Perfmatters
by forgemedia
Script manager and bloat removal, per page and per post type.
This link may earn us a commission. It does not affect the score. Last tested 5 September 2026.
Measured result
Perfmatters on bench-01
Performance score
Measured on a 2 vCPU reference host
- LCP
- 1.18 s
- CLS
- 0.01
- TTFB
- 174 ms
- Page
- 441 KB
- Requests
- 22
- Impact
- Light
Median of 3 cold-cache runs, 5 September 2026.
How we tested
See Perfmatters in action
Perfmatters is distributed by forgemedia rather than the WordPress.org directory, so we cannot spin up a sandbox copy for you here. forgemedia runs their own demo on their site.
Open the Perfmatters demoWhere Perfmatters ranks elsewhere
Perfmatters does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
Perfmatters does not publish a changelog we can read automatically, so check the vendor's own release notes before you update a live site.
Pros & cons
- Per-URL script disabling is the highest-leverage feature in this list
- Removes emoji, embeds and heartbeat overhead in a click
- Under 100 KB installed
- Not a cache - you still need one
- Script manager rewards patience and testing
The full review
Perfmatters does not cache anything. It removes work. On our reference site, disabling contact-form and slider scripts everywhere except the two pages that need them cut requests from 34 to 22.
Pair it with a caching plugin rather than choosing between them; the two solve different problems and the combination scored highest of any configuration we measured.
Compared with close alternatives
| Plugin | Score | LCP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfmatters | 95 | 1.18 s | $29/yr |
| Asset CleanUp | 87 | 1.43 s | Freemium |
| WP Rocket | 94 | 1.24 s | $59/yr |
Frequently asked
Do I still need a caching plugin?
Yes. Perfmatters trims what loads; a cache decides how quickly WordPress can hand over the page at all.