Perfmatters plugin review – speed up your WPBakery site the smart way

If you use WPBakery to build your WordPress site, you already know how flexible it is. WPBakery follows modern development standards and best practices that help create high-performing, visually rich websites that score well on tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. You’ll see proof of that in our performance test section below.

To go even further and deal with third-party script behavior, strengthen site security, fine-tune resource loading, and minimize theme-level assets, you’ll benefit from adding a plugin like Perfmatters. It brings performance-focused features together in one place with helpful support, making it easier to boost your site’s speed and stability.

This lightweight performance plugin is built to help WordPress users remove unnecessary code, delay scripts, and improve loading times, and all of this happens without needing to touch a single line of code.

In this review, we’ll break down how Perfmatters works with WPBakery, show you actual before-and-after performance test results, and explain the key features that make it a smart choice for improving page speed.

Why Perfmatters is perfect for WPBakery users

Image source – Pefmatters homepage

WPBakery is one of the most popular and feature-rich page builders available. To support its wide range of design capabilities, it includes several scripts and assets. Perfmatters helps streamline and optimize how these scripts are handled, ensuring a faster, more efficient page load.

The plugin automatically detects if WPBakery is installed. When using the “Delay All Scripts” feature, Perfmatters provides quick script exclusions that are tailored for WPBakery.

According to Brian Jackson, co-founder of Perfmatters, they don’t apply broad exclusions by default. They only include scripts if they’re absolutely necessary. This gives you more performance without breaking anything.

For non-technical users, this integration is especially helpful. You don’t need to manually add script exclusions or tweak complex settings.

Real performance test: before vs after

To keep this review realistic, we tested Perfmatters on a clean WordPress installation. Only three plugins were active:

• WPBakery Page Builder
• Templatera (for layout templates)
• Perfmatters plugin

We used a simple single-page layout from WPBakery’s Templatera template library. No third-party tools like caching plugins or CDNs were involved. This setup shows how much Perfmatters alone can improve speed on a lightweight landing page.

PS: If you’re running a more complex site with larger images, animations, or third-party scripts, we recommend following additional best practices:

• Optimize image sizes
• Preload large content elements (like hero images)
• Reduce third-party script usage

We ran Lighthouse speed tests on both desktop and mobile using this clean setup. Here are the actual results:

Mobile speed score:

Here is the table of the before and after Perfmatters in the WPBakery-made site.

Here are the screenshots of our speed testing scores –

Without the Perfmatters plugin, test scores 

With the Perfmatters plugin, test scores 

Desktop speed score

This is the score of our test for the desktop version –

Here are screenshots of the PageSpeed scores –

Without the Perfmatters plugin, desktop score –

With the Perfmatters plugin, desktop score –

These performance improvements are based on real test data collected through Lighthouse under controlled conditions. No other optimization plugins or caching tools were active during testing, ensuring the results reflect the direct impact of using Perfmatters with WPBakery.

Core Perfmatters features that matter

To enhance performance on our WPBakery-powered site, we focused on using key features from Perfmatters. This combination allowed us to optimize script loading, image handling, fonts, and reduce overall page weight. While these worked well in our clean test setup, remember that every site is unique. The features that boosted our scores may require different adjustments on your site. You may need to experiment with different settings and adjust things gradually to see what works best for your specific site setup.
Let’s explore our configuration:

JavaScript optimization

The Perfmatters plugin comes with some important JavaScript optimization features. This group of features is designed to control how and when scripts are loaded, helping reduce render-blocking issues and speeding up the initial page load without compromising interactivity. We have used these features to optimize our testing site and get better results.

• Defer JavaScript: Loads scripts after the main content to avoid render-blocking.
• Inline Script Support: Supports inline JavaScript in delay/defer functions.
• Delay JavaScript Execution: Delays non-critical scripts until user interaction to reduce initial page load impact.
• Quick Exclusions: Perfmatters has official integration with WPBakery. It automatically adds exclusions for scripts like WPBakery components when needed.
• Delay All Scripts: Optionally delays all scripts with a customizable timeout.

Preloading and performance enhancements

In our setup, we have used Perfmatters’ preloading tools to improve loading behavior. We identified key fonts, JavaScript, and CSS files through PageSpeed Insights and added them using proper preload tags. This helped prioritize critical resources during load time, ensuring faster visual and functional performance.

But there are some other useful features. You can use any of those Pefmatters features to enhance your speed score and real-time site performance.

