In short: Maintena checks how fast your site loads on both phones and computers, using the same tests Google uses to rank pages. You get a clear score, your Core Web Vitals, and a ranked list of the biggest things slowing you down, each with advice on how to fix it.
What it is
Speed matters. A slow site loses visitors, costs sales, and ranks lower in Google search. But "is my site fast?" is a hard question to answer on your own.
The Speed & Performance monitor answers it for you, automatically. Every day, Maintena runs a full speed test on your site and tells you three things in plain English:
- How fast your site is right now, as a single score out of 100.
- Your Core Web Vitals, the specific loading and stability measurements Google cares about most.
- What to do about it, as a ranked list of the biggest opportunities to get faster.
The tests are run by Google itself, using a tool called Lighthouse, the same technology behind Google's own PageSpeed Insights. So the numbers you see are the numbers Google sees when it decides how to rank you.
How it works
Once a day, Maintena asks Google to load and analyse your site's home page, then stores the results so you can see them and track them over time. You do not have to install anything or press a button. It just happens in the background.
Tested on mobile and desktop
Every check runs twice: once as a phone and once as a desktop computer. This matters because most visitors are on phones, and Google judges your site mostly on its mobile speed, but the two can behave very differently. You can switch between the mobile and desktop view on your Speed report.
Four scores, not just speed
Each test gives you four scores from 0 to 100. Green is good, orange is "needs work", red needs attention.
| Score | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Performance | How fast the page loads and becomes usable. This is the headline number. |
| Accessibility | How easy the page is to use for people with disabilities (screen readers, keyboard navigation, colour contrast). |
| Best Practices | Whether the site follows modern web standards for security and reliability. |
| SEO | Whether the page is set up so search engines can find and understand it. |
Core Web Vitals, explained
Core Web Vitals are Google's headline measures of real-world experience. They are worth understanding, because they directly affect your search ranking. Maintena shows each one with a plain-English explanation and a good/needs-improvement/poor rating.
| Vital | In plain English | What "good" feels like |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | How long until the main content (usually the biggest image or heading) appears. | The page feels loaded quickly, not blank for ages. |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | How much the page jumps around as it loads. | Buttons and text stay put; you do not misclick because something moved. |
| First Contentful Paint (FCP) | How long until anything at all shows up. | You see something is happening straight away. |
| Total Blocking Time (TBT) | How long the page is frozen and unresponsive while it loads. | You can tap and scroll almost immediately. |
Alongside these you will also see Speed Index, Time to Interactive, and Time to First Byte, which round out the picture of how the page loads from first byte to fully usable.
Lab data and real-user data
Maintena shows two kinds of measurement where both are available:
- Lab data is a clean, controlled test run by Google. It is consistent and great for spotting what to fix.
- Real-user data comes from Google's record of what actual Chrome visitors experienced on your site. This only appears once your site gets enough traffic for Google to have collected it, so newer or quieter sites may not show it yet.
A ranked list of what to fix
This is where the report earns its keep. Instead of a bare score, Maintena gives you an ordered list of the biggest opportunities, largest first, so you always know what to tackle next. For each one you get a plain-English description of the problem, an estimate of how much time it could save, and where relevant the specific files involved.
You also get:
- Diagnostics: extra detail on things worth checking, even where there is no single quick win.
- Your heaviest images, largest first, with how much you could save by optimising them. Images are the most common cause of a slow page.
- WordPress-specific tips: because Maintena knows your site runs WordPress, it surfaces Google's own WordPress guidance for relevant issues.
- The main culprits: the single element that took longest to appear, the heaviest third-party scripts (things like chat widgets, ads, and trackers), and the elements that caused the page to jump around.
- A visual filmstrip and screenshot showing exactly how your page painted onto the screen, frame by frame.
A score you can track over time
Every report includes a trend of your recent scores and load times, so you can see whether a change made things better or worse, and catch a slow slide before it becomes a problem.
What you need to do
Almost nothing. This is one of the simplest features to live with.
- Make sure the site is being monitored. Speed monitoring is switched on by default for every new site. You can turn it on or off any time from the site's settings.
- Wait for the first report, or ask for one now. When a site is added, Maintena queues its first speed test straight away, so your report fills in without waiting for the overnight run. You never have to configure anything.
- Recheck whenever you want. After making an improvement, use the "Recheck now" button on the Speed report to run a fresh test on the spot rather than waiting for the daily check.
That is the whole setup. There are no accounts to connect, no plugins to install, and nothing to maintain. The speed test runs on Google's servers against your public web address, so it works whether or not the Maintena WordPress agent is installed.
Good to know
- It is completely free to you. Speed monitoring uses a free Google service and adds nothing to your bill. See the pricing pages for what your plan includes.
- Your last good report is always kept. If a test ever fails to reach your site (for example during a brief outage), Maintena keeps your most recent good report rather than replacing it with a blank one. For actual downtime, see Uptime.
- Speed scores can wobble a little. A single speed test naturally varies from run to run, so do not read too much into a small day-to-day change. The trend line matters more than any one number. Daily testing smooths this out.
- We test your home page. The speed report covers your site's main web address. To capture and review multiple specific pages visually, see Rollshots.
- Speed is shown on its own. Your speed scores are presented here as their own thing and are not blended into your overall Health Score, which focuses on uptime, security, and update status.
On the roadmap
A few speed-related features are designed but not yet live. We would rather be honest than over-promise:
- Speed alerts. Today, Maintena does not email you when a site gets slower. You will see it on the report, but there is no automatic "your site slowed down" notification yet. For alerts that do exist today, see Notifications & Email.
- Per-page speed testing. Right now the speed test covers your home page. Testing other individual pages on a schedule is planned.
- Per-site speed settings. For now everyone gets the same daily test on both mobile and desktop; choosing your own schedule or testing mobile only is not yet available.