Reading an app’s network waterfall
How to tell whether an app is expensive before you install it.
Install it on a copy, not on the store
Duplicate the theme, install into the duplicate, and record a trace before and after. Everything below is a comparison; without the before, you are guessing which requests were already there.
The cost of an app is not its bundle. It is what its bundle asks for next.
What to look at
- 01Requests it makes on its own behalfA 40 kb widget that then fetches a font, a config and a locale file is not a 40 kb widget.
- 02Where it sits in the documentHead with no defer is the difference between a cost and a blocker.
- 03Whether it loads store-wideA product-page widget on every collection page is the most common waste there is.