drop tags nobody uses.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 70% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.
- The largest element painted at 1.04 s, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- Layout stayed still (CLS 0.017), so nothing jumps under the reader's cursor.
- The main thread was blocked for 397 ms, so taps and scrolling wait while scripts run.
Fix first: Server response time (TTFB) - Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.
Screenshot
What the page looks like
Loaded in headless Chromium on this server. Click an image to open it full size.
Browser render
The same URL loaded in a real browser, so these are the readings curl cannot produce. The grade above is still built from the server measurements.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 409.3 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Server response time (TTFB)
high impactThe first byte arrived after 408 ms. Of that, 262 ms was the server thinking and 145 ms was connection setup. A first byte under 400 ms is what a visitor feels as instant.
Fix: Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
Compress text responses
high impact1 text response(s) of 10 KB or more are sent uncompressed, and the document itself is not compressed. That is 131.2 KB of compressible text.
Fix: Turn on brotli (preferred) or gzip for text/css, javascript and text/html in the web server. This is the cheapest win available on almost any site.
Render-blocking resources
high impact56 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (15 script(s), 41 stylesheet(s)). The page cannot paint until each one arrives.
Fix: Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.
Third-party weight
medium impact5 third-party host(s) serve 285.0 KB of this page. Each one is another DNS lookup, TLS handshake and point of failure you do not control.
Fix: Self-host the libraries you can, drop the tags you cannot justify, and preconnect the ones you keep.
Avoid extra redirects
medium impact1 redirect hop(s) before the page load started, each one a full round trip before the first byte.
Fix: Link to the canonical URL (and make sure http, the apex domain and www all point at it) so no visitor pays a redirect first.
Waterfall
Slowest requests
Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party
| Request | Type | Status | Time | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://c.webtrends-optimize.com/acs/accounts/cfa16dfe-2c13-4c6e-8cb4-c532d090eb72/js/wt.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 1.64 s | 16.3 KB |
| https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 1.00 s | 131.2 KB |
| https://www.google.com/recaptcha/enterprise.js?render=6LdF3BEhAAAAAEQUmLciJe0QwaHESwQFc2vwCWqh 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 998 ms | 677 B |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/media2/resources/images//proudly-canadian/proudly-canadian-owned.png?_dc=1790789473 3rd party | images | 200 | 961 ms | 1.8 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/template/resources/scripts/tnt.navigation.accessibility.7a9170240d21440159b9bd59db72933b.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 947 ms | 910 B |
| https://btloader.com/tag?o=5071905434894336&upapi=true&async=true 3rd party | html | 302 | 943 ms | 0 B |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/torstar_core/resources/scripts/edition-selector.js?_dc=1791999259 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 931 ms | 101 B |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/62/962391b6-a783-4f5d-90fb-e2b416f33559/685808027fb7b.preview.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 924 ms | 35.0 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/torstar_core/resources/images/icons/google-play.svg?_dc=1791999257 3rd party | images | 200 | 924 ms | 4.4 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/custom/image/31c48758-8d44-11ed-8c30-0bcb8697ec11.png?resize=200%2C200 3rd party | images | 200 | 924 ms | 2.6 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/custom/image/2faeee7c-8d44-11ed-8c18-eb5483a10695.png?resize=200%2C181 3rd party | images | 200 | 924 ms | 1.3 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/custom/image/31c48758-8d44-11ed-8c30-0bcb8697ec11.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 924 ms | 1.2 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/jquery/resources/scripts/jquery.min.d6d18fcf88750a16d256e72626e676a6.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 37.6 KB |
| https://www.thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/api/access.9d6bbbd0e44e25eb4d81.js | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 31.5 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/plugins/resources/scripts/common.08a61544f369cc43bf02e71b2d10d49f.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 13.9 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/custom/image/f8b8cdff-1a76-4ae6-8f6a-3cf603c778ac.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 923 ms | 12.4 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/bootstrap/resources/scripts/bootstrap.min.d457560d3dfbf1d56a225eb99d7b0702.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 12.4 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/template/resources/scripts/tnt.c7cd232a9076c196b2102839f349c060.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 4.6 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/torstar_core/resources/images/icons/app-store.svg?_dc=1791999257 3rd party | images | 200 | 923 ms | 3.5 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/torstar_core/resources/images/icons/todays-paper.png?_dc=1791999257 3rd party | images | 200 | 923 ms | 2.0 KB |
| https://www.thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/user/user.js | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 1.6 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/templates/libraries/flex/components/template/resources/scripts/application.0758030105fdd3a70dff03f4da4530e2.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 1.6 KB |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/custom/image/2faeee7c-8d44-11ed-8c18-eb5483a10695.png?resize=150%2C136 3rd party | images | 200 | 923 ms | 911 B |
| https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/live/libraries/flex/components/torstar_core/resources/scripts/footer.nav.js?_dc=1791999259 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 639 B |
| https://www.thestar.com/shared-content/art/tncms/api/csrf.js | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 570 B |
Report this page
Run this test on your own site
The same engine, free, with the screenshots and the fixes. No account needed.