The best Web Performance books to read

It’s important to understand how to improve the web performance of websites. In this article, I prepared for you a selection of must-read Web Performance books. HTTP/2 in Action by Barry Pollard Published in 2019, this book focus on the version 2 of the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. It covers all what you need ...

Web performance books to read

It’s important to understand how to improve the web performance of websites. In this article, I prepared for you a selection of must-read Web Performance books.

HTTP/2 in Action by Barry Pollard

Published in 2019, this book focus on the version 2 of the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. It covers all what you need to master HTTP/2 features. You’ll learn how to optimize site speed and resources delivery with new features like frames, multiplexing, and push.

Link to the book – Follow Barry pollard: TwitterLinkedIn 

Web Performance in Action: Building Faster Web Pages by Jeremy Wagner

Release in 2017, this book is a good guide to making websites faster. It covers several concepts and optimization techniques such as CSS delivery, images compression, accelerating fonts, cleaning JavaScript, HTTP/2 protocol and caching strategies.

Link to the book – Follow Jeremy: TwitterLinkedIn

Responsible JavaScript by Jeremy Wagner

The cost of JavaScript on user experience and site speed is the topic of this excellent book from Jeremy Wagner. Advice on framework choice, how to optimize the loading of JavaScript, and advanced optimization techniques (service workers, lazy loading, code splitting).

Link to the book – Follow Jeremy: TwitterLinkedIn

Designing for Performance: Weighing Aesthetics and Speed by Lara Hogan

In this 2015 book, Lora helps Web designers and developers approach projects with site speed in mind. It covers best practices when it comes to design web interfaces but also tooling:

  • The impact of page load time on your site, brand, and users
  • Page speed basics: how browsers retrieve and render content
  • Best practices for optimizing and loading images
  • Mobile-first design with performance goals by breakpoint
  • Using tools to measure performance as your site evolves
  • Methods for shaping an organization’s performance culture

Link to the book – Follow Lara: TwitterLinkedIn

Time is money by Tammy Everts

Another book, less technical and more case studies oriented. It explains how human neurological assess the web perfomance of a website/ an application. This book is ideal for managers to better understand the impact of speed on business metrics.

Link to the book – Follow Tammy: TwitterLinkedin

Using Webpagetest by Rick Viscomi, Andy Davies, Marcel Duran

If you work on Web Performance, you sould know WebPagetest. On of the most old and popular site speed tools. In this book, the authors explain how to use the tool, interpret the results, do advanced techniques, and adjust the test settings.

Link to the book

Follow Rick: TwitterLinkedIn

Follow Andy: TwitterLinkedIn

Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers by Steve Sounders

Practical book about web performance best practices and optimization techniques. It provides hands on techniques for improving your site’s performance in three critical categories: JavaScript, Browser, and Network.

Link to the book – Follow Steve: TwitterLinkedIn

Final notes

The books highlighted in this list provide invaluable insights, practical techniques, and a deep understanding of web performance optimization. Whether you’re a experienced developer, a product owner, or just starting your career, these resources offer the things ti know and the strategies needed to create faster, more efficient web applications.

At Speetals, we provide a solution to monitor and validate Web Performance metrics based on Real User data. We also do site speed consulting as subscription.

Aymen Loukil
Web Performance Consultant and Speetals Founder

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