I just did a quick speedtest between inserting a photo from flickr vs using a photo uploaded to the local WP Media Gallery.
This is the results:
Photo from flickr
Average loading time: 1.32s
Photo from Media Library
Average loading time: 1.39s
Not much difference there. The test was done on a fresh install of Wordpress with no plugins installed. Firefox and Firebug was used in the speedtest.
This is the second speedtest of the three Google Analytics plugins I initially tested here. The reason I decided to test again is because the WP Google Analytics plugin har just been updated to a newer version.
This test was done on a slower internet access than the first one, so it’s no use comparing the numbers from the two tests. The test is done on a fresh install of Wordpress, using Firefox with Firebug.
The plugins in question are
| No plugins | Google Analyticator | Google Analytics for Wordpress | WP Google Analytics | |
| Try 1 | 1.08s | 1.6s | 1.63s | 1.55s |
| Try 2 | 891ms | 1.43s | 1.71s | 1.25s |
| Try 3 | 1.08s | 1.41s | 2.18s | 1.44s |
| Try 4 | 1.07s | 1.33s | 1.44s | 1.27s |
| Try 5 | 1.08s | 1.16s | 1.5s | 1.46s |
| Average | 1.04s | 1.39s | 1.69s | 1.39s |
| Diff. | + 0.35s | + 0.65s | + 0.35s |
As you can see the results for WP Google Analytics is not as great as the first test. If this is because the new version or something else, I can’t say. Remember also that it is only the speed of opening the page with the plugins activated that is taken into account in this test.
Note
The WP Google Analytics plugin inserts the javascript in the footer. The Google Analytics for Wordpress plugin inserts it in the header, and Google Analyticator let’s you choose betweeen the footer and the header (Default is footer).
I have just tested 3 different Google Analytics plugins for WordPress. The purpose of the test: To see which plugins had the lowest overhead. The plugins tested:
The test was done on a fresh install of WordPress, with the default theme and on the index page. I used Firefox with Firebug for the testing. I did 5 refreshes of the page.
| No plugins | Google Analyticator | Google Analytics for Wordpress | WP Google Analytics |
| 755ms | 1.21s | 1.18s | 823ms |
| 725ms | 1.13s | 1.22s | 758ms |
| 747ms | 915ms | 1.15s | 744ms |
| 746ms | 1.06s | 2.21s | 618ms |
| 760ms | 931ms | 1.03s | 753ms |
Conclusion
WP Google Analytics is the winner!