Enabling Image Lazyloading

For this optimization setup, we have only used the image lazyloading feature from the Lazyloading feature group. But before using this feature, make sure you haven’t enabled the same feature on other plugins, like caching or a dedicated image optimization plugin.

BTW, based on your website’s elements, you might need the bellow features of the Perfmatters.

• Exclude Above the Fold: Ensures key images above the fold aren’t lazy loaded.
• Lazy Load iFrames: Delays videos or map embeds to improve speed.

Font management

By managing fonts locally and using smart fallbacks, you can reduce external requests and avoid layout shifts during page load. We have used the following font management features from Perfmatter.

• Local Google Fonts: Hosts fonts locally to eliminate external requests.
• Display Swap: Improves perceived performance by using fallback fonts during font load.

Built-in font management within WPBakery

Here comes the beauty of the WPBakery. We have built in a font management setup. From where you can manage the local fonts and font swap feature as well. But while using WPBakery’s font management feature, please avoid the Perfmatters font management feature.

Read our detailed guide here: Speeding Up WPBakery.

Also, read our detailed guideline on Time to first byte.

Boost control with Script Manager

Perfmatters includes a Script Manager that lets you disable specific scripts per page or post. By default, the Script Manager in Perfmatters is not active. To use it, you’ll need to enable the feature from the Tools tab inside the plugin settings. Once activated, it gives you powerful control over where scripts are loaded.

This is useful for:

• Disabling contact form scripts on non-contact pages
• Removing slider or pop-up scripts where not used
• Preventing map embeds from loading everywhere

This helps reduce HTTP requests and improves page load speed, especially on content-heavy sites.

Additional handy features of Perfmatters

Perfmatters gives you a wide range of quick toggle switches that address common performance bottlenecks in WordPress. These settings are built directly into the plugin, so you don’t need to install extra plugins for each function. This reduces overall plugin count and lowers the chances of bloat or conflicts.

Here are some useful features that help streamline your site:

• Disable emojis: Prevents WordPress from loading emoji-related scripts.
• Disable dashicons: Stops loading dashicons for users who don’t need access to the admin bar.
• Disable embeds: Removes oEmbed support for content embedding from external URLs.
• Disable XML-RPC: Turns off remote connections to your site, often targeted by bots.
• Remove jQuery migrate: Removes legacy jQuery support scripts if your theme doesn’t rely on them.
• Hide WordPress version: Removes version output from your site source for better security.
• Remove RSD and shortlink tags: Cleans up unnecessary meta tags from the page header.
• Disable RSS feeds and self-pingbacks: Useful for static sites where feeds are not needed.
• Remove global styles and block styles: Prevents loading default styles from the WordPress block editor on the frontend.
• Disable heartbeat API or adjust frequency: Controls the frequency of AJAX calls to reduce server load.
• Change autosave interval: Helps reduce backend overhead during editing.

All of these options are available in a clean interface. You can toggle on only what you need and keep your WordPress installation lean and fast.

Tips for better results

For even better performance, we recommend:

• Using a lightweight theme, you can use the WP default themes
• Combining Perfmatters with WP Rocket (for caching)
• Optimizing images manually or using any image optimizer tool
• Preloading LCP images like hero sections or banners

These tips help you squeeze out every bit of performance.

Perfmatters pricing overview

Perfmatters offers straightforward annual plans that are built to fit any size website project, from individual blogs to large agency workloads. Each plan comes with premium support from the developers and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• 1 Site – Personal: $29.95/year – Ideal for small or personal projects
• 3 Sites – Business: $59.95/year – Perfect for freelancers and growing teams
• Unlimited Sites – Best Value: $124.95/year – Great for agencies or developers managing multiple websites

All licenses include:

• One year of premium support and updates
• Multisite support on the Unlimited plan
• Automatic license renewal with a 15% discount
• Easy upgrades and prorated pricing

If you ever change your needs, you can upgrade your plan from your account dashboard. Plus, you’re fully protected by their 30-day refund policy.

With trusted support and no-nonsense licensing, Perfmatters offers great value for performance-focused site owners.

WPBakery exclusive: get 20% off Perfmatters

If you’re a WPBakery user, you can get an exclusive 20% discount on the Perfmatters plugin. This deal is available through the official partner page.

Wrap up

Perfmatters is a lightweight yet powerful plugin that works perfectly with WPBakery. It simplifies optimization, reduces plugin bloat, and gives you full control over what loads on your site.

Whether you’re building landing pages, portfolios, or business sites with WPBakery, Perfmatters gives you the performance boost you need without the headaches.

Try it today and take advantage of the WPBakery partner discount.