How fast are animated websites really? Lighthouse results for 125 templates

We ran two tests on every one of our 125 landing-page templates on 25 October 2026, and the numbers are on each template page in the library. Both tests use the demo pages as shipped.

• Lighthouse 13.5.0 in Chrome 155, mobile and desktop. Mobile uses Lighthouse's simulated Moto G Power on slow 4G; the page was served from a local server with Brotli compression, like our host does.
• A scroll test in real Chrome: a touch scroll through the whole page at 390×844, with the CPU slowed 4×, a 4G network, three runs per template. It counts frames that arrive on time, long tasks and page errors.

These are lab measurements from one machine (a Mac with an Apple M5 chip), not data from real visitors. They are good for comparing templates with each other, and for spotting heavy ones. Your own numbers will depend on your hosting, images and content.

On a desktop, nearly everything is fast: 123 of the 125 templates score 90 or more. On a simulated mid-range phone the picture changes. Only 38 templates reach 90, the median is 83, and 4 score under 50. The weak spots are not layout shift, which is excellent (6 templates are above 0.1), but loading and main-thread work.

Largest Contentful Paint is the number to watch. On the mobile test only 22 templates reach the 2.5-second mark Google calls good, and 44 are over 4 seconds. Part of that is the test itself, which simulates a slow connection; part of it is real, because many of these pages open on a large photo or video.

This is the clearest finding. A page that draws with SVG, CSS and GSAP has almost no blocking time (9 ms at the median). A page with a Three.js scene has about 526 ms, because the browser has to download the 3D library, compile shaders and build the scene. On desktop the difference disappears: both groups have a median score of 100.

It does not mean 3D is a mistake (see our 3D scroll examples). It means 3D is a decision: spend it on a launch page or a product hero where it earns attention, and use a drawn page for a site that must load fast for everyone.

The five slowest are all heavy by design: 3D worlds, large models and shaders. The slowest of all, a full 3D night garden, takes 26.7 seconds to show its largest element on the simulated 4G phone. That is a deliberate showpiece, and it is why the viewer shows each template's real numbers before you choose.

The fastest, at 98, are Borgo Cerreto (village houses), Lowhead Bakehouse, Luxury Product Hero, Q'oya weaving and Tinta Flúor magazine. They are drawn with SVG, type and photos, and almost none of them block the main thread.

A Lighthouse score does not say whether scrolling stutters, so we also test it directly. In the real-Chrome scroll test, 84 of 125 templates were rated Smooth on the throttled phone, 39 Mostly smooth and 2 Some stutter. The median share of frames on time was 99.9%. 106 of the 125 had no long tasks at all during the scroll, and there were no page errors in any run.

On desktop, 111 were Smooth, 13 Mostly smooth and 1 Some stutter. In short: even heavy pages scroll well once they have loaded; the cost is mostly in getting there.

• Choose by job. For a launch or a showcase, pick a 3D template and accept the cost. For a service business that lives on search and ads, pick a drawn one.
• Read the numbers before you commit. Every template page has its own performance and Lighthouse results.
• Check your own version. Replace the photos with compressed ones, test your real page in PageSpeed Insights, and compare with the table above.
• Keep the fallbacks. Every template ships a reduced-motion version, which also helps on slower devices.