Perfmatters is a super-lightweight performance plugin for WordPress that allows you to disable the unnecessary resources that are not being used by your WordPress website.
Perfmatters is a premium performance plugin that helps you disable the styles and scripts not required by your website. It helps you insanely improve the performance of the website with a few clicks.
In this review, I’ll cover all the important aspects of the plugin in detail.
Table of Contents
What is Perfmatters?
Perfmatters is a great tool for optimizing your website’s speed. It helps you by identifying and eliminating unnecessary code and files that are slowing down your site. It has various features that can help you speed up your site, including asset optimization, database optimization, and caching. Perfmatters also optimizes your website’s images and files to improve your site’s speed further.
About the Creators
It is developed by Brian Jackson & Brett Jackson at ForgeMedia LLC. They’re the same people behind Novashare Lightweight Social Sharing Plugin for WordPress.
I’ve been following Brian since my early days of WordPress Freelancing. He had also served as CMO at Kinsta, and I’m a big fan of his writings on WordPress Optimization. You can also read his articles on Woorkup.
How does Perfmatters help in Speed Optimization?
Overall, Perfmatters is an excellent tool to use if you want to improve your website’s speed and performance. It is easy to use and can make a significant difference in your site’s loading times.
If you are serious about optimizing your website’s speed, then Perfmatters is a tool that you should definitely consider using.
@perfmatters_ + Kinsta + WP-Rocket = 🚀🚀🚀
– Website Optimization Tactic #32
Features: What makes the Perfmatters different?
Perfmatters packs several features that allow us to ramp up the loading speed of a website with a few clicks.
Essential Features
- Disable Emojis: Every time we use emojis on our websites, they’re loaded from a wp-emoji-release.min.js file. So, if you’re not an emoji fan, you can disable the file from the settings and save some unnecessary requests.
- Disable Dashicons: Dashicon are official icons at WordPress and they’re utilized by some theme vendors on the front end. It loads the dashicons.min.css file every time on the front end. As of now, most of the modern themes use SVGs instead of Dashicons, so it’s better to keep them disabled.
- Disable Embeds: WP Embed allows you to embed websites on your website and others do the same for you, but it loads an extra file called wp-embed.min.js to it. So, disabling embedding will prevent others from embedding your websites, removes oEmbed-specific JavaScript, and disable filtering of oEmbed results.
- Disable XML-RPC: XML-RPC allows remote connections for websites, and it has several security risks. XML-RPC is used by plugins including Jetpack, which I don’t recommend personally due to performance issues. So, it’s better to keep it disabled if you’re not using it.
NOTE: If you are using Cloudways or Kinsta, XML-RPC is disabled by default.
- Disable jQuery Migrate: Most modern themes & plugins don’t use jQuery. So it’s better to keep it disabled.
- Disable Comments & Remove Comment URLs: If your website doesn’t use comments, you can easily disable it to minimize any kind of spam and distraction.
Know more about Improvements by Removing Comments from here.
- Remove Unnecessary WordPress Files: WordPress loads many unnecessary files in
<head>
section of the pages. Most of them remain unused and you might want to remove them. You can remove the following:- WordPress Version
- WLWManifest Link
- RSD Link
- Shortlink (<link rel=”shortlink”>)
- REST API Links (if you’re not using REST API)
- Disable Google Maps: Some themes/plugins load Google Maps unnecessarily. If you’re not using Google Maps on your website, you can stop loading them.
- Disable Password Strength Meter: The password strength meter loads “/wp-includes/js/zxcvbn.min.js” file. Disabling it will stop loading the file across all pages and loads it when it’s needed.
Security Features: Custom Login URL
Custom Login URL is yet another feature that I like on Perfmatters. It allows you to change the “wp-login.php” to a Custom Login URL without installing any other plugin for only changing the Login URL. I’ve used WPS Hide Login on all my websites.
