6 ms·

I've never understood Netlify. They are supposed to be targeted at static high performance blogs. Yet their own blog is 15MB in size and over 100 different ht

I've never understood Netlify. They are supposed to be targeted at static high performance blogs. Yet their own blog is 15MB in size and over 100 different http requests. See the YSlow report for their blog site below. https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/C6fG3uTg https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/C6fG3uTg It receives an "F" rating. Isn't this kind of bloated website the exact problem Netlify is suppose to solve?

mipmap04 9y ago
To be fair, 14.4MB of that is images (I don't know why some of them are that large, however). Does their offering specifically have something related to image optimization / scaling (I'm unfamiliar with Netlify)?
- _fool 9y ago
  disclaimer: I work for netlify. We do have image optimization built-in but it won't change images' size (in case you link externally - we don't want to move your cheese) or do anything lossy. So - we have not resized and chosen optimal formats for those images and we are working on doing it right now :)
  - alberth 9y ago
    Please note I am truly rooting for you guys to make the web a better place. But it's not just the blog I linked to above that's slow, it's even the blog post of this very HN post. https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/KdCXA8bB https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/KdCXA8bB 54 http request (26 of which are JS) just seems kind of nuts for a blog post. Not trying to make you guys look bad. But clearly asset merging and image optimization are needed.
    - bobfunk 9y ago
      Netlify as a service doesn't really affect how you do things as a front-end developer, but we do help make sure that all those assets get to your browser as fast as can be. But yes, we all agree that we should do a better job of making our website leaner and we do have a bunch of changes planned around that (and we're hiring!).
      - alberth 9y ago
        Congrats again on the funding. Your vision of a better web is inspiring. Wishing you and your team the best.
    - goshx 9y ago
      Honestly curious, was it slow on your browser? The entire website is ridiculously fast for me.
      - crazypyro 9y ago
        You mentioning this made me go and check it out myself and I got to say the page loads are very quick to the natural eye on my connection, FWIW. I would recommend other people check it out themselves as well. I compared it to apple.com (since someone mentioned it in a lower comment) and apple.com had noticeable page loads whereas Netlify's blog didn't.
      - andruby 9y ago
        I am abroad on a slow 3G connection while nsurlsessiond is eating my bandwidth and the site was extremely slow (took more than a minute to load), while HN loads in 2~3s. I'm sure the site is fast on a regular connection though.
    - seanwilson 9y ago
      The number of HTTP requests is not a big deal now with HTTP2. See here where it's no longer recommended to concatenate JS files: https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-2-for-web-developers/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-2-for-web-developers/ Is YSlow (which warns about too many HTTP requests) still updated? There's been no updates for 3 years here: https://github.com/marcelduran/yslow https://github.com/marcelduran/yslow
      - dougfinley 9y ago
        Actually, Netlify site performs WORSE using http2. See the comparison: https://www.dareboost.com/en/comparison/598b93730cf2aac95f7549c7/598b93730cf2aac95f7549c8/ https://www.dareboost.com/en/comparison/598b93730cf2aac95f75...
        seanwilson 9y ago
        Is that because of the number of requests or a different reason though?
  - dakom 9y ago
    Hah, I read "Who Moved My Cheese?" a while ago but I haven't seen it used as an idiom like this. Nice one!
- late2part 9y ago
  only 600kb of text on a landing page? That's about the same size as _Walden_ by Thoreau. Seems large. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-0.txt https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-0.txt
  - _fool 9y ago
    This is definitely the most flattering insult we received in this thread ;)
limeblack 9y ago
That is funny Apple's site received a C and I typically consider them image heavy https://gtmetrix.com/reports/apple.com/1IDcUYV1 https://gtmetrix.com/reports/apple.com/1IDcUYV1
StavrosK 9y ago
I don't need my doctor to be thin when he's telling me I need to lose fat, though. I host my blog with their service, I get thousands of visitors a day and it's always extremely fast. I love the simple deployment and the features they give me, and I evangelize their service to everyone. Try it out, it's fantastic, despite the large landing page.
- elliotec 9y ago
  I absolutely, obviously, would trust a thin doctor telling me to lose weight over a fat one telling me almost anything.
  - dungle6 9y ago
    Why obviously? You're not a bright one.
  - kentor 9y ago
    Even a thin doctor who stays thin with a terrible diet?
  - StavrosK 9y ago
    "Tu quoque" is a terrible basis for medical advice.
ahallock 9y ago
Netlify is wonderful. I never thought to check if they dogfood their product, though. Sometimes, resources are allocated to new features and site redesign/restructuring work gets pushed to the back burner.
- gk1 9y ago
  The cobbler's children have no shoes.

mipmap04 9y ago

To be fair, 14.4MB of that is images (I don't know why some of them are that large, however). Does their offering specifically have something related to image optimization / scaling (I'm unfamiliar with Netlify)?

