In a world where website speed can make or break the user experience, having a tool like Perfmatters can make a huge difference for your website.
It’s not just about making your site faster; it’s about creating a smoother, more enjoyable experience for anyone who visits your site.
Whether you’re a blogger, run an online store, or manage any WordPress site, the loading time can significantly impact your success.
In this Perfmatters review, we’ll explore how Perfmatters works, its key features, and the real impact it can have on your website’s performance.
I’ll also share my personal experience with the plugin and give you an honest take on whether it’s worth the investment.
So, let’s get started and see if Perfmatters is the secret ingredient your WordPress site has been missing!
What are Perfmatters?
Perfmatters is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance website performance, specifically tailored for WordPress sites. Developed by a duo of brothers who are passionate about WordPress, this tool focuses on optimizing web speed and efficiency.
Perfmatters is useful for any WordPress site owner who wants to enhance the site’s loading speed and performance, both of which are vital for a better user experience and search engine ranking.
For a limited time, you can grab Perfmatters for 20% off with the code GRABHOSTS. Don’t miss out on this chance to take your WordPress site to the next level! Click the link and start feeling the speed.
Perfmatters Features
Quick-toggle options:
Perfmatters makes it super easy to speed up your WordPress site. With just a click, you can turn on or off different features. This includes stopping emojis and embeds that you might not use, which can slow down your site.
You can also limit how many times your posts are saved automatically (post revisions) and even control a feature called Heartbeat, which, if not managed, can use up a lot of your site’s resources.
These quick changes can make a big difference in how fast your site loads.
Script Manager:
This is a powerful tool within Perfmatters. It lets you control which scripts run on your site. For example, if you use a contact form plugin that loads on every page but you only need it on one page, you can disable it everywhere else.
This helps your site load faster, especially your homepage. The Script Manager is user-friendly and offers advanced options, like disabling scripts based on certain conditions or using Regex for more complex requirements.
Database Optimization:
Your WordPress site’s database can get cluttered over time with old drafts, spam comments, and more. Perfmatters offers easy ways to clean up your database.
You can delete old revisions and spam comments and optimize your database tables. This is like giving your site a good spring clean, ensuring it runs smoothly and quickly.
Lazy Loading:
This feature delays the loading of images and videos until they’re actually needed (as the user scrolls down). For sites with lots of images or videos, this can significantly speed up loading times. Perfmatters takes it a step further than the default WordPress lazy loading with additional customization options.
Change Your WordPress Login URL:
By changing the default login URL, you can protect your site from unwanted visitors and bots that try to access your site. This is a simple change with Perfmatters, but it can greatly enhance your site’s security and performance.
CDN Rewrite:
If you use a CDN (Content Delivery Network), Perfmatters makes it easy to integrate it with your WordPress site. This can speed up the delivery of your site’s content, especially for visitors from different parts of the world.
Multisite Support
If you’re managing multiple WordPress sites, Perfmatters has got you covered with its multisite support. This is especially handy if you’re using the unlimited license. What this means is you can easily manage and synchronize settings across all your sites from one central place.
Here’s how Perfmatters makes multi site management a breeze:
Network-Wide Activation: You can activate the Perfmatters plugin and its license across your entire network of sites from the network admin area. This saves you the hassle of dealing with each site individually.
Flexible Access Control: The plugin allows you to set who can access it. You can choose whether all Site Admins can use it or limit it to Super Admins only. This is great for maintaining control and security over who manages the plugin’s settings.
Efficient Settings Management: One of the coolest features is being able to push your configured settings from your main network site to all your other subsites. Imagine setting up Perfmatters just how you like it on one site and then easily applying those same settings to all your other sites. It’s a huge time-saver and ensures consistency across your network.
Host Google Analytics Locally:
Hosting Google Analytics locally can speed up your site by reducing extra DNS lookups. It also helps with caching issues often associated with Google’s script.
Add Code to Header, Body, Footer:
This feature allows you to easily add custom code to different parts of your site, which is useful for things like inlining CSS or JavaScript or integrating with other tools and services.
