Lab score vs real users
Shopify retired the Lighthouse Speed Score in January 2024 because it "fail[s] to represent real-world user experiences." The scoreboard is now real-user Core Web Vitals in your Shopify Web performance dashboard.
Speed optimization$299 · fixed price
A faster Shopify store, measured honestly.
App bloat, oversized images, slow fonts, hero LCP, pixel sprawl, theme junk, JS hygiene, above-the-fold order — and a straight answer on whether your theme is the ceiling. Before/after report included.
Pay by card → a short intake form → scope confirmed before work starts.
| Product page · mobile | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | 4.9 s | 2.6 s |
| CLS | 0.31 | 0.04 |
| Page weight | 6.8 MB | 2.1 MB |
Change log
- 4 apps removed with your OK; leftover code stripped
- Hero image 2.4 MB → 180 KB, fixed dimensions
- Theme ceiling, in writing
The report's format. Figures illustrative, not a client's result.
- Price
- $299 — the whole price
- You get
- Nine fixes on a copy of your theme, and a before/after report
- When
- About 2 business days
The honest frame
What speed actually means on Shopify
The three numbers that count
LCP within 2.5 s · INP under 200 ms · CLS under 0.1 — measured at the 75th percentile of real visits, mobile and desktop separately. Those are Google's thresholds, verbatim.
Mobile is the scoreboard
It is where most Shopify traffic is, it is what Shopify measures, and it is the harder number. Desktop improves as a side effect.
Sound familiar?
Why this keeps costing you
Your PageSpeed number is red, and every "speed app" you tried added another script to the pile.
A $30 gig promised 90+ in 24 hours. The screenshot went up. Real visitors saw nothing change — that pattern has a name now, and a Shopify Community thread.
Mobile shoppers bounce at second three. You never see the sale you lost.
The whole price
$299
Is this for you?
Buy this if — and don’t if
This is for you if
- Your mobile product pages feel slow on your own phone, on your own Wi-Fi.
- You have installed and removed apps over the years and never cleaned up after them.
- You want a written answer on whether the theme itself is the limit before you spend more.
It is not for you if
- You need a PageSpeed number for a pitch deck. We do not sell scores.
- The store is on a page builder you will not give up — the builder is usually the weight.
- You want the checkout sped up. Shopify hosts it; nobody outside Plus can touch it.
Why it is worth $299
Speed is money — the sourced version
+8.4%
retail conversions from a 0.1-second mobile speed improvement (and +9.2% average order value)
Deloitte / Google, "Milliseconds Make Millions", 20202.5×
the e-commerce conversion rate of a site loading in 1 second vs one loading in 5 seconds (3.05% vs 1.12%)
Portent, 100M+ page views, 202253%
of mobile visitors leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load
Google / DoubleClick, "The Need for Mobile Speed", 2016Every number above is quoted as published, with the study named. We do not round up and we do not invent percentages — that is the point.
The whole price
$299
Fair questions
What people say before they buy
“My theme came from the Theme Store. Shouldn't it already be fast?”
It usually is the day you install it. What slows it down is what gets added afterward: apps, pixels, oversized images and the code removed apps leave behind. The Sprint takes those off, and if the theme itself is the limit, you get that in writing.
“I paid someone for speed before and nothing changed.”
Then ask what they measured. You get a baseline and an after measurement on your home, collection and product pages on mobile, plus a change log of every edit, so you can check the work yourself instead of trusting a screenshot.
“What if my theme is the real problem?”
The Sprint still runs the nine-point checklist, and the theme-ceiling verdict tells you in writing roughly how fast the theme can get and what a change would cost. What you do with that is your decision; nothing is sold to you inside the delivery.
