# The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024

DevFeed: [The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-performance-inequality-gap-2024-26539.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2024/01/performance-inequality-gap-2024/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [modern web development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/modern-web-development.md>), [JavaScript](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/javascript.md>), [Web Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-development.md>), [CSS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/css.md>), [HTML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/html.md>)

Tags: [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [complexity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/complexity.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [web-developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-developers.md>), [webdev](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webdev.md>)

## AI overview

The 2024 update presents performance budgets for first loads under five seconds on P75 devices and networks, with separate guidance for JavaScript-heavy and markup-centric sites. It recommends global baseline budgets when audience data is unavailable and emphasizes the cost of JavaScript on low-end hardware.

## Source excerpt

The global device and network situation continues to evolve, and this series is an effort to provide an an up-to-date understanding for working web developers. So what's changed since last year? And how much HTML, CSS, and (particularly) JavaScript can a new project afford? Contents The Budget, 2024 JavaScript-Heavy Markup-Heavy Calculate Your Own Situation Report Mobile Desktop Takeaways The Great Branch Mispredict The Budget, 2024 In a departure from previous years, two sets of baseline numbers are presented for first-load under five seconds on 75th (P75) percentile devices and networks1; one set for JavaScript-heavy content, and another for markup-centric stacks. Budget @ P75 Markup-based JS-based Total Markup JS Total Markup JS 3 seconds 1.4MiB 1.3MiB 75KiB 730KiB 365KiB 365KiB 5 seconds 2.5MiB 2.4MiB 100KiB 1.3MiB 650KiB 650KiB This was data was available via last year's update, but was somewhat buried. Going forward, I'll produce both as top-line guidance. The usual caveats apply: Performance is a deep and nuanced domain, and much can go wrong beyond content size and composition. How sites manage resources after-load can have a big impact on perceived performance. Your audience may justify more stringent, or more relaxed, limits. Global baselines matter because many teams have low performance management maturity, and today's popular frameworks - including some that market performance as a feature - fail to ward against catastrophic results. Until and unless teams have better data about their audience, the global baseline budget should be enforced. This isn't charity; it's how products stay functional, accessible, and reliable in a market awash in bullshit. Limits help teams steer away from complexity and towards tools that generate simpler output that's easier to manage and repair. JavaScript-Heavy Since at least 2015, building JavaScript-first websites has been a predictably terrible idea, yet most of the sites I trace on a daily basis remain mired in script.