Does Northbeam slow down a store?
In 7IT’s test of 367 US online stores, Northbeam ran on 29 of them (7.9%). On the median store that loads it, it downloaded 69 KB and kept the phone busy for 0.05 s before the page could respond.
7.9%of 367 US stores run it
69 KBmedian download on stores that load it
0.05 smedian time the phone spends running it
Stores with it and without it.
| Stores | Median score | Main content | Blocking time | Apps on the page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With Northbeam | 29 | 33 | 13.5 s | 1742 ms | 30 |
| Without | 338 | 34 | 11.4 s | 1243 ms | 19 |
Stores that run Northbeam had a median score of 33, against 34 for stores without it. They also run more apps overall (a median of 30 against 19), so that gap is not all Northbeam’s doing. The size and phone time above are Northbeam’s own. On this sample there is no score penalty that can be pinned on it.
One in four stores that load it download more than 70 KB of it, and spend more than 0.08 s running it. Median Google phone-lab results, home pages only, September 2026. Method and limits in the study.
If you run Northbeam.
- Analytics should be the lightest thing on the page. Load it with async or defer and keep one tool, not three overlapping ones.
- If several analytics tools answer the same question, keep the one the team actually opens.