README.md

your web app is bloated

Using firefox's memory snapshot tool, I measured the heap usage of a variety of web apps. Here is how everything did.

App Memory (MiB = 10242 B) google inbox 215 (!!!) gmail (standard) 158 google sheets (spreadsheet) 96.98 slack 76.53 google-maps 65.61 youtube video 59.04 nytimes 56.08 facebook messenger 57.78 facebook newsfeed 56.12 riot 55.31 toggle 49.77 google docs (document) 46.57 soundcloud (track open) 45.80 hackmd (document) 44.9 reddit 43.77 airbnb 40.8 jitsi 40.21 tweetdeck 40.38 the onion 38.30 rocketchat 32.12 open collective 31.22 youtube 30.00 sandstorm (spreadsheet) 27.63 pinterest 26.80 images.google (result) 26.41 twitter 25.09 google docs 24.7 facebook 23.49 soundcloud 22 medium 18.53 medium (article) 17.99 bandcamp 14.86 google results 14.77 patchless 12.43 google 11.30 google hangouts 10.76 talky 9.40 bandcamp (album page) 8.76 dat-shopping-list 8.28 the guardian 7.36 duckduckgo images (result) 7.31 github 7.41 openstreetmap (on new york, transportation layer) 6.72 wikipedia page 5.93 duckduckgo 5.63 meatspace chat 4.48 duckduckgo results 4.81 stackoverflow 2.55 wikipedia 1.73 gmail (vintage) 0.81

Method

I opened each site in firefox, and used the memory shapshot tool. I screen shotted the output using scrot. I was running ublock, and that probably made some sites smaller.

twitter - 25.09 MB

loaded twitter homepage and didn't scroll or touch anything

tweetdeck - 40.38 MB

twitter power user interface, with mentions and messages, one user's feed, and a search feed added.

github - 7.41 MB

github homepage (my news feed)

google - 11.30 MB

empty google page. A surprising amount of memory used since it shows nothing but a single field.

google results - 14.77 MB

prehaps still a lot of memory considering very little images or real time interactions here.

duckduckgo - 5.63 MB

much less memory than google! I guess it's the tracking features in google that uses the extra memory!

duckduckgo results - 4.81 MB

reddit - 43.77 MB

the reddit homepage has an infinite scroller, usually means lots of javascript and js objects.

wikipedia - 1.73 MB

wikipedia (article) - 5.93 MB

static page with some images

youtube - 30.00 MB

pretty light weight considering it's youtube

youtube (video) - 59.04 MB

I think if you need more memory than this and don't play videos there is something wrong.

google-maps - 65.61 MB

I've noticed google-maps being quite heavy, and it's more than a video. but should it be?

openstreetmap - 6.72 MB

only 10% the memory of google maps and does essentially the same thing!

on new york, with transportation layer enabled

stackoverflow - 2.55 MB

static site

facebook - 23.49 MB

just the login page! already a lot of javascript has been loaded. The most bloated landing page, twice as much as google, 10x wikipedia.

facebook newsfeed - 56.12 MB

a lot of objects are in memory, presumably this is from using react.

google images (result) - 26.41 MB

fairly efficient, compared to reddit, youtube etc

duckduckgo images (result) - 7.31 MB

1/3 the memory google images uses

pinterest - 26.80 MB

about the same as google images

gmail (basic) - 0.81 MB

nearly nothing! I use this daily. Really, it's an amazing level of functionality and user-friendlyness, packed into a very simple interface. Also, because it doesn't have any kind of dynamic updates, it's less distracting than the other email interfaces. You have to intentionally check for emails, there is no notifications or changing favicons. so ugly it's beautiful.

gmail (standard) - 158 MB

amazingly bloated. mostly massive amounts of javascript (it has a progress bar that shows at startup) but just the JS objects are 37 mb.

google inbox - 215 MB (!!!)

makes standard gmail look tame. did they take gmail standard and just add more stuff?

google docs - 24.7 MB

google docs (document) - 46.57 MB

this seems like more than should be necessary. mainly js objects.

google sheets (spreadsheet) - 96.98 MB

a lot of memory, especially considering spreadsheets were the killer app back in the apple 2 days, where lots of people brought computers for the first time to run visicalc on 64k of memory?

hackmd (document) - 44.9 MB

about the same as a google doc

sandstorm (spreadsheet) - 27.63 MB

almost 1/4 that of google spreadsheets.

toggl - 49.77 MB

time tracking software, quite bloated.

nytimes - 56.08 MB

very bloated.

the guardian - 7.36 MB

pretty good.

the onion - 38.30 MB

quite bloated, nearly as much as reddit, but is created entirely by their in-house writers.

open collective - 31.22 MB

react site, but it's not data that changes very often. pretty bloated.

medium - 18.53 MB

could be better, but not as bad as others.

medium (article) - 17.99 MB

soundcloud - 22 MB

better than youtube

soundcloud (track open) - 45.80 MB

better than youtube

bandcamp - 14.86 MB

front page has listings, memory use similar to google search results. the best content site.

bandcamp (album page) - 8.76 MB

pretty tight!

slack - 76.53 MB

bloated! largely javascript.

rocketchat - 32.12 MB

does the same thing as slack, but with less javascript. rocketchat is mostly js objects, but still less than slack.

riot - 55.31 MB

more js objects than slack, but less javascript.

talky - 9.40 MB

started a call with no one else in it. pretty tight!

google hangouts - 10.76 MB

on a call by my self. also surprisingly unbloated!

jitsi - 40.21 MB

4x google hangouts.

meatspace chat - 4.48 MB

as tight as a static site, but does crazy javascript stuff!

facebook messenger - 57.78 MB

same memory use as fb news feed. react, of course.

airbnb - 40.8 MB

Searched for "san francisco". A lot of memory used to just display a list, especially considering there is no map displayed. Smells like react.

patchless - 12.43 MB

A social p2p client with heavy javascript, including infinite scrollers!

dat-shopping-list - 8.28 MB

simple shopping list app on dat

conclusions

I started exploring this because I was trying to figure out how to optimize my own apps. Memory use isn't the most important thing, but it is an easy to measure proxy. If you have less memory usage, you probably have a simpler app, which is probably more performant. Less memory also means lees garbage collection activity.

Recently, web development style has moved towards a fully dynamic front end that generates everything in javascript. If a app really is highly dynamic, I guess that is somewhat excusable, (such as facebook or slack) but I on a site that could be static it obviously uses a lot more.

I think this just shows there is considerable room for improvement in terms of application efficientcy.