TTFB is the time to first byte, which is the time it takes the browser to receive the first byte from the server in a request. And yet, it is a key aspect to focus on when measuring a site’s speed. Let’s be honest, it is the leading cause of slow load times for most sites.
You can test TTFB using any web resource, such as a page, image, font, or CSS file. It can measure the response time of your origin server or CDN provider. Moreover, the time to first byte can be tested separately for mobile devices and PCs.
You’ll get a better user experience with a low TTFB, since your page will load instantly, assuming everything is okay. But if it is too high, the user will see a blank screen for a short duration until the server responds. It’s a significant factor in Core Web Vitals.
According to Google, good TTFB values are under 0.8 sec, and negative values are over 1.8 sec: A longer distance between your server and visitors results in increased latency and slower TTFB. That’s why experts recommend CDNs for optimization. It plays a big part in this process, which is why it’s critical and significantly affects web vitals metrics.
Technically, when you enter a URL or click a link to a website, your browser takes several steps to receive the first byte of data. This is how a browser calculates it:
- DNS Lookup: First, there is a process that takes time to turn a domain name into an IP address. It is usually the hosting IP addresses that connect the website to the domain. So, your domain registrar’s response time matters.
- TLS (Transport Layer Security): The encrypted TLS handshake if using HTTPS and the time to build a valid TCP connection.
- Redirect Duration: Process time used on redirects. Yes, redirects slow down a website; even basic redirects like HTTP to HTTPS are time-consuming.
- Server Processing: This is the big part, and review your web hosting service. It’s the time the server spends handling application data, querying databases, and preparing the layout. Hosting makes it slow, so that’s why it’s important.
Let’s review tools (websites) for measuring the time to the first bytes of your website.
1. KeyCDN Performance Test
KeyCDN is a famous European CDN provider with over 60 distribution points. It isn’t my favorite, but I like their website performance measurement tools.
There are several measurement tools for troubleshooting website, network, and CDN issues. With “Performance Test,” you can test a website’s Time to First Byte from 10 locations around the world. It has a simple user interface and allows you to measure a web URL. You’ll get a breakdown of loading times and HTTP headers in the results.
In addition to TTFB, you can view location, status codes, DNS lookup time, connection time, and TLS overhead.
The HTTP response header includes additional metadata such as cache status, CDN details, last-modified date, cache-control, HTTP version, content type, and more.
2. Flying TTFB
Flying TTFB is a new measurement tool released by FlyingPress (Gijo Varghese). It offers a bit more than KeyCDN, with the ability to measure across 22 global zones.
With a quick Time to First Byte test, you can view server response times, cache status, and header information. You can also view details such as IP address, encoding type (Brotli/Gzip), and cache source.
In fact, it is a handy tool for checking time-to-first-byte across more than 20 locations, including HTTP header statistics. It is from the WordPress speed enthusiasts behind the FlyingPress plugin, FlyingCDN, and FlyingHost. So, you can use it to check how well your origin server or CDN responds from locations around the world.
3. SpeedVitals
SpeedVitals is a comprehensive website performance test tool, making it more suited to testing multiple locations and details than the previous two options.
It’s an ideal alternative to GTmetrix or Page Speed Insights because it lets you test multiple URLs and measure site speed across 40 countries. You can use most of their tools for free, but if you wish to use them at the top level, subscribe to a paid plan.
Users can use SpeedVital’s TTFB Testing tool for free across 30 locations. To access all zones, you have to pay. Another benefit is that you can test the time to first byte separately for Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. As part of the results, you can view the average TTFB values for Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific separately.
Additionally, you’ll see the HTTP header for every location, along with a summary of all locations that includes the average time to the first byte of your site.
SpeedVitals isn’t just a measurement tool; it’s a full-featured package for those who care about website speed and other key optimization factors. It’s one of my favorites as a WordPress speed enthusiast. They offer useful tutorials for optimizing websites.
I also suggest running the test at least twice to obtain more reliable results. It helps ensure the resource is cached and delivered from the CDN’s nearest data center.
4. GTMetrix
GTmetrix is one of the most popular tools for testing page performance. It is an all-in-one tool for measuring pages across multiple levels.
GTmetrix was a free tool with plenty of features, but now you must create an account to use it, and it limits you to 5 tests per account.
To test your web pages globally, you’ll need a paid plan. Still, the free account lets you test web pages in 10 different geographical regions, and the paid account allows you to test pages in 25 separate locations worldwide.
