Oxygen Builder vs Gutenberg: Performance and Optimization

Performance is key to any website’s success, affecting user experience and SEO. Let’s look at how Gutenberg and Oxygen approach code efficiency, load times, and SEO optimization, helping you assess which aligns with your site’s goals.

Gutenberg Code Efficiency and Load Times

Gutenberg as a core component of WordPress, Gutenberg is designed with lightweight code, ensuring minimal additional styling and scripts. This structure enables faster page load times from the start.

Integrated with WordPress Core: Since Gutenberg is part of the core, it doesn’t rely on external scripts or heavy styles, which helps reduce resource demand.

Block-Based Simplicity: Each content block is designed for minimal impact, so Gutenberg maintains high performance even on pages with substantial content.

SEO Considerations: For advanced performance needs, like selective hydration, additional plugins or custom scripts may be required.

Gutenberg Code Efficiency and Load Times

Oxygen handles performance with an optimized approach to resource management. Instead of loading all styles and scripts at once, Oxygen only loads the resources each page needs, which enhances load speeds and minimizes bloat. However, as a comprehensive site editor, it introduces more code, making it hard to match Gutenberg’s lightweight build.

Selective Code Loading: Only the CSS and JavaScript required for the specific page elements are loaded, keeping pages lightweight.

Built-In Lazy Loading: Images load only when they come into view, improving performance on pages with many images.

SEO: Complex pages with heavier content may experience reduced performance, which could negatively impact SEO.

Setting up Oxygen’s performance features might require configuration, especially for new users. Additionally, extensive style customizations can add to the total file size, potentially affecting performance.

Performance Insights

Both builders accommodate SEO needs, though their integration and customization options differ.

Here are a few benchmarks of a simple “Hello World” page.

Standard Performance (No CPU or Network Throttling)

This test assesses how quickly the page loads under ideal conditions, with no CPU or network speed restrictions.

Gutenberg

Oxygen

CPU Throttling (No Network Throttling, 20x CPU Throttling)

In this scenario, we kept the network unrestricted but applied a 16x CPU throttle. This simulates how the page performs on slower processors, like those found on mobile devices.

Gutenberg

Oxygen

Full Throttling (Both Network and CPU Throttling)

Here, we applied both network and CPU throttling, which replicates conditions on lower-powered devices with slower network connections. This test gives insight into real-world performance on lower-tier hardware or limited data environments.

Gutenberg