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open source · Apache-2.0

mod_pagespeed, the PageSpeed module for nginx and Apache . Lighthouse 56 to 90. On your own servers.

mod_pagespeed transcodes images to AVIF, minifies CSS and JS, and injects critical CSS — optimized off the request path, served from cache by your own nginx or Apache.

Download & run See the demo Read the docs

No proxy, no CDN, nothing third-party in your request path. Running IIS or ASP.NET Core? see the IIS and ASP.NET Core packages

Already running mod_pagespeed 1.x or ngx_pagespeed? Your pagespeed directives carry over. Upgrade guide

Readout · demo store

see it live

56 to 90

Lighthouse performance score

1.8s to 0.8s

page load, cut in half (simulated 3G)

−76%

product image, JPEG → AVIF

0

third parties in the request path

Measured on our demo store, May 2026.
In production
The optimization core behind 230,000+ live sites (BuiltWith, May 2026) — maintained by We-Amp.
Free to run
Open source under the Apache License 2.0 — free in development and in production.
What is for sale
No per-image or per-request metering like a CDN. Support from the people who build it is what’s for sale. See support plans
Who builds it
Built by We-Amp — the team that helped build ngx_pagespeed and maintains mod_pagespeed today.

mod_pagespeed is developed by We-Amp B.V. and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. mod_pagespeed is an open-source project originally developed at Google.

01 Procedure

Install. Configure. Verify.

Three steps: add optimization to your server, set the options you want, and check the response headers.

  1. STEP 1

    Install

    apt or dnf install the signed package for Apache or nginx. The optimizer worker installs alongside.

  2. STEP 2

    Tell it what to optimize

    Keeps the mod_pagespeed 1.14/1.15 directives. Enable filters and set the cache path.

  3. STEP 3

    Check the response headers

    curl -I your-site | grep -iE 'page-?speed'. A PageSpeed response header confirms the module is active.

curl -fsSL https://packages.modpagespeed.com/install.sh | sudo sh sudo apt-get install pagespeed-optimizer sudo apt-get install nginx-module-pagespeed
curl -fsSL https://packages.modpagespeed.com/install.sh | sudo sh sudo apt-get install mod-pagespeed

One product: the module you know, plus the optimizer worker.

Pick by your stack

Every integration shares the same optimization core; mod_pagespeed keeps the 1.14/1.15 directives, so existing configuration carries over.

mod_pagespeed

One product, two parts — open source under the Apache License 2.0

Apache nginx Open source · Apache-2.0
  • Native in-process module — no proxy hop; drop-in for your pagespeed.conf
  • Optimizer worker off the request path — ML quality + SSIMULACRA2 verification
  • Classic filters: combine, sprite, IPRO, domain mapping
  • Built-in /pagespeed_admin/ console
  • Serving straight from the variant-aware cache — no re-optimization on the request path
  • Transform packs: the free edge-SEO pack lets you set canonicals, titles, descriptions, hreflang and JSON-LD at serve time, starting in report mode. See the packs.
See what it does

02 Running on our own sites

Running on our own sites

Our four sites run on mod_pagespeed, and their admin console is public on purpose. Pick a site and watch bytes saved, cache hits, statistics, caches, configuration and the worker’s logs auto-refresh; module counters start from zero whenever the web server restarts.

We run every We-Amp site through it.

We run our own sites, this page included, through mod_pagespeed — the binary serving this page is the binary we ship. Same Cyclone cache. Check the response headers. On our own demo sites we measure up to 69% smaller pages.

$ curl -sI --http1.1 --compressed https://modpagespeed.com/ | grep -iE '^(HTTP|content-(type|length|encoding)|x-mod-pagespeed|vary|cache-control)' 
HTTP/1.1 200
content-type: text/html
content-length: 32688
x-mod-pagespeed: 2.8.1
vary: User-Agent,Accept-Encoding,Save-Data
content-encoding: gzip
cache-control: max-age=0, no-cache

captured 2026-11-09

In the reverse-proxy deployment, the module adds x-pagespeed: HIT or x-pagespeed: MISS to the response.

Admin console Overview. Module: 1.53 MB saved (46% of 3.32 MB); 18 of 24 cacheable resource requests served from the optimizer's cache; 12 resource fetch failures since a web server restart 31 minutes earlier. Optimizer: running, up 2 days 1 hour 55 minutes, 41.5 MB saved on served responses (79% of 52.6 MB).
The console on our own servers. A console is normally private; ours is public on purpose.
Open the live console Browse the examples

03 Signal path

The worker optimizes off the request path. The module serves from cache.

The module serves; the worker optimizes outside the request path. Both sides use the same proven PSOL optimization core.
mod_pagespeed architecture: request, module and cache lookup, HIT serves from mmap, MISS serves origin while an async worker writes the optimized variant. Request module Intercept + cache lookup HIT mmap · < 1 ms MISS serve from origin Response ASYNC PATH Worker optimize + write Variant cache mmap · per-client variants Variant cache feeds future HITs above.
Reverse-proxy deployment: x-pagespeed: HIT hash lookup + mmap pointer x-pagespeed: MISS original served, worker queued
Optimization happens outside the request path. Cache misses serve immediately; the worker writes the optimized variant in the background so the next request is served from cache. Deploys as a native module for Apache or nginx with the optimizer worker alongside it, or as the reverse-proxy deployment.