When using GTmetrix to examine your Time to First Byte, test the URL to see it in the results. GTmetrix results provide a clear outline of your site’s performance. You can view the total loading time for each site asset type. I like the waterfall chart because it helps us identify the causes of site slowdowns. It’s still a valuable tool for web owners/devs.
5. WebPageTest
WebPageTest provides an in-depth look at your website’s performance. Even the free account allows you to analyze data from over 20 locations.
It’s a modern tool for anyone seeking configuration options for browsers, locations, and devices. You can set the connection speed and the browser dimensions.
When you test your URL, the overview provides a detailed breakdown. It’s not just about the first byte; you can see a page summary for each asset on the website.
WebPageTest is one of the most comprehensive tools for measuring webpages. There are more details about your site than just performance stats. You can view the techs used to build your website, including WordPress, PHP, themes, plugins, and CDN.
6. PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights is a widely used website performance audit tool that analyzes how well a site performs and is often abbreviated as PSI.
It is an entirely free tool provided by Google for developers. It is a comprehensive tool for analyzing websites separately on desktop and mobile devices.
Compared with GTmetrix, it’s less complex, but you can still uncover a lot about your site. You can view the Web Vitals Assessment on both desktop and mobile devices.
PSI gives you an idea of your site’s performance, TTFB, to real browsers. And much of the guidance in PageSpeed Insights is linked to Largest Contentful Paint.
So those are the measurement tools that check the time to the first byte of the website. They’re usually comprehensive, not just statistical ones. Let’s talk about optimization.
Optimize TTFB with These Techniques
Well, keep your site’s TTFB low where most of your website visitors reach. See, if most of your website visitors are in North America, prioritize optimizing for that region. But if your audience is global, aim to keep it low everywhere.
And here are tips you can implement on your own:
Hosting:
It doesn’t matter how many optimizations you implement if your hosting is bad. A good web host is the first step to optimizing TTFB; a decent VPS can handle most types of sites, so consider Vultr, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, or any other reputable VPS.
Sure, you can use a modern hosting provider like Rocket.net or FlyingHost, which are optimized for performance and include a global CDN with EDGE caching.
Modernize Your Server Stack:
Always use the latest PHP, Redis, LiteSpeed, Nginx, MariaDB, and other server stacks. And stop using outdated techs such as Apache, memcached, and Varnish; move to modern alternatives because web tech changes quickly, so be ready.
Use a Modern CDN:
CDNs help websites manage global traffic and boost performance for users worldwide. However, it’s not always true: even with a CDN, you likely wouldn’t notice any progress, since you’re using it without optimization features. Or you guys use old CDN providers.
CDNs like Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, and Fastly offer tools to speed up page load times for global users. There are many settings, but you usually only need a few.
In my view, Cloudflare is the most reliable CDN NOWADAYS. It is easy to optimize TTFB with APO and Argo Smart Routing, reducing first-byte latency under 100ms.
Edge caching:
AKA dynamic caching, it is typically enabled by default in modern CDNs, and it cuts TTFB in half. If you’re using a solid CDN with dynamic caching, you can get a time to first byte of under 200ms.
Cloudflare offers multiple implementation options for dynamic (full-page caching), such as Automatic Platform Optimization and page rules.
Page and Object Caching:
Usually, CMSs, web hosts, and modern CLOUD control panels support multiple cache levels. In WordPress, you can maximize a lot with caching plugins like FlyingPress, LiteSpeed Cache, or WP Rocket. There is also server-LEVEL caching.
OBJECT CACHE enhances website performance by caching database query results in memory, leading to faster page loads. At this point, data can be quickly retrieved from the cache instead of querying the database.
Memcached and Redis are common options, but Redis is a modern OC method that works well for large websites; it’s not necessary for small ones.
Use a modern web framework instead of WordPress:
There are plenty of frameworks lighter than WP, but most require some coding know-how. No worries if you’re not a coding whiz, though Claude’s got your back. I use Astro Build to create content-based websites, even though I’m not an expert in frameworks.
And finally, you can test your page’s TTFB using FlyingTTFB, KeyCDN Test, DebugBear, and SpeedVitals. Your goal shoud to keep your website’s average global response time under 400 milliseconds. You can also try tools like WebPageTest, PSI, or GTmetrix for a more in-depth look at your website’s performance.
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