EasySpeed: speed and Core Web Vitals for every Joomla site

It runs in plain PHP on your own hosting: no external optimisation service, no API key, no Node.js and no CDN required. It works with any template and extension, with built-in adaptations for SP Page Builder, Helix Ultimate and YOOtheme Pro. Every optimisation has its own switch. A new installation starts in Diagnostics mode, which only measures, so you can read its report on your pages before it changes anything.

Version 1.1.0, updated 1 October 2026. For Joomla 4.4, Joomla 5 and Joomla 6.

Measured on our own site, joomlamax.com, on 28 September 2026 (Lighthouse 12, mobile, median of three runs, with EasySpeed switched off and on for the same page): Performance score 63 → 99, Largest Contentful Paint 7.1 s → 1.9 s, render-blocking files 7 → 0. Results depend on your template, extensions, hosting, images and third-party scripts.

What EasySpeed does

• Only the CSS your pages use: stylesheets merged and cut down, with classes added later by JavaScript found automatically.
• First visits that appear sooner: the stylesheet is written into the page, and for a very large stylesheet the first screen's rules come first.
• Scripts deferred safely: the page appears first, and deferred scripts still run by themselves, in their original order.
• Lighter images: WebP copies, optional AVIF, responsive srcset and sizes, and the main image loaded first.
• Background videos with a poster: the page paints before the video arrives.
• Fonts that keep text still: size-matched fallback fonts, and icon fonts cut to the icons you use.
• A built-in page cache: finished pages served to guests before Joomla builds them again, and an article edit clears only the pages that showed it.
• Clear reports inside Joomla: what changed on the latest page, what still slows it down, and whether your server and CDN are set up well.

Stylesheets: only the CSS each page uses

Templates, page builders and extensions load styles for every feature they offer, while a page uses a fraction of them. EasySpeed reads the finished page, merges its stylesheets and keeps the rules your pages use. Scripts often add classes later, for menus, sticky headers, sliders and animations. EasySpeed reads those classes from the scripts on your site, so you rarely need to list any by hand. When a page or one of its stylesheets changes, the stylesheet is rebuilt.

• Shared between pages of the same kind, so a visitor's browser reuses one file from page to page.
• First visits need no other file to appear: for a new visitor, the stylesheet and the head's blocking scripts are written into the page itself.
• Critical CSS for large stylesheets: when a stylesheet is over 400 KB, a first visit gets the rules its first screen draws with inside the page, and the rest of the stylesheet at the end.
• No animation storm: CSS transitions are held while the rest of the stylesheet is applied, then released.
• No duplicates: a stylesheet linked twice is bundled once, repeated style blocks are removed, and when a page builder or template already loads a full copy of Font Awesome, Joomla's own copy is dropped if the page uses none of its icon- classes.

Scripts: deferred safely, in their original order

EasySpeed defers render-blocking JavaScript while keeping its execution order. It reads each script file on your site to learn what it provides, so files that an inline script needs straight away (jQuery, React and others) stay where they are. Menus, sliders, forms and analytics run as before, without waiting for a visitor to move the mouse.

• Advertising tags that write into the page (document.write) are never deferred when they are files on your site or tags of known ad servers, so adverts are not left empty.
• Google reCAPTCHA on demand: the checkbox captcha loads when a visitor reaches its form, not on every page view. (Only for Joomla's reCAPTCHA captcha plugin.)
• Module scripts at low priority: they no longer compete with your stylesheet and main image, and still run at the same moment.
• Early connections to the other servers a page needs.
• Optional: start statistics tags after the page has loaded, and run a page's start-up code in small pieces for faster taps on phones. Both are off by default, and the settings explain the trade-off.

Statistics and advertising tags are listed with their cost on the Diagnostics tab. Third-party tags such as ads, analytics and chat are never removed for you: that decision stays yours.

Images and background videos

• WebP copies made on your own server with PHP, in several widths. No external image API and no per-image fees. Your original files are never changed.
• AVIF (optional): where your server supports it, each width is served as whichever is lighter, AVIF or WebP. EasySpeed tests your server first and tells you if something is missing.
• Responsive srcset and sizes, with sizes narrowed wherever your stylesheet gives an image a fixed pixel width, and transparency preserved in every copy.
• The main image first: the important above-the-fold image gets priority and a preload, even when a template or page builder marks it lazy. It can be a different image on phones and desktops. Other images load lazily.
• Less layout shift: missing width and height are added to images on your site, and SP Page Builder, Swiper and Owl Carousel sliders get their space before their script runs.
• Background images in stylesheets are converted too.
• Prepare all images: make every copy in one go from the plugin's settings. Stored pages then refresh in the background, and visitors get the earlier copy in the meantime.
• Background video posters: press Make posters once and a still picture is made, in your browser, for each autoplaying background video on your own site, so the page paints first. The video starts after its poster, once the page has loaded.

