---
author: ''
category: ''
date: 2012/06/12 12:09
description: ''
link: ''
priority: ''
slug: nikola-is-fast
tags: nikola, python
title: Nikola is FAST.
type: text
updated: 2012/06/12 12:09
url_type: ''
---
A fast-loading site is a good thing. Your site's speed matters. Which is why
creating fast sites is one of `Nikola's design goals <http://getnikola.com>`_.

Sure, it's not meant to create e-commerce sites, but if you are doing just a
simple corporate site, or a personal blog, why would you not make it as fast
as possible anyway?

So, here's `one data point, from Kay Hayen <http://www.nuitka.net/posts/nikola-speed-improvements.html>`_

.. figure:: http://www.nuitka.net/posts/images/nikola-speed-improvements.png

   Guess when Kay switched to Nikola.

But you don't have to just believe that graph. Here's Yahoo's YSlow report on
`this blog <//ralsina.me>`_, which is hosted in a `$5 VPS <http://burst.net/linvps.shtml>`_
(as are other sites, BTW. The *same* VPS. As is a bunch of services. And my
`Quassel <http://quassel-irc.org/>`_ core)

.. figure:: http://ubuntuone.com/6Xsg1blhiJK7nEcnhPFOM7
   :width: 80%
   :target: http://ubuntuone.com/6Xsg1blhiJK7nEcnhPFOM7

It scores **94** on that test. That's 94 out of 100 possible points in the
"Small Site or Blog" ruleset.

How much server tuning was needed? I added one line to the `Apache <http://httpd.apache.org>`_ config::

   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css

That makes it compress those files before sending it to the user and improved
the third item from F to A.

So, when I say Nikola makes your site fast, don't take my word for it, just check
it out.