Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Google Lighthouse VS CLS Debugger

Compare Google Lighthouse VS CLS Debugger and see what are their differences

Google Lighthouse logo Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages.
Test and debug Cumulative Layout Shifts, by ex-Google.
  • Google Lighthouse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02
  • CLS Debugger Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23

Google Lighthouse features and specs

  • Comprehensive Audits
    Lighthouse performs a wide range of audits including performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices, providing a holistic view of a website's overall health.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source tool, Google Lighthouse allows for transparency and flexibility, letting developers contribute to its improvement or customize it for their own use cases.
  • Automated
    Lighthouse can run automated audits on a site, saving time and effort compared to manual testing methods, and ensuring consistency in audit results.
  • Actionable Recommendations
    Lighthouse provides actionable recommendations and specific guidance on how to fix identified issues, helping developers and site owners make meaningful improvements.
  • Integration Friendly
    Lighthouse can be integrated into various development workflows and CI/CD processes through its CLI, Node module, or browser extension, enhancing its usability in diverse environments.

Possible disadvantages of Google Lighthouse

  • Performance Fluctuations
    Lighthouse performance scores can vary depending on different factors like network speed, hardware, and server response times, making it challenging to get consistent results.
  • Limited Context
    While Lighthouse provides specific issues, it may not fully account for the context of the website, potentially leading to recommendations that are not always the best fit for every scenario.
  • Not Real-User Data
    Lighthouse audits are based on synthetic testing, which might not always reflect real-user experiences accurately, limiting insights into how actual users interact with the site.
  • Learning Curve
    Less experienced developers may face a learning curve in understanding and implementing the recommendations provided by Lighthouse, particularly for more complex issues.
  • Dependency on Chrome
    As Lighthouse is built to work with Chrome, it may not fully capture site performance or issues when accessed through other browsers, potentially missing cross-browser compatibility problems.

CLS Debugger features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Google Lighthouse videos

How to Use Google Lighthouse for SEO Audits

CLS Debugger videos

No CLS Debugger videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google Lighthouse and CLS Debugger)
Website Monitoring
99 99%
1% 1
Performance Monitoring
Uptime Monitoring
96 96%
4% 4
SEO Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Google Lighthouse and CLS Debugger. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Google Lighthouse seems to be a lot more popular than CLS Debugger. While we know about 95 links to Google Lighthouse, we've tracked only 1 mention of CLS Debugger. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google Lighthouse mentions (95)

  • How to Optimize CSS for Faster Page Load Speed
    This keeps the important stuff loading first, and the rest comes in quietly later. --- ### 7. Audit With Lighthouse + DevTools You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Use: - Chrome DevTools → **Coverage tab** to see unused CSS - [Google Lighthouse](https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/) → Performance Score - [PageSpeed Insights](https://pagespeed.web.dev/) → Mobile + Desktop audit --- ###... - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • Building Accessible Angular Applications (WCAG, ARIA)
    Use high-contrast colors and visible focus indicators. Tools like axe or Lighthouse can help audit contrast ratios. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • React SEO: How to Build Search-Friendly Pages in React
    By all means, every advantage listed on the previous topics can be achieved with vanilla JavaScript and other tools. However, SSGs like Gatsby and Next.js will abstract the hassle from you to the point that the standard Gatsby application is born with a 100 SEO score on Lighthouse, Google’s performance analyzer. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    Lighthouse Developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse Audit site performance, accessibility, and SEO. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 🚀 Stop Slowing Down Your Website! Find & Remove Unused JavaScript Now
    Lighthouse: Google’s performance tool that flags unused JavaScript (Run Lighthouse). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

CLS Debugger mentions (1)

  • Google Pagespeed CLS on mobile fails - but there is no visible content shift
    Tried to resolve this any way I could, but struggling to see why Google pagespeed complains on CLS on mobile (Desktop score is 100). From what I see there is no visible CLS in screenshots they post, even tested on other sites like gtmetrix.com / webvitals.dev/cls, etc - all show great CLS scores (webvitals provides a gif of CLS and there is a invisible box which shifts, not the content). Total stuck with this as... Source: almost 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google Lighthouse and CLS Debugger, you can also consider the following products

PageSpeed Insights - PageSpeed is addon for ...

GTmetrix - GTmetrix is a free tool that analyzes your page's speed performance. Using PageSpeed and YSlow, GTmetrix generates scores for your pages and offers actionable recommendations on how to fix them.

WebPagetest - Run a free website speed test from multiple locations around the globe using real browsers...

Website Speed Test by Pingdom - Pingdom is a website performance monitoring software.

Ahrefs - Ahrefs is a toolset for SEO and marketing. We have tools for backlink research, organic traffic research, keyword research, content marketing & more. Give Ahrefs a try!

Yellow Lab Tools - Website test that checks performance and HTML, CSS and JavaScript quality.