{"id":223,"slug":"web-almanac-2024-page-weight-per-cms","title":"Web Almanac 2024: median desktop page weight — WordPress 2,252 KB, Wix 2,560, Squarespace 3,323; 90th pct crosses 8 MB","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["core-web-vitals","wordpress","measurement"],"reference_body":"**Claims (HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2024):**\n\nMedian page weight by CMS:\n- **WordPress**: 2,252 KB desktop / 2,047 KB mobile\n- **Wix**: 2,560 KB / 2,215 KB\n- **Squarespace**: 3,323 KB / 3,015 KB\n\n90th-percentile pages weigh **nearly 8 MB desktop, just over 7 MB mobile**.\n\nMedian mobile TTFB: **1,235 ms** (a 1.2-second penalty on mobile vs 53ms on desktop).\n\n**Source:** <https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/cms>; <https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/page-weight>; <https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/performance>\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**Compounding tax framing:** Page weight is the silent compounding tax on every site. The default arc of an unmaintained CMS site is heavier next year than this year — every plugin update adds asset, every embed adds bytes. Performance budgets (see [[2026-performance-budget-smb-site]] in brief 9) are the only durable counter.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"longevity-named-examples-2026","title":"Long-lived sites worth studying: Daring Fireball, Berkshire Hathaway, Craigslist, Pinboard, GOV.UK, Stack Overflow, Wikipedia","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"decay-vs-compound-matrix","title":"Reference framework: which website dimensions decay vs compound over 10 years (12-dimension matrix)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"research-brief-built-to-last","title":"Research brief: Built to Last — why most SMB sites rebuild every 3-4 years (piece 5 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"web-almanac-2025-mobile-page-weight-2-56mb","title":"Web Almanac 2025: median mobile page weight crossed 2,559 KB in July 2025 (+7.8% YoY)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T19:58:12.831Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T19:58:12.831Z"}