www.aclu.org speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 14:29 UTC. Grade C (70/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 61 ms 29%
- TCP connect 35 ms 17%
- Server wait 111 ms 54%
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 207 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 4.07 MB over 26 request(s). Images files are 87% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 90% 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 608 ms, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- The main thread was blocked for 434 ms, so taps and scrolling wait while scripts run.
Fix first: Image delivery and format - Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.
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.
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, 4.07 MB across all of them.
Top issues
Image delivery and format
high impact4 image(s) over 200 KB and 6 large image(s) still served as JPEG or PNG.
Fix: Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.
Render-blocking resources
high impact8 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (3 script(s), 5 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.
Total page weight
high impactThe page transfers 4.07 MB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 15.8 KB.
Fix: Work through the heaviest assets first: images, then fonts, then third-party scripts.
Cache static assets
medium impact16 asset(s) answer without a Cache-Control max-age, so browsers revalidate them on every visit.
Fix: Version filenames on change and serve them with a long max-age plus immutable. That is what makes a returning visitor fast.
Third-party weight
medium impact3 third-party host(s) serve 3.68 MB 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.
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://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/09/Vote-Page-Thumbnails-2800-x-1400-1000x500.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 985 ms | 64.9 KB |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/dist/assets/css/common-BWmXPQOy.css?ver=6.9.9 | css | 200 | 983 ms | 347.7 KB |
| https://assets.gospringboard.io/v1/rmst.js?brand_url=rms.gospringboard.io&app_id=WtUEvY8HhKU5&ver=6.9.9 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 967 ms | 2.8 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/09/your-quetsions-answered-voting-full-bleed-1000x500.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 960 ms | 103.7 KB |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/dist/assets/css/global-YIicYOMW.css?ver=6.9.9 | css | 200 | 960 ms | 36.8 KB |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/style.css?ver=6.9.9 | css | 200 | 959 ms | 157 B |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/dist/assets/js/global-e8aiTjC7.js?ver=6.9.9 | javascript | 200 | 957 ms | 1.1 KB |
| https://www.aclu.org/shared/js/aclu-cookies.js?ver=6.9.9 | javascript | 200 | 954 ms | 554 B |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-parent/style.css?ver=1.0.39 | css | 200 | 933 ms | 378 B |
| https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/dist/assets/js/homepage-Bt3QxSRO.js?ver=6.9.9 | javascript | 200 | 932 ms | 21 B |
| https://cdn-pci.optimizely.com/js/16943591923.js?ver=6.9.9 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 925 ms | 125.9 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/child-separation-blog-400x266.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 923 ms | 20.0 KB |
| https://www.aclu.org/shared/js/aclu-heap-production.js?ver=6.9.9 | javascript | 200 | 923 ms | 1.0 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/02/Header.jpeg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 1.64 MB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/07/Stop-the-Abuse-of-Power-Stop-Unfounded-Arrests-of-Public-Officials-Tell-Congress-America-Elects-Presidents-Not-Kings_Hero.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 664.2 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/08/ACLU_Flock_Action_Action-Hero-1000x500.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 456.8 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/08/ACLU_Flock_Action_Wordpress-Page.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 287.5 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/07/ACLU_ICEKilling_Action_Wordpress-Page-1.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 187.3 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/07/ftca-full-bleed-1000x500.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 51.0 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/say-his-name-edwin-jovanny-lopez-cornejo-f-400x400.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 33.3 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/child-separation-blog-400x400.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 24.2 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/say-his-name-edwin-jovanny-lopez-cornejo-f-400x266.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 24.1 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/child-separation-blog-400x267.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 20.0 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/wilder-full-bleed-400x400.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 13.5 KB |
| https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/10/wilder-full-bleed-400x266.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 915 ms | 12.5 KB |
Report this page
Run this test on your own site
The same engine, free, with the screenshots and the fixes. No account needed.