_fool 9y ago
disclaimer: I work for netlify. We do have image optimization built-in but it won't change images' size (in case you link externally - we don't want to move your cheese) or do anything lossy. So - we have not resized and chosen optimal formats for those images and we are working on doing it right now :)
- alberth 9y ago
  Please note I am truly rooting for you guys to make the web a better place. But it's not just the blog I linked to above that's slow, it's even the blog post of this very HN post. https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/KdCXA8bB https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.netlify.com/KdCXA8bB 54 http request (26 of which are JS) just seems kind of nuts for a blog post. Not trying to make you guys look bad. But clearly asset merging and image optimization are needed.
  - bobfunk 9y ago
    Netlify as a service doesn't really affect how you do things as a front-end developer, but we do help make sure that all those assets get to your browser as fast as can be. But yes, we all agree that we should do a better job of making our website leaner and we do have a bunch of changes planned around that (and we're hiring!).
    - alberth 9y ago
      Congrats again on the funding. Your vision of a better web is inspiring. Wishing you and your team the best.
  - goshx 9y ago
    Honestly curious, was it slow on your browser? The entire website is ridiculously fast for me.
    - crazypyro 9y ago
      You mentioning this made me go and check it out myself and I got to say the page loads are very quick to the natural eye on my connection, FWIW. I would recommend other people check it out themselves as well. I compared it to apple.com (since someone mentioned it in a lower comment) and apple.com had noticeable page loads whereas Netlify's blog didn't.
    - andruby 9y ago
      I am abroad on a slow 3G connection while nsurlsessiond is eating my bandwidth and the site was extremely slow (took more than a minute to load), while HN loads in 2~3s. I'm sure the site is fast on a regular connection though.
  - seanwilson 9y ago
    The number of HTTP requests is not a big deal now with HTTP2. See here where it's no longer recommended to concatenate JS files: https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-2-for-web-developers/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-2-for-web-developers/ Is YSlow (which warns about too many HTTP requests) still updated? There's been no updates for 3 years here: https://github.com/marcelduran/yslow https://github.com/marcelduran/yslow
    - dougfinley 9y ago
      Actually, Netlify site performs WORSE using http2. See the comparison: https://www.dareboost.com/en/comparison/598b93730cf2aac95f7549c7/598b93730cf2aac95f7549c8/ https://www.dareboost.com/en/comparison/598b93730cf2aac95f75...
      - seanwilson 9y ago
        Is that because of the number of requests or a different reason though?
- dakom 9y ago
  Hah, I read "Who Moved My Cheese?" a while ago but I haven't seen it used as an idiom like this. Nice one!
late2part 9y ago
only 600kb of text on a landing page? That's about the same size as _Walden_ by Thoreau. Seems large. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-0.txt https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-0.txt
- _fool 9y ago
  This is definitely the most flattering insult we received in this thread ;)

limeblack 9y ago

That is funny Apple's site received a C and I typically consider them image heavy https://gtmetrix.com/reports/apple.com/1IDcUYV1 https://gtmetrix.com/reports/apple.com/1IDcUYV1

StavrosK 9y ago

I don't need my doctor to be thin when he's telling me I need to lose fat, though. I host my blog with their service, I get thousands of visitors a day and it's always extremely fast. I love the simple deployment and the features they give me, and I evangelize their service to everyone. Try it out, it's fantastic, despite the large landing page.

elliotec 9y ago
I absolutely, obviously, would trust a thin doctor telling me to lose weight over a fat one telling me almost anything.
- dungle6 9y ago
  Why obviously? You're not a bright one.
- kentor 9y ago
  Even a thin doctor who stays thin with a terrible diet?
- StavrosK 9y ago
  "Tu quoque" is a terrible basis for medical advice.

ahallock 9y ago

Netlify is wonderful. I never thought to check if they dogfood their product, though. Sometimes, resources are allocated to new features and site redesign/restructuring work gets pushed to the back burner.

gk1 9y ago
The cobbler's children have no shoes.