Website Performance
Calgary Website Speed Study: Mobile Lighthouse Results From 1,151 Sites
A 2026 Calgary website speed study covering mobile Lighthouse scores, lab LCP, platform differences, and practical performance fixes.
Most sites struggled in the controlled mobile test
Mobile Lighthouse performance was available for 1,151 websites in the Calgary audit cohort. The median score was 35 out of 100. A score below 50 appeared on 77.3% of measured websites, while only 1.5% reached 90 or higher.
This was a one-time lab test run under the same mobile setup for the cohort. It is useful for comparison and diagnosis, but it is not the same as field Core Web Vitals collected from real visitors.
| Lab result | Websites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Performance score below 50 | 890 of 1,151 | 77.3% |
| Performance score of 90 or higher | 17 of 1,151 | 1.5% |
| Lab LCP at or below 2.5 seconds | 24 of 1,151 | 2.1% |
| Lab LCP above 4 seconds | 1,056 of 1,151 | 91.7% |
The LCP result points to slow main content
Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP, estimates when the main visible content finishes appearing. In this lab test, the median LCP was about 11.4 seconds, and 91.7% of measured sites were above four seconds.
A slow lab LCP can be caused by oversized hero images, heavy sliders, render-blocking styles, web fonts, slow servers, page builders, third-party scripts, or content that waits on JavaScript before it appears.
Wix led the platform medians, but no platform was fast
Among high-confidence CMS groups with at least 20 scored sites, Wix had a median mobile Lighthouse score of 44. WordPress had a median of 37, and Squarespace had a median of 28.
Platform averages do not decide how an individual website will perform. A lean WordPress build can outperform a heavily customized Wix site, and a simple Squarespace site can outperform either. Images, scripts, fonts, templates, hosting, and maintenance all matter.
| Platform | Sites with Lighthouse data | Median score | Median lab LCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | 106 | 44 | 6.4 seconds |
| WordPress | 359 | 37 | 10.3 seconds |
| Squarespace | 167 | 28 | 16.0 seconds |
Start with the largest visible assets
For many local business websites, the fastest wins come from the first screen: resize and compress the hero image, remove unnecessary sliders or video, preload only essential fonts, and avoid loading several marketing tools before the main content.
The goal is not a perfect score for its own sake. It is to help customers see the service, trust signals, and next step without waiting through a heavy page load.
Plugins and apps need a reason to stay
WordPress plugins, Wix apps, analytics tags, chat tools, review widgets, consent tools, and advertising scripts can all add useful features. They can also compete for bandwidth and processing time.
Review third-party tools against actual business value. Remove duplicates, load non-essential tools later, and test contact forms, booking paths, and analytics after every cleanup.
Use lab and field data together
Lighthouse is useful for repeatable diagnosis. Google Search Console and the Chrome User Experience Report can add field data when a site has enough real traffic. The two sources answer different questions and may not match exactly.
A practical performance project should record the starting point, make focused changes, retest under the same conditions, and watch whether real visitor experience improves over time.
About the speed sample
The results come from a historical July 2026 Calgary website archive. One latest compatible result per hostname was used, and unavailable Lighthouse runs were left out of the speed percentages.
The lab test was a single mobile snapshot from the audit environment. It should not be described as a ranking study or a measurement of every visit to each website.