www.thehindu.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 13:25 UTC. Grade A (90/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 85 ms 19%
- TCP connect 17 ms 4%
- Server wait 346 ms 77%
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 448 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 167.2 KB over 26 request(s).
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- The largest element painted at 496 ms, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- The main thread was blocked for 117 ms in total, which is not enough to feel.
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, 167.2 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Server response time (TTFB)
high impactThe first byte arrived after 448 ms. Of that, 346 ms was the server thinking and 102 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.
Render-blocking resources
high impact5 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (2 script(s), 3 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.
Cache static assets
medium impact1 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.
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://www.thehindu.com/curl,type | html | 404 | 1.36 s | 0 B |
| https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Merriweather:wght@300;400;700&family=Merriweather+Sans:wght@300;400;500;600;700&family=Playfair+Display:wght@400;700;900&display=swap 3rd party | css | 200 | 1.06 s | 451 B |
| https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Faustina:wght@300;400;500;600;700;800&display=swap 3rd party | css | 200 | 1.04 s | 251 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/css/th-online.min.css?ver=1792054282 | css | 200 | 984 ms | 12.7 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/css/th-online/bootstrap.min.css?ver=1792054171 | css | 200 | 965 ms | 22.4 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/apple-touch-icon.png | images | 200 | 963 ms | 1.2 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/favicon.ico | images | 200 | 956 ms | 609 B |
| https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-W5VV9N 3rd party | html | 200 | 946 ms | 92 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/assets/deferred.min.js | javascript | 200 | 945 ms | 3.6 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/account-page-arrow.svg | images | 200 | 938 ms | 157 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/js/require.min.js?ver=1792054171 | javascript | 200 | 933 ms | 6.3 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/account-page-mail-icon.svg | images | 200 | 933 ms | 245 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/google-signin/th-online-icon.svg | images | 200 | 932 ms | 813 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/1x1_spacer.png | images | 200 | 932 ms | 34 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/google-signin/group-12945.svg | images | 200 | 929 ms | 301 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/account-page-tick-icon.svg | images | 200 | 929 ms | 222 B |
| https://www.google-analytics.com/g/collect?v=2&tid=G-MHCVDGHV0S&cid=555&en=js_disabled 3rd party | other | 204 | 926 ms | 0 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/account-page-lock-icon.svg | images | 200 | 925 ms | 329 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/thehindu-logo.svg | images | 200 | 920 ms | 33.1 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/js/user_session.min.js?ver=1792054342 | javascript | 200 | 920 ms | 1.1 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/account-page-phone-icon.svg | images | 200 | 920 ms | 824 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/menu-close-icon.svg | images | 200 | 920 ms | 316 B |
| https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=11398210&cs_ucfr=1&cv=4.4.0&cj=1 3rd party | images | 200 | 920 ms | 43 B |
| https://www.thehindu.com/theme/css/THRX/home.min.css?ver=1792054306 | css | 200 | 919 ms | 10.4 KB |
| https://www.thehindu.com/static/content/images/20251022174725/electionpolls.png | images | 200 | 919 ms | 299 B |
Report this page
Run this test on your own site
The same engine, free, with the screenshots and the fixes. No account needed.