GTmetrix vs NitroPack (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, GTmetrix grades higher than NitroPack: 2.8 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
GTmetrix grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
GTmetrix
Page speed testing with Lighthouse reports, monitoring and an API
NitroPack
Automatic speed optimization and CDN for WordPress and WooCommerce
Which one is for you
Pick GTmetrix if
- Fits if you want a Lighthouse report with a load video for a page now and then
- Works for developers who want to start speed tests from their own code through the API
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you watch many pages, as Lite monitors 1 and Core 3, and hourly checks start on Advanced at $24.99 a month
- Pricey if a team shares it, as seats start on Expert at $49.99 a month yearly, and white-label PDFs are Enterprise only at a quoted price
- Tight if you stay on Basic or Lite: Basic runs 2 API tests at a time against 8 for most PRO users, and Lite gets the API only as a 10-credit trial
- Watch out: API tests spend credits, a video costs 0.9 more, and credits refill daily only up to the plan's allowance
- Watch out: API reports are kept 1 month unless you pay credits for up to 24, and refunds become account credit after 14 days
Pick NitroPack if
- Fits if your site is on WordPress or WooCommerce and you'd rather not configure a caching plugin
- Works for agencies speeding up many client WordPress sites
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress, as its pages list no other platforms
- Watch out: optimizations stop once a site uses its monthly pageviews, unless you allow paid overages
- Tight if you stay on Starter: 1 site and 8,000 pageviews, with delayed scripts and LCP preload on Plus at $18
- Too light for any real traffic on the free plan, which stops at 1,000 pageviews a month
- Not for you if you want a free trial of a paid plan, as there's only a 14-day money-back guarantee
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAGTmetrixGood | 2.6GPANitroPackGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | ALite is $4.99 a month billed yearly ($5.99 monthly), under 60% of the cheaper quarter of technical SEO tools ($7.20). It has 50 tests a month and 1 monitored page; API credits start on Core at $9.99 and hourly checks on Advanced at $24.99. | BStarter is $7 a month billed yearly ($8 monthly), under this category's cheapest quarter, but it's 1 website and 8,000 pageviews a month. Delayed scripts, LCP preload and the cart cache need Plus at $18, and Pro is $83.01 for 3 sites. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free Basic account. Through the API it runs 2 tests at once against 8 for most PRO users, with a lower rate limit. Its other limits aren't on record. | CA free plan for 1 website with 1,000 pageviews and 1GB of CDN a month, no card needed, which is enough to try it on. Paid plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee, which isn't a trial. |
| Features | CLighthouse reports, a choice of locations, browsers and simulated devices, connection throttling, load videos, PDF exports, scheduled monitoring with alerts and a REST API. It does page speed testing fully, but that's a smaller job, and there's no real user data on record. | CPage caching, image and video optimization, critical and unused CSS, script delay, font hosting and a CDN. It does speed optimization fully, but only for WordPress and WooCommerce, and the listing shows no testing, crawling or auditing. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record. Tests run on GTmetrix's own site, with nothing to install or connect before the first report. | BNo rating on record. It's a WordPress plugin meant to work without manual tuning: install it and it optimizes in the background. You need a WordPress site first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with a REST API, an OpenAPI specification and a GTmetrix for WordPress plugin. No desktop or phone app. | BRuns inside WordPress and WooCommerce, with Cloudflare, WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways, SiteGround and WPML listed. Nothing for sites on any other platform. |
| Best for | one-off Lighthouse speed reports | automatic speed optimization for WordPress |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: GTmetrix and NitroPack. How we grade
Price against what you get
GTmetrix starts at $4.99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. NitroPack starts at $7 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and GTmetrix starts $2.01 a month lower. Of the other technical SEO tools on the chart, none scores higher than GTmetrix for less, and none scores higher than NitroPack for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
At a glance
| GTmetrix | NitroPack | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $4.99 per month, billed yearly ($5.99 billed monthly) | $7 per month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Free Basic account; the API docs give it 2 tests at a time and a lower API rate limit than PRO. Other limits could not be read. | 1 website, 1,000 pageviews and 1GB of CDN bandwidth a month, 1 team member, no credit card needed. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | GTmetrix | NitroPack, part of WP Engine |
| Price read from | gtmetrix.com | nitropack.io |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
GTmetrix
- Team seats start only on Expert ($49.99 a month billed yearly), and hourly monitoring on Advanced; refunds are promised for 14 days, after that only account credit.
