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Set a performance budget before you design the website
Speed isn't something you optimise at the end. It's a constraint you design within — and it changes what you build.
October 21, 2025 5 min read
Budgets change design decisions
A performance budget agreed before the first mockup prevents the expensive conversation later, when a hero video and four web fonts are already signed off.
- LCP < 2.0s on a mid-range Android over 4G
- Total page weight < 1.2MB on the heaviest template
- Maximum two font families, two weights each
- Third-party scripts: a named owner and a removal date each
Where the weight actually goes
In audits we run, the order is almost always: images, third-party tags, fonts, then application code. Teams optimise in exactly the reverse order.
Enforcement
Put the budget in CI. A build that exceeds it should fail loudly, the same way a failing test does. Anything softer gets ignored by week three.
