how big is too big?

Just wondering how big is too big for a webpage? I've been reading that the average webpage is reaching 1800KB with 90+ objects and growing...

I currently have a prototype webpage that is 6.5Mg. Renders/downloads quickly but then, I have a nice internet connection. With BB speeds increasing all the time how much effort do you put into minimising page size?

davorminchorov

10 years ago

Level 53

6.5 MB uncompressed and not gzipped is fine (for development), it should go down under 1 MB probably when you compress it.

martinbean

10 years ago

Level 80

@primordial 6.5 MB?! That’s huge for a web page!

Yes, consumer home broadband connections are getting faster, but more and more mobile devices are being used to connect to the Internet. And users of such devices aren’t restricted to their home. They could be out in the English countryside on a 3G connection. Your 6.5 MB is then going to take an age to download.

I’d seriously look at the assets on your page and look for what you can either a) heavily optimise (images, style sheets, JavaScript files etc); or b) remove unnecessary assets. I’d say even 1 MB is too large for a page. You can never optimise too much. If you can get a web page to an end user faster, then there’s no downside to that.

2 likes

SP1966

10 years ago

Level 4

This thread is 238KB gzipped/519KB total size and takes just under 2 seconds on my 75Mb connection.

IMO 6.5MB is a big page unless we're talking about a javascript single page app type where you're downloading all the front end logic in one shot, after which you're only requesting data via XHR. For just a regular internet page it's many times over to BIG!!

1 like

MikeHopley

10 years ago

Level 17

The average web page is about 2 Mb, with 100 HTTP requests. Even this can be very slow when you are not on a fast connection.

I think you should ask yourself whether you need those 6.5 Mbs. It might make sense if you are designing Oakley's latest gosh-wow landing page to sell expensive sunglasses, or Apple's latest Mac Pro.

But this is probably not your project. Probably you're just making a fairly "normal" web page, and you are being very self-indulgent with your design.

Personally, I would have a hard cap of 500 kB and 50 HTTP requests. But of course, it depends on the purpose of your site.