The offer, itemised
The nine-point checklist — every Sprint, every store
- App audit & removal plan — each app's JS/CSS weight on your top pages, in KB and ms; you approve removals; we strip the code uninstalled apps leave behind
- Image weight — right-sized heroes, banners and collection grids; responsive srcset and lazy-loading the correct way; oversized originals gone
- Fonts — unused families and weights cut; font-display: swap; the one font that paints your hero, preloaded
- Hero / LCP — the largest element loads first: no lazy-loaded heroes, fixed dimensions, no video where a poster will do
- Pixel & tag bloat — every tracking script inventoried; dead ones removed with your OK; the rest moved to Shopify Customer Events or deferred
- Theme bloat — unused sections, snippets, assets and duplicate libraries removed (two copies of jQuery is common)
- JS hygiene — non-critical scripts deferred, render-blocking inline scripts removed, scripts stopped from firing on pages that don't need them
- Above-the-fold order — the first screen paints before carousels, review widgets and popups
- Theme-ceiling verdict — in writing: roughly how fast your theme can get, and what a change would cost, so you never buy a second Sprint hoping for magic
- Baseline + after measurement on home, collection and product (mobile), a before/after report with the change log, and a keep-it-fast checklist
What is not included — said plainly
- Checkout pages — Shopify-hosted, not editable outside Plus
- Rebuilding an app's feature in code — we recommend removals, we don't replace apps
- Theme migration or redesign — if you need one we say so, with a separate quote
- Server / TTFB work — that is Shopify's infrastructure; nobody can sell you this
- Ongoing monitoring — optional later, never bundled into the delivery
- A promised score — we promise the checklist, the report and the rollback
How the Sprint runs
Day 0 to Day 2 — you see every step
- Day 0
Order + intake (10 minutes for you)
Pay by card. Intake form: store URL, top product and collection pages, collaborator access, the apps you can't live without. You get a queue position and an ETA.
- Day 0–1
Baseline + audit
We duplicate your live theme, baseline three pages on mobile, pull your Shopify Web performance numbers, and measure every app and pixel. You receive the removal shortlist to approve — nothing is removed without a yes.
- Day 1–2
Fixes on the copy
All nine interventions on the duplicate theme. Our experts check the changes on mobile and desktop: add-to-cart, variants, cart, popups.
- Day 2
Preview + publish
Preview link, before/after report, change log. You publish, or we do on your word. Your original theme stays as a backup for 30 days.
- Day 2–9
Fix window
Anything we touched misbehaves, we fix it.
The report you get
Before, after, and every change listed
This is the report format. The numbers are illustrative, not a client result — yours depend on your theme and apps.
PRODUCT PAGE · MOBILE · LAB TEST (PAGESPEED INSIGHTS) · ILLUSTRATIVE NUMBERS
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | 4.9 s | 2.6 s |
| Total Blocking Time | 820 ms | 190 ms |
| CLS | 0.31 | 0.04 |
| Page weight | 6.8 MB | 2.1 MB |
| Requests | 142 | 61 |
| Third-party scripts | 19 | 7 |
CHANGE LOG (EXCERPT)
- Removed 4 apps you approved; stripped leftover code from 2 uninstalled earlier
- Hero image 2.4 MB → 180 KB; srcset on collection grid
- 3 font families → 1; heading font preloaded; swap set
- Hero un-lazy-loaded; fixed dimensions; CLS from banner fixed
- 2 duplicate pixels removed; GA4 + Meta moved to Customer Events
- Second jQuery copy removed; 11 unused sections deleted
- Theme-ceiling verdict: this theme can reach ~LCP 2.3 s; beyond that is a rebuild (quoted separately)
The whole price
$299
The “we don’t” list
How to tell a speed fix from a screenshot
- We don't detect Lighthouse or serve test tools a different page.
- We don't promise a score before we have seen your theme and app stack.
- We don't sell you a "Core Web Vitals add-on" after you have paid.
- We don't leave app code behind.
- We don't touch your live theme — every change happens on a copy you preview first.
