Updated November 6, 2026
GTmetrix: Detailed page speed reports with waterfalls and monitoring. People look for alternatives when they need a lower price, a free plan or a better fit for a specific job.
These 3 tools cover similar ground. Each entry explains who it suits, how pricing works and what to watch out for.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Every website owner. Start here | Free | Yes |
| Lighthouse | Developers who want audits in their own workflow | Free | Yes |
| PageSpeed Insights | A quick, authoritative speed check of any page | Free | Yes |
Search Console shows the queries people use to find your site, your clicks, impressions and average position, plus indexing problems, Core Web Vitals and manual actions. Every website should have it set up.
Free from Google.
Who it suits: Every website owner. Start here.
Lighthouse runs inside Chrome DevTools or from the command line and scores a page on performance, accessibility, best practices and basic SEO. Developers can run it in CI to catch regressions.
Free and open source, built into Chrome DevTools.
Who it suits: Developers who want audits in their own workflow.
PageSpeed Insights combines real-user Core Web Vitals data from the Chrome UX Report with a Lighthouse lab test, and lists specific opportunities to make the page faster.
Free from Google.
Who it suits: A quick, authoritative speed check of any page.
Page experience is part of how Google evaluates pages, and slow pages lose visitors. These tools measure Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), show what slows a page down and track performance over time.
Prices and features change often. Check each vendor’s website for current plans before you buy.