- API tests run on credits: a Lighthouse report costs 1 credit, a video 0.9 more, and credits refill daily only up to the plan's allowance.
- Through the API, Basic accounts can run 2 tests at once, against 8 for most PRO users.
- API reports are kept 1 month unless longer retention, up to 24 months, is paid for in extra credits.
NitroPack
- It works with WordPress and WooCommerce sites; its pages list no other platforms.
- Optimizations stop once a site uses its monthly pageviews, unless paid resource overages are allowed; the free plan covers only 1,000 pageviews.
- Starter and Plus cover a single website; Pro covers 3.
- Paid plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee rather than a free trial.
Key features
GTmetrix
- Lighthouse speed reports
- Each test produces a Lighthouse report, with older PageSpeed and YSlow reports or a metrics-only report also available through the API.
- Locations, browsers and devices
- Choose the test location and browser, simulate phones and tablets by screen size and pixel ratio, and throttle the connection speed.
- Videos and PDF reports
- Record a video and filmstrip of the page loading, and export a summary or full PDF of the report.
- Page monitoring and alerts
- Monitored pages are retested on a schedule, grouped with tags, and can raise performance alerts when chosen metrics cross set conditions.
- REST API
- Start tests, fetch reports and manage monitored pages from your own code, with an OpenAPI specification and a GTmetrix for WordPress plugin.
NitroPack
- Page caching
- Caches pages with background purge, cache warmup from your sitemap, traffic-based optimization of the most-visited pages and a cart cache for WooCommerce.
- Image and video optimization
- Lossy or lossless compression, WebP conversion, adaptive sizing, lazy loading of images and iframes, and click-to-load facades for YouTube, Vimeo and Wistia.
- CSS and HTML
- Generates critical CSS, removes unused CSS, combines and minifies files, and prefetches pages when a visitor hovers over a link.
- JavaScript and third-party scripts
- Delays chat widgets, pop-ups and analytics until interaction, optimizes Google Tag Manager on Pro, and improves INP by speeding up interactive elements.
- Font optimization
- Hosts Google Fonts itself, controls font display to avoid unstyled text, and on Pro removes unused glyphs through font subsetting.
- Built-in CDN
- Optimized files are delivered through NitroPack's CDN, from 1GB a month on the free plan to 270GB on Pro.
Plans
GTmetrix
Lite$4.99
per month, billed yearly ($5.99 billed monthly)
50 on-demand tests a month, 1 monitored page, 5 test locations, 1 month of history. API and MCP only as a 10-credit trial; no hourly monitoring.
Core$9.99
per month, billed yearly ($11.99 billed monthly)
150 tests a month, 3 monitored pages, 10 locations, 10 API credits a day and 6 months of history. No hourly monitoring or team seats.
Advanced$24.99
per month, billed yearly ($29.99 billed monthly)
Unlimited on-demand tests under a fair-use rule, 10 monitored pages with hourly checks, 28 locations and 50 API credits a day.
Expert$49.99
per month, billed yearly ($59.99 billed monthly)
50 monitored pages, 100 API credits a day, 12 months of history and 5 team seats. Enterprise adds white-label PDFs at a quoted price.
NitroPack
Free$0
1 website with 1,000 pageviews and 1GB of CDN bandwidth a month, for trying the service.
Starter$7
per month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly)
1 website, 8,000 pageviews and 5GB of CDN a month, 1 team member, minification, cache warmup and deferred fonts.
Plus$18
per month, billed annually ($22 billed monthly)
1 website, 40,000 pageviews and 25GB of CDN, 3 team members, delayed scripts, LCP preload and cart cache optimization.
Pro$83.01
per month, billed annually ($99.99 billed monthly)
3 websites, 540,000 pageviews and 270GB of CDN, 10 team members, font subsetting and Google Tag Manager optimization.
AgencyCustom
Custom sites, pageviews and bandwidth for agencies; the Custom Bulk Plan starts at $229 a month, or clients can be referred instead.
Ways to pay less
GTmetrix
No public discounts listed.
NitroPack
- Annual discount
Save up to 18% with annual billing
NitroPack's pricing page says annual billing saves up to 18%: Plus is $18 a month billed annually against $22 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, GTmetrix or NitroPack?
As of Oct 23, 2026, GTmetrix is cheaper to start with: $4.99 a month, against $7 a month for NitroPack. GTmetrix starts at $4.99 per month, billed yearly ($5.99 billed monthly), and NitroPack starts at $7 per month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, GTmetrix or NitroPack?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both GTmetrix and NitroPack have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.