Preloading Resources:
Perfmatters lets you preload certain resources, which can speed up how quickly your site loads. This includes preloading images, which can be especially helpful for improving your site’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – a key Google metric.
Defer and Delay JavaScript:
You can speed up the time it takes for your site to become interactive by deferring and delaying JavaScript. Perfmatters offers various options to control how and when JavaScript loads on your site.
Remove Unused CSS:
You can significantly reduce the size of a page and improve load times by removing CSS that isn’t being used. Perfmatters automates this process, helping to streamline your site’s performance.
Host Google Fonts Locally:
The Perfmatters plugin allows you to store Google Fonts on your own server, thereby speeding up font loading times and improving privacy.
How to Install and Activate Perfmatters?
The plugin download link will be sent to you via email after you purchase the plugin. The Perfmatters plugin can be installed and activated with your license key by following the steps below. As a result, you will receive all the automatic updates and new features we release.
Install and activate
Step 1:
To get the plugin’s .zip file (perfmatters.zip), you have two options:
- Access your email and follow the provided link to initiate the download.
- Alternatively, you can get it through your account. First, click on “View Details and Downloads.” Next, navigate to the “Products” section, and finally, select “Download Plugin.“
Step 2:
On your WordPress dashboard, select “Plugins” and click “Add New.”
Step 3:
You can upload the perfmatters.zip file by clicking on “Upload Plugin.”
Step 4:
You will find the plugin’s settings in your dashboard after you’ve installed it and activated it. Click on “Perfmatters.”
Step 5:
You can enter the license key you received in your email by clicking the “License” submenu. You can also find your license key in your account.
Step 6:
Then, you need to click on “Save License.”
As soon as your license is activated, you should see a confirmation message. Perfmatters will now be automatically updated in your WordPress dashboard.
Once the plugin is activated, you can explore all its features, and I will walk you through the important ones.
How to get Started with Perfmatters?
Here’s how to get started with Perfmatters:
1. Quick toggle options
You can start by simply using the quick toggle settings and optimize your website. The following are a few I recommend using.
Please Note: It is recommended to leave “Remove jQuery Migrate” off or to test it separately. In particular, if you’re using a page builder like Divi or Elementor.
2. Lazy Loading
Next, you can enable the lazy loading option, which delays the loading of images until a user scrolls down the page (images enter the viewport as the user scrolls down). Your performance can be greatly affected by this.
3. WooCommerce
The WooCommerce options are only needed if WooCommerce powers your store. Separately/one by one, each of these should be tested.
- Disable WooCommerce scripts and styles
- Disable cart fragmentation
- Disable status meta box
- Disable widgets
4. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
I also recommend the CDNs for speeding up assets (images, JS, CSS). With CDN rewrite, you can easily use third-party CDN providers on your WordPress site. This feature is not necessary if you are already using Cloudflare.
5. Google Analytics
You can also host Google Analytics locally in order to speed up the process. A minimal version, which is even faster, is also available.
6. Defer and delay JavaScript
The next step is to defer and delay JavaScript, which can help fix render-blocking resource warnings and unused JavaScript warnings.
If something isn’t needed immediately, this can be a great way to speed up Google Lighthouse’s paint process. A lot of third-party scripts, such as Google Adsense, Google Analytics, conversion pixels (Facebook, Google Ads), etc.
7. Remove unused CSS
When PageSpeed Insights detects code being loaded by a plugin or theme that isn’t needed, the warning “Reduce unused CSS” is triggered.
You can remove unused CSS code from a page using the Remove Unused CSS feature in Perfmatters. As a result, any warnings related to render-blocking resources will also be fixed.
8. Preloading resources
You can use the available preload, preconnect, and instant page options when it comes to optimizing things like web font icons (Font Awesome).
When a user hovers over a link, Instant Pages automatically prefetch URLs in the background.
As a result, site load times are almost instantaneous, which improves both the user experience and the perception of speed (how fast a site feels).