You can enable Custom Login URL by Navigating to “Settings > Perfmatters > Custom Login URL“.
Flagship Feature: Script Manager
The Script Manager of Perfmatters is the main reason why I’m using it or why you should be using it. It is the best feature of the plugin. It allows you to control the scripts and stylesheets that are being loaded on your website at the page level. Perfmatters gives the user complete control over the files.
How to enable Script Manager?
Before we start using the Script Manager, we need to enable it from the plugin settings. To do so:
- Go to Settings > Perfmatters.
- Now, go to the Assets tab.
- Here, enable “Script Manager” and click on Save Changes.
Now, the Script Manager will be available on your WordPress Toolbar in the front.
How does Script Manager work?
To remove the plugin file on that page, click on the “ON” switch to see more options. It will offer you several options for each stylesheet and script.
When you hop into the Script Manager, you’ll see a list of all the stylesheets and scripts loaded on that page. It allows you to disable the whole plugin from the page or even the whole website, or you can also remove partial scripts of the plugin.
CSS Optimization: Remove Unused CSS
One of its key features is the ability to remove unused CSS, which can help reduce page load times. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of CSS code that isn’t being used by your site.
Perfmatters automatically finds the unused CSS from the website and removes it for the front-end users. It includes 3 Stylesheet Behaviours: Async, Delay, and Remove. Depending on the results, you can choose either of these.
NOTE: If you use “Combined CSS” on your website. Please disable it before using “Remove Unused CSS“.
JavaScript Optimization: Defer & Delay JavaScript
Deferring the Javascript moves the Script to the footer in order to eliminate the “Render Blocking Resources“. On the other hand, Delaying JavaScript until user interaction allows the webpage to load all the components without worrying about JavaScript execution.
Self-Hosted Google Fonts and Google Analytics
If you’re using Google Fonts on your website and fetching them from Google’s server then you might be facing some issues due to the DNS prefetch and you might be needed to preload all the fonts. You can solve this issue with one click by hosting the fonts locally on your server and serving them directly to the users.
If you’re using Google Analytics, then hosting Google Analytics locally can actually help speed up your site by reducing extra DNS lookups and resolving the “leverage browser caching” issue from their script.
Other Features
Perfmatters packs a lot of features than the one already mentioned. These features include: Add Codes to the Header, Footer, and Body Section, Preloading Fonts & Images, Preconnect & DNS Prefetch Domains, Lazy Loading of Images, Videos, iFrames, and CDN Rewrite.
Speed Test after using Perfmatters 🚀
Perfmatters Pricing 💵
If you’re looking for a way to improve your website’s performance, Perfmatters is a great option. Perfmatters is available with an affordable pricing of $24.95/yr that extends up to $124.95/yr for unlimited sites. The Unlimited Sites version also comes with Multisite Support, so it’s convenient to set up MU sites easily.
💸 Discount Codes for Perfmatters
PROMO CODE | DISCOUNT |
---|---|
RANKMATH | 25% OFF |
WPSMACKDOWN | 20% OFF |
WOORKUP | 15% OFF |
PERFMATTERS | 10% OFF |
FAQs
What is Perfmatters?
Perfmatters is a lightweight WordPress performance plugin with a collection of tools to speed up your website.
How does Perfmatters work?
Perfmatters speeds up your website by reducing HTTP requests, eliminating render-blocking resources, optimizing your database, and more.
How do I install Perfmatters?
You can install the Perfmatters plugin by going to the Plugins page in your WordPress dashboard and clicking “Add New.” Then, search for “Perfmatters” and click “Install Now.”
How do I use Perfmatters?
After installing and activating Perfmatters, you can begin using it by going to the plugin’s settings page and configuring the options to suit your needs.
Does Perfmatters work with all WordPress themes?
Yes, Perfmatters works with all WordPress themes.
Does Perfmatters work with all WordPress plugins?
Yes, Perfmatters works with all WordPress plugins.