HTTP/2 + SSL Demo Shows Why You Could Be Leaving Money on the Table

Ben Perove
This demonstrates a comparison of the HTTP/1.1 spec (originally from 1999) and the HTTP/2 spec (updated in 2015).

HTTP/1.1

HTTP/2

For this demonstration – HTTP/1.1 (above) and HTTP/2 (below) – each loads the exact same image, with each image sliced into 200 mini postage stamp sized parts.

For the first HTTP/1.1 (non-SSL) demo, the browser is forced to open many different TCP connections simultaneous to the server before the entire image will load. Notice how it’s kinda slow?

Here, the browser opens a certain number of parallel connections, which incurs significant network overhead, saturated with packet loss, and delivering dial-up modem-like performance.

These aggregate & bottlenecked connections lead to increased packet loss will be quick to introduce your visitor to the user experience from hell (in pretty much every case). Nobody’s going to want to wait around for your slow site to finally load from page to page, especially when it comes to making first impressions.

For the second HTTP/2 (full SSL) demo, images are loaded asynchronously (think two lane road versus a 64 lane superhighway). OK… 64 lane superhighways don’t exist. Maybe an 8 lane highway instead?

Anyway, the clear winner is HTTP/2. All of the sites which are presently using FULL SSL are enjoying more security and, because of HTTP/2 a much faster site overall.

You can find out if your site supports HTTP/2 right here on this site in less than 5 seconds! Test your site for HTTP/2 support

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