9. Fonts
Locally hosting Google Fonts is much faster. Rather than relying on Google’s CDN, you should store and deliver your fonts from your server or CDN.
10. Script Manager
It depends on what you have running on your site when using the Script Manager. This is one of the plugin’s most powerful features, as you can fine-tune performance on every page or post on your site.
Additionally, you can disable plugins completely (MySQL queries and inline CSS/JS).
Also, make sure you enable each feature one by one before testing your site. You can disable it if there is a conflict for some reason.
You won’t have to worry about your site getting harmed, as the plugin doesn’t change data permanently. Alternatively, you can use our testing mode. Alternatively, you can use their testing mode.
Perfmatters Pricing
Perfmatters offers three different pricing plans, catering to various needs, from individual site owners to businesses managing multiple sites.
The pricing is quite reasonable considering the features and support you get. The Personal plan is a great starting point for individual users, while the Business and Unlimited plans offer great scalability for growing needs.
The 30-day money-back guarantee across all plans makes it a safe investment to try out their service.
Let me give the breakdown of their plans below:-
1 Site – Personal: $24.95 per year
It is best for Individual website owners or bloggers.
This plan covers 1 year of premium support and updates for a single WordPress site. It’s ideal if you’re just starting out or have only one website to manage.
3 Sites – Business: $54.95 per year
This is most suited for small businesses or those with multiple personal sites. This plan extends support and updates to up to 3 WordPress sites for a year. It’s great if you’re expanding or have a few sites to look after.
3. Unlimited Sites: $124.95 per year (Best Value)
This one is ideal for Agencies, developers, or webmasters managing multiple client sites. As the name suggests, this plan offers support and updates for an unlimited number of sites for one year. It also includes multisite support, making it a perfect choice for those with a larger portfolio of sites.
Other significant details on pricing:
- Renewal Discount: All renewals come with a 15% discount, which is a huge benefit for regular users.
- License Upgrade: You can upgrade your license anytime, with the new amount being prorated.
- Refund Policy: Their 30-day Money-Back Guarantee adds a layer of security to your purchase.
Perfmatters Support
When it comes to Perfmatters, the support you get is top-notch because it comes straight from the people who made the plugin. That’s a big deal, especially in a world where frustrating customer support can be a common pain point.
The developers themselves handle your queries and problems. With over 19 years of experience in WordPress, they really know their stuff.
The team at Perfmatters isn’t just dabbling in plugin development as a hobby; they’re fully committed to it. This means they’re always working on making the plugin better – fixing any bugs that pop up and adding new features regularly. They also make sure that Perfmatters stays up to date with the latest WordPress versions.
Good documentation can save you tons of time and headaches. Perfmatters has over 100 step-by-step guides on how to use the plugin and set it up in the best way for your site. This kind of resource is invaluable, especially if you’re new to this or if you prefer solving problems on your own.
Your opinions and ideas matter to them. They actually want to hear from you if you’ve got suggestions or ideas for the plugin. It’s great to see a company take user feedback seriously. You can also check out what new features they’re thinking about and what updates they’ve made in their changelog.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Enhances website performance for better user experience and SEO.
- Quick toggle options for easy optimization.
- Granular control over scripts with Script Manager.
- Database cleanup for smoother site operation.
- Custom code insertion and resource preloading.
- Automatically removes unused CSS code.
Cons:
- No free trial is available.
- Ongoing yearly subscription costs.
- No lifetime license option.
Conclusion
Perfmatters has revolutionized my approach to optimizing WordPress sites. It goes beyond just masking problems by addressing the root causes of slow websites.
With a simple toggle, it can transform PageSpeed Insights scores from barely passing to flawless. What’s even more impressive is the exceptional support and comprehensive documentation, setting a benchmark for excellence in this field.
Perfmatters isn’t just a plugin; it’s a game-changer for anyone looking to create faster, more efficient, and trouble-free WordPress websites. And I highly recommend it for anyone with a WordPress site or multiple.
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