Warning: That free website speed checker you used might be lying to you

I ran my real estate site through those free online speed tests for 3 months and kept getting 'great' scores. Then I installed a proper monitoring tool that tests from real user locations in different cities. Turns out my site was loading like a turtle for people on mobile networks in Chicago and Dallas. The free tools only test from one server near you. Has anyone else caught their site being slower than the tests showed?

2 comments

2 Comments

palmer.ryan13d ago

Sounds like those free tools gave your site a participation trophy.

wyattbennett13d ago

Dude, preach. Same thing happened with my property management site. Free tools said 92 out of 100. Felt great. Then I actually checked it from my phone on 4G in a busy shopping center parking lot. Loaded like a 90s dial-up nightmare. Images took forever, the contact form was just spinning. Those free tests are basically just checking if your server is breathing. They don't tell you anything about real world usage.