Some sellers hide content from PageSpeed and GTmetrix so the test sees a blank, fast page while your shoppers see nothing new. The pattern is documented in the Shopify Community. Search your theme code for "Chrome-Lighthouse" — if it is there, someone did that to you.
Safeguards
Nothing goes live without you
- Nothing on your live themeThe work happens on a duplicate. You get a preview link and decide when to publish.
- Your original, keptThe theme you had stays as a backup for 30 days.
We don't promise a Lighthouse number — nobody honest can before seeing your theme — but we do promise the work, the report, and the rollback: if something we touched breaks, we fix it or restore your original theme.
The whole price
$299
Compare
$299 sits between a gig and an agency — on purpose
| Shopision Sprint | $5–$30 gig | $600–$900 agency package | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $299 flat | Cheap — then "premium" tiers | Quote, then add-ons |
| Scope visible before you pay | Yes — this page | No | Sometimes |
| A promised score | No — and we explain why | "90+ in 24h" | "90+, promised" |
| Works on a theme copy, you preview | Yes | Rarely | Usually |
| Before/after report + change log | Yes | Screenshot | Sometimes |
| Tells you when your theme is the ceiling | Yes, in writing | No | Rarely |
Questions
Straight answers
Will you break my theme?
We never work on your live theme. Everything happens on a duplicate, you get a preview link, and the original stays as a backup for 30 days. Our experts check every change before you see it. If something we touched breaks, we fix it.
Do you delete my apps?
No. We measure them and show you what each one costs in kilobytes and milliseconds on your top pages. You say which ones go. What we always do is remove the code that uninstalled apps leave behind — Shopify's own docs say uninstalling doesn't remove it.
Can you promise a 90+ PageSpeed score?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. Lighthouse scores move with network, device and Google's own test conditions, and Shopify retired that score in 2024 for exactly that reason. What we commit to is the checklist, the report and the rollback. The number goes up because the weight goes down, not because we told a test tool to look away.
Score or real speed — what am I actually buying?
The work that makes pages lighter. We report a lab test before and after (PageSpeed Insights, labelled as a lab result), and point you to the real-visitor Core Web Vitals in your Shopify Web performance dashboard, which update over about 30 days. We never present one as the other.
Mobile or desktop?
Mobile first. That is where most Shopify traffic is, what Shopify measures, and the harder number. Desktop improves as a side effect.
How long does it last?
The fixes are permanent. What undoes them is new: a new app, a new page-builder section, a fourth tracking pixel. Your report ends with a keep-it-fast checklist and a two-minute re-test method so you see a regression the day it happens.
Will this improve my Google rankings or ad costs?
Speed is one input among many. Google says Core Web Vitals "align with what our core ranking systems seek to reward" and also that there is "no single signal." Buy this for shoppers who bounce at three seconds and for landing-page experience on paid traffic. If someone sells you rankings from a speed job, walk.
What access do you need?
A Shopify collaborator request scoped to themes and apps. We don't need or want customer, order or payment data. Access is revoked when you say so.
Is $299 the whole price?
Yes. Scope, price and turnaround before we start. You see the queue. You do not see surprise invoices. If your theme is the ceiling, we say so in writing with what a rebuild would cost — that is advice, not an upsell inside the delivery.
Why not just install a speed app?
Because Shopify already runs the CDN, compression, caching and minification, and most "speed" apps add another script to fix the scripts. What is left is manual: images, fonts, app residue, pixel sprawl, the order things load in. That is the Sprint.
Want speed kept fast, every month?
Studio members get the Sprint as an ordinary task in their queue — and every new app, section or pixel gets reviewed before it costs you a second. One flat monthly fee.
Two ways this goes
Leave it as it is
The apps keep loading in the background, and the slow product page stays the first thing a phone sees.
Or start today
Storefront speed work on a copy of your theme. A fixed checklist, a fixed $299, and no promised score.
Pay by card → intake form → scope confirmed before work starts.