04 Specification

What runs on your server.

images ≤ 37 variants

One decode pass, up to 37 variants out

Automatic WebP and AVIF transcoding with viewport-aware resizing. Every variant is verified against the original with SSIMULACRA2 before it reaches the cache, using ML-predicted per-format quality. The optimizer worker can auto-vectorize eligible images to SVG. Content-aware compression adapts to photos, screenshots, and illustrations differently.

css 103 Early Hints

Render-blocking CSS eliminated

Heuristic-based critical CSS extraction and injection. CSS/JS minification. Early Hints (103) for preloading. No headless browser required. Optional browser pipeline for Lighthouse validation, waterfall capture, and visual comparison.

cache hash + mmap

Cache hits are a pointer, not a pipeline

The Cyclone cache serves optimized content from a memory-mapped file — a hash lookup and a pointer, no re-optimization on the request path.

egress 0 third parties

Self-hosted by design

Visitor data never leaves your origin, and nothing in the request path talks to us. Open source you can audit, running entirely on infrastructure you control.

js fallback: original

Deliberately conservative

JS minification strips whitespace and comments only. No variable renaming, no AST transforms. The design falls back to the original when an optimization step fails.

variants AVIF · WebP · DPR · Save-Data

The right bytes for every client

Per-URL cache variants tuned to each client — image format (AVIF / WebP / original), viewport size, pixel density, Save-Data, and pre-compressed encoding — so each request gets the smallest appropriate bytes off the cache.

≈40% of the top 1,000 sites render almost nothing for AI assistants. Check yours with RenderPeek

(our scan, May 2026 )

05 Evaluation

Before it goes in front of production traffic.

The questions that come up on every evaluation call.
mod_pagespeed is free. What does We-Amp sell?
Support. The original mod_pagespeed and ngx_pagespeed are no longer actively developed; the current mod_pagespeed is the maintained, open-source (Apache-2.0) continuation: the same directives and filters, with security fixes and a current toolchain, plus a separate optimizer worker with variant-aware caching that serves optimized variants straight from cache and optimizes off the request path. The software is free; what We-Amp sells is support plans from the people who build it.
Does it add latency?
No. On cache hit, serving is a hash lookup and an mmap pointer. On cache miss, the original content gets served while the worker optimizes in the background.
Can it break my site?
Transforms are deliberately conservative — JS minification strips whitespace and comments, no variable renaming — and the design falls back to your original content when an optimization step fails. Edge cases exist: test on staging, then disable any path, URL pattern, or transform type with one line of config.
Why not just use Cloudflare?
CDN-based optimization routes your traffic through a third-party proxy. mod_pagespeed runs on your servers — visitor data never leaves your origin, and nothing third-party sits in your request path.
How is this different from a CDN optimizer (Cloudflare Mirage, Bunny Optimizer, Fastly IO)?
Those rewrite assets at the edge, on infrastructure you don't control, with cache state you can't inspect. mod_pagespeed runs on your origin, so your rewrites carry your URLs, your headers, your cache policy. Use both — we optimize the origin, the CDN accelerates the delivery.
How is this different from a build-time optimizer (Astro, Next.js Image, Vite plugins)?
Those require a modern build pipeline you own end-to-end. We win when your build is owned by your CMS (WordPress, Magento, ASP.NET Framework) or your content is dynamic. If you already ship through a modern JS framework's asset pipeline, you may not need us.

Comparing against a CDN optimizer or a build-time pipeline? See the side-by-side comparisons

06 The lineage

The optimization core behind 230,000+ live sites — now maintained by We-Amp.

We-Amp's products are the maintained continuation of the open-source mod_pagespeed optimization core. These are not our customers — they are the proof the optimization core works at scale.

230,000+

live sites run mod_pagespeed today

1.9 million

sites across its history

Usage data: BuiltWith, May 2026 (231,341 live; 1,900,000+ historical).

Further reading

Docs

Configuration

Configuration options for Apache and nginx: directives, cache modes, worker settings, and per-location overrides.

Read the docs

Docs

PageSpeed filters reference

Every rewrite filter and what it does: image transcoding, CSS and JS minification, combining, spriting, IPRO, and domain mapping.

Read the docs

Blog

Image optimization cost: self-hosted vs CDN (2026)

Cost comparison at 100K, 1M, and 10M monthly image requests — with break-even analysis against self-hosted optimization.

Read post

Blog

mod_pagespeed Alternatives in 2026

The original mod_pagespeed and ngx_pagespeed — developed at Google — are no longer actively developed. Here is where to go instead.

Read post

Free to install and run. Start today.

Open source under the Apache License 2.0, on your own servers. No per-request fees. No bandwidth metering.

Download & run Run the numbers

Support from the people who build it is what’s for sale.

Sponsorship on GitHub funds the ongoing work. Sponsor on GitHub

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