The web page owners want to optimize the key experience of the users on their web page. Many tools have been introduced to optimize and increase the quality of the web page. These tools can be used by any business owners, marketer, or developer, to increase the quantify and experience of the site, and they can identify the opportunities to improve.
Core Web Vitals vs Lighthouse
The main difference between Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse is that both the tools were introduced by Google and the three metrics introduced by the Core Web Vitals are LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Display), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) while on the other hand, Google Lighthouse also has three metrics and the two of them are same as that of Core Web Vitals that are LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), TBT (Total Blocking Time).
Core Web Vitals was introduced by Google in the year 2020 month of May. It is a subset of web vitals, and it applies to all the web pages of Google. And the site owners of these web pages measure with the help of this tool, and then according to that, Google sorts them out.
The Lighthouse tool was introduced by Google in the year May 19, 2020. This tool was built to measure core web vitals and also in improving or optimizing the quality of web pages. The tool is used after inputting the URL of the web page, and then it runs a series of checks and then scores the web page with a detailed report of it.
Comparison Table Between Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse
| Parameters of Comparison | Core Web Vitals | Lighthouse |
| What it is? | It is a subset of web vitals and applies on all web pages, measured by all the site owners and surfaces all over Google. | Tool to improve the quality of web page |
| Method of Operation | Shows the performance of the web page based on the real-world usage data (field data) | It generates series of check, and then a detailed report is shown with the score of how well the page performs. |
| Introduced in | May 2020 | May 19, 2020 |
| Measured By | It is measured by Lighthouse tool, Chrome UX report, Chrome DevTools, Search Console, PageSpeed Insights. | There is no such tool for it. |
| Metrics | LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Display), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), TBT (Total Blocking Time) |
What is Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals can be defined as the subset of the web vitals which is applied on the web pages present all over the Google website. These web pages must be measured by the site owners, and then these are surfaced over Google. This tool was introduced in May 2020, and this tool filters the performance of the web page based on real-world usage data or says field data.
The Core Web Vitals can be measured by many tools, and some of them are – Lighthouse tool, Chrome UX report, Chrome DevTools, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights. The current metrics of the tool focuses on three things that help in improving user experience – loading (LCP), interactivity (FID), and visual loading (CLS).
LCP or Largest Contentful Paint measures the web page loading performance, and within 2.5 seconds, LCP should occur. FID or First Input Display of the web page measure the interactivity, and a page must have 100 milliseconds or less FID. CLS or Cumulative Layout Shift of a page measure the visual loading and a page must have 0.1 or less CLS. The web page with crossing all the metrics above 75% is said to hit the right target of the audience.
What is Lighthouse?
Lighthouse is an automated tool introduced by Google which helps in improving the quality of the web page. It is a free tool provided to users. The tool helps in providing insights into different things require to improve the quality of the web page, such are – page overall performance, SEO usability, accessibility of the web page, progressive web application, and best practices.
The lighthouse tools use the URL of the web page, which is to be improved and then run some series of checks on it. The tool scores on the web page, and a detailed report are produced on how well the page performs. Also, there is no measuring tool for the Lighthouse, unlike that of Core Web Vitals.
Google Lighthouse tool also works on the three metrics in which two of them are the same as that of Core Web Vitals, and that are LCP, CLS, and TBT. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) measures the loading experience of the webpage, and it must score 2.5 seconds or below. CLS (Cumulative Layout Swift) measures the visual loading of the web page, and it must score 0.10 or less. TBT (Total Blocking Time) measures the responsiveness of the web page. It has a co-relation with the FID.
Main Differences Between Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse
- The Google tool Core Web Vitals is a type of tool which applies on all web pages and is measured by all website owners, and this is surfaced all over Google while on the other hand, the Google Lighthouse is a tool that helps in the improving of the quality of the web.
- The Core Web Vitals tool shows the performance of the web page based on the real-world usage data (field data) while comparatively, on the other hand, Google Lighthouse tool first perform some series of check and then provide a detailed score and report of the page that how it performs.
- The Google tool Core Web Vitals was introduced in May 2020, while the Google Lighthouse tool was introduced on 19 May, 2020.
- The Core Web Vitals can be measured by many tools such as – Lighthouse, Chrome UX report, PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, and Chrome DevTools, while on the other hand, there is no such measuring tool for the Google Lighthouse.
- The Core Web Vitals has three metrics that are – LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Display), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) while Google Lighthouse also has three metrics in which two of them is the same as Core Web Vital and they are – LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), and TBT (Total Blocking Time).
Conclusion
The long-term success of any site or web page requires an optimized quality of content and other features, which brings healthy traffic to the web page. For the same, Google has created and launched many measuring tools to report the overall performance of the web page from the past many years. Some experienced developers have found those tools to be easy to work with, while some of them also rated them as hard tools to cope up with.
These tools automatically filter the content and the web page based on the metrics, which has been designed to clear as much as possible to make a web page fully optimized with quality of content and others. There are four metrics in which two of them are the same for both the tools (Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse), while one of them is different in the case of the Lighthouse tool. The metrics are LCP, CLS, FID, and TBT.
References
- https://www.itema-conference.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ITEMA-2020_Conference-Proceedings_FINAL.pdf#page=25
- https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/16/5/77
- https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/352102/Analyis%20of%20deploying%20a%20React%20PWA%20on%20Google%20Play%20Store%20using%20TWA_Yoseph%20Alemu_Final%20Version%20%281%29.pdf?sequence=2
- https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.s.z.belloum/MSctheses/MScthesis_Tjarco.pdf