Fonts that keep text still

• Size-matched fallback fonts stop text from jumping when web fonts arrive, a common cause of Cumulative Layout Shift.
• Text appears before fonts arrive, laid out at the fonts' true widths.
• Icon fonts cut to the icons your pages use, such as Font Awesome.
• On phones, for a visitor who has just arrived, text fonts and icon fonts that cannot be cut down are applied after the first paint.
• Stylesheets from other domains, such as a Google Fonts stylesheet, can be copied to your server and bundled with the rest (off by default). The font files themselves still load from where they are.

A built-in page cache that refreshes itself

EasySpeed stores the finished, optimised page and serves it to guests before Joomla builds the page again, so your server answers in a fraction of the time.

• Fills itself from your sitemap or by following your site's own links, during normal traffic on servers that allow work after the response (PHP-FPM/FastCGI or LiteSpeed): no crawler service and no cron job. Elsewhere, each page is stored the first time a guest opens it.
• Refreshes precisely: stored pages remember the articles they show, so saving or deleting an article clears only those pages; publishing or unpublishing one also clears the pages that list articles. Changes to menus, modules, templates, plugins or languages clear the whole store.
• Edited pages rebuilt at once after a save, including saves in SP Page Builder's editor, where your server allows background work.
• Updates without an empty cache: after a plugin update or most settings changes, stored pages are rebuilt in the background while visitors keep getting the earlier copy (this needs PHP-FPM/FastCGI or LiteSpeed). Changing Mode, Apply to or Excluded components still empties the store.
• Safe for forms and logins: logged-in visitors always get the live page, and each guest gets their own form security token.
• Never store these addresses: keep pages such as search results, a basket or a checkout out of the cache. They are still optimised.
• No extra copies for tracking links: common tracking parameters (the standard utm_ tags, gclid, fbclid and more) share a page's stored copy, and each browser gets the copy made for the image format it supports.
• Stale-while-rebuilding: on PHP-FPM/FastCGI and LiteSpeed, an expired page is served while its replacement is prepared.
• The Cache tab lists stored pages with status, size and expiry. Rebuild or remove one page, or empty the store. If a CDN or firewall blocks the server's own requests, the tab says so.

Works on every Joomla site

EasySpeed optimises the page Joomla sends, so it works with any template and extension. On top of that:

• SP Page Builder: its lazy images, background video posters, per-device visibility classes, animations and time-zone script are handled, and saves in its editor clear the stored page and, where your server allows work after the response, rebuild it at once.
• Helix Ultimate: its drop-down list widget (Chosen) is removed on pages that do not need it, and its typography gets matching fallback fonts.
• YOOtheme Pro: UIkit's visibility classes are read when choosing the main image. Drop-down menus stay closed and the active menu item is drawn correctly on a first visit. Videos that UIkit plays itself are left to UIkit.
• Options for one extension say so in their description, for example the faster search filter for J-BusinessDirectory.
• Multilingual sites, sites in a subfolder, and sites behind Cloudflare or another CDN are supported.

You stay in control

• Diagnostics mode first: EasySpeed measures and reports before you let it change anything.
• Status tab: a before-and-after table for the latest page measured (stylesheet and script requests, blocking scripts, images without dimensions, HTML size), what changed, and findings ranked by impact.
• Server and Diagnostics tabs: check compression, browser caching and your CDN, see where a page's build time goes, and weigh your statistics and advertising tags.
• Guests only by default: editors and administrators always see the page as Joomla builds it.
• Every page checked before it is sent: if a check fails, the original page goes out and the Status tab says why.
• An emergency switch on every address: add ?easyspeed=off to compare any page without EasySpeed.
• Clean uninstall: stored pages, generated stylesheets and image copies are removed.

Requirements

• Joomla 4.4, 5 or 6
• PHP 7.4 or newer
• PHP's GD extension with WebP support for WebP images; AVIF needs PHP 8.1 or newer with AVIF support in GD, and a web server that sends .avif files as image/avif
• Ordinary shared hosting is enough. Background work (filling the cache, rebuilds after edits) needs PHP-FPM/FastCGI or LiteSpeed.

Good to know

• Use one page cache at a time. Switch off Joomla's System - Page Cache or another cache plugin when you turn on EasySpeed's.
• Third-party scripts keep their cost. Ads, analytics and chat widgets are not removed, so they still count in speed tests.
• No score tricks: EasySpeed does not hold every script back until a visitor moves the mouse. What PageSpeed Insights measures is the page your visitors get.
• Results vary with your template, extensions, hosting, images and third-party scripts. Compare any page with ?easyspeed=off to see EasySpeed's effect on your own site.

Documentation: https://joomlamax.com/documents/easyspeed/ explains every setting in plain words and includes a quick start, troubleshooting and the changelog.